The highly anticipated system update for the Xbox 360 is finally here and available for download so please be sure to go update your system and check out the NXE. Also, leaving comments here with your honest opinions on this New Xbox Experience are greatly appreciated.
We all hear this question around the web and we can not seem to avoid it no matter how hard we try. There are always fanboys out there saying anything possible to back their system up and prove why their console will win and why it is the best. I am going to give you guys a very in-depth view on who I think will win this console generation and why. What will each company have to do to convince customers to buy their console over the other? This is the true non-fanboyish view on who will win this console generation.
The console war officially started on November 17, 2006 when the Sony PlayStation 3 was finally released after much hype and anticipation. The Xbox 360 was released the previous year and it was now time for these consoles to go up against each other. The shocking price of $499/$599 for the PlayStation 3 put the console in a hard position to outsell its competitor as it’s price was double that of the 360 but PS3s still sold out the first month. A little after a month of launch, there was PS3s on shelves in many stores and the sales were greating depleting. Yet, when the 360 launched on November 22, 2005 it was no where to be found. This was most likely due to the fact that the PS3 had an unaffordable price which caused it to have a rough launch.
The PS3 then began to take a lot of hits and the 360 fanboys attacked it massively. It was looking to be a disappointing console generation for Sony who previously won the past two generations with the PS1 and PS2. After a few months of this rough start the PS3 began to get AAA titles and had a couple critical firmware updates that helped the PS3 boost its sales but shortly after they went back down again. Sony began to notice these low sales numbers and decided to come out with a new PS3 bundle at a price of $499. This included a 80gb console (60gb more than the original $499 PS3) and one of their hot titles, Motorstorm. Sales spiked with the release of this bundle for many weeks and more PS3s began to sell but was still losing to the 360 week after week. Eventually Sony finally dropped the price once more to a more affordable price of $399. This made it only $20 more than the Xbox 360 Elite at the time but there were still many other versions of the 360 much cheaper.
Once people started to recognize this price drop, the sales were reaching numbers the PS3 had never seen before. This lead to the PS3 outselling the 360 the last part of 2007 and most of 2008. Microsoft saw this and then dropped the price of their Xbox 360 Arcade System to $199 and many great RPGs began to hit the 360 console like Infinite Undiscovery which cause the 360 to sell out in Japan which it had never done before. Since then the 360 has outsold the PS3 week after week by a very small margin. This had led to the holiday season which is where we are today.
It is pretty obvious that the 360 is going to win this holiday season even with all the great PS3 games recently released. The 360 is half the price and with great recent releases of Fable II and Gears of 2, it is pretty obvious. With the prices that these consoles are placed at right now the 360 is looking to win this console generation but will Sony keep the price at $399 and most likely lose this console generation? Most likely not.
If Sony keeps the PS3 at the price of $399 through the middle of 2009 I think it will be very hard for the PS3 to win this generation even with all of the great titles coming due to the poor economy and people unable to spend $399 on a video game console. But what if Sony were to drop the price to $299 in the beginning of 2009? This would change the PS3’s price to a mass market price making it more affordable to millions of people. With the price at $299 and the release of amazing titles like Killzone 2, God of War 3, and White Knight Chronicles, there would be no competition between the consoles. PlayStation Home will also be available and even though its not too impressive right now, by about March 2009 I expect for the service to be huge and be a great addition to the PS3. But without this price drop, it will be very hard for the PS3 to come back and beat the 360 this generation.
So who will win this console generation? It all depends on what Sony decides to do with the price of the PS3 and their marketing strategy with both the console and its games.
This week we talk about the amazing games that have came out or are coming out in the next few days. We also give our thoughts on LittleBigPlanet and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and what game we truly think deserves Game of The Year.
I have received word that the PlayStation Home Open Beta will launch later this October for testing and then the final release will come out on November 19th. The crazy thing about this is that the New Xbox Experience (NXE) is also launching that day as well. This is definately a day to look forward too as Home expands to all PS3 users but also get to see the two system’s updates come up against each other.
Microsoft announced Halo Recon yesterday and has released the trailer too. Be sure to watch it and what really surprised me is you do not play with the Spartan but you can see the rest right here.
This week we talk about the long awaited Alan Wake and what the PS3 has in store for us this holiday plus MUCH MUCH MORE!!!
This week we talk about the new 360 update coming out this fall along with more of the latest news for the 360. We also go into PS3 news and talk about some recent betas. Plus MUCH MUCH MORE.
The NXE (New Xbox Experience) Update that will be hitting the Xbox 360 this fall now has an interactive version online. To check this out click HERE. And for all of you guys who are unaware, Xbox Live will be down for 24 hours beginning September 24th at 12:01 a.m. to prepare for the service update.
