The demo for Jericho is out today on XBL. It will be on PSN next Thursday.

If you like gore-fests, this is your game. They submitted the console version to the ratings board in Germany. The amount of gore resulted in an adult rating. As a result, they just pulled the game release from Germany rather than tone down the gore. It will still be released on the PC in Germany.

I think Mizzou B-ball Fan forgets one other MASSIVE selling point for a console, especially after the intial year: people tend to buy the one their friends have. And I think that this will only be more true with this generation (and future gens) as online gaming has become so huge.

At this point, your friends are 3 times as likely to own a 360 as they are a PS3. Which will weigh heavily when you buy a system if you want to play games online, or be able to bring extra controllers to a party, or borrow games, etc.

Actually, the current ratio of sales is 2:1 Roughly 12M 360's and 5.5M PS3's. Also, online gaming is not quite as 'huge' as you might think. There are still a lot of people that are exclusively single player gamers. Multiplayer gaming is certainly a point to consider, as I mentioned in the response to Galaxy, but the biggest factor by far is games available, especially exclusives for that system. For example, Galaxy isn't going to buy a 360 just because his friends have one. He's going to buy it because it has games like Halo 3 and Gears of War that he can play with those friends.

The rate in america has got to be a lot higher than the world rate.

dawgfan has already commented, but I'll add my 2 cents worth. The PS3 has DIFFERENT hardware. It is not necessarily better. The SPUs are VERY useful for certain types of algorithms. For other types of code, the 2 extra general purpose processors (with 4 more cores) in the 360 are far more useful.

In the end, which one is "better" depends greatly on the type of game you are making. And given that ALL games have different types of code running in them, I doubt either one will ever show a clear advantage over the other in games consumers buy. Contrived demos can be written to show advantages to one over the other, but that's all they'll be: contrived demos.

But once again, these companies do not make money just in America. Also, America is MS's home turf. They should be winning here, despite the fact that they lost the last generation badly. The exclusion of some regions is selective reasoning at best. I'm sure that MS is delighted that they have a 2:1 ratio at this point.

You really believe that MS being based in America has anything to do with their winning the console war in the US? What's your basis for that belief?

Does anyone have numbers for how many XBOX360s and PS3s have sold in the US? I'd be curious to see that number instead of the worldwide ones.

A little searching and I found the numbers:

Wii: over 4 million
360: 6.3 million
PS3: 1.75 million

So yep, the 360 has a 3.6 to 1 advantage in the US.

Wow, when you run the numbers the PS3 has less than 15% of the US next-gen market. That's even worse that I expected.

Dude, you wrote the following TODAY:

It barely beat out a children's book for the biggest day one in US entertainment history, and only did so because of all the saps willing to shell out $130 for the Legendary edition. :rolleyes:

(yes, it is rather impressive)

Of course the game is about $30 more expensive than the book. :)

Yeah, but Harry Potter wouldn't have sold near as many copies at $60, $70, or $130 I suppose. Although it would be quite interesting to see how hardcore the Harry Potter fanbase is and how the book might have sold at those prices.

Uh.

A book and a video game are two completely different things. :) I can't even believe you're trying to compare their sales numbers.

check your sarcasm detector

If you keep shifting your arguments every time they're shown to be stupid eventually you might hit a winner I guess...

It ran out of batteries early today.

Does either systems have a wireless connection to play online?

Pretty sure that Wi-Fi is built-in to the PS3. You can buy a Wi-Fi adapter for the 360, but it costs ~$90, so that's an advantage for the PS3.

Wi-fi is indeed built-into the PS3. However, some people have said they have problems staying connected (I haven't had that problem). I was listening to the Gamers With Jobs podcast this morning and one of the hosts on it thought it might have something to do with interference (though interference with WHAT wasn't clear). He mentioned he had a stable connection when he hooked his PS3 to the TV in his bedroom (I think that's where it was, or an office with a TV or something) but not in his living room.

/tk

wifi is built into the wii too

Yeah, the connection drops are user specific. There's no problems with the technology itself.

I've always said that using the U.S. numbers alone is not any way to judge the console war. Business decisions by both Sony and MS are not made just on what America demands. They have to adjust and adapt to make money in all regions. The fact that the 360 has failed so badly in Japan is the thing most analysts point to as a reason that the PS3 could end up the eventual winner. Giving away a whole segment of the market to your competitor is a tough way to win console wars over the long haul.

Big news in the EU countries. Sony has reached an agreement to sell PES 2008 as a bundle with the PS3. Should be a great system seller in Europe as this game is huge in that region.

It should be interesting to look at the NPD numbers for September to see if Maximum Football 2 spikes PC sales.

That was a wacky but fun game :)

SI

PC sales have a max gain limit to keep their numbers from getting out of hand.

Forgot a 360, I need to upgrade my PC for the greatest game ever.

Unless that segment constitutes less than 19% of the worldwide market and you are outselling your main competitor by greater than a 2:1 margin in the single biggest market in the world (U.S. and A).

