Written by John Scalzo  on January 12, 2009

Make the Case Editorial:

Tweet

Comments

Development Support Slipping Away
It doesn't look like things will get any better in 2009 as development support for the PS3 is drying up. And there is no higher profile recent release to prove that than Valve's Left 4 Dead. Gabe Newell, Valve's head honcho, has routinely blasted the PS3 and has vowed never to develop for it. That means that one of the biggest games of the fall will never appear on the PS3.

And it's not just Valve. EA dropped support for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and never even considered bringing Command & Conquer 3 to the system [Ed. note: EA reannounced the PS3 version of Red Alert 3 a day after this editorial was published]. THQ just cancelled the PS3 version of Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon. Tales of Vesperia was published by Namco Bandai only on the Xbox 360 because, according to them, the PS3 development platform was not ready when development on the game began. Going back further, Sierra released FEAR Files and Namco Bandai released Beautiful Katamari only for the Xbox 360. I could go on, but you get the idea.



Secondly, whether we like to admit it or not, video gaming is just as much (if not more so) a pastime for children. And the PlayStation 3 has few games for kids. Look at the release lists for the last year and pay special attention to the children's titles. They're released for the PS2, Wii and Xbox 360. Few are released for the PS3 and this kind of narrow appeal only hurts Sony's system further. Without a growing install base, the developers of the more adult material will continue to defect.

And speaking of defections, this section also requires a mention of Final Fantasy XIII and Tekken 6. Yes, both are still coming to the PS3. But they are also coming to the Xbox 360. The last two major third party exclusives are exclusive no more and gamers holding out for these games have little reason to continue waiting for a PS3. And not only did they go multiplatform, but they were also delayed to late 2009. Well past the expiration date of "The Year of the PS3."

Other Problems...
A confluence of other factors has also come to pass recently that continues to pound away at the PS3's self worth. First, the system is receiving no support from Sony's handheld, the PSP. The PSP has been utterly routed by the DS and only saw the release of six games in the month of November. And only one was a game unique to the system. The rest were quick and dirty PS2 or PS3 ports. For comparison's sake, the DS never had a week in November where fewer than six titles were released.

In November, the Xbox 360 also passed the worldwide sales numbers of the original Xbox. While this isn't a major accomplishment (the original Xbox was outsold by the PS2 at a rate of six to one), it has allowed Microsoft to reach one of their goals for the Xbox 360: take market share away from the PlayStation brand.

Finally, GameStop may have put the final exclamation point on the non-Year of the PS3. With their end-of-the-year announcement of their internal sales numbers for the holiday season, not a single PS3 exclusive was cited as a top seller. And the PS3 was a notable exclusion when GameStop called out the stellar sales of the Wii and Xbox 360.

What Can Sony Do?
Can the PS3 be saved? I would say the answer is no. The Xbox 360 and the Wii have carved up this generation and Sony is left scraping up the scraps (much like Nintendo and Microsoft did last generation). They could always declare 2009 the "Year of the PS3", but there comes a time when a system has to stop being sold on potential and instead be sold on the realization of that potential.

The PS3 is most assuredly done and all they can do now is plan for the PlayStation 4. Hopefully they learn their lesson from this generation and do not make the same mistakes again. Healthy competition pushes everyone to new heights in the game industry and I'd love to see Sony return to the innovative and smart Sony we saw that nurtured the PS2 to its lofty peak as one of the greatest game consoles of all time.

UPDATE: Yet more proof has emerged with this Reuters report that Sony will post a $1.1 billion for the year when they release their quarterly financial numbers. This will be the first loss Sony has posted since they launched the original PlayStation in 1995.

There are many people in the gaming community that have taken offense to this editorial. I've explained my reasons for writing about the PS3's decline in another editorial titled 'Further Proof the PS3 is Done' Explained