This began as a response to Brian's recent comment: "Speaking of releases, did anyone actually buy a PS3 to keep? We ended up not waiting in line any where to sell the PS3, and to be frank it looks like pretty much all of them are on ebay any way. There are actually still Wii's available here in Orlando, I've seen a few on shelves in stores."
My response quickly became post-length, so here it is:
The fact that PS3s are so expensive and that they sell for even more money on ebay pretty much guaranteed that it was a lot more worthwhile to buy one as an investment rather than for personal entertainment. I think the people that were potentially going to triple or sextuple their money were a lot more dedicated to camping out than the people who just wanted to play the one or two exclusive games that are even worth playing.
If you go to IGN's PS3 review section you'll notice that only two of the exclusive titles got decent scores: Resistance Fall of Man, and Ridge Racer 7. A shooter and a racer. Woo. The rest of the worthwhile games are on the other consoles. There's nothing there that would make any real gamer need a PS3 on launch day. Most of the people who are buying one for keeps are technophiles who just want the latest gadget. Nothing about this console seems fun to me.
I spent almost an hour last night reading a forum on Joystiq where people shared their Wii experiences post-launch. The general opinion was pretty universal, that the system is just a blast to play. Many people raved about the simplistic pack-in Wii Sports. A lot of people mentioned Zelda, of course, with a lot of praise. Many people also mentioned their family members, who never play video games, hijacking the console to play wild Wii Sports free-for-alls. Sounds like Nintendo's strategy is a success in that regard.
I don't hear anything like this surrounding the PS3. It's all, HD graphics (which apparently don't work properly, from early reports), Blu-Ray, and...some third thing. In any case, I don't hear anyone saying that the PS3 is a really fun system to play on. Most of the early owners' reports tend to be about system glitches rather than actual game playing. And I hear the download store (Playstation Arcade, or whatever it is) is poorly conceived. The 360's model is really good and it's been around for over a year now. Why reinvent the wheel?
The general opinion seems to be that the PS3 may eventually be worth owning. Most people agree that the system doesn't feel finished, and I personally think that almost every aspect of the system's launch backs this up. So, who in their right mind would pay $600 for one after camping out for two days? Who in their right mind would pay $10,000 for one (as one person reportedly did) on eBay? It's completely insane.
Some people are claiming that the Wii has a ways to go before it proves itself. But if people are having a great time playing it on day one, what the hell else does it have to prove? *sigh*
I want one so bad...
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3 comments:
Once you beat Zelda, the Wii starts dispensing candy! It's so awesome!
I'm just really suprised buying the PS3 as an investment worked. I know people made a good chunk of change off the Xbox 360, but I don't recall as many being on ebay like with the PS3.
~Brian
That's what happens when your console launch is nothing short of disastrous. If Sony was smart (and odds aren't looking too good) they would have taken the five PS3s that were available at launch and sold them on eBay themselves. At least then they would have recuperated some of their losses.
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