Ben-DutkaNormally, Sony keeps to themselves. After reading comments and press releases from Sony executives for almost four years, I rarely see them mention the competition.
But every once in a while, it's nice to buck the trend. SCEA Senior Vice President of Marketing Peter Dille took a subtle jab at Microsoft during an interview with The[A]ListDaily , and his comment is bound to incite some arguments. There's no denying that shooters are big and if one were to compare the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 lineup – especially concerning exclusives – one might conclude that Microsoft's library is…well, pretty heavily inundated with one particular genre. And recently, Microsoft UK boss Neil Thompson told CVG they want even more shooters . All of this may have prompted Dille's comment:
"We've never been reliant on one product genre like one of our competitors.
[Sony has] titles ranging from Killzone to EyePet. PlayStation is a very big tent and … it's helped us sell 377 million PlayStation hardware products and two billion software products in 15 years."
That first sentence right there is incendiary in nature, no doubt. But is it true? Well, it isn't difficult to compare the top titles lists for both consoles; we'll leave that to you. Sony continues to close on Microsoft in the worldwide sales tally, although new releases like Halo: Reach will temporarily prevent the gap from closing entirely. Then again, Reach is…well, what Dille said.
I chose the Playstation brand over the others because they have the games that I like.
1. Twisted Metal
2. Gran Turismo
3. Uncharted
4. God of War
5. Need for Speed
6. Burnout
7. Tekken
8. Soul Calibur
9. GTA
10. Final Fantasy
If I wanted to play FPS I would buy it for the PC.
Help me understand this better, cus the last 6 you mentioned are on other consoles. Unless your speaking of earlier games.
Yes, I am talking about the earlier games (franchises).
In Boom's defense these franchises where born from the Playstation brand.
Thats why I wanted the help to beter understand what he was getting at. In his defense I knew what he meant lol. Just wanted to make sure.
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 9/19/2010 5:48:15 AM
That's a bit of a low blow, but then they've said something similar before. Still, I think we may begin to see more variety from Microsoft now that they've released Kinect. Maybe it'll help to broaden their minds when it comes to IPs. But the variety offered by Sony is unparalleled, and that is why I love my PS3. The spice of life, baby.
Peace.
you don't rely on them, but u still have 2 have em.
if ps3 didn't have killzone, uncharted, or mgs4 i would have bought an xbox 360.
yes, i luv metal gear that much
But to consider once more, both sides have lost some of their main games.
PS3: Final Fantasy XIII, Tekken 6, Metal Gear
Xbox 360: Mass Effect, Bioshock, Ninja Gaiden and there's a couple of more I can't think of.
But in to consider Final Fantasy Metal Gear were massive blows as they are franchises that started long long ago and were mainly for playstation. Xbox 360 lost Mass Effect and Bioshock were pretty big blows to their exclusitivity. However in the end we all know that most Xbox devs are starting to look at the blu-light of blu-ray than thier test 360's rrod. Example valve was bashing the system form 2006-2010 now they have an independent team working to create ps3 games. Why??? BECAUSE THEY WANT SOME OF THE SWEET PS3 SUGAR!!!
LMAO
Last edited by thj_1980 on 9/18/2010 5:21:22 PM
@sha4dowknight05,
To be fair, Sony didn't really lose Metal Gear Solid because Rising isn't really a Metal Gear Solid game.
1) It is a side story that doesn't feature Snake as the protagonist.
2) Snake isn't the protagonist. Yes, this gets listed twice because that is a big deal to many.
3) Hideo Kojima isn't really involved with the day-to-day development/producing. The biggest factor in my book.
You can replace Metal Gear with GTA because Sony has always had a window of exclusivity with GTAs in the past gen. (I still don't know why Sony let Take2 out of its timed exclusivity deal and make GTA available day-and-date on the 360/PS3.
Tell me again where he said "we don't rely on shooters?"
I like Sony's consoles and variety in games. However, with the exception of the Resistance series, its seems Sony couldn't make a shooter to save their lives.
I like it better when Sony stays quiet and classy. Dille having to drag out old numbers from past generations just because Halo Reach launched sounds a little lame.
360 fans might be getting slightly tired of the shooters, though, since it seems every new one gets lower and lower review scores. Well, I guess REACH is getting higher scores than the "overpriced expansion pack" ODST, but lower than the original HALO and HALO 2 got.
this is why I have all three systems, I get the best of all worlds.