Well MS never had the Japanese market to "give away". If anything was given away, it's been Sony giving away the US Market where they previously were the 800 lb gorilla and now are one of those little masturbating monkeys you see in the zoo.

These rumored deals are so good that I'm taking a quick break from my break of posting in this thread:

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/27/ru...-this-holiday/

The details:

The Pro 360 will include Forza 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance (both fun games) starting October 9th. Same deal with the Elite starting October 23rd.

The core will start shipping with a 256 MB memory card, a wireless controller, a HDMI port, and 5 free Xbox Live games on a disc starting at the end of October.

DING, DING, DING.

We have a winner.

MS never had Japan. They probably never will no matter what they do. That's simple reality. MS knew it going in. Again, their hope with the 360 was to tear some market share away from Sony and become relevant in the USA/Euro markets. Mission Accomplished.

Sony was the dominant one all across the world. MS never expected that they might actually BEAT the PS3. Now that is a real possiblity. Spinning this any other way is asinine. But expected I guess.

One thing Sony and MS never counted on was Nintendo, the console that will win this generation.

QFT.

You should retire as a doctor and go into sales. Your pushing me into opening my wallet very soon.

The core system, at the same price, sounds very promising. Is a 256 MB memory card big enough to hold a lot of information? I'm seriously thinking of plucking down an order. My only concern is if they consoles will be the new ones that solve the problems the 360 have.

It's not just Sony and MS that were caught by surprise by the Wii's success - I'd venture to say nearly all parties in the gaming industry were not expecting this level of success for the Wii.

256 MB will be enough for some saved games. You won't be downloading many demos on it. Maybe a few arcade games will fit.

If it's got an HDMI port, it's a fairly safe bet it's one of the new ones.

Are the 360s with the HDMI input built to fix the RROD issue?

Except for, y'know, when firmware 1.92 introduced random disconnects that were, in fact, completely hardware-specific.

Folks who are having issues with 1.93, that's probably related more to location of the PS3 versus that of the wireless router than anything else...but depending on how old the claims in question are, it could very well be a drop issue that was absolutely the result of the then-latest firmware for PlayStation 3.

Not yet, anyways. I don't notice that mine gets particularly hot though. Hard to say if they've fixed the issue(doubtful).

I still wouldn't buy a core, although all that included stuff is pretty tempting. If you don't plan on using Live, and don't ever download demos, then I suppose it should be good enough.

So apparently the reason NBA 08 PS3 doesn't have "The Life" is because they're wrapping it up this year. Some trilogy crap, and this year is the final chapter of it on PS2.

Be interesting to see how they replace it next year.

Do you guys expect any shortages of any of the systems this holiday season?

If you ask Sony I'm sure they'll predict empty shelves for the PS3 this holiday season. ;)

Honestly, no.

Shortages of specific SKUs for 360 or PS3? Possibly. Depends on circumstances.

Like, if the 80 gig PS3 either doesn't drop or only drops to $549, and the 40 gig comes in at $399, I could easily see stores have trouble keeping the 40 in stock.

Also, depends on whether retailers run specials on one SKU or another.

But just, overall, a particular system not available? Not at this point. It's too important a Christmas for the three for any of them to start with shenanigans, and a second Christmas of virtual unavailability on the Wii might start to deflate the warm fuzzies from the consumer base.

Honestly, Sony needs to hurry up with the 40 GB machine or a 80 GB price drop. Their sales are going to suffer until they do that. The 60 GB machines are becoming pretty scarce online and in the stores, but there are plenty of 80 GB machines. No one's going to buy those 80 GB machines with the price drop coming along with a new SKU. Part of their sales problem right now is the price drop and new system. The quicker they can announce it, the better it is for them. Even if they don't have the system ready, they can at least build some level of hype for the $399 price point this holiday season.

Lots of speculation that the 40 GB PS3 will be released on October 30th. Rumor is that the Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction game was moved back from October 23rd to October 30th for that reason. Also, Spiderman 3 is scheduled to be released on October 30th. That's significant because the $399 40 GB PS3 is supposed to be bundled with the BR version of Spiderman 3.

The 5 BR movie rebate site (http://www.bluraysavings.com) has recently been updated to add a new SKU to the list of PS3's as well. Another sign that the new system is coming relatively quickly.

Also, a 'Big Bang' (their words, not mine :) ) announcement by Sony is expected on October 12th. Speculation is that it will be to announce the new 40 GB machine.

If they release the same type of game they did this year, why bother?

www.gamenikki.com for my review of the dreadful NBA 08.

$400 for a PS3 with backward compatibility, WiFi, and Ratchet and Clank as a pack-in game would probably be enough to get me to buy one.

Big Bang? I always liked "megaton." It was mentioned in French GamePro so it might have to do with European pricing.

If this year is anything like last year, most retailers will offer bundles on both consoles with PES 2008 (and probably FIFA as well).

That would be a phenomenal holiday bundle.

Hell, let's get really crazy - Spiderman 3 as a pack-in BD, Ratchet as a pack-in game, $400 40 GB PS3 with BC (software, most likely) and built-in WiFi.

I think that would actually cause a sonic boom.