Ben-DutkaYou know, back in 1995, I didn't wake up and suddenly say to myself, "I pledge now to have the largest collection of PlayStation games during each generation from here on out." Hell, I had only just seen the first PlayStation at a friend's house, and I was immensely skeptical that it could survive against the Nintendo and Sega goliaths. And yet, here we sit, nearly 15 years later, and once again, it has become abundantly clear that my PS3 collection will outstrip that of my Xbox 360 collection.
I've been a multi-console owner for as long as I can remember – probably since the NES; was there another console out at the time? – and I've gone through my phases. There was the ol' IBM Tandy phase (anybody who says anything against Hero's Quest and Earl Weaver's Baseball gets smacked), the GameBoy phase, the SNES vs. Genesis phase (which system do I play today?), etc. But for the past three generations, almost always without my even recognizing it, the number of games I racked up for the PlayStation console has always exceeded that of other machines. At no time did I say, "I want a PS game today;" I've always only cared about the game itself. If it's something I want to play, I really don't care what I have to play it on, and of course, I want the best of the best like any avid gamer. So how can it be possible that for three generations in a row, one manufacturer has provided me with more hours of entertainment than any other?
I was a huge RPG fanatic during the PS1 days so it's no surprise I should prefer that over the N64, which I absolutely detested. After the glory of the SNES, I considered the N64 to be an absolute abomination and the GameCube wasn't much better, although I did like the Xbox. I had that, but the PS2 vastly topped the Xbox's library and it's why I currently have 60+ PS2 games and about 8 Xbox games. I did once have about 18 but I got rid of many when I traded up to the 360. And when this generation began, PlayStation was a year behind so by mid-2007, I had 6 360 games and 3 PS3 games. Now? 28 for the PS3 and 9 for the Xbox 360. I don't own the Wii because I play video games, and let's just leave it at that. But even with the year head-start, everything seems to have stalled on the 360 side, and trust me, it has nothing to do with altering personal preferences. I still just want to play awesome games, and I still know that some PS3 ports aren't what they should be ( Bayonetta , for one).
And yet, it doesn't seem to matter. I'm not a tech geek and I don't have a Facebook page and I don't have a cell phone that can make me a sandwich. Therefore, I've never cared about all the other little features on the new systems, although I do appreciate the PSN a great deal. All I care about are the interactive experiences and for the past 15 years, I've never had to dust off a PlayStation console. Not once. I keep having to do that with other consoles, and I think this proves that despite Sony's constant drive to make the PS3 into an entire home entertainment machine, it's still all about the games. If it wasn't, things would be different for me. That's all I'm saying.
the first game i played on PS was Medevil and Tombi..
Mine was Dragon Ball Final Bout and believe me, it was the kick ass fighting game back then beside the biggies like Tekken, Virtual Fighter etc.
Medievel and Tomba!
Two GREAT first party games from Sony!
Seriously, what an introduction to the ps brand
Love Tomba to death….what a game… (sadly the sequel was so-so)
Eh… might as well count them out
PS3 – 22
PSP – 14
PS2 – 36
PS1 – 61
360 – Dead Rising and Mass Effect.
XBOX – 7
Wii – 5
GameCube – 9
Dreamcast – 12
N64 – 4
GBA – 20
I still have a ton of old Genesis, SNES, and NES games hanging around but Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, Mega Man Anniversary Collection, and the Virtual Console has pretty much rendered them useless. If Earthbound, Flashback, Out of this World, Super Mario World 2, and Ultimate Qix ever make it to VC I can probably sell all my old systems and games… I'll also only get a DS if they ever get VC functionality on it.
So yeah, I've supported Sony since X-Mas '95.
Because I only buy pirated games for my PS2, I have a library game of more than 60.
But I stop buying PS2 games after 2007, though I still buy a few, notably Persona 4.
Me too, Ben. Me too.
For these past three gens I have not only bought, and continue to buy, the exclusives for the PS consoles but also the multiplats too. I only buy exclusives for the other systems.
