Competition is great for the gaming industry and the consumers of gaming products. In 2008, the battle for best console will be won in many domains including most consoles units sold, best game titles, best multiplayer and brightest future.
For the last few years we've seen the Xbox 360 dominate in many domains of competition. Microsoft has continued to receive key titles on their platform because their development support is extremely friendly and consumers, in the United States specifically, have taken to purchasing the console as the PC-alternative for current generation gaming. Microsoft's LIVE! integration for gaming is tightly built to the 360 experience and allows consumers to quickly purchase add-on content for game levels, rock band and guitar hero songs and silly content such as picture packs and themes.
Microsoft isn't perfect; however, both developers and gamers have seen the instabilities in the 360 product line and live in fear of red rings of death or other fatal malady. Gamers spend weeks waiting for their 'coffins' to arrive and their refurbished 360s to bless their stoop. While they wait in concern Sony and Nintendo attempt to lure the weakening gamer to their console empire. We stagger and question our livelihood as 360 gamers while our box sits dead upon the shelf wondering to ourselves, "did we make the right choice?"
Then we look to the library of games the Wii has to offer and find titles like Wii Play, Bass Fishing, Mario and Sonic, Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxy, which fit our fancy in high school but aren't convincing the older gamers with limited game time. The PlayStation 3, already a few years old, slowly grows their empire with promises of a Final Fantasy, God of War and Metal Gear solid yet we've seen nothing which makes us wish to invest our precious greenbacks. Yet the PlayStation 2, last generation's winner, sells consoles in tight competition with Wii to help remedy Sony's game division financial concerns.
Convinced we're on the path best traveled, we replace our 360 with a refurbished build, buy used on eBay or hunt stores for the infamous "falcon chipset." This time, however, we invest in a warranty extension because we don't want our inner child to feel the pain and remorse of another dead console. Life goes on. We know it seems dirty to invest in a faulty piece of hardware yet the games library is extensive enough to warrant the repeated investment.
Early in 2008 we've seen Sony arrive with positive news by dominating the high definition DVD race and beating the competition using their unlimited wallet. This new Blu-Ray technology is the "one ring to rule them all" for next-generation DVD quality and it comes to us for free in every PlayStation 3. Oddly enough, average consumers are murmuring about this high definition battle for which they know little but do hear the words "Sony" and "PlayStation 3" being thrown around. Subtle words, true, but words that fall into the recesses of our long term memory to arise later when decisions must be made: which console shall we buy?
Vaporware in the name of Metal Gear Solid and God of War arrive in full color on game trailer websites, youtube and video podcasts around the world; these games are real! Two years of development stroll by and large firms start to kick out PlayStation 3 titles to rival that of the 360 in terms of graphics and game play experiences. Burnout Paradise, Grand Theft Auto IV arriving soon, Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat and, eventually, their grand exclusives Metal Gear and perhaps Final Fantasy. A console is only as good as its library of games, scratching backwards compatibility off our list; we're now looking to the future of gaming to forecast the smartest console buy for the money.
What of the Wii? The hottest selling console just releases Super Smash Bros. Brawl and gamers line up all over the country to sell out the, soon to be, number one game of the year on the Wii. The only game to rival the best selling CoD4 on the 360 is Wii Play with Remote-a game which isn't worth the CD it's pressed on but arrives with an additional remote for local multi-player experiences for which the Wii thrives. The Wii, it rivals that of the infamous bald eagle in terms of rarity and casual gamers cannot stop slapping down cash for this elusive white gold. Novelty or best console of the year, the fact of the matter is this: it's the top selling console month over month.
Casual gamers make up the largest demographic around the world so it is no surprise the Wii is killing at every retail store, however, casual gamers also buy the least amount of games and equipment ("the attachment") and thus the console is hot while the games are not. Gamers with worldwide friends find no solace in Wii as the friend code nightmare is simply too frustrating to deal with, so gamers resort to local friends and neighbors for multi-player gaming.
Sony is at the doorstep of success in 2008 in terms of owning the domains of the console war. Their network infrastructure isn't as solid and integrated as that of the 360 but it makes the Wii friend-code system look like a resume written in crayon. The PlayStation 3 has had its fair share of bad press but nothing in terms of the drastic hardware meltdown seen by its older chipset competition and the new conquest of Blu-Ray hardware shows us that their risky investment in a "Blu-Ray Trojan Horse" was nothing but masterful albeit a bit lucky.
This year gamers will be looking to the future of the current generation hardware. If a gamer wanted an Xbox 360 they've had ample time to develop such desire and savings to purchase one. Now they're looking for the next greatest thing, for Xbox 360 owners that might be Gears of War 2 in late November and for Wii that will continue to be Super Smash Bros Brawl and Wii Mario Kart. Once Nintendo issues its big hits for this year they'll be fresh out of titles to draw in console buyers-not a problem given consumers are purchasing Wii for one game: Wii Sports.
The Sony PlayStation 3 offers gamers promise of blockbuster titles this year, a Blu-Ray experience for high definition enthusiasts on the only high definition media, a multi-player experience a bit less than the Microsoft LIVE! but generations above Nintendo's solution and a slowly dropping price making the purchase within the grasps of an avid gamer. The price to play on Sony's solution is free, much like the Nintendo solution, so gamers know their getting what they paid for in these two scenarios. It's hard to compare a free solution to a $50.00 a year solution which Microsoft supports so when comparing apples to apples you must compare Wii to PS3.
Honestly, at this point Sony has nowhere to go but up in terms of sales figures and realizing revenue on their high end higher priced console. The question remains, will the fervor of this years Gears of War 2 title best that of Halo 3 and cast shadows upon Sony and their Metal Gear solid franchise? If Microsoft's hype machine can hold consumer interests until November of 2008 and Nintendo continues to ride the casual wave it will be a steep slope for Sony. Remember, Sony bought their way into the next generation of high definition media, they might just buy their way into this generation of consoles too.
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