Hey Fanboys: PS3 And 360 Success Isn't Mutually Exclusive
See Full ImageLook, all of you can scream at each other through a video screen until your fingers fuse into claws. You can call each other names and smash and bash and act like typical idiots, 'cuz that's what the fanboy does. But the rest of us - the real gamers - who have always indulged in this hobby for the sake of entertainment, know the truth of the matter. In some ways, Sony and Microsoft can attribute some of their success to the opposition, as is almost always the case in business.
You know what eventually happens without competition? Stagnation. The complete and total lack of drive and ambition. Consumers scanning store shelves, desperately searching for something new, or something that can even be considered "innovative." Of course, companies do have internal motivation to continually top themselves with better products, but the absolute best result doesn't come unless a direct competitor pops up and challenges them. So for all you Xbots calling for the PS3's demise, pay close attention: Microsoft will own your asses for all eternity; it's the same thing that would happen if any one company "owned" any particular generation. And for all you Sony fans trashing the 360's lack of power or competing exclusives, you better hope the 360 continues to sell units. Sony is forced to scramble to catch up, yes, but how exactly is that "scrambling" bad for consumers? What, not interested in more hardware price drops?
If you've been at a press conference, you know that both Sony and Microsoft will take jabs at one another. They will make a boast of some kind and in the very next breath, compare it to their closest competition. They do this because, despite what some may believe, many important decisions made at each company are made to combat the decision of the other company. Oh, the PS3 lowered the price? We better lower the price of the 360 soon, then! If there was no direct competition in the PS3, do all you Microsoft fans honestly believe the 360 would cost what it does now? What if Microsoft or Sony simply cornered the market? If you wanted to play video games, you'd just have to pay the cost or not play at all. Right? Nobody wants this, and even though it may appear like "game, set and match" for any company that pulls this off in the future, it'd be a short-lived celebration.
Everything would change. Everything. And not for the better as far as the consumer is concerned. Some may say, "sure, it'll be easier because we won't have to think or make any more tough purchase decisions." You know, if there's only one system and one set of games, what is there to talk or argue about? Well, for one, we could talk about the lack of competition allowing the "winning" company to simply cater to a mainstream audience that will continually reward the same ol' same ol' because they don't know any better...because no other competitor is offering anything different (or better). See how this works? So all you loyalists and silly fanboys can smash each other around all you want, but if you honestly want either the PS3 or 360 to "die," you had best accept the fact that gaming suddenly may hit a roadblock. Just think about it this way-
The video game industry has advanced at an extraordinarily rapid rate over the past couple of decades. ...at one point was only one company completely in charge? Was direct competition ever non-existent? Nope. So logically speaking, couldn't we easily attribute the aforementioned growth to that competition?
1/22/2009 Ben Dutka
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Comments (55 posts)
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 11:36:42 PM
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zerostar39
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 11:54:34 PM
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GuernicaReborn
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 12:04:06 AM
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MetalHead09
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 10:56:52 PM
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since i may be getting back to work very shortly ill look into an xbox but not before i do a LOT of catching up with the current games out there for my ps3.
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fundando
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 10:59:15 PM
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Last edited by fundando on 1/22/2009 11:00:30 PM
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GuernicaReborn
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 11:07:04 PM
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Keeping on topic, everyone loves a good debate. Problem with videogames is that most people just argue, eventually personal insults are thrown, and then it's who's flaming who, this console sucks, blah blah blah... most comments on sites that cater to all three consoles are insecure fanboys or damage control.
That is why it's nice to be able to post comments here, the community is great.
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moose88
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 11:23:07 PM
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If I may paraphrase Hank Scorpio, CEO of Globex?
"Hammocks!? Where would you go to get hammocks?... There's 'Hammock World', 'Hammocks-R-Us', or 'Hammocks, Hammocks, Hammocks!' You'll find them all downtown in the Hammocks District!!"
Even Villians have respect for competition in business.
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Qubex
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 11:37:33 PM
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This includes the easy installation of the Homebrew Channel, unsigned code can be run on the machine; with full access to the GPU hardware, and amazingly, the new Linux distro for the Wii can also run fully accelerated...
With the Wii you have a mini computer that you can do quite a bit with. They also have tools now to run DVD's on it and also you can play Wii games from any region.
Everything happened extremely quickly; really amazing!
Watch sales of the Wii continue to explode now!
Q!
"i aM hOMe"
Last edited by Qubex on 1/22/2009 11:38:10 PM
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ps92117
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 11:59:07 PM
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LegendaryWolfeh
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 11:42:48 PM
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coverton341
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 10:36:38 AM
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ps92117
Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 11:56:23 PM
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dveisalive
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 12:04:17 AM
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ec0li
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 12:15:20 AM
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bonifidehustla
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 12:31:51 AM
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dveisalive
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 12:33:02 AM
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AceTatsujin
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 1:19:26 AM
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1 up, 2 down
Wage SLAVES
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 1:34:06 AM
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I just think we MUST be weary of shoddy products, that is all. The worst thing is when the consumer gets the short end. I hope that 720 is built to last.
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ec0li
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 2:01:51 AM
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Scarecrow
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 2:09:10 AM
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THAT'S ALL WE NEEDED!
The great ps1 VS N64 days will forever be golden!
