The "Console Wars" 2007: A Year in Retrospect By Sky Render 01 January 2008 Another year has passed, and the so-called "console wars" between home entertainment systems is still going strong. This year's contenders are largely newcomers: the XBOX 360 (first appeared Nov. 2005), the PS3 (first appeared Nov. 2006), the Wii (first appeared Nov. 2006), and the long-time contender known as the PS2 (first appeared March 2001). Each system has had some modicum of success this last year, and some shortcomings too. Let's take a look at how they weigh in. Microsoft XBOX 360 The system that brought "next-gen visuals" to the console gamer first, Microsoft's latest console has had a rocky start, but built up some good steam just the same. Its first two years were marked with many hardware failures, and a replacement plan to deal with this, which hardly looks appealing to an informed consumer hoping to invest in a piece of hardware that will last. Let's look at what it's done well and what could use improvement. The first thing to list in any list of 360 triumphs is, of course, its success in software sales. Boosted by the Achievements system (which allows online-connected players to compare their "gamer score" with fellow 360 players, and boost said score by playing many games and accomplishing special tasks in those games), and bolstered by a dedicated fanbase, the sales of many XBOX 360 titles is impressive to say the least. Even underperformer titles tend to get at least 100,000 lifetime sales, which is remarkable in a fickle market where most games go unnoticed at sub-50,000 lifetime sales. The market for 360 games is especially strong in America, where the system still holds a lead over the competition (though a narrowing one, discussed later). Also positive about the 360 is its online service, XBOX Live. This limited-but-free service that can be upgraded to a full-featured one for a monthly fee has brought online gaming to the console world in a way that isn't unlike how PC games began to form online communities several years back. XBOX Live is a huge online service, featuring a marketplace with downloadable games, movies, and game add-ons (amongst other things), an online forum community, a hub for online gaming sessions, and much more. For an online service, it's easily the most fully-featured one available on a home console. On the downside, as mentioned, there is the 360's failure rate. 360 hardware has been notoriously unreliable, with many accounts of systems failing within 6 months of purchase, and even a few horror stories of people getting 4 or more consoles in a row that all ultimately fail. This doesn't look good for Microsoft, to be certain, and they've been doing what they can to fix the problem with their repair program, but the damage has been done to their image and won't be that easy to undo. As it stands now, the 360 is the "unreliable system" in the eyes of the informed gamer. Also not so great is the 360's worldwide appeal. Specifically, the 360 is disproportionately popular in the US compared to other regions, where it is taking last place in sales (from the start in Japan, and very recently in Europe). The system has pushed just over 16 million units at this time of writing, over 2/3rds of them in the US. Compared to its competition, the 360 has much less of a chance of being a worldwide leader, simply because it's so much less popular than everything else outside of the US. Sony PlayStation 3 Sony's latest entry into the console race is their own answer to the 360's bringing next-gen visuals to consoles, in the form of an even-more-powerful system with specs that can almost match a high-end gaming PC. While this isn't a first for a console in its respective era, it is certainly an impressive feat in a time when computers are as powerful as they are now. The PS3's strongest suit at this time is that it has a great deal of exclusive content on the horizon, most of it from series that have sold over 5 million copies each in past iterations. It's being made clear that the PS3 is the system of choice for those who want to experience the likes of Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4, and (of course) Gran Turismo 5. That sort of anticipation is bound to draw in the fans of those respective series, and get them hooked on the system. Also in the PS3's favor is its capabilities. The system can and does serve as far more than just a gaming device. It's currently one of the most affordable Blu-Ray movie players on the market, and possesses a massive array of features for audio, video, and image viewing, much like the PSP does. As an all-purpose entertainment center, the PS3 is a serious contender, one that no other console on the market today can match up to. Unfortunately, the PS3's price continues to be a major detractor, and the continued source of its negative image. At $500 for the "best" model, and $400 for the "entry level" model, the system is not looking nearly as appealing as the 360's $400 "best" model and $300 "entry level" model, and can't hope to compete with the Wii's $250 price point. The continued high price of the system, justified while it may be due to the expense of manufacturing the console, is turning consumers off to the system. The longer the price remains high, the more it's going to lower peoples' desire for the system and keep it from succeeding. Also on the downside for the PS3 is its software library performance. Very few PS3 titles have done well so far, with only 4 titles to date being million sellers (though a few are on the horizon to also become million sellers). For whatever reason, the user base for the PS3 is either not buying much gaming software, or only a portion of the PS3 user base does buy games at all. Either way, it does not make the system look appealing to developers, particularly with the expense involved in developing PS3 software. Hopefully, this failure of software to sell will only be temporary, for the sake of the PS3's future. Nintendo Wii Nintendo's newest entry into the console race is a bit of an odd duck, in more than one sense. Instead of going for the "more is better" approach of its competiiton, Nintendo opted instead for a "less is more" approach, with an only moderately powerful (but very efficient) processor, a more streamlined and simplistic feature set (it's a gaming system at heart, no doubt about that), and a unique controller as its primary input means. It's impossible to point out the Wii's strong points without pointing out its phenomenal sales success. The Wii