Drake can’t beat Master Chief; but the PS3 can win the format war.
There’s no question that since I last evaluated the Playstation 3 that Sony has made superb progress in raising the profile of the console and making it much more accessible and appealing to console buyers.
The PS3 has always had an impressive feature set but its price was always a stumbling block for many; particularly as the highly touted feature of Blu-ray playback simply wasn’t the draw that DVD was with the launch of the Playstation 2.
The PS3 suffered from an initial lack of quality games and some extremely shoddy conversions, but now that developers have really started to get a grip on the hardware the console has a good varied library of games which can finally rival the Xbox 360 in terms of both quality and content.
Every console needs big exclusives though and what a difference a little over a year has made to the PS3 in this regard.
Killzone 2 started to push the boundaries of console graphics in February, showing everyone what the PS3 was capable of. The characters and the story were certainly no Halo beater (something I will touch on later), but the game had it where it counted in terms of online play.
Killzone 2 really showcased the PS3’s graphical ability.
Summer was slow but PS3 owners did get treated to inFamous; a solid game which attracted a lot of press attention even though it didn’t quite live up to the hype. Its exclusivity to PS3 however didn’t go unnoticed by other brand users though and in this respect the game was certainly a success.
After the usual summer games drought though, Sony struck gold with the release of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and make no mistake, this IS the gaming blockbuster of 2009.
It may not be my most anticipated game of the year but for the majority of console gamers (regardless of platform bias), this is the game they want to play and this is the game that everyone is talking about. The timing of its release just after the PS3 Slim was a masterstroke as is the Uncharted 2 pack-in deal.
With God of War III, the new Ratchet and Clank, Heavy Rain and Gran Turismo 5 also on the way, Sony seems to have all the bases covered. Or do they?
Whilst there’s no doubting the current strong sales of the PS3 Slim, Sony still has a lot to do to topple its main competitor, Microsoft. The machine may be riding on the high of a price drop and a top gaming exclusive but Sony must keep the momentum going if they are going to win this battle.
All the gaming talk may be about Uncharted 2 at the moment but Sony should not overlook the popularity of the Halo franchise or the impact that ODST made despite controversy over its price point. We may have felt the price point was too high given the perceived longevity of the content but it didn’t stop the game from selling 2 million units in only 24 hours.
Regardless of your thoughts on Halo, it is a huge franchise with an iconic central character in the Master Chief. Few video games characters reach the level of public awareness penetration that the Master Chief enjoys which is easily now ranked alongside the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario and Lara Croft.
Master Chief has become a cultural icon.
Sony need an icon and at the moment Sackboy (despite my overwhelming fondness for him, if not the game itself) simply doesn’t cut it. Sackboy exists in a realm already occupied by Mario and Sonic but more importantly his main competitor simply isn’t aimed at the family friendly image. Master Chief is the gun toting action hero; The A Team as opposed to Tom & Jerry, teen hormones not tiny tots.
It’s easy to assume that Nathan Drake may provide the answer (he is arguably the modern male equivalent of Lara), but even though I love the Uncharted games I’m not quite convinced yet that Nathan can pull off that kind of media and public consciousness penetration. My feeling is that quite simply he is modelled too closely after too many other mainstream heroes such as Indiana Jones and the aforementioned Lara Croft to reach those lofty heights despite his undeniable charm as a character.
Sorry Drake but for many Lara is still the breast!
I don’t think it will matter this year for Sony; they already have more than enough momentum to carry them into and through the important Christmas period. But next year Master Chief will loom large on the horizon again with Halo: Reach, which if initial reports are true will be a full on new Halo game as opposed to the ODST Halo 3 expansion. If the game delivers, it will pose a significant threat to Sony’s ambitions.
Halo’s success is a combination of style, character and game play. Sony not only needs the game play of titles like Killzone 2 in the all important FPS arena, it needs the style that Halo has as well. The original Xbox may not have been as successful as the PS2 but it was known as the FPS console of choice with good reason. This reputation has carried over to the 360 and Sony needs to break it.
