Lets face it people, the last launch day must buy console was the Sega Dreamcast.
And that was only because it launched at 199$ and 10 months after Japan.
The Dreamcast when it finally arrived in the west launched with games like Soul Calibur, an improved (over the Japanese version) Sonic Adventure, Powerstone etcetera.
Those games were in your face bad ass examples of what was then a brand new generation.
And as I stated before, we had it good because we had it 10 months later.
So were other handhelds and consoles worthy to buy at launch since the DC?
GBA nah, DS forget it, PSP don’t make me laugh, PS2 full year of extremely slim pickens, Gamecube hah, XBox nope, 360 no way, PS3 get outta here.
Just look at it.
The GBA was good because of its backwards compatibility but hey if you had all those old GB and GBC games there was no rush to buy it because the early games weren’t all that hot.
The machine itself until later revisions was and lets be honest here(I know I was, so much so that Nintendo got pissed at me since seemingly I was the only one trashing the thing for lacking in backlight etcetera) a bit shit.
The DS had the same problem and just like the GBA before it didn’t come into its own until some better software and a hardware revision came along.
Some might argue the PSP still isn’t an interesting proposition (go buy Loco Roco you fuckers).
PS2 just like the PS3 seems to be now was a machine sold on POTENTIAL and sadly that potential remained very well hidden from the public for well over a full year.
The Gamecube as Nintendo’s big new console hope lacked the launch day killer app its previous consoles had enjoyed (Mario world on SNES, Mario64 on Nintendo64) and tried to entertain us (and failed to do so) with crap like Luigi´s Mansion (good thing we had Monkeyball though, that was MY killer app).
The Xbox launched as the Halo machine, and pretty much remained the Halo machine for the rest of its life.
And now we have the XBox360 which is FINALLY coming into its own and starts to become a worthy machine after having been a full year on the market.
Yeah we had glimpses at launch with PGR3 and later on with Oblivion etcetera, truth however remains that the majority of the games in the first year did indeed deserve no more then to be called Xbox 1.5 games.
Now with a year of time on the market under its belt and excellent games in development it is indeed becoming a machine I can honestly say a true gamer should have.
And the PS3?
Well its at that point the 360 was last year, right now its a bit crap with a single game that is somewhat fun and another one that looks nice and high res but can only be described as the fourth tired remake of a decent handheld game(Ridge Racer 7).
Do I believe in PS3?
Yeah sure I do, it will provide us with a bunch of excellent games in the years to come and once the prices drop and the library gets big enough it will sell really really well.
It just won’t do it at launch.
Sony is coming from the troubled launch in Japan, is having a troubled launch right now in the US and let’s not get into how troubled we are on the old continent at the moment.
But hey lets look at this on the bright side, the Dreamcast was a worthy buy at launch because of the 10 month delay compared to Japan so maybe the delay for Europe will make the PS3 a worthy buy at launch machine for us here.
Oh wait 599 Euro, forget the way too long sentence above.
So what am I trying to say here?
Well those expecting the next coming from any launch these days(especially if its simultaneous or near simultaneous)are just deluding themselves and setting themselves up for big disappointments.
The majority of people buying into the PS3 right now (like 360 launch buyers) will in a month’s time be spending the majority of their game time on handhelds, current gen systems and the 360.
It’s only natural and happens all the time after every launch and this time more so then ever because publishers will further delay titles until there are more machines in gamer’s hands.
The days we got killer apps at launch are OVER because it takes longer to craft system sellers these days and costs much more money.
The other reason of course is because launches are no longer spread these days and where in the past we benefited from a later launch by having better launch software its a benefit that can no longer exist since the delays between launches no longer exist(unless you live in Europe) between the three major regions.
These days’ people seem to want the hardware for the sake of the hardware.
A development im not entirely happy with, a development also which I aired my displeasure with when the PS2 launched.
What good is the hardware if you have nothing to justify its cost?
The Dreamcast was easy, 199$ and it launched a new generation of videogames.
We don’t have that now and if it wasn’t for this lil profession of mine I would wait quite a while before diving into the PS3 and would probably only have gotten into the 360 now instead of a year ago.
