Moving the Goal Post

Another month, another NDP numbers release. Another year, another 'Reason #90210 why the PS3 is failing' assertion. So I've been asking this question to known fanatically 360 supporters or PS3/Sony nay sayers; how is the PS3 failing? And why is this goal post constantly moving?

"Oh it only sold 215K units vs 360K units for the 360". Yes it did, but it's still selling. Via that logic the Wii's ~615K units would mean the 360 is in serious trouble. I don't think Sony really has huge monthly quotas on sales as people like to believe they do. They met that 11 million goal years past and even the lamest made charts will track the progress of the PS3 and the 360 at the same rate.

"Killzone 2 didn't do so well, ‘wait for March!’" Yes we did wait for march and in that time 1 million units were sold in approximately 45 days, 1/3 of the sales happening in the two days of February. That aside, I don't think anyone in the company put a demand on sales counts in the first place, and it seems that the sales rates are satisfying SCEE and Guerrilla Games. As an antic dote I was in EB the other day and 3 used copies of Killzone 2 were on the shelf as compared to the full rack greeting me with used copies of Gears of War 2 and Fable 2 + whatever was on the shelves.

Lets be logistically honest; at what line is the PS3 failing? From what I can tell; games are still selling and the system is still selling. Another aspect to look at which nay sayers are willing to dismiss is that Sony is also selling the PSP and PS2. "Irrelevant!" they cry, however ignorant that is. Fact is that they are selling two consoles and a hand held. Sure not in great numbers, but every PS2 is profit and I don't think the PSP is costing much.

To add insult to injury, over all in the JP and EU markets sales are going. Typically I've only seen the PS3's weekly sales and it roughly manages 18K a week for a monthly total of about ~72K a month. It’s noting stellar, but still selling. Personally I believe Japan is going through a bit of console fatigue unlike US consumers. The Wii has pulled a lot of people's money and the PS2 is still widely used and the DSL/DSi and PSP are pulling spending in different directions. Only a solid PS3 with PS2 capacity will finish the PS2 sales.

If you want my opinion on the state of things with the PS3 vs 360 sales arguments, it's possible that the 360 is up due to replacements only verifiable via people reporting that or possible upgrades. But still, until the PS3 stops selling period, then it's not dying. You want to see a console die, look to the Dreamcast. Until then, game on irregardless of your console of choice.

One other observation I have which applies to all aspects of gaming; the hype train. My observation on hype trains is that they always derail at some point. I don't think you can look back at a hype train and not say that it didn't derail. It's just a fact of the hype train; strong and might, yet quickest to be self defeating. That's it and take care.