I'm just full of shit  

 

I'd argue that Half Life started the FPS genre paying attention to story. Goldeneye maybe was a precursor, as the story drove the mission goals (which was a big step from Doom, Duke Nuke'Em and Quake's "key quest"). But that's just me.

 

I'm pretty sure the Lord of Failure doesn't offer official proclimations (he tries but...).

Whether PS3 is a failure or not right now depends on your POV.

If you ask whether it is growing enough of a userbase to sustain itself through this generation, well, I suppose then it's not a failure, any more than the N64, GameCube and XBox were not failures either.

If you look at the movie wars, the PS3 is almost entirely responsible for BluRay beating the tar out of HDDVD since XMas, so it's successful there, too (though that doens't matter much to most gamers).

If you compare it to past success, Sony is getting its rear handed to it, making it as much a failure as the GameCube, and moreso than the N64 (which at least battled closely with Sony for its first year before tailing off).

If you look at market share, it's not doing well either, and could be categorized as a failure given it's sub-20% penetration.

If you look at profit, Sony's still losing a bundle on each console, and won't be seeing a profit until next year, at best. I wouldn't call that a failure though, as that's not atypical for new consoles.

If you go by public perception, that may be where it's doing the worst, as Sony's PR has been in the crapper since E3 2006, and the difficulties of the PS3 are constantly compared to the success of the Wii and PS2 in the press.

Of course any and all of these things might look completely different in 12 months. Sony could stumble on the right combination price cut and software that will catapult it back into the thick of the competition (at least in weekly sales - it's totale won't be able to approach the 360 or Wii for more than a year). Then again, anticipated releases may simply fail to overcome the cost of the console, and third parties may start to abandon the PS3, at least for exclusives. If FF13 or MGS4 ever get announced for the 360, you'll know the PS3 has taken a turn for the worse.

 

And System Shock precludes all of those (except the first Doom). It's kinda funny how damn advanced that game was. It's too bad that it made such a small impression back then. And Halo hardly deserves a tenth of the popularity it has, especially seeing how much potential it had before Microsoft bought out Bungie and consolized it.

 

Dont make me have to copyright the "but that's just me" phrase now.  

 

I'm interested to see what kind of effect "Home" will have on the PS3. Assuming it launches in October and lives up to the hype and is properly marketed I think it could have a decent impact on PS3 sales. Couple this with some more good games and another price drop and we may be looking at a bit more even playing field.

 

Certain people inside Konami have already been hinting at MGS4, despite Kojima's previous assertions to the contrary.

 

Yeah, I know, but let's not kick the horse until we're sure he's down. The big one would be FF13. FF7 pretty much cemented the PSX's top spot, and the 1-2-3-4-5 punch-kick-punch-kick-punch of GTA3, FF10, GT3, MGS2 and DMC made the PS2 infinately more attractive than the just-launched GameCube and XBox. PS3 has lost the exclusivity to DMC4 and GTA4 already, and if MGS4 and FF13 follow suit, GT5 just won't be enough to salvage the console.

 

So true misterd, so true. I'm still holding off on the PS3 and the 360 (But I did buy my Wii) until something comes out that I have to have (not a halo fan so Halo 3 is not enough, but MSG4 is tempting me)

 

Sure. But it seems to me like Konami's hints are their way of making an announcement without officially making an announcement. There'd be no reason for them to hint at it if it wasn't almost certainly going to happen. It also seems to me that despite what FF VII did for the PS2, a lot of people are losing faith in the Final Fantasy series... and rightly so, for the most part   It may not be enough to make PS3 a hit either.

 

I agree. I think certain franchises are on the decline. As much as I like the Final Fantasy series, I don't know if it will reach VII or X popularity again. Maybe I'm wrong.

GT and FF may not be enough.