Next year also sees the release of both Microsoft’s Project Natal and Sony’s ‘Wand’. Neither manufacturer has made any secret of their respect and envy for what Nintendo has achieved with its Wii console, and 2010 will see their respective attempts at breaking or beating this dominance (although personally I predict neither).
What will be interesting here is the way each companies approach is perceived by the general public. As it stands, Sony’s effort seems very much a copy of what Nintendo has done in the sense that you are required to hold a peripheral. Microsoft on the other hand is trying something different because their system requires you to hold nothing; potentially it offers true hands free gaming.
Project Natal is aiming to be the most wanderful motion control solution.
That doesn’t mean of course that Microsoft’s approach is the right one, the tech has to work and it has to be shown to work in something fairly amazing. Neither Sony or Microsoft can rely on the motion concept itself since Nintendo have already claimed that accolade with the Wii and Wii Sports; indeed both companies need to be extremely careful that these projects are not seen as simply copy cat because that could spell disaster.
It’s also worth remembering that the Wii was shipped with motion control out of the box and this makes a huge difference to software developers because if they develop a game using motion control for the Wii, they know everyone who owns the console has the equipment to play it. The same cannot be said about the PS3 or the 360 and there’s a good chance developers either won’t bother or will simply tack on the motion control as an afterthought.
There are significant damages that can be inflicted here and this really could be the key battle of 2010. What exactly happens if Microsoft’s Natal is successful and Sony’s Wand isn’t or vice versa? The damage this would inflict to the reputation of the losing console and company could be immense and irreparable.
On a smaller scale, Sony really should undertake some revisions to PSN. The service may be free (and this has always been a great plus point) but it is still perceived by most as inferior to the chargeable Xbox Live. Some small changes here could really play into Sony’s hands.
The introduction of trophies is long done and whilst it won’t break everyone’s attachment to gamerscore, it does go a long way to offering an alternative. But what PSN lacks is shape, its design feels sluggish and its content sporadic compared to Live which is superbly streamlined and intuitive.
Sony needs to tidy up the interface and specifically speed up tasks such as trophy comparisons and sort the Playstation Store. Where Live’s marketplace succeeds is it differentiates between demos, games and DLC. The content is much easier and more intuitive to find and as it stands there is also more of it.
Where Sony could really succeed here though is through the use of their back catalogues and specifically the PS2’s. There’s such a wealth of quality titles on the PS2 that if Sony can emulate the system for all through an update they could really have a major advantage over Microsoft (who have never really made the most of their Xbox Originals offerings).
Microsoft also do not have the kind of back catalogue that the PS2 does, whether in terms of volume or the number of major gaming franchise’s that appeared on the system. Even the PS1’s back catalogue is not being fully utilised which I think is a great shame given the cheap price for which the games can be offered and the PSP compatibility, both of which are great selling points.
Sony also needs to aggressively target some of the PS3’s big developer detractors, Valve in particular. The lack of games such as Left 4 Dead on PS3 doesn’t go unnoticed by the consumer and the situation could end up extending to Half Life 2: Episode 3 which would be a great shame for the PS3 and its gamers.
We must not overlook their successes though. Sony has done a lot right this year and you can’t help but admire them; they dominated two generations of hardware only to be written off for the third and yet here they are right back in the fray and ever ascending. If they carry on with the purpose and dedication they have shown this year, they just may reach the summit again.
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Drake also can’t beat MasterChief at Milking the milk, wee wee and poop out of a franchise. That alone is commendable.
Seeing as how you must have missed the launch of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves i should probably help you get up to speed – Drake has ALREADY beaten Master Chief.
Metacritic currently has Uncharted 2 at a score of 97/100 – the joint highest (With Super Mario Galaxy) exclusive game this generation. In comparison Halo 3 has a rather mediocre 94 and i won’t even bother with the patheticness that was Halo 3: ODST – what did it get, like a 72 or something?
