The thing about PSN or any online game sales is that if you advertise them, you alienate your retailers. By advertising, you're telling retailers that you don't need them anymore to sell software.

Biggerboat said: On the plus side if my prediction is correct and in 2008/09 Wii is on par with 360 in terms of dollars invested Wii owners will have around twice as many quality titles to choose from, not to mention more great 1st and 2nd party software as nobody can touch N in that department. Unfortunately for PS3 I think it will be way behind both it's competitors in all software categories as 3rd parties continue to distance themselves from the system and looking at Sony published titles so far as an indication, 1st and 2nd party games will also fall short of it's rival's offerings.

Your prediction is not even close.  Actually why are you predicting when you can basically go to IGN or Gamespot and see what's coming out next year?  I'm sure there will be a few surprises but do you really think that Wii developers are going to pull 20 or 30 huge projects out of nowhere to release next year?  Doubtful considering they would have been announced at TGS (I'm not saying there will be no surprises but people need to be realistic).

The difference in available titles is staggering. Shelf space is almost proportional to sales rates. Go to your local retailer and compare the shelf space. Then think towards the sales rates. All my local retailers give the PS3 mediocre shelf space. The local Wal-mart has the PS3 games in a case that is two foot by six foot. Enough space to display 24 games and have consoles on the bottom shelf. Meanwhile the WII gets a space that is six foot by six foot. The 360 gets five foot by six foot. The cube gets one foot by six foot. The PS2 gets a whopping ten foot by six foot. However the PS2 section shrinks every month. Unfortunately that space is getting taken over by the Wii and the 360.

Ironically I recall the same setup for every console that has done poorly specifically the case that holds the PS3 now was the same case that held the Dreamcast, the Saturn, and the PSP. I also remember looking at that case when I was younger thinking about getting that system. I also remember myself talking to friends about it, and we always had the same things to say. Damn it looks nice that video up on top, but it doesn't look like its going to get any games. We jokingly referred to it as the death case.

Volume is a sales pitch, and shelf space is a sales pitch also. They are intricately connected as well. I think Sony would do well to purchase more shelf space from retailers. Right now all their doing is losing shelf space. That would get more of their library out to the public, and it it would make the console look more successful. Ironically it looks like the local Wal-mart just trades out old games for new games. The space stays the same. I know unlike in my youth that the PS3 has over thirty games. Unfortunately for Sony to uninformed gamers it looks to be the opposite. They get the impression that the console has no games, or it is a console that will do poorly.

Notice I am not saying that is not the case. The PS3 console has done poorly so it deserves the shelf space priority it has received. The point is Sony is losing the shelf space war, and Nintendo is in a position to capitalize. Were the 360s sales to get any better with the larger user base. Microsoft will too capitalize. The result will be those consoles will look healthier. Sony could really use more games on display, and while it might be cheap buying retail space could help them out.

The retailers are not going to give it to a console that is performing poorly. They are going to give the prime real estate to the top performers. Further more they are going to make that decision before the holidays start. Changing out displays during the holidays is a bad business practice. Sony can contest the perception that the Wii is going to generate these holidays, but they need to buy the space to make the pitch, and retailers can and will sell shelf space to companies provided they pay enough for them.

Just my thoughts based on visual inspection the PS3 looks to be doing horribly you can argue the quality all you want, but the Wii is going to have twice the games this holiday season, and since the Wii is selling well the retailers are going to give them the space. Meanwhile the PS3s are going to stagnate in their swamp land farther from viewing eyes. Displayed in a way that makes the console look less then inviting.

Legend11 said: Biggerboat said: On the plus side if my prediction is correct and in 2008/09 Wii is on par with 360 in terms of dollars invested Wii owners will have around twice as many quality titles to choose from, not to mention more great 1st and 2nd party software as nobody can touch N in that department. Unfortunately for PS3 I think it will be way behind both it's competitors in all software categories as 3rd parties continue to distance themselves from the system and looking at Sony published titles so far as an indication, 1st and 2nd party games will also fall short of it's rival's offerings. Your prediction is not even close. Actually why are you predicting when you can basically go to IGN or Gamespot and see what's coming out next year? I'm sure there will be a few surprises but do you really think that Wii developers are going to pull 20 or 30 huge projects out of nowhere to release next year? Doubtful considering they would have been announced at TGS (I'm not saying there will be no surprises but people need to be realistic).

 Bigger wrote "quality titles", not "huge projects".

One should also keep in mind that the 2007 PS3 lineup looked pretty damn good a year ago. Many of the listed titles for the 2008 titles could get pushed into 2009 just like what happened for 2007.

Funny thing -- Sony recently said Nintendo relied too much on first party games. I guess having the most first party support as well as the most third party support is "unbalanced" in Sony's book.

The Wii is getting a lot of shovelware, sure, but I think people are writing off how much quality software is also coming out for the Wii, and how much decent software is coming out for the Wii. The Wii already has a great library of both -- better than the 360 had in its first year and better than the PS3 has now, I believe, and development efforts will pay of significantly more next year than this year as developers see high quality projects hitting good sales numbers.

