To be fair, the system hasn’t even been out for six months yet and only has a handful of games on the market, just like the other two. All of those things are coming down the pipe for the Wii in the near future - fighting games, action games, music games, shoot-em-ups, sports games, RPG’s, etc. Joystick and multi-tap are built-in.
That’s just it - there are so many PS2 games out now that I’ve been wanting to play. I would not consider either next-gen system until I exhaust those.
Frankly, I think both Microsoft and Sony have overextended themselves a bit by trying to out-do eachother. Its ridiculous to me that MSoft is now marketing the 360 “Elite” with HDMI and a larger HDD for close to what Sony was pricing the PS3 at launch. I’d be pissed if I were an original 360 owner.
IMHO, they were both simply too early for the market. Unless you have an HD setup, I can’t see any compelling reason right now to go next gen. The engineering and component costs are still cost prohibitive for what they have packaged in each.
Microsoft would have had a definite slam dunk had they waited a year and given the 360 an Direct X 10 compatible video card or something similar, which Sony would have been hard pressed to match. Their strength is in the dev tools and APIs, but I just don’t think they are successfully leveraging them given the current titles.
I love the PS3, but I recognize the many problems that people have described here. Still, I think it’s a bit early to be suggesting it will fail.
I got it because I really, really wanted to play Call of Duty 3 on-line in hi-res, yet also be able to play all my old PS2 and PS1 games. I love the hard drive capacity, the wireless internet connection, the ability to download other games and demos and updates.
Hopefully the library for it will be improved and the cost will come down.
I think that currently, the whole HD business hasn’t really developed yet. Alot of people don’t have HD setups in their houses yet, so they can’t take advantage of the HD gaming that the PS3 offers. This is very unlike the PS2 upon release, when essentially, all you needed was a color tv to get most of the graphical potential out of the console.
The shift to HD tv’s is the only major tv advancement I can recall in my lifetime, so I think its hard to predict what will come of it. Theres no doubt that HD will be the future eventually, its just a matter of how long it takes before it becomes a mainstream thing. And that is going to be a big factor for PS3 and XBOX.
I think theres a good change the PS3 will flop and not sell for the first bit of years. But eventually, its going to become cheaper and people are going to buy it. Its made to have an extremely long life span…10 years I heard someone say once. I mean, look at PS2’s…there still selling very well. No doubt, PS3 will also hit a similar success near the end of its life.
I doubt the PS3 is going to completely flop like alot of Wii-enthusiasts think. Hey, I love the Wii too, but I think we have to be realistic: Sony would have to screw up really badly to go from a ridiculously commanding 1st place to a 3rd.
Success can also be measured in many different ways: In terms of numbers sold, and in terms of profits. I think that even when Nintendo is down the most (gamecube), they can still make descent profits for themselves. You gotta wonder about the gazillion dollars Sony is losing now.
Eidos isn’t making PS3 games at all.
Squeenix has made Kingdom Hearts games for Nintendo, as well as Final Fantasy games for the Nintendo. It’s part of why I picked the Wii. Odds are FFXIII will be available on it. Odds are REAL good it won’t be PS3 only. Squeenix needs the money too much. Sony’d have to buy them out to keep it exclusive.
Really? Why do you think that Blu-Ray will win out over HD-DVD? I was really beging to wonder if Blu-Ray = Betamax in consumers minds. However, it will probably be 2 or 3 years before any sort of shake out becomes apparent.
The PS3 is over priced and in my mind Blu-Ray is the same as Betamax. I am pretty disappointed with the PS2, having to buy a second one less then 2 weeks after the warranty on the first one expired. I took the first one apart a while ago and I can’t believe how cheap the DVD drive is built! My first portable CD player was a Sony it lasted 13 years my first camcorder was a Sony also very well built. For something that is supposed to get used a lot the first gen PS2 is crap. It’ll be awhile before I purchase another Sony product, I’m afraid to spend $600 on the PS3 just have something go wrong with it in 3-6 months.
It seems to be the format of choice in more arenas right now. Having said that, it’s no certainty by any means and I wouldn’t bet a nickel on either.
Indeed, I wouldn’t be half surprised if they’re both as dead as dogshit in five years. In a world of increasing amounts of downloadable content, who’s to say physical media won’t be going by the wayside by 2012?
