In my opinion, one of the more important news stories of late is that Final Fantasy XIII will not be released in Japan til *at the earliest*, Spring of next year. This is a nail in the tire of the PS3 lineup, as a possible two year wait for stateside release after system launch is a little scary, particularly because this is one of the few big exclusives the PS3 still holds.
With that in mind, I thought about a common mantra among gamers, that third-party support can often make or break a system. That remains true to a point (for now), but this new info on FFXIII is not without a lesson in the matter, for me.
Here's my point. I think an unnoticed mistake Sony has made with this launch is relying too much on third-party titles. While your system can be viewed as barren with a lack of third-party support, what happens when a system lacks first-party support? Now I know Sony Games Division has plenty of games in development, such as Heavenly Sword (that IS Sony, right?), Eye of Judgement, SOCOM, and Warhawk. Those may be very good games, but they certainly don't pack the wallop of the big franchises. You have to convince people to get excited about those, whereas if I were to say "There's a new Zelda/Mario/Halo/GTA/MGS/Final Fantasy coming out," the name sells the game.
To use Nintendo as an example of this point, look at how many established, successful, well-known franchises they own. When a software drought is imminent, the company usually speeds up development of one of their popular series' current iterations, to keep the system owners appeased.Recently, Mario Party 8 came to put an end (from a sales standpoint) to what many called a drought that started with the release of Super Paper Mario. A month later, Pokemon Battle Revolution will do the same, followed by Mario Strikers: Charged in July, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in August.
If I were a Sony official, I wouldn't feel comfortable with the fact that the most anticipated games for their system are completely out of their control.
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