Fred Meyers is a Northwest Retailer/Grocer in the Northwest. They are Headquartered in Portland and have stores all over Washington where I live Fred Meyers Website They were purchased 5-10 years ago by Kroger. Not that I have been in a Walmart, but from what I understand they are a bit more Upscale. Their Stores also tend to have other store fronts, that they lease to other buisnesses, the one by my house has a Baskin and Robins, a Teriaki joint, and a Dry Cleaner that face the Main Parking lot. They have been Marketing the “One stop Shopping” for years now.
They have a better selection of 360 games in thier Electronics department than some of the Category Killer Box stores I have been in lately. I have been looking for Rainbow Six Vegas Lately and found it there where I could not find it in stock at Circuit City, Best Buy, or Comp USA.
I have a wii and I love it, but I also want to get a PS3. It’s really a remarkable piece of hardware when you think about it. Its the cheapest blue-ray player on the market, and if that gives Sony an edge in the blue-ray vs hd-dvd war that alone may justify the system. Its also one of the only things on the market that supports HDMI 1.3. Sure it doesn’t have game support yet but that will come, and its not like the Wii is tearing up in that regard either. I’d say the jury is still out and will be until next january.
Speaking of HDMI, I’ll tell you another thing I found irritating about the PS3 - no HD cables included. For a system touting its OMG BLU RAY player, it’s pretty dumb to not have the cables in the box.
Interestingly enough I see you’re from Morgantown, WV.
I have some family there I was visiting a few days after Christmas and I went to the EB Games at the local mall and there was a woman looking for a Wii for her son. The manager happened to be the guy working the desk and he said they had actually only ordered a small number of Wiis because apparently the word they were getting from corporate was the Wii was going to have low demand and it wouldn’t be prudent to stock too many of them. Now they can’t get more in for several weeks and are left turning people away who want to buy them.
Far from it - I’m a complete and utter PS2 fanboy who’s disgusted at what’s happening to what should have been the successor to my favorite console.
I had all three systems in this past generation - I started with the PS2 and then added the Gamecube and the Xbox. I bought the other systems as their few exclusive killer titles appeared, and gradually sold both the Xbox and the Gamecube as I realized that there was really nothing else great coming from them. I still buy PS2 games - the system quite simply has absolutely killer games, and that’s all that matters. The great thing about the PS2 is that they really had the most diverse games - tons of bizarre japanese games that in previously generations would have never made it to America were released for the PS2 by companies like Atlus and Nippon Ichi, and the system really seemed to be home to a lot of more daring “boutique” titles like the Shadow Hearts and Katamari Damacy series - not to mention all of my favorite big franchises like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Grand Theft Auto, all of which were either PS2 exclusives or at least debuted on the system months before making it to the others.
And yet, even though the Gamecube was a complete disaster of a console in many ways, Nintendo won me back with their DS handheld system, showing that instead of half-assing an entry in the graphics/performance arms race (like they did with the Gamecube) against the PSP, they’d focus on new game experiences and new forms of playing. It was a complete smash, and remains so. And that’s exactly what they’re doing with the Wii - instead of trying to get on board with the whole HD/mega graphics/$500 entertainment hub of your life bandwagon, they’re instead just trying to offer new ways of playing, new gaming experience, new ways of interacting. And that’s why I bought one - because after what they’ve done with the DS, I’m excited to see what they can do by taking that same philosophy to a full console. And I think developers are, too, and they’re excited to do new things with the Wii.
The PS3 reminds me of something from my childhood - the NeoGeo, which was by far the best system around, but it was completely immaterial because it was hundreds upon hundreds of dollars ($600 or $800 or somethingl ike that) in an era when the SNES and Genesis were around $150. Individual NeoGeo games were $200 each. Everyone “knew some friend of a friend whose dad brought him one from Japan.” It was the best system around, but who cared?
That’s not going to happen (at least in the case of FF). If you want to see a real case of console failure, you look at the 360’s sales numbers in Japan.
Actually, Square is already working on an unnamed Final Fantasy title for the Wii (not another “Chrystal Chronicles,” either) and have already released one DS exclusive (III) and are on their third GBA reissue. I guarantee that you’ll see the next FF core title on the Wii before all is said and done.
Oh yeah, and a sequel to the PS2’s “Final Fantasy XII,” “Final Fantasy VII: Revenant Wings” is coming out on the DS only. Square and Nintendo are in love.
I never got the Game Cube, and to be honest I didn’t like the PS2. Well, there were two things I didn’t like about it, for one it had poor graphics compared to the Xbox and two, I really hated the PS2 controllers not because of the controller design but because of the shoddy materials from which they are apparently made. I’ve had to actually throw away and purchase new 3 PS2 controllers because over time the shoulder buttons just seemed to either stop working or would stick way too much to be playable (and it wasn’t a matter of the controller being dirty, I cleaned them to an unimaginable degree to try and fix the problem, and many of my friends also have PS2 controllers with messed up shoulder buttons.)
