Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 09 July 2008 19:51
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
Sadly, at least for Sony, this hasn’t been enough in the rest of the world to truly differentiate the PS3 from the Xbox 360, with the Xbox 360 still leading the sales race compared with the PS3, and leading in the number of games available.
Of course the Xbox 360 had more than a year’s head start on the PS3, but as Microsoft slices prices, the pricey PS3 looks ever pricier and simply needs a price cut to better compete, especially in an economically challenged world.
People still want interactive entertainment after all, even if they don’t need it, and if the Wii and Xbox 360 provide just as good interactive entertainment at a cheaper price than the PS3, why buy a PS3?!
Now it has to be said that this all comes before E3, where each company has promised major announcements and surprises of the shock and awe variety.
We should hear about amazing new games, new controllers, new online services, new casual games, new blockbusters on the way, new ways to expand your console, more downloadable content and the chance of more price cuts, although in Australia at least, Microsoft has already made that move.
The cream of console profits comes not from the console itself but from the sale of all that software, software which in other words is games.
Yes, Nintendo are in a sweet position where they actually make money from each console and have been from day one, and that’s been a fabulous profit spinner for Nintendo.
But we’re getting ever closer to 2010 when we could conceivably see the next round of new consoles emerge. If the three major players want to enter the next generation in a winning position they can’t let this generation down.
Indeed there was originally much doubt that Nintendo could do anything special with the Wii, so lacklustre were the Gamecube’s sales.
Continued on page 3.
