Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 21 June 2007 18:20
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Howard Stringer, Sony’s CEO, has answered the prayers of gamers and
shareholders with a promise to deliver 380 new PS3 games, most of which
will arrive before the end of the year.
Nearly seven months into 2007, the promise of 200 new PS3 titles to be released as boxed retail copies, and a further 180 to go on sale through the PS3 online store signals Sony's intention to reclaim its crown as consoles king.
Sony is predicting that by the end of its current financial year, their goal is to have shipped 11 million units, double the 5.5 million PS3s shipped figure of a few months ago now. What does it mean? It means the start of a massive renewed push from Sony to generate excitement, action and sales in the PS3 market and the rest of its consumer electronics business in general.
Reuters has reported from Sony’s annual shareholders’ meeting that Stringer believes: "Attractive game software is the key to accelerate PS3 growth over the next year”.
Reuters’ didn’t say anything about Stringer discussing the PS3’s rich digital multimedia capabilities, letting it act as a sophisticated home media center linking all the digital media in your home, in addition to playing Blu-ray movies and upscaling DVDs, web browsing capabilties, computing capabilities, it’s upcoming immersive social networking 3D environment, and other features.
But Stringer was likely thinking about them all when he said that: "PlayStation 3 going forward will be vital to our future and we'll succeed” – with games obviously a crucially important part of the equation.
Stringer believes the PS3’s rich feature set gives it the longevity to grow and mature into a powerful system that will even stand up to new models from Microsoft and Nintendo. Of course Microsoft and Nintendo will be releasing lots of new titles too, with Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 and Mario on Wii among the most anticipated.
Stringer is hoping that the PS3 will really be hitting its stride with incredible titles coming out from games and experienced programmers that really know how to take advantage of the PS3’s hardware over the next year or two and beyond.
The PS3 will also go through a redesign, just as happened with the PS2, which originally was quite large, with the subsequent updated version not much bigger than a couple of DVD cases or a videotape. The PS3 could even be built directly into future Bravia TVs that also come equipped with multiple digital TV tuners, 2TB of hard disk space, Blu-ray burner, wireless keyboard and mouse and remote control. Why not? Sony do make all the bits, after all.
So, it’s not just games that the PS3 has on its side – the technological capabilities within are indeed powerful and programmers have been very busy finding that out. After all, 380 games certainly is a lot. With that number there’ll surely be a number of totally brilliant titles that everyone raves about and purchases in large numbers, as we’ve seen with the Halo series, Grand Theft Auto, Gears of War and a number of others.
But as you already know, not every game ever written and released is a blockbuster must-have title, with a few always guaranteed to be downright stinkers on every platform it’s released for, so we’ll just have to wait and see as the games are released and judge for ourselves. Let’s hope we get to see some great new original games, in addition to the inevitable sequels or ‘Sport 2008’ titles that we know are on the way.
So, will the PS3 be able to claim "true victory" in January 2008 and beyond, or will the Wii and the Xbox 360 continue spoiling the PS3 party? Please read onto page 2 for the conclusion!