Mario and Nathan Drake are the two icons of this generation – Master Chief may be the best the Xbox 360 can do but comapred to Nintendo and Sony’s frontrunners he’s a bit of an afterthought.
That being said i STILL think Jak & Daxter is better than Uncharted…………….
GET READY FOR THE THIRD COMING OF MIGHTY KRATOS, THIS MAN WILL DISMEMBER MASTER CHIEF, RIP OFF THE NOSE OF MARIO AND STAB IT BACK INTO MARIOS HEART AND MAKE BRUTAL LOVE WITH LARA CROFT, GET READY!!!!!!
Great article and i agree with most of it except for one part. it rants about the PSN not being organized and stuff particularly with the demos, games, DLC.
I dont know about you guys but when i go on PSN it has a bunch of tabs saying defferent stuff with three being Demos, Games, and Add-ons (DLC). I have never used xbox live, but unless it reads my mind and brings me to where exactly i want to be on the live market i dont see how it could be any better organized than the PSN. I mean click the demos tab and it brings you to the demos section, it even farther organizes it with a couple more tabs asking what type of demos you would like and such. and it does that with Games and DLC also.
I really must be missing something it people think it is hard to navigate through PSN, and why its easier on xbox live. unless what i said earlier about live is true.
Great, unbiased article which is VERY rare in these console wars. To the above comments: Master Chief is an icon while Drake isn’t. Metascores mean nothing. Halo is a household name and although I don’t think it’s reached the iconic pinnacle of Mario, it’s still a very large icon. UC2 has a long way to being compared to the Halo franchise.
Also the PSN is still very inferior to Xbox live in terms of quality and smoothness. That’s not to say that the effort isn’t there, it’s just that it seems like it is more emphasized with Microsoft.
It will be interesting to see how this momentum will carry on to the holidays which is 2 months far when a lot of PS3’s great games come out on March of next year.
Working in electronics and having a ps3 of my own I thoroughly enjoyed this article. Although there are somethings I feel are ,I won’t say incorrect, but against my opinion.
When writing an article comparing Sony and Microsoft we can’t keep bringing in who Sony is going to put as their mascot. Ya when someone says xbox you think Halo, but when someone says playstation there are many things one can think of. It could be LBP, Killzone, Uncharted, God of War. Each time a blockbuster title comes out can we stop putting it on a pedestal and hail “Hey Microsoft here is our mascot!”
When you start to dismember the PSN I begin to get confused. When I think PSN I think about the online capabilites that pertain to online play such as matchmaking features, cross-game chat, etc. I believe you’re talking about the PSN Store when it comes to the confusing layout. True it could be streamlined a bit but if you have trouble finding things when they’re categorized and alphabetized than maybe we need to draw some “purdy pictures” for you so you don’t lose your way.
Motion controls are a very unwelcomed addition on both consoles in my opinion. Let the kids wave their hands around like idiots on the wii. I don’t need to wave my hands around let’s say in god of war to kill someone to make me more engaged in the game, or duck down with natal to take cover in gears of war, tha’s just retarded.
So 97/100 is superior and 94/100 is mediocre. Ouch, that doesn’t even deserve a comment.
great article but one thing you didn’t mention was that sony have had the playstation eye on the market for 2 or 3 years now. If anyone were to look in to this playstation branded camera then they would notice that it’s main use is to allow players to play games that require no controller’s. so what microsoft are doing with natal sony have been doing with the PSeye for years. sadly though, no companies have yet to really get behind the pseye and show people what really can be done with such technology (an on screne interactive fich tank and a new age tamagotchi doesn’t really cut it).