As for numbers, lets leave it at this, we're talking hundreds of games for most of my systems because I don't sell games.
While I liked the N64 and the GameCube even more, they both had plantly of great Nintendo Published and a few good 3rd party games. My Nintendo collection never grew as fast or as big as my PlayStation collections with exception to the PS1.
My PS2 collection grew quite large and stayed big. My PS3 collection is doing the same. I have 8 Wii games, and had 2 PS3 games and never visited the PSN store. Now, I still have 8 Wii games and now have 20 PS3 titles and am always checking PSN for updates. Amazing how fast it's grown In such a short time. The momentum started I think, with MGS4. Just seems like ever since that games release the ball been rolling. Occasionally, I'll walk the Xbox aisle and I never see anything interesting that's no available on the PS3. Just a bunch of Halo and Gears. With the value being much better with the PS3 in terms of games and hardware, there's no reason to buy and Xbox anymore.
Last edited by Jawknee on 12/10/2009 10:14:34 AM
PS3 has no games . 🙂
Haven't heard that one in a while. Talk about a blast from the past. :p
A blast from the past?? A blast from the ASS!!
Dumbest line for xbots to use now
Last edited by Lex Luthor on 12/20/2009 5:00:47 PM
I owe a HUGE thanks to Microsoft and thier wonderful Xbox 360, before you bash me, hear my story.
I'm 27 years old, the first PlayStation console I ever bought was the PS3. I've been gaming since '87. I've owned every console from Sega, Nintendo, and eventualy Xbox, I never gave any PlayStation consoles a chance because of thier history of poor reliability compared to anything Sega or Nintendo released.
During the PS1 days, I was BIG into Capcom's fighters, the PS1 couldn't scratch what the Sega Saturn could do with Capcom's fighters. Also being a huge fan of Sega's games, the Saturn having to me the greatest controller (US second model not first) for Capcom's Fighters, I chose Saturn over PS1.
I chose the Dreamcast instead of PS2, following my tradition of purchasing Sega consoles first, then Nintendo's system later. PS2's where faulty like early PS1's, so I stayed away from them. Once Dreamcast was killed off, it was Gamecube (don't like the controller) Xbox and PS2. I chose the Xbox, then later bought the Gamecube. I enjoyed gaming on Xbox Live with friends so much (wasn't impressed with Gamecube) naturally I went with the Xbox 360. WHAT A F-ING MISTAKE.
I've heard all the stories of people bitching thier PS1's or PS2' where garbage because they didn't work, but 360 holds the title for complaints. Never in my life have I EVER had to replace ANY console I've owned, EVER. I went through 4 360's in 3 years time, all my other consoles where bought once, ONCE.
Because of MS's poorly designed Xbox 360, I switched over to PS3. This black beauty does everything I used my 360 for PLUS more. Because of the PS3 I decided to play some PS1 games that I missed out on back in the day and now I wish I eventually bought a PS1 when they fixed the problems. I eventually bought a PS2 slim to play God Of War 1 and 2.
I missed out on ALOT of kick ass games that where only on the PlayStation brand. I still own every console from Sega and Nintendo (Sega still being my king of video games) and all 4 consoles from the PlayStation family has joined them.
Thank you Microsoft for rushing your 360, thank you for spending so little time in designing the insides, thank you for saying F-it about the KNOWN problems of the 360 BEFORE launch. Because of you, I have welcomed the PlayStation family into my home.
My daughters prefer the PS2 over the Gamecube and Wii, I no longer own the original Xbox either.
Last edited by Mysterio Spyder on 12/10/2009 10:48:48 AM
@Mysterio
Actually, despite the dislike for the 360 and so-called Xbots around here, people do need to stop and recognize Microsoft has made some contributions to the industry, despite their current, very negative, effect on it.
