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Chicken or the Egg: PS3
Which came first?
by SoulScreme
I'm a PS3 owner and I've notice how many media outlets and gaming blogs almost always cover the PS3 in a negative light. It is rare to see anything positive about the console. This often means stories just not making it into the media. For instance, PS3 specific reviews of Assassin's Creed are hard to come by and coverage of Uncharted is sparse.
So the question is, why? Many blogs and media outlets blame it on the fact that the PS3 doesn't have as many users as the 360 or Wii and this is true. However, why is that? Is it really due to a lack of games? Or is it possibly due to a lack of coverage of its games. It's an interesting catch 22. PS3 doesn't sell well, people cover it negatively if at all, this furthers the console's negative image, people continue to not buy it. It's a vicious cycle and the question really is where it begins.
The lack of coverage for Uncharted is simply strang. IGN were recently the first to review the game and called it "the most fun I've had in a videogame this year." Pretty strong words from a pretty reliable source. However, if I go to Kotaku, the only articles about the PS3 are a slightly positive piece on the DualShock 3, a negative piece on the 40GB unit, and an interview with the head of Sony Korea. Compare this to the 4 super positive 360 articles. Joystiq is even worse today with a negative DualShock 3 article and a neutral piece on Haze. Compare that to 5 360 articles, only one of which is negative.
I think the problem is that many of the media people have failed to keep their bias in check and let their fanboyism dictate how they write. I will admit that I love the PS3 now, I was disappointed with it for a long while. However, the media seems to not want to acknowledge Sony's great strides in doing better. While the DualShock 3 may be a bit late, they did listen to the consumer base about that. Uncharted is looking to be a great game, better than Assassin's Creed. Haze is looking to bring the PS3 more into the fold for shooters. Cross-platform games are finally starting to perform equally if not better than the 360 versions. I can't tell you how happy I am to know that GH3, COD4, Assassin's Creed, etc. run the same on my PS3. I remember Madden 08 and Oblivion running like utter crap on my PS3.
I know that many people hate on the PS3, but the media's job is to be even handed. I partially wanted to write this because Sean seemed to think that I thought that GamerVision is biased. And I wanted to describe what I see as bias. I see lack of coverage as bias as well. The last official article about the PS3 is 5 days old. But I don't blame Gamervision, I blame the entire industry. Only PS3 specific sites or sites with specific PS3 channels (IGN, 1UP) have been immune to this. It's disappointing as a PS3 fan to know that great things are happening and going untold to the masses. If only the PS3 could sell more units then maybe this would change. Or maybe it's the natural inclination of people to hate the large corporation who has been successful in the past. Or maybe the PS3 sucks donkey dong and I am a jaded fanboy.
Comments
I am only biased because I am tired of Sony acting like they are the be all end all of everything. Their PS2 success went to their head and they are being arrogant. This issue is like coverage of politics. Sometimes it seems biased because the facts lean one way, sometimes not. I am hard on the PS3 but will give it a chance once more games come out for it. As of now, if developers don't give PS3 the time of the day or optimize their games for it, why should we care?
Good article, btw.
Coop, totally agree, I was pissed at the devs for a while. And I get that to many people it looked like the PS3 was incapable of handling those games. Hopefuly Assassin's Creed and COD4 will change that perception. Also, the exclusives are rocking my socks right now. Heavenly Sword was awesome but short, Ratchet and Clank was truly great, and now Uncharted is looking to kick ass and take names. Haze... I am not a big FPS guy, so I don't really care about it. I'll stick to Warhawk, which ended up being way more fun than I'd thought it would be.
I can say that, having worked in a retail environment for the PS3 launch and the ten months following its release, the thing that put people off about the system far and above anything else has been the lack of games. Also, two discontinued models and two price drops in less than a year does not do much to instill confidence in buyers or the media.
I agree with Coop that Sony has gotten extremely arrogant, which is even more annoying when you think about all of the mistakes they've made this generation. Instead of first fixing the issues with their current system, Sony instead decided to slam other companies and rehash dated facts about how awesome the PS1 and 2 were. That's not what I want to hear when decided whether or not to drop a month's rent on a video game console.
That being said, I do think the PS3 has a lot of potential. I was going to wait until next year when more games were released to get one, but decided to pick up a 60 gig instead before they became impossible to find. It is a really good system and I'm sure that in the future, I will be really glad to have it, but all of the negativity surrounding Sony makes me wary about that money I spent sometimes.
wuh, what? sony did this to themselves. sony has been known to be a hype machine with promises too good to be true and perhaps the media outlets are finally catching on and waiting for these promises to either fall through or gain substance before wasting their time on it.
Sony is a behemoth of a company, and they can be extremely arrogant. However, they have gone through some staff changes, and I think things have been looking up. I agree that there isnt much to play on the PS3 as of yet, but in the next few months, we have some stellar titles coming out. And although its true that some of them are cross platform releases, a few are exclusive that I really care about. The launch of the PS3 was actually stronger than the launch of the PS1/2. There wasnt a single decent game for the PS2 for over a year anyway.
Sarah, I am wary at times too. But Warhawk and Ratchet and Clank let me know it's all okay. Honestly, third party exclusives are nice and all, but the gaming world is going cross platform by and large. For my money, Sony's first party games tend to be of the same caliber we've come to know and love from Nintendo. Unlike Nintendo, Sony courts third parties well. Microsoft courts third parties well, but the first party game are, well, pretty much PGR and Halo. And while PGR is a good game, it's in a niche genre. Really, technical sim-lite racers don't reach quite the audience that other types of games do. Sony has to learn to embrace it's place as the middle ground.
I really love the PS3. It's got a lot going on, and will have even more going on over the next year. But it really comes down to this for me:
The PS3 is where I will be getting all my single player games (Ratchet, Uncharted, Assassin, etc.). 360 still gets the cash for the multiplayer, not even because I think the game will be better on that system per se, but everyone else has the 360, and if I want to play with them, I have to do it on the same system.