But I had a PS2 simply because a lot of the games that appealed to me came out for the PS2 and no other system, like you I like a lot of strange games and a lot of very unheard of games from Japan (on top of enjoying mainstream titles which would usually come out for the PS2 first, and sometimes even exclusively.)
I had an Xbox too, but no GC. Anytime a title was available for the Xbox and the PS2 I’d always pick the XBox version because of the better graphics, the convenience of the Xbox’s hard drive, and because I tended to like the Xbox controller more (more durable and something about it made it more comfortable, despite its large size.)
I imagine a lot of gamers, especially younger ones who may not have any form of income probably picked the PS2 because even though they might want to play some of the GC or Xbox exclusives, they couldn’t afford to buy a system just for a few games, and the PS2 by far had the biggest selection.
In reference to this and earlier posts in the thread, despite some initial poor reception from the industry, the PSP has actually quietly become very successful.
For example in November of 2006 (most recent period I have numbers on hand helds), the Nintendo DS sold 918,000 units, and the PSP sold 412,000. So the DS is definitely more popular (especially in Japan) but the PSP has become quite competitive. In revenue the PSP made $90m in November and the DS $116m (that’s one thing about the PSP being more expensive, that’s more money to Sony than Nintendo gets for the DS.)
The PSP has sold 24m units world wide (with a fairly even distribution between Japan/Europe/and the US.) While the DS has sold 26m + 9m DS Lite.
If I was going to buy a hand held console it’d definitely be the DS, though. I honestly think the PSP is getting most of its sales because of its non-game features (USB storage, MP3 player, video player) than it is for its games. I’ve played a PSP game in a store and it was really uncompelling, and from what I’ve heard it has a pretty terrible game library.
One of my friends has a DS on the other hand and it has an enormous library of games, and if I want an MP3 player I’m not going to buy a PSP which is more expensive compared to a good-quality MP3 player because of all of the features I wouldn’t use (like its bad games and uncompelling ability to watch movies on a very small screen.)
There were tons of systems like that. The NeoGeo is one of the most infamous, but the 3DO was pretty bad too, as was the Jaguar.
What was amazing about the Neo-Geo wasn’t even its $650 price tag, it was the fact that the individual games sold for $200. Now, admittedly, the NeoGeo was unique in that it was delivering 2D graphics equivalent to those found at the arcades (back when arcade graphics blew anything on the home market away) and an individual arcade game is quite expensive as you’re paying for a lot of hardware, but $200 a game is still way out of whack with the market both then and now.
They’re stronger than the Xbox’s were at this point. But Microsoft is not a Japanese company, and is only on its second system. Sony and Nintendo are prominent Japanese companies that have been involved in the Japanese market for over 20 years, so it isn’t surprising Microsoft does not do all that well there, but the 360 is already looking to be more popular than the original Xbox was in Japan. I think a big part of the problem’s the Xbox franchise has had in Japan is they have very few titles which are the type that would be significantly popular in the Japanese markets. Most of their exclusives are 1st or 3rd person shooters, which tend to be more popular in the United States. They don’t have a very wide selection of RPGs, and the RPGs they do have are more in the style of the PC RPG as opposed to the traditional console RPG style. The Xbox has also traditionally been devoid of fighting games, which haven’t been that popular in the United States (since the Mortal Kombat era, which is sad as MK was a horrible game compared to some of the fighting games that were on the market when MK1/2 were around) in a long time but continue to be very popular in Japan
But keep in mind not all game developers are based in Japan, Microsoft already has several exclusive titles and its not impossible that EA for example might not start making some of its series exclusive to the 360 if the PS3 really does fail.
On the topic of the 360, they’re looking to be in a very strong position right now.
Optimistically Nintendo hopes it will have manufactured enough Wiis to ship 6 million by 3/31/2007, the 360 has already sold 10.4m systems and is projected to have sold 15m by 6/2007. That’s only 9m less than the Xbox has sold in its entire 6 year run.
These are pretty strong numbers, keep in mind there were something like 110m PS2s sold and only 38m of them in the United States, Japanese customers tend to buy a lot more consoles than their American counterparts, so the 360 is already in a very dominating position within the American market.
There are 7 EBs/GameStops in driving distance from my home in Fairmont, WV (I moved last year - about 15 miles South of Motown.) 5 Wal-Marts, 2 Targets, 1-2 Best Buys, and a Circuit City, and there were regular, small shipments of Wiis throughout December to each of those stores - but each shipment would sell out within an hour of the store’s opening. (Quicker, if the shipment date was public knowledge.)