Microsoft forced Sony to move more quickly on their networking (even on the PS2 games), they forced Sony to create the PSN as a response to the whole XBL, the Xbox series of consoles have brought many PC only developers to console games, and without the competition from Microsoft, I doubt that the PS3 would have been the world beater that it is. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, bu producing such incredibly shoddy hardware with the Xbox 360, Microsoft allowed Sony to once again be seen as a producer of high quality Consumer Electronics – including game consoles, and handed BluRay the HD home video market on a platter.
So, high praise to Microsoft for these things, and a major kick to the crotch for the market distorting game exclusivity contracts, and a second kick for allowing Valve to be created….
😉
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad MS entered the competition. If it came off as me bashing them I apologize, it wasn't ment to be that way, I'm really thanking them for thier mistake in the poorly designed 360. I've never given the PS brand a chance until the 360 headaches.
I did enjoy Live when I had xbox, couldn't stand all the Wii graduates in the Live community, but all the features it had was nice. The greatest thing I think MS came up with was the Xbox guide button, I'm glad Sony has thier version of it.
I don't know what PSN was like during PS3 early days because I didn't get onto PS3 till around a year ago, but I heard it was crap so what you said about MS making Sony move more quickly on thier networking was a good point. PSN for me is almost perfect, only thing missing is PRIVATE CHAT, or some way to chat WITHOUT having to be in a game room, or a white walled chat room 🙂
Last edited by Mysterio Spyder on 12/10/2009 11:14:05 AM
No it didn't seem to me you were bashing them, I just know that it's easy for most readers here to immediately put MS in a negative light without considering what they have done. Your points about the 360 being rushed and so on were absolutely spot on.
I remember back when E3 2005 happened, everyone was anxiously awaiting news of the new generation of consoles. Microsoft decided to take a bold leap and announced that they'd be ready in a few months, Sony on the other hand was silent and just waving around their prototype and talking up their technology. It seemed obvious to me that MS were rushing the 360 to market just to beat Sony. I said (elsewhere) at the time that MS was rushing it. In fact they did several remarkable things after that E3 and before they launched. They dropped the standard HDD and created a second SKU so they could have a cheaper unit, and they actually rushed games to market so they'd have something at launch. We now know that they cut corners and rushed the hardware when it was still at a very immature stage of manufacture and testing.
When it became clear that Sony was not yet ready for market, it was just so obvious that Sony had made MS jump too quickly. Sony played MS very well on that one.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 12/10/2009 11:25:57 AM
"PS2's where faulty like early PS1's"
I got a used PS1 that was in pretty poor condition when I bought it for $30. It did pretty well and made it from 1997-2001 when it finally died and wound up in the trash.
The PS2's however were a bit different IMO. Every last person I've met that complained about the PS2 has complained about disc read errors. To which my response is "did you clean the lense?" "no" has ALWAYS been the response I've gotten.
Every last person that I've ran into that I've told to get a lense cleaner now has a working PS2 again.
Many DVD/CD readers from that time period REALLY needed cleaning. It wasn't just a PS2 issue. Now of course there are some PS2's that had other errors, but lense cleaning was a very common and easily fixable issue.
I think some people unfairly gave the PS2 a bad rap for a fixable issue that was so big that it plagued a lot of electronic devices.
I do agree with you Mysterio. Microsoft did drive Sony to develop PSN.
Now if only the 360 could have not of had massive RROD and disc scratching issues, it wouldn't have gotten a lot of the hate that it has, and it would actually have been a respectible product.
Also I hate MS paying off ppl for timed exclusives.
@Bridgera
actually MS making Sony improve PSN is what Highlander said, so that credit goes to him.
Like I said I chose Saturn over PS1 because I have always been a fan of Sega. I remember alot of my friends saying how they had to play thier PS1's on it's sides or upside down so it would work, so I didn't purchase a PS2 for fear it wouldn't last, in which from what I always heard, PS2's were faulty, early PS2's anyways.
I chose xbox and never had a problem with it and Live was fun so I chose 360 the next gen. Now, since 360 gave me headaches I'll be VEEEERY skeptical on MS's next console.
