After looking at best selling PS2 games, i reliased how happy companies must have been last gen because they didn't need 90+ on metacritic to sell games. Here is some facts.

Need for Speed 1 and 2 sold 6.5 million each, can you imagine NFS selling this amount even on both 360 and PS3?

Crash Bandicoot sold 5 million despite horrible reviews, and now many people didn't know when it released this gen.

Spiderman sold 4.33 million.

Simpsons: Hit and Run sold 4.24 million.

And the list is huge with 200+ million sellers.

I think metacritic and gamerankings have become to important this gen and with rising cost many dev just don't want to take risks with new IPs.

Its because it was the best console last gen, and everyone loved it, gaming was perfect last gen, tons of RPG's released, tons of platformers, tons of shooters, and what not, but that all ended because sony decided to release a behemoth $599 console.

Im sure if the ps3 was $399 or $299 at launch(like the ps2) this gen would be similar in terms of gaming

PS2 is one of the greatest consoles in history.

It also showed that Sony had one of the greatest dev teams ever that were head and shoulders over Microsoft and Ninty last gen, with steller releases like R&C, God of War, and Gran Turismo. PS2 definitely deserved the win last gen; it truly was "the games made the console". This gen is...wierd. It seems MS is trying to fill Sony's shoes this time with "games make the console". Unfortunately, it appears "console makes the console" this gen, in terms of sales anyway.

@leo-j

for me this gen is better

as I choose PS3 not a gamecube liek console as my first console ina gen

I got the PS2 in 06.....so last gen for me was crap!

Wow, ps2 really carried the industry on it's back due to its massive userbase. My point on the software sales of the PS brand has always been the ability to sell a little of everything. With 100mil+ consoles sold, that little became a lot. That's why the ps3 has problems this gen.

These days we focus more on "attach ratio" but no playstation game ever had a really good attach ratio whereas the marios and halos were always big for the competition.

Hmm their are a lot of new IP's released recently. I can't say this gen is worse than last gen considering my favourite year of games is 07 and I am wondering if 08 is better or not.

@Leoh j. I Agree. Sony were the only company able to launch at 600$ and still survive. Still shouldn't have done it tho.

From a development standpoint, most developers hated the PS2. But when someone looks at the console from a sales standpoint, it was by far the best choice. It could sell games of every genre, and well too.

The reason Metacritic and Gamerankings have become so important to PS360 games is because the systems are expensive, and so are many of the games. Would you want to buy a 60 dollar game that's mediocre? Achievements alleviated this problem somewhat, but only to a small degree.

What you may forget is that the PS2 had a humongous amount of casual gamers, which is why you'll see games like Spongebob selling millions of copies (don't forget about the Rugrats game that broke 3 million copies on the PS1). I don't think we'll be seeing anything like that from the Wii, at least not any time soon.

By the way, the Wii breaks this rule and sells tons of games. If developers feels like costs are really "rising," they can work on the DS or PSP. It's not difficult, and a lot of companies find success on these two platforms (well, the PSP a lot less so).

You should wait until one one of the home consoles this generation has 8 years and the market and a 120 million userbase before completely passing judgment. I'm sure the PS2 will hold the record for most million sellers for a long time, but the Wii and DS have already shown their ability to sell tons of software (and the Xbox 360 to a lesser extent).

Are you serious? The only excellent game I've played this gen is mgs4 in my opinion.

I had a gamecube for all of last gen.....n got a PS2 like 9 months before buying a PS3

what do you expect me to think...