I am very intrigued to see how the ‘wand’ and ‘natal’ work with traditional games, i can’t see it being very fun having to wave your hand to the right to move your character with natal, and the fact that the wand has no analogue stick’s or direction buttons would make me think that character movement my not be too different to natal’s method. i remember seeing the e3 demo of the wand and there implementation of it in the rpg genre. it all looked good with controlling of the character’s arms but how in the hell do you walk around (walking and running about a large world being the main focus of an rpg). i personally don’t think that motion controlles will work with most genre’s that we have today, well not without carrying over alot of the buttons that we have on traditional pads. all in all i think that the wand and natal will open up a new market for both systems but the hardcore gamer will probably not really care for it at all. i mean take devil may cry and god of war with motion controlles, who in the right mind is going to stand in there room jumping, spinning and throughing there arms about every were. this is not only ridiculous but most people can’t physically recrate the actions of kratos and dante and my god how lame will it be if your doing a slight swing of the wand and kratos is responding with a furious 3 or 4 hit combo. i think i might just leave these motion controlles well alone and stick with my beloved dualshock 3 but lets wait and see…
you guys are idiots to compare a mediocre game like halo to uc2 are u serious? halo can put any inferiro game out and ppl will spend money on it because there idiots and dont have better games to spend money on on the xbox 360 lets be honest the xbox due to its cheap sale price has millions of more users therefore it equates to xbox games selling more and these are the same morons who spend money on another xbox after it has broken down lol. At least now xbxo gamers are wising up and getting ps3’s now that it is cheaper and by a long shot has the better quality games such as killzone 2 and uc2 killzone 2 was a halo killer it was way better than Halo.
I mean Bungie can put any Halo game out thats inferior
LOL – PSN is twice the service Xbox LIVE is. The only people who would possibly want to defend XBL are people who feel the need to justify the fact that they spend $50 per year (Soon to be $100) for a service that’s exactly the same as PSN. In fact, forget PSN. XBL is more on par with Nintendo Wi – Fi in terms of quality and server performance.
Also – Master Chief is NOT an icon. He’s a grown man who dresses and acts like it’s halloween every day. Next you’ll be telling us that Marcus Fenix (Is that him? The guy from Gears Of War?) is an icon…….ROFL!
Also – Metascores mean nothing??? Evidently you don’t follow the games industry very closely at all. Metascores are not an example of a games retail success they are a measure of a games quality. Considering there are NO quality games on the 360 i can understand why you, as an obvious 360 fanboy, would be desperate to undermine the reputation that Metacritic already holds within the gaming community but you’re not going to be able to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes here.
The fact of the matter is this – Halo 3/Halo 3: ODST was not a quality game. Uncharted 2 WAS a quality game. Super Mario Galaxy WAS a quality game. LittleBigPlanet (95 – still better than Halo/Gears) WAS a quality game. Face it – the critics didn’t care for Halo 3 nearly as much as they did the true AAA games for this generation and there’s no typical fanboy response you can come up with that can discredit that fact.
On a final note – Halo is nowhere NEAR being able to contend with Mario for worldwide recognition. The only game franchise i can think of that even comes close to Mario’s popularity is Pokemon. If you show a non – gamer on the street a picture of Mario and ask them who it is they’ll say “That’s Mario.”. If you show them a picture of Pikachu and ask the same question they’ll say “That’s Pikachu.”. If you show them a picture of Master Chief and ask them that question their response will be somewhere along the lines of “Uhhh………..is that Iron Man when he’s not feeling well?”.
Okay David Macphail you gotta try to see the other side of this, not just yours. I want to keep clear that I’m on the PS3 boat, and I don’t even own an XBOX. And yes, metascores mean nothing if Halo sells 2.5 million and ODST sells 2.2 million on their first week. Just like chulonyc sid, Bungie can put shit with the name Halo on it and it’d still sell at least 1 mill a week. Everyone that’s played a game has played some Halo. And you gotta understand that Halo is the most popular fps since Counter-strike. It set a new bar in terms of high quality multiplayer gameplay. LittleBigPlanet was a quality game but it didn’t sell nearly as well as anything from the Halo series. It may have gotten a higher metascore, but what matters in these console wars is popularity and sales.
