Why the Playstation 3 has already lost the console war.

 Go to any forum talking about the format war — which is now over — and you are bound to hear tons of Playstation 3 fanboys proclaiming the Playstation 3 is making a comeback. They base these claims off of Blu-Ray’s recent victory(against HD DVD, which many say was the superior format; Blu-Ray was inferior in comparison. HD DVD has a better picture and was an all around better product and many agree.), NPD sales from early this year that had PS3 sales abit higher than 360 sales(bear in mind no console sold over 300K in this period and the early months of the year are following heavy holiday sales which left many retail establishments with shortages of their Nintendo and Microsoft product) and overall from the online rants of Sony/PS3 fanboys who will argue till the world has ended that their console is the best.

 There is only one problem with the claims made by the Sony/PS3 fanboy crowd; they are not very realistic. For one, Blu-Ray’s victory against HD DVD – which was never established anyway(HD DVD was vying for the market just like Blu-Ray is) – really means nothing when Standard DVDs still account for 90% of movie sales, secondly the black market which sells DVDs for $5 has already put a hole in the pockets of the movie companies(DVD has been hacked and so has Blu-Ray…already); who is going to pay full price at the store when the can get the same movie for only $5, third movies are in a slump noone is buying them TV lost over 2.5 million viewers last spring alone to the internet which brings me to my last reason Blu-Ray will have a hardtime.

 Physical media is dying. CDs are being trumped by downloads as is television itself. Everything is moving to a digital format; the new Macbook does not even have a disc drive due to the fact that so many people simply download media now. Blu-Ray is not a huge improvement over DVDs as a matter of fact Blu-Ray is still in fact a DVD. The only difference is it is a High Definition DVD. Not much of a reason to buy the same movie twice; DVDs was a huge step above VHS tapes but Blu-Ray is nothing revolutionary as a matter of fact with the digital realm quickly becoming the norm Blu-Ray’s days may be numbered. For those that believe Blu-Ray is the topnotch physical media for High Definition I must introduce you to the Tera-Disc which has over 20 times the amount of storage a Blu-Ray disc does and embodies cutting edge physical media technology should physical media last that long.

As far as the NPD sales numbers go no console sold more than 300K showing that noone was really buying consoles at all after the holidays. Pointing to a month or two of sales after a period(i.e. Jan, Feb or even March) where both the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 sold over 1 million consoles in the U.S.(and the Playstation 3 did not even break 1 million sales during the holiday) and denying — or ignoring because you’re a fan of Sony and/or the PS3 – that the consoles that had tremendous sales(i.e. The 360 and the Wii) during December would of course experience shortages in the months that follow such a huge turnover seems shallow, petty, fanboyish and quite ignorant.

Lastly, Sony’s PS3’s main support is from fanboys online and in the media. I once even heard a fanboy on some unknown news channel lie and say the Playstation 3 outsold the Wii in the United States last December. Anyone with a brain that has been watching the console wars knows this is a blatant lie and can verify this by simply pulling up the actual sales numbers which can be found here: http://www.digitalbattle.com/2008/01/17/npd-hardware-sales-for-december-2007/

According to these numbers the Playstation 3 came in last. I guess in Sony/PS3 fanboy world it’s number one eh? Moving on, the Sony camp — and those they have paid off obviously – are now claiming the PS3 is going to win the console war due to Blu-Ray(Part of the now dying physical media and movie industry which is nowhere near as successful as they used to be with the internet around, even Apple does not believe in Blu-Ray and has chose to go digital with their Apple TV technology built for delivering digital HD to your television set) and a few video game titles actually being released for the Playstation 3. The Sony fanboys are also claiming the PS3 is going to be a 10-year console which is laughable. Some base this off of the fact that the Playstation 2 is still going strong. What they fail to realize is that even though the Playstation 2 is going strong this did not prevent the Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 from being created. The Playstation 3 is not the Playstation 2 they are two different consoles. One is doing poorly while the other is selling well. Also, the reason the sales for the Playstation 2 are still strong is because when the Playstation 2 came out they took advantage of the most widely utilized format, standard DVDs, and because the Playstation 2 is a gaming console(with some amazing games) first and foremost. The Playstation 2 was not utilized to market what the producer hoped would be a widely utilized revamped high definition version of the “same format”(Like the Playstation 3 did) instead it took advantage of one that already existed. Kind of like the Wii and 360 is doing now. Notice how in December sales the Playstation 3 — which is the only Blu-Ray player – comes in dead last? This is very telling.

The next generation of consoles is due soon and trust and believe they are going to be even better than the ones we have out now(with the exception of the Playstation 3 which was pretty much just  trojan horse to force Blu-Ray onto consumers. They even went as far as packaging the Playstation 3 with HDTVs. Yes the sales were that dismal and Sony is that adamant about forcing a dying physical format down our throats.) By the time people actually start thinking about High Definition players in mass the next generation of consoles will be out and digital formats will be on the rise. The Playstation 3 lost the console war because even if it does gather a few sales as a Blu-Ray player it will be too late. By next year we will start hearing about the next consoles and their release dates. What the Sony fanboys fail to realize is that consoles only last about 4 maybe 5 years before the next group of consoles are released. Keeping that in mind remember this iteration of the console war began in late 2005 with the release of the Xbox 360; this is now the third year of the console wars. Next year makes four years which will pretty much be the end and the next consoles will be on the way, the Playstation 3 came too little, too late to the arena and the Wii and 360 stole the show. Blu-Ray is not the norm, people still use standard DVDs and playing the role of a Sony fanboy for a moment even if it does become the norm in say a few years by then people will be playing the new Nintendo and Microsoft consoles leaving Sony once again in third place making outdated, ridiculous claims.