I don't comment all that often on PSXE. I have to say though, I love this community. I spent about 30 minutes or so reading through the majority of the comments on ths page and 90% of them are very well written and even lengthy in most cases. That's compared to pretty much all the other gaming sites I visit. Come to think of it, it's rare that I even pay attention to the comments on any other gaming sites. Usually by the time I read the article (and I check PSXE about twice daily) there are already so many comments that everything I wanted to say has already been said, and replied to by just about everyone.
Oh topic though, I just recently traded in my Battlefield 2 and besides Killzone 2, that was the only shooter that I really got into for awhile. I was never a shooter fan before PS3, or even other genres that weren't RPG related. PS3 has shown me that there are so many other genres that could be done right. Maybe it's because I'm older now and have access to money, or the internet whenever I want. I always know which games are good and when they're coming out so I can go pick up a new game from a genre I normally wouldn't touch. Just bacause it received excellent reviews just about everywhere online.
This was the case with Killzone2 actually. I would never have even looked twice at Little Big Planet for sale at a Walmart if I didn't know anything about it and just saw it there. Since I had beta access and watched videos and read previews beforehand, I knew it was more than what was advertised on the box. Anyways, I'm tired of shooters right now myself, but I'm definitely looking for any decent RPGs to spend my money on. Even something like Demon Souls would be nice, it's been awhile since we had a great adventure RPG type experience. Unless there's one out there I'm not aware of that's about to release.
I think people are exaggerating just a bit. Though it's true that the 360 has primarily more shooters than any other genre on the system, the PS3 has it's fair share as well. After researching for a bit, at last count I've counted 87 fps games on the 360 that have been released, in development and/or been canceled. The PS3 is right behind them with 79. Still have more counting to do but this is the totals I have right now. Gotta get ready for work now so can't continue tonight.
I think that it's more the percentage rates of genres, particularly when it comes to exclusives. The PS3 is the far better rounded console in that regard. Besides, Microsoft is known to push shooters as that is where their fans are, ergo huge marketing campaigns for Halo and Gears, while other titles, such as Alan Wake and Mass Effect were left to sell themselves.
Thanks for the insight and differing opinion though.
Peace.
@Geobaldi,
I think that the telling point is not so much the number of titles as a whole, but how many of those were released as 'AAA' titles, and what proportion of game sales are FPS on one console compared to another.
You might also want to look at the console exclusives and compare those since Multi-platforms are on both they effectively cancel each other out, leaving just the exclusives.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 9/19/2010 12:18:26 AM
Good approach there, Geobaldi.
It's nice when people go out of their way to actually look at the specifics and then yield observations from the data. Because it can be pretty tempting, and easy, to talk over the top of the details with generalizations. And sometimes generalizations yield misconceptions.
As for the topic. There is a HUGE FPS user-base on PS3, just like 360.
In fact, a nearly equal proportion when looking at Modern Warfare 2's sales.
Here's the breakdown:
PS3 MW2 Euro + US sales = 8.29 million copies sold
% to PS3 user base is a whopping 25.94%
That's right over a quarter of those PS3 gamers have bought MW2.
360 MW2 Euro + US sales = 11.47 million copies sold
% to 360 user base is 27.53%
So really, while 360 made it's mark with FPS, LIVE and Halo, the reality is that both platforms really love their FPS games and MW2 is nearly just as appealing for both audiences.
and btw, when I stated "just like 360" I meant as in large demand. While PS3's FPS games are huge–being in the multi-millions and all–I'm sure the total amount of dollars spent on FPS-type games is higher on 360.I think without seeing gross dollars earned for a given genre class it's difficult to get any concrete evidence on the matter.
@Temjin,
That's why I am suggesting that you exclude all multi-platform games from the analysis. The question is about which company relies more on FPS games. I don't think that there is any question about whether there are a huge number of shooter players on both platforms, as you point out the sales of a game like MW2 prove that there are equivalent proportions of gamers who are happy to play shooters on both consoles. However, I think that when you look at the libraries of each console without the multi-platform games, you get a truer view of the console maker's reliance and desire for game genre on their console. After all the exclusives are generally first party or commissions.
Highlander, I have no doubt that MS relies more heavily on FPS games. Halo is MS's largest cash-cow and LIVE propagator, without them they would've died out long ago. MS spearheaded the whole online shooter thing for consoles. It was their Wii-mote of gaming and Steve Job's iPod of MP3 players.
PS3 and PSN was built on a different foundation.
I loled, no joke.
A proud playstation Fan and owner from 1995!
PS3: It Only Does Everything
Xbox 360: It Only Does Halo
and gears of war, mass affect,fable, alan wake :S
@Godslim
which are in what genre? lol
TPS, RPG and … horror?
