ubeat09 said: its because of a little game called gran turismo, its strong in Europe and theres no way microsoft can ever get thier hands on it...plus in america, microsoft has more ways to advertise, its thier home turf and taking it will be impossible for sony to ever win it again imo |
While I partially agree with what you when it's terms of advertisement and home turf, there is something that bugs me from a business standpoint. It is unprecedented the amount of blind loyalty the xbox brand received out of nowhere. The first xbox was a flop everywhere in the world, but it met M$'s purpose of at least breaking into the market, and I give it credit for truly jump starting online gaming for consoles. The RROD issue and E74 has gone on for too long. Yes it seems the Jasper chip has managed to lower that issue, but there is no way to tell yet until a little more time passes. I think the consumers have reached a sad state as far as product expectation. Now don't think for a minute I am trying to bash the xbox brand, because I praise them for making online console gaming mainstream, I praise them for bringing Halo: CE which redefined console FPS's, I praise Gears of War for pushing the envelope in the TPS genre. I am looking at things from a consumer standpoint. If playstation 1,2, Nintendo Gamecube, or even SNES had these horrible breakdown issues and had blatantly denied and dismissed them as the consumers fault, do you seriously thing they would have survived as a product? I highly doubt it. Even Nintendo's loyal fans have shown to have a limit when alot of them jumped from N64 to PS1 because of Nintendo's refusal to use CD at the time (of course the PS also had quality titles to help it). I mean c'mon it's not rare to hear someone be on there 2nd, 3rd and even 4th 360, and then go on a forum and tell others "oh don't worry dude, I feel your pain, just send yours to M$ and it'll be back like new in a week." Why? why should I have to waste my time on a product I spent 200$ + and deal with this sending it back, or doing the "towel trick" or buying a fan or cooler, or be careful with moving it even a little or the disc will be scratched?!?!? does ANYONE with some sense see anything wrong with this picture from an objective standpoint? Honestly if my PS3 would have broken down 2 times (no it hasn't broken down even once, I got the 80gb MGS4 bundle when it came out, I literally have the system on around 18 hrs a day + since I lost my job several months back) I would turn around and most likely get a Wii, or even a 360 if the Jasper chip can guarantee not to break down on me (at least 97% chance of not breaking down).
The point that I am making is that I personally feel M$ is setting a bad precedent here and it does worry me, because if they can get away with it, what's to stop Nintendo or Sony from doing the same in the future? Sure I'll give credit to M$ for finally recognizing that it was their fault (after what? over a year?) that many 360's broke down, but before that going as low as to blame their customers?!?! From a business standpoint that is failure, but they have gotten away with it because the consumers allowed it. Again, the quality of their games is undeniable as well as the online experience, but the hassle so many consumers deal with to this day just to be able to turn their systems on and experience the great things it has to offer is just not right.
As for Europe, the whole GT5 being the deciding factor is not true. Proven by the fact that PS3 already overtook 360 in Europe and given high sales of MGS4, LBP, Resistance: FOM, Resistance 2, Uncharted 1 and 2 , etc, in that region alone. Now, will GT5 manage to move more consoles? Yeah probably. Another deciding factor on the PS3 gaining alot of ground in other regions is perhaps them having less patience for the issues, but now that is just an assumption. Japan is easy as why would they bother going for an international product that is plagued by problems (in their eyes) when they have domestic products of similar or better quality ie. Wii, PS3, that are both established brands that will support their products without pulling the plug prematurely. Case in point, Xbox losing all support in only 4 years of the system's life, whereas Sony remains commited to their 10 year plan, and Nintendo which at least in its home country will support the product for many years. I honestly hope noone takes this as trolling (I know someone is bound to, especially diehard 360 fans), I have tied to be as objective as possible.
If it makes you feel better yes a few PS3's suffered from YLOD, although nothing statistically near as bad as what M$ suffered. PS3 was also plagued by lack of quality games at launch, although certain gems went unappreciated such as Heavenly Sword for being "short" ( 6 hours give or take), yet ODST was less than 3 (I know people will bring up MP, but if you have halo 3 with all the DLC ODST is not worth it). We could sit here and debate all night but I am watching (or trying to watch) Gone in 60 Seconds again with my gf.
Anyways happy holidays.