Why The Playstation 3 is Failing

The Playstation 3 is, lets face it, bombing as of right now.  It is currently selling far less then the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, has a lack of any great exclusives, and has only one obvious redeming quality: Blu-Ray.  Now, in all honesty, I AM being quite harsh on the big, black behemoth, however, the system is truly failing.  I have two examples proving my point:

1. My little brother’s friend is loaded.  His dad is buying a Playstation 3.  Why?  So that he could have a cheap and affordable Blu-Ray movie player.
2. A good friend of mine recently made the jump from Xbox to Playstation.  His reasoning?  “Well, the PS3 makes less noise when I watch movies.”

…Now, this is where I would normally make a snide remark to the fact that it seems that people only want a Playstation for the sole fact that it can play Blu-Ray movies and it’s cheaper then most or all Blu-Ray players.  Thankfully, I’m feeling nice today.  Not too nice, but hey.  So, here are the three biggest reasons a system doesn’t do well (as far as I’m concerned) and why the PS3 is just repeating history.

1. The Console is TOO Exensive       Example – Neo-Geo


The Neo-Geo, while a popular “cult” console, is generally considered a good system.  I mean, at the time it came out, it was BAD ASS.  To put it simply, this is the equivlent of owning a Neo-Geo arcade system.  That’s right, the actual arcade?  With a library of games that allowed this system to have support for over 10 years, the Neo-Geo was by no means a bad system.  Yet, it sold HORRIBLY when it was released in 1991.  Why?  It’s initial price was $650 ! $650!  Think about it for a second.  The Playstation 3 started out at $499 and $599 for it’s two different models!  And while the games for the PS3 sell for $60 and AVERAGE Neo-Geo game sold for $200+ !  Now, while I have no real complaint about the price of games, I would think that Sony would be smarter then to sell their system for OVER $500!  I mean, honestly, who has $500 to throw around?  I don’t!  Sony was high off their rocker when they announced how much the PS3 cost.

2. The Console has POOR Marketing       Example – Turbografx-16/PC Engine

Another “cult” console, the Turbografx-16, or (as I like to call it) the PC Engine as it was called in Japan, is the often forgoten system duing the first real “Console Wars.”  You know, Nintendo VS SEGA, Mario VS Sonic, Mode 7 VS Blast Processing.  Well, the PC Engine was the other system during this time.  They had cool things, like…Bonk and…Bomberman…which both had ports to the Super Nintendo…yeah.  Basically, there was actually a system that EXISTED during this time that was not by Nintendo or Sega.  It was funny too, because in Japan, it was actually really popular at one point.  However, NEC (Nipon Electric Company…they’re big in Japan I guess) and Hudson made two errors.  One: Never compete with LAST YEARS SYSTEM.  You see the PC Engine was supposed to go head on with the Nintendo.  The Super Nintendo AND the Genesis were soon to be released.  Two: If you want to sell in America, ADVERTIZE WELL!  NEC and Hudson obviously did not know that you can’t just release something in America without actually showing it to a large amount of people.  Now, to get back on topic, how did Sony mess up?  I mean, they have fairly good commercials, right?  WRONG!  Have you seen the latest commercial for Haze ?  It’s a pile of crap!  It gives me a brief overview of the story, lets me know that the guy is addicted to a drug or some shit.  Oh, and to whet my appetite, its a first-person shooter.  At least this time I got actual gameplay!  The first couple of videos were all about the PS3.  I know the PS3 is awesome, now show me an awesome game!  Sheesh!

3. The Console has FEW/NONE Exclusive Games       Example – 3D0 Interactive Multiplayer

Well…this is probably the second worst system ever.  Yeah, I think the Atari Jaguar might be better then this.  This bad boy did not one, not two, but all three of the things you shouldn’t do when making a system.  At $700 a pop and one of the worst marketing schmes ever, you’d think that the 3D0 would have at least ONE good game.  Well, any good game that came out for it came out for the Playstation within two years.  Now, the PS3, granted, does have some games.  Hell, even some good games.  I mean, Grand Theft Auto IV just came out, and Call of Duty 4 got all of its problems fixed…oh, and Virtua Fighter 5 came out, even though it has online play on the 360.  If you can’t notice my sarcasm, then please, play the 3D0.  Hell, buy one.

So, as I’ve made it quite clear, if the PS3 is to actually become the great system its suppossed to be, then it’s going to have to fix these three things.  Granted, it has fixed the price issue, but its ads (as most video game ads are) are uninspired ad its games are…well, lets just say that I’d rather play any game on the 360 and the best game for the system came out almost two years ago.