Horror is a video game genre?
I consider all those zombie shoot-em-ups, RE5, Resistance, etc. shooters.
The only 'horror' that belongs with a separate title from FPS is the earlier RE games… but that's just one title.
And ME is a great game… but it's a shooter in my books. A good story based shooter… which is soon to not be so exclusive.
Unless you want to throw around the Action/RPG slogan again.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 9/19/2010 8:40:25 PM
yea, right sony and you dont?
typical PR BS!
What does Sony rely on?
Sony focuses on multiple genres not just shooters,
3D Game Heroes, Heavy Rain, Little Big Planet, ModNation Racers, White Knight Chronicles, The Last Guardian, Gran Turismo 5, God of War, Demon's Souls, Folklore, Heavenly Sword, InFAMOUS, Motorstorm. I'm sure there is more but that's off the top of my head.
@anonymous cowpatty
Dude, there's no way you can counter this point… the only AAA title XBOX has that is exclusive and NOT a shooter is Fable. And that's like a watered down Demon's Souls.
shooters, a good chunk of sonys exclusives are shooters.
look at each genre, action they have GOW3, platforming they have LBP, racing they have MNR and GT5, niche they have TLG and heavy rain, more or less sony has 1 exclusive for each genre but shooters they have several.
syphon filter, MGS, uncharted, R&C, killzone, resistance, MAG, socom, HAZE, time crisis just to name a few.
the ps3 is just like the 360, a good chunk of its exclusives are shooters.
tis why sony are the worlds biggest hypocrites.
1) some of those aren't shooters. Just because a character has a gun, doesnt mean it's a shooter. According to your definition, Valkyria Chronicles is a shooter too….
2) You're wrong about 1 exclusive per other genre… you only labeled the AAA best hits. There are plenty of other exclusives that are of other genres. Too many to count. Also, this article spans over the last two generations. The PS2 compared to the XBOX is the exact same story as the PS3 compared to the XBOX360.
I dunno man… I just think you're not even slightly accurate on that one.
"We don't rely on shooters."
Well, that might be the case, but PS3 does have ALOT of shooters. To many in my opinion. The main reason I stayed a PS fan (throughout PSone and PS2 eras) is because that's where almost ALL the rpg's were. When the original Xbox came around.. the were pretty much "shooter based", and rpg's were almost non-existent.
Now it seems we've basically traded in this generation. On the ps3, we seem to be seeing an increasing number of FPS.. and the RPG's are basically trickling in. And with the RPG market going the way of "twitch gaming", it seems days are dark for my beloved genre, and the fans that love it too.
We continue to see a more broadening genre base on the ps3, but I'm still seeing a hell of a lot of shooters.
I've kinda learned to adapt to it all I guess. With the lack of really good RPG's.. I've taken to open world free roaming epic games like Just Cause 2, Mafia 2, and Infamous. But it still leaves a hole in my soul left unfilled by good old fashioned turn-based strategy type goodness.
Games like Dragon Age, Dungeon Siege, and Demon Souls are stellar.. and I would love to see more titles like these in the future. I love many types of games, but I seem to mainly have it boil down to RPG's, Racing, and Survival Horror.
I know may, many people love shooters.. and I can see why. It is very apex of competitve gaming at the moment. But, it seems like the people who play games like CodMW2 and BFBC2.. only play those type of games period. And with so many people staying on those games for so long. A message is being sent to the dev's and higher up that this is what makes money, so let's make another one.. and sell DLC.
I get by, but I know there is an ever-growing group of gamers out there being "left out in the cold" and getting no love.. having their favorite genres being pushed aside by the cash cow FPS crowd. But given a chance, I feel that we old dogs can still put the numbers on the board if we were offered something substantial.
Here's to hoping for a brighter future, whatever games/genres you love.
Don't forget though, many of those shooters are multi-plat.
Indeed Underdog15
Man, this articles attracts all the 360 defenders with their faulty arguments. You don't disagree with common sense and good ol facts.
*article
I agree with Sony's statement. When it comes to exclusives (what few MS has left), the 360 does rely more on shooters than the PS3. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as having all those shooters with multiplayer gives them a pretty goodly-sized player base to use XBL. Still, as someone who likes the 360 (and I've never been afraid to express my fondness of MS's machine), I wish they would be more expansive in the kind of exclusive titles they offer.
Thank you sir, for that level-minded response. Glad you didn't take offense on something that is an accepted fact (and as mentioned, its not such a bad thing coz it helped them garner that much fan base)