@BrianK

A slimline PS3 will probably have a similar effect in Japan as the new PSP models had, sustained gains.

FFXIII has been the most anticipated game for a year. Only disastrous reviews could hurt its effect on PS3 sales, but I think that's not very likely.

Latest chart (Famitsu):

1. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
2. Dragon Quest IX (NDS)
3. Resident evil 5 (PS3)
4. Dragon Quest VI (NDS)
5. Monster Hunter 3 (Wii)
6. Chrono Trigger (NDS)
7. The last Remnant (PS3)
8. Final Fantasy XIII Versus (PS3)
9. Animal Crossing: Let´s go to the City (Wii)
10. Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP)
11. Star Ocean: The last Hope (Xbox 360)
12. Yakuza 3 (PS3)
13. Professor Layton 3 (NDS)
14. The last Remnant (Xbox 360)
15. White Knight Chronicles (PS3)

US October NPD

- Wii: 803K 116K (16.89%)
- DS: 491K 45.8K (-8.53%)
- Xbox 360: 371K 23.8K (6.85%)
- PSP: 193K 45.1K (-18.94%)
- PS3: 190K 42.4K (-18.24%)
- PS2: 136K 37.5K (-21.61%)

Full software sales after the break.

1. Fable II - Xbox 360 – 790K
2. Wii Fit w/ balance board - Wii – 487K
3. Fallout 3 - Xbox 360 – 375K
4. Mario Kart w/ wheel - Wii – 290K
5. Wii Play w/ remote - Wii – 282K
6. Saints Row 2 - Xbox 360 – 270K
7. SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation - PS3 – 231K
8. LittleBigPlanet - PS3 – 215K
9. NBA 2K9 - Xbox 360 – 202K
10. Dead Space - Xbox 360 – 193K

As I predicted ~1.5 years ago...Little Big Planet launches with a wimper.
That pretty much just leave FF13 and [lol]HOME[/lol]> to save the PS3. Surely the exclusive multi-platform title Final Fanstasy 13 will save the console. HOME? Read my text - "users are lazy, too lazy to like 'user-generated content' enough to buy a game where that's the key feature." Physics? Women don't care about physics. Oh and the PS3 is no longer the world's cheapest Blu-Ray player...

I hear their is a new IP coming for the PS3, it's a 3d fps with physics and user-generated content in 1080p that features millions online called: DOOMED!


Meanwhile major 3rd party Wii titles such as CoD5 and 007 are now pushing the Wii's graphics... Has anyone seen Capcom's Monster Hunter 3 for the Wii? OMG!

Last edited by Lou on 14-Nov-2008 at 12:03 PM.

@Lou
Quote:

Surely the exclusive multi-platform title Final Fanstasy 13 will save the console.

The extension of FF franchise to another platform is a loss to Sony. PS3 will undoubtably get a spike in Japan for FFX3. However in Europe and the USA where both ship at the same time this spike ratio is going to be much less.

Quote:

HOME? Read my text

ArtsTechnica has a HOME review. I posed the link in a different thread. The short is that it is still buggy and has too many ads. IMO one of the reasons users use entertainment is not to be spoonfed more advertising.

Quote:

Oh and the PS3 is no longer the world's cheapest Blu-Ray player

Amazon had a Blu-Ray for $200 and $100 of free movies, or a $100 player. I remember how BR fans ripped the HD DVD for having to give away so much free content. They also said this was a sign that HD DVD isn't what consumers want. Now Blu-Ray faces the same free content give away and there's no other HD media competition in the marketplace. Personally I'm building a new HTPC. Right now it'll have a DVD drive but in a year I expect the Blu pricing to come down and me to be replacing the DVD drive with a Blu-Ray. If the Samsung rumor is true then they have the market right. Samsung is rumored to be making a Blu player that can also be streamed to. I think Blu won the bottle against HD but may well lose the war and the winner will be streaming media.

One thing that bombed for Nintendo was WiiMusic...but did anyone think that would take off?

Now back to my World of Warcraft...afterall, I just got the Wrath of the Lich King expansion...

Japan last week:
DSi - 104,897
PSP - 43,726
Wii - 24,726
PlayStation 3 - 18,354
Xbox 360 - 12,759
DS Lite - 8,381
PS2 - 5,743

Looks like you were right about the blip, Brian. Next week the 360 should outsell the PS3 again.

Last edited by Lou on 14-Nov-2008 at 05:26 PM.