And i just want to stress that EVERYONE knows Halo, maybe more so than World of Warcraft, and that’s huge. So maybe I should have clarified more. Meta scores don’t reflect the popularity of a game nor does it reflect the enjoyability of it. I’ll clarify some more. Many people probably had more fun playing Halo than anything because it’s high quality multiplayer gameplay.
And yes XBL has better than PSN, and not just because people want to justify what they payed for.
Everyone INSIDE the gaming community knows Master Chief, people who have never played a game in their lives won’t have a clue who he is but they WILL know some of the Nintendo faces – that’s the difference in popularity.
Also, i did play the very first Halo in multiplayer mode and i thought it was a load of utter garbage. However i’m biased, not against 360 games but against FPS games in general. I hate the first person view point so i lost interest after a few seconds.
Also, if sales are all that matter then Gran Turismo must be the most iconic game in history because there is not a single full game in the GT franchise that has sold less than 10 million. Something Halo could only dream of.
The Sony Defense Force is out. Sorry to see a good article turned meaningless with morons talking out of their ass and off subject.
lol PS3 icon?? one that could kill Master Chef?? one brutal guy that never will be killed… KRATOS…. oh if u want style gameplay badassnes nd is da best action hero ever?? some old guy that can kill Master Chef in less than a minute…… two words… SOLID SNAKE.. he’s old but can still kik ur azz.
You are probably missing an important point:
Halo ODST beat Uncharted in terms of sales even WITHOUT the Iconic Master Chief Character and its entire cast was new (not to mention it was only a small side project ). Halo Wars didn’t have Master Chief either.
One game that tops Uncharted both in terms of review scores and sales is GTA IV – where Niko was introduced for the first time (instead of Tony and CJ from previous games). The new episodes have different characters.
The biggest selling Wii games are Wii Sports and Wii Fit (bundles obviously) and they don’t contain Mario.
And what about the best selling series on the Playstation? That’s GT. Any Iconic characters there?
What about the most expected game in 2009? Most of the characters in MW1 died, so while Soap McTravish is still in MW2, it’s not really a key selling point to the game.
Are you seeing a pattern here? Icons are dead. Games today don’t live and die on the icons/characters, but rather on the premise of the title and the proven gameplay previous titles in the series establised.
Master Chief a ‘cultural icon’?? What a load of silly horse wee wee!! Only an icon for silly idiots like u in America…….. what a load of silly poo!!! The only people that care about such shite are pre-pubescent morons!! My GOD how people hired u to write such silly-poor poo is beyond me!! Console war my BOTTOM there is no winner, only preference. One console is far better than all others! If the PS3 was an American product u morons would be hyping it up as the greatest thing since being able to legally own a gun, and if the xbox was a foreign product u idiots would HATE it!!
I have a few questions for the Author who I feel might need to do just a little more research. Halo ODST only sold 1.5 million copies as of last week so where did he get his sales data for 2 million in one day. That seem flawed. Then his points seem a little short sided at best. First of all the PS3 has the best exclusive line-up of games coming out in the forseable future. It’s sales have never been better. And it finally getting the accolades and good press it has deserved from the begining. The issue here is what is microsofts next move. The lowered the price of 360 and their sales were lukewarm at best. Their first party lineup as usual seems very thin. Alan wake, Halo Reach(maybe) and NATAL. Come on. PS3 has GOW3, Heavy Rain, GT5, MAG, Eye Pet, WKC, AGENT, LA Noire. The list goes on and on. Xbox is the one that is in serious trouble. And one other thing. I am a true gamer, I have played everything including both of microsofts consoles, but NATAL is an utter fail. Every true gamer knows that. Peace!!