Nintendo always reveals several big projects per year. I'd expect a lot more than Wii fit and Mario Kart to be released in '08 by Nintendo themselves.

Hawk said: DMeisterJ said:How many of the "eighty six" titles are ports or are from years ago, games that have been or are coming to the DS (Big Brain Academy), games also coming out on the PSP (Medal of Honor Heroes 2), or the PS2 (Manhunt 2) or are shovelware (Boogie)? I don't quite understand what you are saying though. So of the 86 games going to Wii. How many are going to DS? And are you saying how many are going to PSP or PS2? Or are you asking of the 38 titles going to PS3, what ones are actually going to PSP or PS2? And are you saying shovelware does not actually count as a game? I'm confused Edit: Wow, I am slow today. A couple hours of sleep does a mind wonders for not catching onto anything, let me tell ya. Ok, so DMeisterJ, you are trying to ask, of the Wii games, how many are ports, multiplatform, or shovelware. So, my original post does apply. Ok, not totally off today. You defended PS2 sales number despite quaility, yet somehow are attacking ports, multiplatform, and shovelware games on the Wii?

I wasn't defending PS2 games/sales/quality. I was commenting on his comment that the GC was (arguably) better than the PS2, then someone said it sold more then he said he didn't care about the numbers and I said, the numbers do matter because it shows what everyone is buying. About the games, I was saying how many Wii games (of the 86) are ports, multiplatform, or shovelware. Eighty-six titles coming out for the Wii this Winter is fine but not when they say it has the most support from publishers when we all know that between that and the PS3 are the least supported systems and the 360 has the most titles.

DMeisterJ said: Neos said: Screen Digest delivers its verdict on Q4 trends in publishing and platform support The analyst’s latest report states that for the final quarter of 2007, publishers have backed the Wii with the greatest number of titles – 86 in total. This puts the Nintendo console some distance ahead of Xbox 360 and PS3, which have 47 and 38 titles lined up respectively. A quarter of Wii releases are exclusive to the platform, compared with eight for 360 and five for PS3. The Screen Digest report suggests that Wii is the most attractive proposition due to its rapidly growing installed base and low development costs compared with its more powerful counterparts – meaning that the number of Wii titles on the market will surpass that of Xbox 360 by early 2008, according to estimates. While Wii and Xbox 360 are forecast to have strong end of year sales, the report is less positive when it comes to PS3. Sony’s release schedule ‘lacks the firepower to command consumer attention’ and consequently it is ‘difficult to see how the catalogue will drive hardware sales in such a competitive environment.’ Ed Barton, Screen Digest games analyst adds: “Halo 3 commanded the attention of the mass market and we expect Super Mario Galaxy for Wii to continue the process of educating the consumer as to the benefits of the current generation of home consoles.” “Given present publishing activity levels and hardware sales rates, we expect 256 bit gaming to have moved out of transition and squarely into the mass adoption phase by year end.” “While Wii and Xbox 360 are likely to look back on 2007 with some satisfaction, the same cannot be said for PS3. Given the platform’s release schedule this Christmas, it is not a surprise that Sony is focusing on lowering the cost of entry to PS3 platform to maintain parity with its rivals this Christmas.”   So much for the theories of Wii not getting support, or, PS3 getting all the support. Source : http://www.mcvuk.com/news/28489/Report-PS3-faltering-as-publishers-back-Wii    How many of the "eighty six" titles are ports or are from years ago, games that have been or are coming to the DS (Big Brain Academy), games also coming out on the PSP (Medal of Honor Heroes 2), or the PS2 (Manhunt 2) or are shovelware (Boogie)?

The more games you have on your system, the more crap you are going to have. That's just the way it works.

naznatips said: lets see how many of those remaining games are exclusives and not ports of old games. Wii 9 games (1 over 90%) PS3 4 games (0 over 90%) There are 4 games on the PS3 not counting sports games rated above a 75% that you can't get elsewhere. 4 freaking games. So don't give me this shit about the PS3 library dominating the Wii's in quality, because even if you don't like one freaking genre that the PS3 is flooded with it knocks out half of it's high rated games and if you are just looking for the cheapest way to play those great games obviously the 360 is a better option. I'm not saying the Wii's is stellar right now either but from the perspective of a core gamer it's certainly not worse. Not to mention that at this rate the Wii will have at least 5 games rated above 90% by the end of 2007. What happened to quality over quantity?

Exactly.  But it's not just quality over quantity, obviously the Wii is going to get more quantity as well (the original point of this thread), it will eventually have an advantage in both quantity and quality over the PS3.  

The bottom line is the current trends in both hardware and software sales will ensure that the PS3 will get fewer third party games (in quality and quantity) than the Wii and 360.  That's a no-brainer from a business perspective.

I think the problem with the Wii is that given its strong sales thus far, is that there are already several different modchips for the wii, all offering DIRECT BOOT of gc/wii games. As time goes on these chips will be easier to install, have more features and cost less. Please try to remember that it was several years into the ps2's life before direct boot (as in insert the game and it works) were available and inexpensive. So for under the price of two wii games... you get the idea.