Video Game Sandwich

So it’s safe to say that the past few years have been an unkind companion to Sony’s next-gen efforts. While the PS2 continues to enjoy a steady level of popularity, many thanks to the continued excellence of output for the console, other incarnations of Sony gaming have not been received with as much positivity.

The PSP, although a decent piece of hardware, just did not find the audience that it was seeking; much of this can be accredited to an inconsistent stream of worthwhile releases, but most importantly it was the introduction of the UMD disk. In this New Media market one thing that developers of new technological approaches and philosophies constantly preach is the cross-pollenation of formats and the ability for integration with other avenues of entertainment. The idea of community, and each member of the gaming community affecting another’s experience is, seemingly, the way forward in digital entertainment. The PSPs own failure was an inability to accept this philosophy, and having the sheer lack of foresight to then go on and create a whole new format for use with the PSP console. A large measure of success is that shared experience. For example, let’s assume I am a PSP owner, and you’re not. With any new piece of kit there’s that “What’s that?”-factor, and when you’ve got that intangible you need to be able to hold it. The Nintendo DS, for example, has it’s dual touch screen, and ease of use for casual gamers. It has its catalogue of pick up and play software. Where, however, did the PSP find a strong, fallback niche? It was aimed at hobbyists, and its games reflected this. This closed one huge market almost instantly. It tried to be a multimedia device, and UMD was its failure; another big avenue closed. The final nailgun shot to the face was the launch, set at around the $250 mark. Comparatively the Nintendo DS launched at a more palatable price of $150 - a whole $100 less. Picture the scene, Joe Casualgamer is at Gamestop, he’s no fanboy for either one of these companies, and he probably doesn’t even understand the term. He’s faced with the dilemma: PSP or DS? Hmmm, a cheap, casual gaming device with a genuine claim for innovation, OR, a chunky, expensive piece of plastic which does everything, but to about average level. Oh, wait, but it plays movies? Oh… It plays UMD movies? I see… *hastily picks up DS and walks on*.

Now, moving on to that big, black, shiny device we’ve all come to know as the Playstation 3. To call its launch a slow start is to reinvent the very definition of the word slow, a more apt classification would perhaps lie under the banner ‘false start’. The console didn’t so much leave the starting blocks as it did not actually arrive at the race on time. As the last installment of our current console crop it had a hard task ahead of weaning the masses away from the two behemoths which had claimed ground before it. It’s a bit like turning up for open mic night at your local comedy club, putting your name down, and then being told that you’ll be the closing act after Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks (don’t ask me who represents which console, although the thought of Hicks’ raw cynicism in conjunction with Wii’s family-friendly image makes my heart smile). Upon the PS3’s eventual appearance it caused somewhat of an instant faux-pas when it brandished its hefty $600 price tag, justifying this price with its integrated blu-ray playback. While it was delightful that the console was giving us a taste of the future, it wasn’t so much offering us that taste as it was clawing open our jaws and stuffing the taste deep down our throats. At no point was the consumer given the choice to opt out of the Blu-ray backbone and just purchase a stand-alone gaming system. Instead the consumer was told that it would either support this ridiculously expensive technology or not own a Playstation 3. Once again Sony becomes a victim of its own swiss army knife-mentality; rather than create a GAMING console whose focus was GAMING, and offer us this at a fraction of the price (with a Blu-ray expansion as standalone extra), it tried to offer us everything and failed to take into account that money still does not grow on trees, no matter how hard we wish at night. Gamers, understandably, revolted and the PS3 sales were shoddy. This rather dark scenario, coupled with the fact that the system launched with about 3 or 4 decent exclusives saw Sony executives bowing politely and begging for our forgiveness. Within a year of the PS3’s arrival, Sony announced that it would be discontinuing the 60GB SKU and giving us a 40GB model instead. That’s fair enough, Sony, 40 is still a lot… Sorry, what did you say, Sony? Well, I just heard you mutter something under your breath? You’re taking what away? PS2 back-compatibility? Oooohhh, Sony *shakes head in disappointment*… In a rather desperate bid to boost sales the 60GB PS3 would be the world’s last chance at owning a next-gen Sony console that could play current-gen Sony games. The fact that Sony highlighted this attribute as something worth snatching away from gamers highlights the company’s lack of faith in the console’s future. The idea that we would all rush out in masses just so we could play our PS2 games on this allegedly next-gen console which should, by the very definition of evolution, be able to cope with artifacts from its past, was absurd. 2007 capped off a rather dismal year for the market’s apparently technically superior console; XBOX 360 exclusives were the order of the day on critic’s end of year lists, and the Wii continued to sell out in every shady corner of the planet. There was, at the end of the day, a glimmer of hope. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and Ratchet & Clank 3 had given the world a small, meaningful kick in the teeth; 2007 finally had some meaning… So what of 2008? Part 2, and Sony’s fightback, coming soon…

Share This