G-pinions

We are less than ten hours away from the American launch of the PlayStation 3. Just ten more hours until the successor to the greatest system of all time finally hits our Democratic shores. Are you excited? Can you feel the collective nervous energy of uber-geeks from coast to coast slowly building? Have you seen the lines forming outside your local Best Buy yet? It's coming. The PlayStation 3 is just a few hours away. And you know what? I couldn't care less.

Here is the sad truth about Sony - they don't have a single killer franchise. Nintendo has their nostalgic collection of genre creators we've all been playing for the past twenty years. Mario and Zelda carry a weight that other games would never even attempt to shoulder. And Microsoft has the grand daddy of them all. Is there a bigger franchise in the world today than Halo? Just by mouthing those beautiful two syllables, Bungie can distract millions of gamers from the upcoming console launches. What does Sony have to counter Zelda and Halo? Absolutely nothing. Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy are huge, but those appear on every system. Do you realize that three Final Fantasy titles have been released in the past month? It's hard to make people drool when a new entry in the series is coming out every other week. And Metal Gear Solid, which always pushes the PlayStation further than people thought possible, has been known to whore itself from time to time. The first two entries in the reestablished series made their way to competing systems. The most recent game, Snake Eater, was remade for the PS2 just a year after it first came out. These are great games, but they are never there at launch. More importantly, people who are allergic to football will tune into Monday Night Football on December 4th to see that Halo 3 commercial. Do you think Metal Gear Solid 4 will have that kind of pull?

Sony has been the king for the last two console generations because they have released about a million games in the last decade. Rarely is the PlayStation home to the unquestioned best game of the year. But it does have ten times as many games out for it. It does have a lot of really good titles. Sony has been able to win the last two generations by supplying good games in every genre. System launches never have a surplus of games available. And that is why PlaySation launches are always so lame. The PS3 is coming with only four original titles. Resistance looks like great fun, but everything else will be completely forgettable. Genji is an average action game. Untold Legends is a multiplayer version of Ninety Nine Nights. There's an exclusive NBA game coming out that no one in his right mind would buy a system to play. And then there's the pseudo-exclusive, Ridge Racer 7, which is a remade version of last year's X360 launch title, Ridge Racer 6. That's the launch. Everything else can be found on the X360. Why are people lining up to buy this system again?

I really believe that Sony should have delayed the system until next March in America. They are simply not ready to release a system this year. They are launching the system with one really good game in Resistance, and a bunch of forgettable games that people will immediately regret plopping down $60 to play. This is not a good way to please your hardcore fans. I wish they had held it back a few more months. By all accounts, Resistance is fun. But what if Insomniac had six more months to tinker with it? It could have been a classic. Sony has never had a premier First Person Shooter on their system. With a little more time, Resistance may have been able to compete with Halo. Now it pales in comparison to Gears of War. If Sony just held back the system launch a few months, they could have released an online version of Motorstorm as well. It's hard to be excited by a racing game, but a great FPS and a great looking racing game would go a long way to persuading casual gamers that the PS3 is the next generation system to own. With more time in development, Genji could have filled an important need until Devil May Cry 4 comes out. They could have gotten Forgotten Realms out here for a system that dearly needs an in-depth adventure game. Most importantly, they could have had Oblivion at launch. Guess what else Sony could have developed between now and next March? Enough systems to meet demand. Not only could they have provided top-notch software, they could have had enough systems for people to experience these games.

Sony is trying to stake a claim in the next generation market this year. They feel that it is important to remind gamers that Sony is still around. But I don't see the need to rush. Microsoft claimed they would have ten millions systems in the homes of gamers before the PS3 saw the light of day. They are four million behind that projection. Sony is risking their reputation to sell four hundred thousand consoles this year. Doesn't seem like a worthwhile risk to me.

While the Xbox 360 has not been flying off store shelves, it has been doing quite well. And the Wii could very well dominate if it can capture the heart of casual gamers. Sony has to go head to head with two competitors who are offering products light years beyond Sony's own. People will not be able to find a PS3 this year. People who are forced to leave the store empty-handed will probably try to play the PS3 some other way. Maybe they will play a kiosk. If they are really lucky, they will know someone who was fortunate enough to get a PS3 at launch. They will play these average games and think Sony has lost it. There are great games on the X360 already. And the Wii has Zelda. What is going to keep these people from buying another system? The X360 and Wii will be more plentiful than the PS3 for quite awhile. Their games are much better. Sony shot themselves in the foot by letting their incomplete games speak for their $600 system.

Want to hear something really scary? When Sony finally has enough quality software and systems out there, Microsoft will counter with Halo 3. I hope the PlayStation 3 has the seemingly limitless amount of quality games the PS2 had, but this looks like an uphill battle for Sony.