Gamer's Perspective

While the success of Sony’s Playstation 3 was guaranteed going into E3 2005, it’s amazing what a year can do. Lets face it; this generation is Sony’s to lose. For two generations previous they have all but called Nintendo their bitch (this is actually up for debate since I may have missed the press conference in which they probably did) and have laid the heavy wood to Microsoft’s debut system.

But things have changed since then. A pretty ho-hum E3 grand debut showing of the system and its capabilities, the horrific “boomerang” controller debacle and then a year of deafening silence. Even with the silence Sony does what it does best, build anticipation with minimal effort. Then comes the E3 2006, here it is, everyone in the gaming world (including yours truly) is ready to be blown away by the inevitable onslaught of games that we’ve come to expect from a Sony console and while we all know it’s going to be expensive, it doesn’t matter. Any self-respectable gamer is going to want one. Then the bomb gets dropped, $599.99 and with that gamers everywhere begin to cry in unison as they realize they are going to have to risk grand theft robbery in order to afford one. Follow this with only a few mind-blowing games on display, then a complete no show at the Tokyo Game Show and we are all left scratching our heads as to what Sony is thinking.

At this point I start to wonder. Is Sony trying to throw this generation? I mean could they be that oblivious to what is going around them? Microsoft is gaining; Nintendo looks like they’ve finally gotten their heads out of their ass. Yet when it at the point Sony needs to come up with their best game the come out so far and lay an egg. The following is my take on Sony’s biggest blunders with the Playstation 3 to date.

1. Unproven & Expensive Medium -Blu-ray is an amazingly cool and very useful medium. Problem is Blu-ray is ridiculously expensive. You can’t get a good player alone for under $700 dollars and while the benefits are there, the fact is the mass gaming public is not willing to throw down 600 bones on a fairly unknown medium. One just has to look at the UMD disc to see the potential problems. Increase costs as developers have to change programming methods and high development times have really put game makers in a pinch.

2. Poor Marketing -So far Sony’s marketing department seems to have taken a page from the playbook of the Sega Dreamcast Marketing Team. For all you people that didn’t pay attention to the Dreamcast, (and that would be many of you) The Sega Dreamcast was an incredible machine that was poorly marketed through a miss-timed launch and poor print and television advertising. People saw these commercials and ads and the first thing that crossed their minds were “What the fuck was that?!” Much like the reaction of many whom see the “PS3 Baby Doll” ads. Couple that with a launch that is takes place a year after their closest rival’s date, and only four day before another competitors launch date and you’re wondering if they’re not only going to be behind the curve of MS, but their hype is going to be short-lived as they won’t be the new guy but only for a couple of days.

3. Lack of Focus -“Variety is the spice of life” This is a very true statement but I belive “Jack of all trades, master of none” applies more in this situation. Inclusion of the expensive Blu-ray format, a focus on web browsing and online strategy eerily similar to MS and the last minute addition of a motion sensitive controller (ie the Wii), really makes me feel that Sony has no idea what it is doing this gen in regards to creating a gaming machine. Just as Sony lost focus on gaming with the PSP, and opted instead to push a new format and to push other “extra features”, I fear the PS3 is may suffer the same fate. Sony seems to have forgotten that gamers are buying the system to play games and as such needs to focus on what they did best. No longer are they setting trends, instead it seems that they are rushing to try to include things to detract from competitors without really focusing on what could make their machine great. It’s one thing to integrate MS and Nintendo’s selling points. It’s another to actually make them function as your own. Last but not least; where are the games? It seems, that like the PSP, Sony forgot that people might want to have games with their system. With a pretty lack-luster launch line-up and nothing but promises down the road, it’s up to gamers to go on faith that the PS3 will deliver like the Playstations before it.

4. Lack of Machines -It is now stated that Sony will only have between 200 and 250 thousand machines available for launch in the US, a far cry of even then measly 400,000 it had previously promised. Coupled with a paltry 88,000 launched in Japan on Saturday the 11 th and a non-existent launch in Europe, (the date now being undecided) and you’ve got many unhappy gamers this holiday season. In the past Sony has done a great job marketing their system as the high demand/short supply item of the year. But never have their numbers been so low. It would be one thing if they didn’t already have a strong competitor waiting to de-thrown them in the wings, but those parents that are disheartened to find that the PS3 is harder to find than Atlantis will take solace in picking up a comparable system for $100 less, in the shape of an Xbox 360 not to mention the new alternative the Nintendo Wii. Now Sony is going to have the PS3 not only selling at a really high price point, but also competing to convert 360 and Wii users that it helped to create. Add this to the bitter feelings of many European gamers feeling neglected, and Sony has an enormous uphill climb.

In the end it all comes down to one thing, games. They are what makes or breaks a system. A huge price tag can be rationalized if the system delivers enough great titles. The PSP is currently learning this the hard way. The PSP is great system technically yet in regards to games it’s borderline horrible and sales are proving that gamers do speak with their wallets. Sony is treading dangerous territory here. They have had two great systems now. If Sony wants it to be three in a row they have to go back to what made them great. Speaking for all gamers, I pray that they do.

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By Jeremy Mravlja Gamer's Perspective