Master Chief didn’t become an icon of this proportion overnight,it took time and marketing to make him into this behemoth of a brand.That said,I absolutely despise the character and the series as a whole.My preferred 360 exclusive franchise has to be the Gears series,which i think is the 360’s real Killer app,but that’s besides the point.Anyways,I’ve always been very loyal to Sony,and it has never ever disappointed me.Uncharted series,to me,is the pinnacle of Sony’s dedication to its gamers…something non-PS3 sadly might not experiance.Some people have played only the first couple of levels and already made their assumptions about the game,and the real opinion about it should only be shared by those who have beaten the entire game.By the way,you totally forgot how Uncharted 2’s first week sales were 6-times that of the original Uncharted.Killzone 2 also showed us that Sony can turn a mediocre franchise into a force to be reckoned with.I hated the first Killzone,and the turnaround in quality between the two is absolutely astonishing in every regard.I also don’t know why article after article has to clarify it’s stance on the console war,when it clearly shows favoritism with the 360 maybe because it’s the only American console to actually do this well since the early 80’s.
point blank sales does not equate to quality for u little kids on here talking nonsense if that was the case i would get me a crappy wii and wii play that sells millions upon millions more than the competition. Come on guys nothing on the xbox 360 can even come close to uncharted 2 its an undisputable fact!!!!!! and thats just the beginning
Czech Monster – it’s people like you who ruin the games industry. Pathetic little morons who can’t afford a PS3 so they resort to talking trash about the console without the slightest hint of sales figures or facts to back up their pathetic fanboy crying.
Gran Turismo HAS sold more than Halo, if you would like to provide a link that disproves that then you’re welcome too, if not then shut the hell up before you prove your ignorance of the gaming industry even further.
The Halo franchise and Master Chief are very recognizable to everyone. And more successful than anything UC will be. Maybe not a triumph in its graphics and such. But Halo has a ridiculous fan base. When you have places like party city selling master chief costumes for anywhere around $80 to the full blown $800 replica costume you have succeeded. Halo is everywhere, in books, clothing, toys, etc.
I have never owned a playstation but my roommate has one and play it almost as much as my 360 and Killzone 2 may be one of the best and most fun I have ever played. It takes alot for me to beat a game on the hardest difficulty and I have done it both in KZ2 and UC because i enjoyed them. But also did it in Halo. I believe that UC2 is the best looking game I have ever seen. But that will not make me leave Xbox and Xbox Live.
Sony is doing very well. Halo Reach will prove many people wrong. I also think that many people are underestimating what Alan Wake can do. The console war is as tight as it probably ever has been and i think it will stay like that. No one is going to kill off the others.
@McPhail,
FYI, I have 2 XBOX 360s, PS3, Wii, 2 PCs and 2 MACs. But there is no point arguing with an idiot, it will only bring you down to his level. I’m not going stoop down to your level.
@McFail Take your hate else were dude, if you hate fps don’t come and talk crap about stuff you don’t understand. You sound like a sony representative or a man too cheap to buy any other console after saving up for a ps3 and wants to make himself feel better about it. This is a blog about the love of gaming, console wars are pointless. Each console has it’s strengths and weaknesses. I own all 3 current gen consoles and enjoy each thoroughly.
@ Czech Monster: rock on bro! Mutliplatform ftw!
The real Question is who is Master Chief well here it is he is a one man show, a fictional character that cannot be simulated in the real world.Its an excuse to down the validity of the real world and what it has to offer,that is realistic hope not imaginative.The funny thing is this concept captures a society that is filled of depression a lack if real livable values and a lack of knowing who they real are.Drake on the other had is the total opposite his world is transferable to real life expectations real life concepts that we are social beings and at every turn of life we need the help of others and with that we grow to know who we are.
Classic Rockie verses Muhammad Ali the battle between fiction and reality one is a poor excuse for an icon not present in a social bracket a battle that’s black and white.
So is it OK to try to present a comparison between the two? the answer a resounding no you cant one is far superior to the other in every way (false hope,real hope,X verse S). Read between the lines .