The main point here, I think, is that Gears plays so differently from third person shooters because of its perspective. The turn speed, the sense of physical presence, the cover system, the melee system... all of these are determined by the perspective.

It's pretty interesting stuff.

@Onyxmeth: I didn't mean it as contradicting argument. More like one that asks for better definition, since Sony is pushing the advertizing, which means that on that part, it can't be crappy, but it looks like that the ads aren't reaching people as they should.
Basically they are running the same idea as they did with PSX, the ads contain somekind of "surprising element".
For example the Motorstorm ad that i see pretty often, it starts with a butterfly on a close-up, which breaks in pieces. At that phase, you'd think they advertize Bravia or a digicamera, but then the view goes to a car, you'll notice it's a Motorstorm ad. The ad basically works, but after the first scene, the rest looks graphically like crap.
Then the LBP ad that i remember: first it starts with a family theme, theres pictures about the family members, the atmosphere is nice and warm and Sackboy is advancing the stage. Then suddenly bombs fly somewhere and blows up something on the stage. That ad doesn't work at all.

So basically Sony is running "the third place" and "play b3yond" -type of ads again (in a little different way this time), but has changed, is the people who "bought" the ads back then, have grew up. Now Sony is advertizing its console for teenagers again, but the problem is, that the teens don't have the kind of money that's needed to buy a PS3. Sony would propably reach the customer that has the money better, by advertizing like Nintendo does with Wii Fit and games like that.

The 360 has more of a junior high school kid userbase so they gobble up corny shooters and such while smarter more mature PS3 owners just rent them. :)

jk

because at least a quarter of the people that own a ps3 bought it for blu rays

The "Live in your world, play in ours" ad campaign was brilliant.  This play b3yond one is lame and it shows.

@WoW first off, I missed you ;-; Second off, I agree!!!!

I think this B3yond shit is the lamest advertisement campaign ever. I mean it's just obnoxious to say ;/ Play Bee three yond... ghey...

And I can't say I agree with Spiderman text :x That's just terrible >

The thing that sucks most, is that Sony's marketing used to be so awesome.  I mean, I used love the, "Play-stay-shon" thing and the funny commercials. It made me want to run out and buy every game for my PS2.  I think Sony got caught up in the "we are Sony, hear us roar" mentality.  I really think they thought their brand name and user base was so dominant that no one could touch them.

The crazy thing is, Nintendo made the same mistake in the mid-90s, and Sony capitalized on their mistake only to make the same mistake a little over a decade later.

@Comrade

LOL oh man I know it xD Granted, I will go out on a limb and say I still dig Playstation adds :P I've always liked Sony's weird brand of creativity, I don't think they're all that effective, but certainly entertaining to watch!

They should have kept the Play-stay-shon thing and the "live in your world, play in ours". It was so badass!

Nowadays... PS3 adds just confuse people LOL.

Because 360 has a larger userbase. Still, I was quite surprised at how low Resistance 2 sales were, even though America isnt where Sony is the strongest, shooters usually sell quite well there. Even obscure titles like Dead Space did just as good. Obviously something wrong with Sony's marketing campaign

Well, I will say Sony marketing did create an awesome logo (the whole Spiderman 3 lettering is so cool looking).

Funny enough, back in 1988, I was in summer school (yeah, I never did my homework back then, too busy playing my Sega MS & NES).

Anyway, we had a project, create a pretend-product for the future that will change everything.  And of course, being the game fanatic I was, I created the game system of the future.  It allowed 6 controllers, game play over a modem against people all around the world, graphics that looked like video, and sound coming from all directions around you, your chair and controller would shake when you got hit by something, the games would be on CD (which were brand new back then), and even movies could be on those CDs (no more rewinding those silly VHS tapes!), you could plug a keyboard into it to type with friends... pretty much it was a PS3 of today.  I got an A on the project, but my teacher told me that the idea was silly because a game console like that would be too expensive for most people to buy!

Fast forward 20 years.  We actually have that system on the market, and sure enough, my teacher was right.  Great system, but it's too expensive for a lot of people just like she said.  She should have gotten a job with Sony.