The system that started it all for Sony...

Sometimes it's hard to believe how the once and mighty have fallen..how a powerful system slayer of the Playstation brand...could garnish so much criticism...Originally released in 1994 the PSX (PLAYSTATION) took the world by storm.  It offered an alternative to the cartridge based game format and showed the world SONY as a leader of new technologies.  (Sounds familiar...blu-ray) The idea of having a game console that could play music cd's as well seems trivial by today's standards...but it was new in 1994.  I won't do a history on Sony that has already been done so well here.

 

 

Sega Genesis 

 

Sega Saturn

A list of consoles slaughtered by the original Playstation system

Gamers know a great deal about the original Playstation.  When it originally released its competitors were SNES and the Sega Genesis.  It crushed those two with the future of cd-rom based technology.  Then Nintendo and Sega released their next systems.  The Sega Saturn stumbled, and the Nintendo 64 seemed to come a little too late.  Sure the N64 ad some classics..but EVERYONE owned a Playstation.  With games like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, and of course Final Fantasy VII...Sony was distancing itself from any real competition.  When it was all said and done Sony supported the Playstation 1 for over 10 years.  It was re-released as a PS1 in 2000 and the PlayStation has gone on to sell over 100 million systems worldwide. The PlayStation's production was discontinued on March 23, 2006.  2006!!! Come on...that is ridiculous...in a good way!

 

The Original PS2...who still has this one?

 

Now that is what I'm talking about! 

As good and successful as the Playstation 1 was the PS2 was even better.  Like it's younger console brethren the PS2 included technology as key selling point.  Including dvd playback right out the box was amazing.  It was a huge system at first but like the original Playstation...the PS2 was released again in a slimmer package. 

Booyyyaaa!!!

Think about this...Sony has had this success in gaming with no real first party icon support.  Sega had Sonic...Nintendo had Mario Sony had...a lot of help from 3rd party support...from Crash Bandicoot to Solid Snake..to Lara Croft...to Chris Redfield...to the GTA series...to well you get the point! Even to this day..Solid Snake Appears in the Best PS3 Game to date...The PS2 was released  in March 2000.  As killer as the original Playstation was the PS2 showed what dominant really means with sales of over 140 million units world wide making it the best selling  console EVER. 

 

Original Black Box (yeah it's big...but no RROD)

 

The Shame Cube...eerr I mean Game Cube

Man...why did Sega get out of the console game again...

 

Oh yeah....the Sega Superstack...

Competitors at that time were Microsoft with the Xbox, and they came in second with 24 million, and Game Cube with 21.74 million and the classic Dreamcast with 10.6 million.  This generation actually turned out to be the death of Sega as Console maker.

Don't worry Nariko...it will get better...

Flash forward to today and the State of Sony is not what it used to be.  It is easy to see how Sony underestimated their opponent's approach. They didn't expect Microsoft to get so many exclusives...and they didn't expect to lose the 3rd party exclusives they held so dear to heart.  But now Sony has help.  Towards the end of the cycle of the PS2 Sony established their own real icon: Kratos  

Sony brings the heat when it comes to First Party and Exclusive 3rd party characters...

With Kratos leading the charge Sony also has Nariko(Heavenly Sword), Nathan Drake (Uncharted), Nathan Hale (Resistance), and Cole MacGrath (Infamous) to the table as First party members.  Then added to that bunch are the sack boys and girls in all shapes and sizes (Little Big Planet).

 

Now...Microsoft's line up of Master Chief and Marcus Fenix look kinda out numbered.

Games are the system sellers...they have always been and forever will be.  The current breakdown of systems look like this...The Wii sitting at 50.39 million, the 360 in second with 30.2 million and the PS3 with 22.73 million.  

What developers are looking at is profitability...take a game like Prototype on 360 it sold around 200,000 more copies than it's PS3 counterpart...200,000 x$60.00 bucks is a lotta dough!

 For the Record...this is a PS3

Not the PS1+PS2=PS3!!! 

For Sony to get some momentum back...they need to push their exclusives and improve their third party support.  They have the blu-ray software on their side..take advantage of it!!!  Their is no way games should look close between the 360 and PS3..if I were Sony I wouldn't allow it...  even if it meant sending out Sony Dev teams for companies to utilize when making the PS3 version of a game. 

The exclusives Microsoft are getting are swaying gamers who have both systems to the side of the 360.  Games like Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV have amazing down loadable content available..only if you have a 360....

Now..the Wii...well Sony really should not worry about Nintendo...they are not a threat...I mean I'm not saying the Wii has bad graphics or anything...

 

Look.. I am not saying the games are ugly at times...

 

 But when Sony has this....

 

 They really shouldn't be concerned with this...

The true test is combining fun games with great graphics...which is very hard to do...sort of like combining the awesomeness of Futurama with the legend of Final Fantasy VII...

 
And here is an example of a combination of great new game play wirth amazing visuals  Little Big Planet and all of there amazing sack boys and girls.