In the head to head match-up against Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, some feel Sony has outmaneuvered Microsoft with a variety of critically acclaimed first party franchises, including Uncharted, Resistance, Infamous, God of War and Wipeout.
That said, it's no surprise that some (eventually all) of these intellectual properties will appear on PlayStation Vita at some point, giving players the opportunity to have a console quality experiences on the go. In fact, Sony already has Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers: Road Trip and Resistance: Burning Skies on the way.
Wipeout 2048 probably has little chance of beating Mario Kart 7's sales numbers.
To that end, we expect at least three of these titles to sell over 500,000 units a piece and perhaps a million, a huge success, especially when so many publishers and developers struggle to break even.
On the flip side, a million cannot beat Nintendo.
Consider the staggering sales figures of key DS video games. Mario Kart DS (by itself) crossed the 20 million copies sold mark last December. New Super Mario Bros.? Twenty-six million. Nintendogs? Twenty-two million. No, these aren't franchises. They're individual games.
Now contrast that data with Sony's Uncharted franchise. Here's one of the company's biggest, most respected IPs. Barring some surprise reveal, Golden Abyss will be Vita's flagship launch title.
Well, the first two games combined to sell between eight and nine million copies. Impressive, no question. Good enough to beat Nintendo? Not even close.
What about Resistance? Considering Resistance 3 laid an egg this past September with 180,000 copies sold, Burning Skies poses little threat, dual stick controls or no.
LittleBigPlanet? Roughly six million, taking into account sales of the first and second game.
God of War? Combined, the series hovers around the 12 million mark, so there you go. One eight game franchise that dates back to 2005 has more than half the sales of Nintendo's two Brain Age games, which sit at a much healthier 17 million.
In other words, Sony's best shot may not be enough to take down the big N.
To be fair, it's too early to tell if 3DS will achieve DS sized numbers, but it is safe to argue that Nintendo's franchises are significantly more popular than Sony's.
Ultimately, both companies must create new and exciting types of games to move hardware, but in Sony's case, this is a necessity. Either that, or third parties must step up.
Call of Duty, where are you?
at the end instead?