@Lou

Microsoft projected to win over PS3 this Christmas in USA by 2:1 margin and may actually rival the Wii sales.

Last edited by BrianK on 14-Nov-2008 at 11:43 PM.

There are some new Vids on GameTrailers of Killzone 2 beta!

Vid 1 - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42799.html
Vid 2 - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42801.html

This game looks so good, and they still have another 2/3 months to finish ironing out the bugs and improving the graphics.

I cant wait till Feb 09.

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@BrianK

So now that the new and (very much?) improved GUI has been released for 360..
How is it?

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@Samwel
Quote:

So now that the new and (very much?) improved GUI has been released for 360.. How is it?

NXE is here...

Download Summary: Under 1 minute to download the loader. It then changes to a grey/black screen and downloads the big update. As most Microsoft loaders it can't calculate time. It cycled between 18 and 9 minutes. Finally when it got to 5 minutes it seemed fairly accurate. (Why can't Microsoft calculate download time evar? The Amiga seems good at it.) The download took me about 11 minutes. After the download it restarts your 360 into the new interface. (Side note: I've seen longer downloads for upgrades on my PS3 and much less significant changes. Sony WTF?!) Anyway...

Restart: The new intro is much more special effecty and cool. Then it puts you into the select an Avatar screen. (There might be a way to skip I didn't want to so.) A bit annoying these cartoonish people running around and hovering from the alien beam from above. But whatever. I created a vampire avatar. It wasn't difficult and a bit fun.

Menuing: On the top right corner there's a major menu selection screen. You go up and down here to change. The main page is sheets w/ game logos and graphics. That works pretty well. Not sure why we created this Avatar and it doesn't really do anything. You can see your friends's Avatar's and when they are not on they are sleeping. None of my friends were on so I can't tell you what they do when awake.

Overall: I think it's a nice upgrade. This method appears to make better use of the screen by allowing a display of more information which you're likely to be interested in. So yes improved in that sense over the 360's original interface. It's VMC like so if one has used that it's familar. Avatars? So far mostly useless.

PS3 will bring HOME sometime after it's year long never ending beta. So, I hope to see Sony improving it's interface issues later on. Sorry not really a Wii user so I'll let someone else compare that.

@BrianK

Sounds like a cute update
What about features? Not counting eye-candy or more and easier to access
information..

Btw PS3 downloads and flashes the whole flash file every time. It supports
alot more features (a complete browser among other things) so it really should
take quite a while longer to download and flash.. Not that it matters though.. It's
the actual use afterwards that does, no?

Read a review that said the new NXE could irritate hardcore users but may instead
draw casual users to 360. Well that could be true if MS uses these new avatars
in their PR and people fall for the cuteness.
What do you think?

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@BrianK

HOME 1.00 was just released for internal beta. So I guess if no major bugs are
reported in the following weeks it probably will be released before christmas.

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@Samwel

Quote:

What about features? Not counting eye-candy or more and easier to access information..

I guess one could argue if a major UI change is a feature or eye-candy. I notice that PrimeTime is missing. This was a sort of top 5 games, tv shows, movies, and game patch area. Not a huge loss but I can see where people might miss it. Photo Party is new. I've played with it a bit and it looks like a nice area to show off your pictures to othes in a social aspect. New things add themselves in as 'blades'. Not sure what it's called in NXE. Anyway Net-Flix, for example, now slots in and feels like part of the whole interface / experience. Before that seemed disjointed. I'd guess that's a feature add is the ability for new items to fit into the whole interface making it a more fluid experience.

Not sure what all was expected this is an item I've been trying to not read about. I wanted to form my own impressions. I can this this as a major interface change and likely spring update will add more features. I believe Intel calls that sort of approach tick-tock.

As for the PS3 taking longer found it interesting that a major interface change for 360 took shorter than a minor change on the PS3.

Will it iterate hardcore users? Perhaps they don't like the cutesiness. But, I'd argue the hardcore users already have their systems and the market now needs to bette reach into the casual users. A reason the Wii is winning, IMO.

If you're a hardcore user you are gaming. The gaming experience hasn't changed. I believe you can still set the system to boot directly into a game on power up. Do that and you can game hardcore and not see the interface much. Afterall the Atari 2600 - PS2 really didn't have these new fangled interface thingies.

There are many reports of NXE bricking 360s again,

"Within 24 hours of NXE going live, internet forums were abuzz with Xboxers reporting connection freezes, lock-ups and a number of other errors.

