FYI Ubisoft is supposedly doing some French and Spanish learning software, probably for the DS (but I don't recall for sure).

I wanna learn Japanese darnit, I hate waiting for translations for my anime & manga. ;)

I'm guessing you have never played Strikers.

I think its a lot MORE deep than Pro Evolution - which is "just" a football game. It has powerups, special moves (per sidekick), special moves (team leader), arena based specials (i.e. environment effects/actions per field), ball charging, the "user goalie" special block...

...and all in addition to the "actual" football moves: steal ball, tackle, low pass, high pass (slower, harder to intercept), shoot, kick ahead, per character stats (and more).

...

I actually think that Strikers is TOO deep, making it too hard for the casual gamer to play (well) at the game. I'm still getting my head around all the controls and possibilities possible in the game.

 These non-games shouldn't even be compared to real games. There're not competing in the same market. 

j/k

well i guess times are changing, and I'm not sure I like it. i wonder if I will become a "lapsed gamer" haha.

hmmm still so many PS2 games to play...

Just want to add one point to this (passionate) discussion...

Game sales are heavily dependant on the retail preorders. If Folksoul only got 20k preorders, it was always bound to fail. The number of preorders determine how hard RETAILERS push a game - with promotions, store posters and the like. Releasing on the same week as Zelda & Itaki (sp?) Streets was always going to be real tough.

The real key is whether the game can get close to its 20k sales, or a sell-out of stocks in week#1.

There is a real chance that the PS3 will end up like the PSP - a device that is primarily bought for multimedia/move playback - rather than gaming. This is exactly how Sony are positioning it anyway.

If this happens, you'll see a rather rapid decline in software support for the device - as dev costs are a lot higher than making a game for the PSP.

MS have done a good job of promoting gaming first - and multimedia second. 

shams -

For the most part though, retail pre-orders are only part of the equasion. Last time I checked, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker was massively under-ordered by retailers, and suffered massive shortages. The game still reached 1m sales.

All it takes is for retailers to just order more copies of the game(s). However, if Folks Soul was going to do real well, it'd sell better than 7k first day. If it sold....Oh....15k or 17k first day, then we'd see that the game was truely massively under-ordered, but I don't think it was.

I don't know what is worse, retailers under ordering or lack of consumer buying.

If the retailers are under ordering, that means that they don't think PS3 games will sell. If they don't think PS3 games will sell, they won't push PS3 in their stores. Not good.

If the consumers aren't buying, that means that they aren't looking for PS3 games. Not good.

It's really no win either way.

Perhaps a better title for this thread would have been "Konnichiwa vs the world"

Why do these threads always follow this same progression of degenerating into Comparison of consoles and upcomming game lists. And why do the Sony fans bring up the same points over and over after they've been shot down over and over everytime in one of these threads derail? Do they keep using the same old defeated excuses for why the the Wii is winning and the PS3 isn't in hopes that a new person in the thread will somehow be swayed by their words and convert? Are they under the impression that we forgot every debate before this one and have never seen them try to pull a fast one before?

 Nah. VonShigsy said it best. Apparently, if you play non-games, you are a non-gamer, meaning a non-person.