Microsoft ruined it!
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www
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 4:49:59 AM
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Zorigo
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 4:40:02 AM
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Fenrir
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 5:22:19 AM
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ThePoetRazel
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 5:33:16 AM
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I dislike fanboys and haters too, but it's starting to become rhetoric on this site.
Let's all just agree that fanboys suck and get back to what's important, playing games.
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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 10:26:05 AM
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Douchebaguette
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 6:29:03 AM
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CH1N00K
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 7:49:57 AM
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PS3_Wizard
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 9:30:34 AM
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Jordahn
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 8:28:58 AM
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And by the way, did something specific promted this write up?
Last edited by Jordahn on 1/23/2009 8:30:23 AM
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www
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 9:33:20 AM
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cegmp
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 9:18:33 AM
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www
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 9:57:30 AM
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Did you ever here about a dvd system war? i don't think so.
There was an idea of a one universal platform for the next-gen,that all console manufacturers should join hands develop one architecture and make it available for production by any electronic industry,like we have with blu-rays,dvd's etc,y'know panasonic,alba,sony,toshiba,phillips blu-ray players.
I don't really back this idea,as Square already said it's bad for the industry.
I mean someone would have a Phillips PS3 and another a Panasonic PS3,having hardware problems will be associated with the manufacturer not ps3,how dumb!
Somehow am glad MS are competing Sony,i mean it makes them wake up.TRUTHFULLY SPEAKING,i've not being a die-hard fun of any system,i've had different consoles;from Sega Mega Drive II---Nintendo64----Playstation 2------Playstation 3/Xbox 360. I was becoming a ps fanboy at first since ps2 proved a lot as a gaming console but am all neutral now.
Things like MS making moves with money like letting Square wait to finish 360 version of FFXIII before ps3's release is very bad for the industry.
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Naga
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 10:34:50 AM
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Nynja
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 12:28:53 PM
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PSN would not exist had Microsoft not created XBL. NXE would not exist had Sony or Nintendo not create Wii Avatars or PS Home. Would XBL subscription fee ever drop without the threat of Sony or Nintendo?
Competition is great for us, the consumer.
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Banky A
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 9:04:23 PM
:S
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rogers71
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 3:02:22 PM
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city96
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 3:59:41 PM
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BigBoss4ever
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 5:33:23 PM
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Robochic
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 5:48:31 PM
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ec0li
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 6:46:48 PM
Last edited by ec0li on 1/23/2009 6:48:52 PM
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LightShow
Friday, January 23, 2009 @ 9:15:41 PM
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competition is great, necessary, and good for everyone, especially the consumer. MY beef is with the way studios approach multiplat development.
the big concern is "are the versions identical?" these days. The unintended consequence of that line of thinking is that, as far as multiplat games go, the quality of the PS3 version of the game is no better than the 360 version, although it is certainly able to handle the extra octane.
One can conclude from this that if one only plays multiplat games, i.e. COD or FIFA, there's no reason to own a PS3 over a 360. The graphics wont be better, the physics won't be any more sophisticated, no difference. The PS3 can take on the kind of burdens that the 360 would be crushed by, but nobody is taking advantage of that unless the title is a PS3 exclusive.
Having to cater to the 360 is holding mainstream development back so it can't advance, and it is doubtful popular games would look any different if the PS3 was simply removed from the mix. THAT is why I don't like the 360.
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bamf
Saturday, January 24, 2009 @ 10:30:24 AM
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How many devs are making action/adenture, FPS, 3rd person etc. compared to all the devs making sport games?
Its the developers you keep the competiton going regardless of what platform its on.
Let face it we really only had one console had last gen and we still got great games. All RPG's were competing against each other only on one platform.
Last edited by bamf on 1/24/2009 10:31:54 AM
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LightShow
Saturday, January 24, 2009 @ 9:44:16 PM
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LightShow
Sunday, January 25, 2009 @ 8:20:20 AM
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WorldEndsWithMe
Saturday, January 24, 2009 @ 11:56:19 PM
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BikerSaint
Sunday, January 25, 2009 @ 10:49:38 PM
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Without competition, life would suck.
As I think back from those Atari/Intellivision/Colecovision days, I think we've always had either a 2 or 3 way competition with consoles.
And thank goodness for all that stiff competion because they surely wouldn't have gotten to the forces of power they are today....
(at least one of them, anyway.)
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Fane1024
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 @ 5:40:50 PM
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1) It's primarily multiplicity rather than competition which drives innovation (i.e., having multiple entities working on R&D independently is more important than whether they are in competition)...it's semantics, but meaningful semantics.
2) Monopolies are therefore undoubtedly bad for innovation and should therefore be avoided, but capitalism (despite its pretense of favoring competition) encourages companies to seek monopolies.
3) Microsoft aggressively seeks monopolies (Windows OS, Internet Explorer, etc.), so much so that the Congress has punished them.
Thus, any success by Microsoft actually creates a potential threat to "competition" in the console business. In short, we can't let what has happened to the PC world happen to consoles.
If Sega (for instance) were still in the console business, however, I would totally agree with Ben; likewise if Apple takes the plunge.
Last edited by Fane1024 on 1/27/2009 5:43:01 PM
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Buckeyestar
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Thursday, January 22, 2009 @ 10:37:18 PM