Worst of all, there are even some reports that the infamous red ring of death is back, with some saying it's limited to modded consoles, while others claiming untampered units are being affected too. "

At a 33% failure rate per year for launch consoles (now in its 4th year), this may well kill the last few remaining lucky ones.

Last edited by MikeB on 21-Nov-2008 at 05:47 PM.

My Xbox 360 updated just great in a matter of minutes. New interface looking mighty impressive.

@MikeB

So far here no one's console has been bricked from NXE.
Engadget poll ~1 % RRoD fixed free and ~5% RRoD fixed for $100. Of course this is a poll so people muck with it. As the console has a 3 year warranty the vast majority should be fixed at no charge.

Modded consoles impacted? If they are stupid enough to connect to Xbox Live then they deserve it!

'Microsoft has taken action against a small percentage of Xbox 360 consoles that have been illegally modified in order to play pirated games. You should know that modifying your Xbox 360 console is also a violation of the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void your warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE. The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive, both from manufacturers and the local companies that support them. We will continue to employ and bolster anti-piracy security measures to counter piracy in the gaming industry and improve security in the Xbox LIVE community' -- Xbox Team.

It appear NXE will uninstall itself from a modded console. If the user is powering off the console to prevent this they are likely to brick the console as the bios updates. The answer is simple. Don't connected modded consoles to Xbox Live.

@MikeB

Quote:

There are many reports of NXE bricking 360s again

Various surveys seem to indicate no statistical deviation from the breakage rate the few months before NXE. It seems 360s are still bricking, which everyone knows. It is very minimal to very unlikely that NXE caused any more brickage than the natural events for the console.

Black Friday Shoppers.

PS3 for $400 w/ Rachet&Clank and a 007 Blue Ray @ Best Buy seems to be the best deal this Black Friday. You can augment this with a Sony VISA card which gives you $150 towards the purchase of a PS3.

360 -- Pro for $300 and a free $50 gift card at Target. $200 Arcade w/ extra controller and 20GB refurb harddrive at Circuit City

Wii -- $425 Bundle w/ 3 extra numchucks and 2 games at Sams Club.

Semi Related
360 has now surpassed Xbox sales in a shorter timeframe. Microsoft expected that point to be 2 weeks from now so this Christmas the 360 appears to be doing better than expected. Wii, is of course selling faster than the Gamecube w/ free crack. PS3 has sold around 18M and the PS2 around 25M in the same # of weeks.

@Samwel

Quote:

Samwel wrote: @BrianK HOME 1.00 was just released for internal beta. So I guess if no major bugs are reported in the following weeks it probably will be released before christmas.

Home is unexciting so far. We'll see. ironically, there's also no clearly defined means to provide feedback to Sony :-/

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@wegster

Quote:

wegster wrote: @Samwel Quote: Samwel wrote: @BrianK HOME 1.00 was just released for internal beta. So I guess if no major bugs are reported in the following weeks it probably will be released before christmas. Home is unexciting so far. We'll see. ironically, there's also no clearly defined means to provide feedback to Sony :-/

Yeah, I read reviews of HOME from TGS and it was like "ok I'm here, now what?" It's mostly just a way to deliver ads...is the impression I got...

Regarding Resistance 2,

It's easily the best 3D shooter of this sort I have played so far. All shooter loving PS3 owners, you got to have this game! You will experience huge scale battles like you have probably never experienced before in a shooter game!

People can nitpick over minor imperfections or graphics details (which are still excellent for this game overall), not polished up to the level compared like a few top large budget shooters moving around in relatively small linear areas, but what would you expect? This game is in an entirely different league in terms of scale and on-screen activity. But most importantly extremely fun to play!

IGN Insider on Gears 2 vs Resistance 2, they dare to say something probably controversial for US gamers:

"If you can only afford to exterminate one alien race this year, choose Resistance 2"

Last edited by MikeB on 30-Nov-2008 at 01:56 PM.

@MikeB

Quote:

MikeB wrote: There are many reports of NXE bricking 360s again, "Within 24 hours of NXE going live, internet forums were abuzz with Xboxers reporting connection freezes, lock-ups and a number of other errors. Worst of all, there are even some reports that the infamous red ring of death is back, with some saying it's limited to modded consoles, while others claiming untampered units are being affected too. " At a 33% failure rate per year for launch consoles (now in its 4th year), this may well kill the last few remaining lucky ones.

These consoles were probably first generation and would most likely have failed anyways. The same story repeats with every major game release as well..