I doubt that either current HD format will catch on, before they’re both obsolete. The problem is that they use two completely separate technologies: Blu-Ray disks achieve higher data densities than normal DVDs by using a shorter wavelength of laser (that’s the “blue ray” they’re named after, compared to the red of DVDs or the infrared of CDs), while HD-DVD achieves it by using the same laser, but multiple layers of data on the disk. So what’ll happen when someone develops a multi-layer disk that uses a blue laser? It’ll be as far superior to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray as HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is to regular DVDs, and for only a slightly greater price (optical disks of any sort are inherently very cheap). And this won’t require any new technologies, since the pieces are already there. I would be very surprised if they’re not out in five years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re out in two. By that time, you’ll still probably see HDTVs in well under half of homes.
I agree, the best console out at the moment is the PS2, followed by the Wii and 360.
This is the sort of thing that could really hurt the PS3. There are quite a few rumors (and reports iirc) that Sony is losing quite a few of its exclusive titles. Why bother buying a $600 system for games that are coming out for cheaper systems? If the big titles that people buy the system for jump ship, Sony may as well just start developing their next gen system.
I just had my THIRD PS2 die on me, halfway through FFXII (previous problems were with disc read errors on systems recently out of the warranty date, this one has some sort of motor problem with spinning the disc). Not only will I not be buying a 4th PS2, but I will never buy another Sony product again.
Oddly enough, I’ve had my PS2 since launch day (that makes it about what, 6.5 years now?) with no problems. It’s spent a lot more time as a DVD player than a console.
I have no interest in a PS3, especially not at that price point. Nor the XBox 360. I would like the Wii, though, because it’s also backwards compatible with the Gamecube and there are a ton of Gamecube games I would like to get.
I’ve seen these threads about PS3 vs Wii vs xBox 360 and I just thought I would give my input. I am far from an avid gamer. I am an extremely casual gamer. Frankly, I think most of these games are too hard because you have to play them all the time to get the hang of them. Graphics don’t interest me one bit. I still play my atari 2600. Graphics don’t make a game. I’ll buy a Bluray player or an HD player when I want one, I will not buy a gaming system to play movies on. That’s just absurd.
Yet, I love to play video games. I look at what each of these systems have to offer and all I have to say is the Wii looks like the better system, and that is before the price is considered. These companies can either tap into the allready saturated hard-core gaming market, or they can realize that there is an untapped casual gaming market. That is what I think the Wii taps, and I think there is a lot more money in it.
Huh. I still have my first PS2, I guess I lucked out. I got mine after the first price drop. I’m certainly not getting a PS3 until there’s a major price reduction and more games that I want available on it.
He’s far from the only one who had problems with the PS2. There was an uproar some years back regarding DRE (disc read errors) happening far too frequently. My friend’s PS2 won’t even play some games, and mine acts up on occasion.
Nintendo’s systems are the only ones that haven’t given me headaches.
We went through three PS2 consoles. Luckily, on one, it was the drive and on another, it was the controller unit. I just took the controller unit from the first one and swapped out the malfunctioning one on the other.
VC03 - I know, I know. Just sayin’ that I’m not jumping at it. Believe me, it took me a long time to get sold on the PS2 (and that’s after we actually got one). I have no timetable here.
Re. PS2 reliability - Huh. I’ve heard all about problems with games loading or the system dying, and it’s never happened with me. The worst I’ve experienced was skipping with certain blue-bottom disks (Silent Scope 3 and Dynasty Warriors 2 are the worst, in my experience). My big issue is the controller port not working. I’ve had to toss two systems because of this.
And then there are those stories about X-Boxes dying right in the store display. I think the harsh truth is that when it comes to consoles, the more stuff there is, the more stuff can go wrong.
It’s made me reticent to buy a PS3, but no more than I already was.
Write me down as another guy who’s had nothing but goodness from his PS2. I can’t wait to get the time to play God of War 2.
Is there a future for the PS3? As far as I’m concerned, yes, because the PlayStation is a remarkable piece of technology. The free online system was a real selling point and continues to impress; Sony Online is very responsive to its customers, and Developers (especially Insomniac) have been great at nerfing online games to keep them fresh and interesting. Resistance: Fall of Man is the most fun I’ve ever had with a video game and it just keeps getting better.
The one really unexpectedly cool thing is using Folding@Home and watching that turning satellite map of the world with all the FAH PS3 users as little yellow dots. I can see my house from here. 
Hentor, you out there?
For the price of a PS3, I could buy a bitching new computer rig. It’ll be backwards compatible with ALL of my computer games, allow me to play almost every game on the market (even system specific games release on PC (well, mostly)), and it will let me do more than any console system EVER will do. Its customizable, affordable, and upgradable for years to come.
Screw consoles, give me a PC 