has consistently broken records for the sales of hardware since its launch, and the supply issues have yet to be resolved even over a year after launch. In spite of those issues, the system has managed to push just over 19 million units as of this writing, a feat that can normally only be seen happening in such a brief timespan with handhelds. The Wii's system sales are simply astounding, no other way to put it. Also impressive about the Wii is its control scheme. While the 360 and PS3 went the "safe" route of using the same control scheme as systems have been using (and slowly evolving) since the NES, the Wii instead opted for an entirely new and unique design. Past attempts at massive changes to the formula usually led to problems (such as the ill-fated Intellivison, Colecovision, and Jaguar, all of which featured very different controllers from their competition, and all of which ultimately failed to gain the support that their competition had). But the Wii Remote and its Nunchuk attachment have had the opposite impact that new control schemes tend to have, thanks to well-thought-out design combined with careful planning. The setup's still not ideal (a few buttons on the remote are hard to hit, and the Nunchuk's cord can get in the way at times), but it's a step forward for controllers that shows how motion sensitivity, precision pointer devices, and standard game controls can be melded. On the downside is the Wii's current software library. While there are undoubtedly some very good titles out for it at this point (Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, etc.), there is also a disproportionate amount of "shovelware" (software made quickly to cash in on a system's popularity), and a heavy dose of ports of PS2 games. As it stands now, the Wii is largely only showing quality games from Nintendo itself, which doesn't hurt Nintendo at all, but does have a bit of a disheartening effect on developers. It's likely that this situation will not persist, however; the Wii's success caught the industry by surprise, and adjustments are inevitable to account for this. Also a little disappointing is the online services for the Wii, which have at this point been minimalist to say the least. Few games have supported the Wii's online capabilities, some doubtless due to concern that they would have to conform to the Wii's "Friend Code" system (which they don't, as it turns out, but this was only revealed recently). While the Wii Shop Channel has already surpassed both XBOX Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in its offerings of vintage software, the WiiWare services (equivalent to XBOX Live's and PSN's marketplaces) have been all but nonexsitent thus far. Time will tell if this will change, but right now, the Wii is more of a "local" system. Sony PlayStation 2 In for the long haul, Sony's previous entry to the world of consoles is still going strong even in 2007. The system has garnered a great deal of support over the years from developers, and new titles continue to come out for it regularly, even when it's already been a year since the last of the current generation of consoles came out. The strongest point of the PS2, without a doubt, is its own popularity. The PlayStation 2 is one of the (if not the) best-selling systems ever, reportedly having almost 120 million units sold to consumers worldwide now. The developer support for it, as noted, has been phenomenal, and there are six years' worth of games in its library to keep it selling to new consumers, probably for at least a year or two after game development for the system truly comes to a halt. And you cannot beat the price point for the PS2, which now costs half of the cheapest of the current-gen systems. To a would-be new gamer, the PS2 is a haven of entertainment for a reasonable price. The PS2 does have one key problem, though: it is starting to fade out. The sales have slowed this last year compared to previous years, and show no sign of stopping in their descent. The decline is snail-like, but it is going to take its toll on the system. Already, developers have been jumping over to supporting the current wave of consoles over the PS2, and no matter how good a system is, it does need new software to keep interest in it from waning entirely. The PS2 isn't going to vanish overnight, but it's begun that inevitable descent out of the realm of competitiveness and into the annals of console history. The Big Picture All four of these systems are still in the so-called "console war", but the battle has been anything but predictable this year. A long-time contender is fading out, the underdog of this generation has taken the limelight, and the comparative overachievers are struggling both with each other and with their inability to match their competition's popularity. In America, the XBOX 360 is still king of the newer lot, but worried glances are being shot towards the ever-encroaching Wii numbers. In Europe, the Wii and PS3 fight almost schizophrenically across regions, with the Wii triumphing in the larger markets such as the UK, but the PS3 dominating over it in Spain and Italy. And in Japan, both 360 and PS3 are thoroughly being defeated by their smaller and more efficient bretheren, and all three are being bowed by a darling little handheld called the DS. The market is extremely volatile right now, and where things stand for each console maker has shifted immensely this last year. As we entered into 2007, the 360 was ruling the next-gen roost in the US and Europe undisputed, and the Wii was making rapid gains just about everywhere, while the PS3 was trying desperately to get their new system to sell. As 2008 dawns, we see the 360 starting to struggle, the Wii taking off like wildfire, and the PS3 beginning to have a modicum of success that's letting it surpass the 360 in many countries. Where things will stand at the start of 2009 is up in the air, but probably a bit easier to predict than this last year was. The Wii doesn't seem to be losing any momentum, so it's reasonable to assume that it will remain on top (though by how much is impossible to gauge accurately). The 360's floundering may prove temporary, assuming Microsoft figures out what it is they need to do to fix it. And the PS3 is very much up in the air, as it has so many sequels to past top-sellers on the immediate horizon, and will be showing just how much a game's predecessors really can sell a new system. Whatever 2008 may bring, it will doubtless be a very interesting year for those who follow the console market.