My friend who was hunting for one, though, was looking in the Charleston, WV area.
Rockstar announced last May that GTA IV will be released simultaneously for the Xbox 360 and the PS3, unlike the last two installments of the game, which gave nine-month leads for the PS2 versions of the games.
PS3 is also missing (or has lost) the hottest exclusives:
Virtua Fighter 5 (available on 360)
GTA 4 (360 timed exclusive AND with exclusive, downloadable content)
Assassin’s Creed (available on 360)
Dragon Quest 9 (DS Exclusive)
Splinter Cell 5 (360 Exclusive)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Available on Xbox Live Arcade, possibly the biggest PS1 game EVAR)
Guitar Hero 2 (New and Improved on 360 - Now with Possum Kingdom! YAY!)
I love to hear people talk about the “artificial shortage” of Wii’s, when it’s pretty clear that Wii’s have outsold the PS3 by almost 4 to 1 [cite].
Here’s a tip: The PS3’s aren’t flying off the shelves because:
They’re overpriced
Your average consumer won’t be able to take advantage of blu-ray for a few more years.
The biggest exclusive titles are backing away from Sony in terror and jumping on the 360 bandwagon
I’d bet you my lunch money that the PS3 you saw on the shelf a week ago is the same PS3 you’ll see on the shelf today. I don’t know very many people willing to fork out $500+ to play Final Fantasy. :rolleyes:
As to the OP, I would absolutely agree that it’s too early. Sony’s held a very dominant position for some time now, and non-gamers (who are the real majority of the market) aren’t as picky about their systems as gamers are. They are prone to go with what’s “safe.” I think that Sony has made a lot of very big mistakes with this launch, but given time, I think the worst that they could (realistically) do is find themselves on fairly equal footing with their two competitors. Besides, every Playstation has had a lackluster launch, as far as I can recall.
I’m kind of surprised by your opinion, Red. Most gamers would say the opposite; that Gamecube was a much better deal than N64. As a diehard Nintendo fan from wayback even I think so. I’d like to point out however, that Nintendo’s got two things going for it:
1.) The traditional console (ie, Japanese) gaming market has shifted it’s focus to handhelds. Plain and simple. And the DS & DS Lite are kicking the PSP’s ass both in Japan and the North American market
2.) The Wii should be very appealing to non-gamers. It’s got Nintendo’s well-earned reputation for fun party games, enhanced by the less video-game like feel of the new control system. It’s going to have all the games from the NES, SNES, N64, and for some odd reason NEC’s Turbografx 16 (aka the PC Engine as it was known in Japan) available via the virtual console feature. It’s 60% cheaper, and it will support online gaming. It’s really not surprising to me that it’s taking off so well; but I am biased, so take that with a grain of salt.
I’ve played the Wii and the PS3. The PS3’s graphics are pretty killer, but it seems like a system only for the hardcore gamer. The Wii on the other hand, is super fun even if you suck at video games. I was skeptical about the controls, but they really are nice. I had a blast playing it. I’m not a gamer by any means, but when the Wii’s become more easily available, I will probably pick one up. If the PS3 was 250, I would not get one. I don’t care about Blu-Ray. Besides sports games, I don’t care about most of the games PS puts out. It’s not kid friendly either, at least not yet with the current games. We only have one game rated ‘E’ available right now at work. The Wii just has a way bigger market. At work we get probably 7 to 1 people asking for Wii’s over PS3s. We have 60gb PS3s in stock, 0 Wiis. The PS3 just seems to me to be ahead of its time. like someone else mentioned. The average person is just starting to get into plasma and LCD TVs and HD stuff. Not everyone can afford it and the other stuff works fine for now. I had a PS2 and loved it for Tony Hawk and Madden and all that, and wished I hadn’t sold it becaue of Guitar Hero. But the price and audience for the PS3 is what’s killing it, IMO. How many people do you know that can just go out and blow 600 on a game system and 60 for each game?
I know the difference between floor display boxes and boxes with product in them placed in secure cages. That is why I specified with product in them.
Regarding that NeoGeo tangent, I don’t think it’s fair to compare the NeoGeo to the PS3. The NeoGeo wasn’t targeting a mass consumer audience like the PS3 supposedly is. Instead it was directed at more exclusive audience that as it turned out didn’t really exist. The 3do is a better comparison since it was intended for a mass audience, had superior hardware, and priced themselves right out of the market.
One thing I do wonder is if the scalper situation in those first few weeks drained what momentum the PS3 could have built away. With so many people buying to resell instead of play there was very little positive word of mouth and those people who did want one to play the games had a harder time getting one. By the time the bubble burst two weeks later the Wii was the “hot item” to get for Christmas. I still doubt there’s much of a market for a $600 console but they might have been able to build up enough steam to look like a threat to the 360…