PS3 launch units drop a further 20%

[vimes]

He, in fact, I misread your intial post, I don't know why but I read that the transferring times 15-30 secs you were talking about were the transferring time of the 4Gigs of data... sorry about that.

Still, 15 to 30 seconds of loading times is inacceptable to me, ever more on a console ... so a 25% to 50 % improvement is a good thing.

[Wrestlevania]

That's cool, vimes - easily done.

Bet you're bitterly missing cartridges on home systems as well then, yeah?

I have been thinking about this whole installation thing though, with PS3, and got to thinking: what if you need to install some games in order to get the best performance/physics/graphics/whatever out of them?

[vimes]

I never had a console until I got a PS2 two months ago and someone lend me his gamecube... and the games I tried on this system never made me wait 15 to 30 seconds in load times. Never.

So I'm not nostalgic, I just want to see the new generation of consoles do at least what the previous was doing right.

[ThunderPeel2001]

So it was for Nintendo before Playstation. The market is fickle.

That's true, Microsoft and the XBox 360 are really not making the most of their long lead time. The XBox360 really needs a great game that's a "must-buy" that can't be done on an XBox or PS2, but with slightly worse graphics. At the moment there isn't one

PC CD-ROMs had Wing Commander and Myst

Nintendo had Mario

The PlayStation had Metal Gear Solid

The XBox360 REALLY needs something special that won't be available elsewhere.... and isn't just another FPS!

[Twilo]

The XBox360 REALLY needs something special that won't be available elsewhere.... and isn't just another FPS!

I think what you really mean is that the Xbox 360 needs something special that Japan will like (seeing that Gears and Halo 3 occupy the same sort of position in the US and Europe that MGS etc do for the other companies).

Word on the "street" is that Blue Dragon is picking things up a little, with Lost Odyssey to come after Christmas. I'm not saying Microsoft are blowing the Japanese market open or anything, but they might at least be able to compete on some level there. Given how few PS3s Japan will get in the first couple of months, and the time it'll take for the "killer apps" to come out, there's still some time to build up the userbase.

It's worth noting that in the past, typically no one console holds a big lead in all the markets at the same time. I think the PS1 is probably the big exception to that, PS2 to a much lesser extent but those were competing with the Saturn and Dreamcast respectively at their launches; Microsoft has an order of magnitude more muscle than Sega ever had.

At any rate, you can certainly be a big success (even the BIGGEST success) in a generation just by holding two out of three markets and having a nearish second-best in the third.

Sales numbers aren't really very useful for at least another couple of years because production is still so low; even though Nintendo are going to sell millions upon millions of Wiis in the first year, that doesn't mean they'll have sold the most consoles come the end of this generation. This is Sony's strategy, which is reasonable if somewhat risky.

[miffy495]

The XBox360 REALLY needs something special that won't be available elsewhere.... and isn't just another FPS!

I actually thought that Dead Rising had a decent shot to be that game, although for the Japanese market, you're right. They're kinda floundering. It's like MS has some kind of blockage that doesn't allow them to see that cute will actually sell over there, unlike here where your primary demographic is afraid of being seen with something, dare I say it, "sissy lookin." MS is an American company who knows what Americans like, and I've never been surprised that they get the crap kicked out of them in Japan. Pinata is a good step and everything, but that can't be it. Between Viva Pinata and Blue Dragon, I think they have a chance to get a decent foothold in Japan before many people get their hands on the PS3, but they'll have to keep it up afterwards too. Good luck to 'em, but I still can't see them having any real impact in the Japanese market until the next generation. This one would probably be used to best effect to prove that they can make games that appeal in that market, and make a bunch of 'em. Once they've got a track record, they'll be set for future consoles.

[Oath]

I actually thought that Dead Rising had a decent shot to be that game, although for the Japanese market, you're right.

Dead Rising could have done so much better in Japan. The trouble it had was that it was rated Z, which meant they wouldn't/couldn't even put out boxes. If you wanted to buy it you had to get it under the counter, so to speak. It still broke top 20 if my memory serves me correctly, so that's a pretty good achievement for the game.

[n0wak]

Rated Z for Zombie?

http://www.seekjapan.jp/article-1/785/The+State+of+Gaming+in+Japan

Also, just so you know what kind of bargain you're getting, the Playstation 3 should be $2000. LUCKY FOR US, the Sony Playstation brand got in the way of that.