2008 Wrap up, why so... Bitter?

       2008 which started off with a bang is now soon coming to an end and we're seeing the rise of a new year, with many more anticipations and surprises, but we're not quite there yet, let's keep it in the now and see how 2008 just flew by our heads.


       Let's begin with the Wii, where it has sustained No.1 with no less than two killer app's. While it has innovation on its side it's clear that Nintendo has there demographic by the balls, the console is literally on fire even if no one touches it after they buy it like the majority of consumers. Mario Galaxy catered to more than just casual crowd of Wii fans, admittingly Mario Galaxy was a very decent and different game, it was fun to play although the lack of voice acting left a chalky atmosphere.

Super Smash blasted its way on the Wii later on also a very fun game, debuting with decent graphics and very heavy on the fighting mechanics and replayability. Neither of this games really being 2008 material, it's clear these aren't the reasons why the Wii has been selling so well.

The Wii has been selling on innovation alone which is undescribable except for Holy Crap. The Wii's pick up and play marketting has literally been embraced by millions and millions and millions of people, even old people are getting into it.

       People figured after the intial rush of hype that the Wii would die down, however the NPD data for November saw a record shattering number of 2.04 million units shifted into consumer hands which is staggering to say the least, which tells us that the reign of domination from Nintendo is far from over, even with Microsoft slashing the price of there cheapest Model, which has far more features than a Wii does, they still cannot achieve Wii numbers even with it being cheaper.

Honestly, I am puzzled, Sony must be puzzled and Microsoft must be puzzled. Sony and Microsoft both have way more features than the Wii not to mention a plethora of triple AAA games that even give PC games a run for their money and can still not shift half as many consoles as Nintendo. Amazing.

       Now we have the Xbox 360 which I am partially excited to discuss. 2008 has not been that nice to Microsoft, they've had alot of flops and one confirmed triple AAA title (Gears of War 2) however they rode there strategy like none other and bounced back with a massive price cut which resulted them in moving a ton of consoles. However I feel that the Xbox 360 is slowly becoming the middle mans connsole. Its exclusives have lost there luster and have been outshined, the graphics are becoming a medium and aren't keeping up any longer. Microsoft mostly survived 2008 with the dependence on promising DLC as a quality control check and over all stronger multi-plat releases, bolstering better performance over their main competition, the game plan was smart, many excellent multi-plat games with a cheap price point making next-gen gaming very affordable and very attractive. Microsoft is aware of the situation and switching up their game plan, which is actually really smart, they might be leaving the hardcore gamers behind but they're gaining many fans at the same time. There are no unwritten rules that say once you abandon the hardcore niche that you can't return to it, which undoubtly Microsoft will do. Next on to the Ps3.

      The PS3 had a killer year... on paper. PS3 had a tremoundus year, alot of exclusives, a handful of awesome games but really in hindsight it failed to move consoles because of its price point. However I've stated this time and time again you really do get what you pay for. The PS3 is starting to pull ahead of it's competitors in next-gen gaming, graphics wise, gaming length wise, it's becoming blindingly obvious that Sony's console is pulling ahead in quality. Examples like Killzone 2 and the much rumoured and anticipated God of War 3, innovative games like LittleBIGPlanet and extremely polished games like MGS4, epic scale games like R2 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. It's a hard thing to argue that the PS3 is doing bad while the games are so promising, but the price has definitely hindered Sony's success with the beast of a console. Lack of marketting had to play a roll in 2008's low sale count in North America. Sony will no doubt do a self assessment of the direction they're trying to take. I firmly believe they were establishing an image with PS3 and now that they have they can continue there strategy onto 2009 with stronger exclusives.

I'm looking forward to 2009, Microsoft has yet to announce there line up which has some people worried but Microsoft ALWAYS has surprises, I'm willing to guess new hardware for all systems is going to be released, probably peripherals similiar to the Wii-mote. PS3 is seemingly filling the gap in which Xbox 360 reigned over, with a hardcore fanbase. No doubt 2009 will be an interesting year.