The Video Game Revue

PS3 Launch Delay

This is not meant to be a news post about the breaking story that the launch of the PS3 console has been significantly delayed. Rather, I intend to rant a little about whether or not this is truly a bad thing.

The story that I read about the matter over on 1up.com had a pretty obvious slant:

Today, Sony officially conceded defeat to the recent flurry of rumors and speculation [...]

As the news is coming out of Japan, that creates a worrisome scenario for America and Europe. There were already rumblings Sony wouldn't be able to launch in all territories before the end of the year, but missing out on the Christmas season over here could prove a deadly blow to Sony's next-generation plans.

Somewhere in Microsoft's offices, Bill Gates just opened a bottle of champagne. [...]

That one article aside, I find that people have been worked up into quite the frenzy over this whole affair. There is talk about broken promises and whatnot circulating. People are talking about the XBox 360's growing market share and how this is such a massive setback for Sony.

As far as I see it, this is all fallout from a mistake that Sony made back at E3 last year: they let the pressure of the upcoming console war bait them into promising too much. Sony said that the PS3 would kick the crap out of the XBox 360 in terms of power, that it would be affordable(?), and that it would be out this spring. Anyone taking a hard, long look at the situation back then had to realise that at least one, if not two of these promises would turn out to be false. Personally, I'm relieved that the bit about the release date was one of the things that fell through, because it's the promise that matters the least to me.

Microsoft made an even bigger blunder with the XBox 360 than Sony is making with the PS3. They've released an expensive, under-powered console with no good launch titles and nothing stellar on the horizon even a few months later. I'm far more interested in upcoming releases like Final Fantasy XII and Zelda: Twilight Princess than anything that the XBox 360 has under way, and that is a damning, damning thing for the current leader of the pack hardware-wise.

Saying that Sony is doomed because Microsoft has such a massive head-start at this point is like saying that the Super Nintendo was doomed back in 1992 because the Sega Genesis (1989) had such a massive head-start. The parallel is better than you may first realise because a) the XBox 360's appeal is primarily mainstream, and b) the PS3 is likely going to trounce the XBox 360's hardware. Similarly, the Sega Genesis had a lot of early sports games and other mainstream games, whereas the Super Nintendo launched with hardcore "gamer's games" like Super Mario World, F-Zero, and Pilotwings, and even though the SNES was launching against the Sega Genesis's firmly installed userbase, everyone could plainly see that the SNES graphics were flat-out better.

Apparently, Sony is claiming that they're having issues with their Blu-Ray copy protection scheme and that's why the console has been delayed. I don't really buy that; there's probably some truth to it, but I bet that the bigger picture is simply that Sony needs more time for the kind of hardware power that they want to deliver to become practical and affordable for the consumer electronics market. I desparately hope that even if the price-point is as high as the full XBox 360 (and we all know deep down that it will be), and the release date is many months off yet, at least all of the promises about the truely next-gen hardware will turn out to be legit, because in my mind that's all that Sony really needs to succeed.

Actually, strike that last bit. All that the PS3--or any other console--needs to succeed are games that appeal to real gamers. Kameo, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Elder Scrolls IV are all nice games to have, but what any console really needs are games to die for, like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and other such things that a real gamer can scarcely live without. All this talk about console hardware and console release dates doesn't get my blood pumping. It takes games to make that happen. I don't care if the PS3 gets pushed back to 2008 as long as when it finally arrives it brings some epic titles with it.

posted by Parappa @ 11:10 AM