I've PERSONALLY havent experienced ANY reliability issues with my PS1 (purchased used) PS2 slim (not even a year old yet so it SHOULDN'T have issues), PSP (purchased used and you can tell it was dropped), or my PS3, besides sync issues.
Microsoft has hurt the industry more than it has helped it, imo
(faulty hardware, FPSs, paying for online play? etc.)
I hope to god Nintendo steps all over Microsoft next "season"
Crow, it's hurt those who have rallied behind the xbox. Faulty hardware sheds light on Sony's reliability. Paying for Live forced Sony to give to us free, FPS, well, I can't disagree with that. Over saturation is an understatement.
@ Mysterio Spyder,
I've heard a few problem with the early PS1's & PS2's but I've never had a problem with either of mine
And I bought both my PS1, & PS2 used from GS (so they were probably manhandled by kids).
And to this very day, both of them are still kicking butt & taking names. So far, I've got 535 PS1 games and 225 PS2 games in my ever growing collection.
BTW, just about 5 months ago I also bought my first PS3 used, a 60 gigger for $565 total($440,$80 1-year warranty,& $40 tax).
But last month GS had to replace it cause the disc drive was starting to make loud horrible grinding noises when taking a disc in & then it wouldn't even acknowledge that I put any disc in 1/2 the time.
GS did replaced it free but that also ends their warranty, so I had to pay another $50 for another warranty on the 2nd machine(so if I think about it, that actually make the price of the first one $610, but believe me,it was still well worth it to me, as I've already accumulated 56 games for it in those short 5 months.
Anyway, I'm happy to report that the replacement is doing just fine now(knock on wood).
I used to be a big Nintendo person when I was a kid. I had a NES and later got a SNES. Except I noticed that when I made the transition, some of the programming of the games seemed to be slightly more 4-5 year old oriented.
Mega Man 7 for example screamed of less control and more childish graphics than Mega Man 6. In Mario World 2, Mario was a baby, which just seemed weird to me.
When the N64 hit, Nintendo gave Mario a high pitched voice that seemed childish. Nintendo also no longer carried the Mega Man X and Final Fantasy games, those games were ultimately why I got a PS instead of an N64.
Since then, it seems to me that Nintendo has seemed to cater more towards children, and Playstation contained far more mature content and a wide library of better games.
"I've been a multi-console owner for as long as I can remember – probably since the NES; was there another console out at the time?"
Ben, please please please tell me you're joking, or am I missunderstanding this? You don't remember the Sega Master System? I know I know, here in the states it couldn't touch the NES but it still had some fun games.
No, the Sega Master System was never really on my radar. Sorry. 🙂
yeah the Master System wasn't really on anybodies radar. I didn't know anyone who owned 1 except myself. Master System had slightly better gafx and colors but the NES had a HUGE library of hit titles, and in the end, that's all that matters.
up untill now i was a multi-consoler, but since PS2.. all that i have now is Playstation and I dont see that changing there is soo much on the PS3! im set.
Well by the time I got around to it, it was called Quest for Glory and I friggin LOVED that game. And part 2, which was very very hard to find at the time, was imo the best of the series. When part 3 came out I was confused. What the heck was Sierra thinking? Well, I had preserved my save game all the way through so I fired it up. It was just ok. When part 4 came out I was skeptical, but boy was it ever good! Man. Those were the days.
I never did get to part 5… I think I played the demo and it turned me off. That, and I didn't want to support Sierra's last leg.
Great article Ben, so do I get a cookie for reading it LOL JK.
We got my son a PS2 he prefers it over the Wii says the PS2 looks better on his big Tv LOL thats my boy!
I used to have Sega Megadrive..then got a PlayStation for my bday..ever since..theres not been an otehr console i have brought..well..only Game Boy Colour.
And for me its always been games… i never once have been tempted to buy an XBOX or any other console…Im starting to think about getting a PSP…but…theres new one coming next year..so i may wait..or get a used one cheap
I was only for sony!