So I wonder how that whole PlayStation 3 thing is going to pan out tonight and tomorrow. Have you followed any of the hype on this thing? Supposedly the PS3 will be the most powerful video game system ever. Unfortunately, it's also by far the most expensive.
I'm a bit of a game enthusiast, so I've been keeping tabs on all the news stories that have been sneaking out by ones and twos over the last year or so. I'm convinced the decision makers at Sony are hitting the sake a little too hard.
$600?!
Yeah, yeah… it's actually a bargain considering all the beefy hardware inside the console. It's another step down the road to video games that look like "playing a movie." It's neat, cool and interesting, etc., etc. And it is the cheapest way to get a Blu-ray player. (This is really valid point… a PS3 with a Blu-ray player is several hundred dollars cheaper than a stand-alone Blu-ray player. Sony's taking a loss with that component with the hope of advancing their standard.)
But I still think Sony missed the mark with this. The Blu-ray standard is overhyped, and there's no guarantee it will survive its format war with HD-DVD. The rest of the hardware in the PS3 is fantastic, but it will probably be underutilized for years to come. Developers of major releases always want to ensure wide availability, so games will largely be written for the least common denominator. Many developers won't be willing to release completely specialized versions of their games to leverage the PS3's advanced features, so you'll have many PS3 games that play exactly the same as their Xbox 360 or even PS2 counterparts. That particular trend will probably continue for at least a year or possibly longer as developers wait for the PS3 to achieve larger market penetration. And then consider that a lot of the whiz-bang graphics won't be that big a deal without an HDTV, which most people still don't have and which probably won't be a market standard for at least several more years.
The PS3 will be marketed directly against Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has been on the market for some time now, and Nintendo's forthcoming Wii console. Now Nintendo's really got something going. While the 360 and the PS3 are merely evolutionary, the Wii is truly revolutionary. Wii's motion-sensitive controller has the potential to take gaming to completely new levels. I've read quite a few articles about how technology demonstrations quickly turn into a chorus of onlookers chirping "I want one!" Wii looks poised to attract hordes of non-traditional game players with its completely new style of gameplay. And did I mention the Wii will be half the price of a PS3?
The Wii doesn't come anywhere near the hardware standards set by Microsoft or Sony, but Nintendo seems to have remembered something the other two have forgotten. It's all about play, and the Wii looks like a ton of fun. The PS3 is just a prettier version of the same old thing.
Despite its price and its drawbacks, there will still be a PS3 feeding frenzy when the console is released tonight. Prices on eBay are trending above $2000. Last night at my local Wal-Mart store, there were already five twenty-somethings camped out waiting. And waiting outside, in sub-freezing weather. I sincerely hope those boys are making "entrepreneurial" purchases and are looking for that fast eBay profit.
Come what may, I'm really looking forward to the bevy of news stories about fights, thefts, fraud and small-scale riots that happen around the country as people jostle to snap up the limited supply. I'll leave them to it.