I don't think there is a difference if you compare PS3 and 360. I believe Microsoft pushes a few (Halo & Gears) really hard. While Sony pushes more games just a little compared to those. Microsoft is focussing on most popular (shooters), while Sony tries to be all-round.

I believe what twestern was referring to is the fact its a very tactical espianoge game. It is not easily accessible to a wide audience. Sure, it is known by many, and loved by many, but in terms of game mechanics and marketability it most certainly is niche from the aspect it simply isnt pick up, play for a couple hours and be enjoyed.

It has sold so well and is widely known for its media approval and the following it has and deserves for its quality, but as far as what type of gamers shelf it is on it is certainly on the shelves of fans of the genre, right next to their splinter cell games. Its just that its the most successful well done game of its genre so it sells a lot, but to act like there are people who buy into the MGS franchise who dont want to devulge 30 hours into playing it is a bit naive.

MGSonline tried to transcend this in the way FPS's went form niche to mainstream in that people can buy it for a party and get 4 people to play.

But the FPS argument is null an void as evident by the oodles of FPS that are released with mediocre or relative success, whereas we see far less tactical espionage stealth games, meaning it will sell 4+ million because its thr cream of the crop and the target audience is indeed niche.

they have very few good ones the end

When the generational shift happened, and Microsoft got almost every major and minor third party exclusive the PS2 had, it split the userbase. PS2 owners bought exclusives all the time, but now most of their favorites are multiplatform. Sony's own games were typically not very dominant on their own consoles(besides Gran Turismo), but it wasn't so noticeable since third parties bulked up the list of wanted exclusives. The reason most of Sony's replacement exclusives don't do quite so hot is because so many of them are "Me too!" titles, and were built to appeal to bringing in the Microsoft fanbase, not keeping their own.

I agree with this.

KZ2 2 mill
LBP 2.5 mill
Uncharted 2.5 mill
MGS4 4 mill
Infamous 1 mill
Resistance 1+2 5 million
Motorstorm 3.5 million
Ratchet 1&2 3 million
Hevenly Sword 1.5 million

Thats a total of 25 million copies.

Meanwhile theres been 25 million Ps3 consoles sold. It means each owner on average only bought 1 big exclusive.

@Onyx: Otherwise well put, but "PS2 owners bought exclusives all the time" sounds like captain obvius just joined the party.

I was just mentioning to get across the point that the PS2 userbase split between both consoles (the Wii also) as the exclusives kept going multiplatform. It was just a reminder point.

Well.. gaming is for kids.

@Onyx: Fair enough.

I think we can expect more and more sales for all PS3 exclusives (be it former, or upcomming). PS3 Slim was a very important step in the PS3 life cycle, due to the price, more and more people will buy it and of those people, there will be a decent number of gamers, which will ofcourse reach for the best games out on that system. I myself have quiete a lot of friends and internet "buddies" from my country, that were either waiting for PS3 price drop, or a particular game (GoW3, GT5, Trico), they all want to play MGS4 and they will eventualy get it, but they are waiting for more. So if someone like that will buy a PS3, he'll want to play Uncharted 2 > he'll get the first one to know the story and so on... Many games and specialy such a quality titles like MGS4 will have strong legs into the future.

As for MGS4 numbers, I don't think they are very accurate on VGChartz I bet my left testicle on the fact that MGS4 sold MORE units in Others than NA.