Final PS3 Launch List Shows 13 Games For America

Wowzer writes "Sony's PlayStation 3 is set to arrive this week on November 17th. With just 400,000 units available at launch in the USA, and an unknown number of game consoles arriving the rest of year. The total is expected to be below 1 million units in 2006, as a result many publishers have decided to delay their games so more time can be spent polishing them. From the article: 'Remember you'll have other ways to entertain yourself with the PS3 aside from it's multimedia capabilities. From day one you'll be able to download small games (plus their demos to give them a try first) and while Sony hasn't announced any specifics like price and release dates yet, count on Sony's PS3 download games like flOw & Blast Factor to be there.' From minor delays like Need for Speed: Carbon being delayed until November 20. To big launch lineup losses like MotorStorm which was delayed to March, 2007. The PS3 launch will now have 13 titles including Resistance: Fall of Man, Call of Duty 3, Genji: Days of the Blade and Ridge Racer 7."

Remember: Games are Key

[Dr. Eggman]

Even if Sony hopes Blue-Ray will become a big factor, there are 23 Sony Blue-Ray DVDs out and not alot of those titles are going to appeal to everyone (little man? Stealth? The list goes on,) games (and to a much lesser extent accessories) are going to play the big role in Sony's success with the PS3 (especially short term.)Numbers [kikizo.com] from EnterBrain show 88,400 consoles sold (100,000 is an shipment estimate, EnterBrain expects the missing 12,600 are simply ones that were unable to be produced, not unsold.) 62% were high end which falls below the expected 80/20 distribution of PS3 models which, as unlike Nintendo, Sony loses money on every PS3 machine, we can conclude is actually worse as the profit-negating feature of the PS3 is likely to lie with the Blue-ray drive (and possibly to some extend the Cell; it sure isn't helping) which was present in the same cost in the lower model. We can assume that the features left off from the low end machine do not present a significant enough cost to be off set by the $100 short of the low end model (atleast not to make up the loss elsewhere, if not even making up the $100 itself.) Worse yet, despite analysis that all would likly have sold anyways, the Japanese PS3 versions were actually cheaper than what the US will recieve, most probably creating all the larger hill for Sony to surmount in the quest for profit.

But the more important factor is the game sales. Top two games sales were Ridge Racer 7 and Gundum at 30,000 each. Togther, that's only 60,000 games sold! Not even 1 game per system sold (lousy ebayers?) Of course, we don't have difinitive numbers on what the other 3 games available at Japan's launch are (only that they didn't reach 30,000) but we can only guess they might have made up atleast 22,000 if that (Doubt Genji sold well; check out the reviews, critics delt massive damage to that Giant Crab turd of a game.) Still, even assuming a difference made up towards one game sold per system sold, it is not hard to believe that that ratio will not make up the difference of system production costs.

Though it sold out, we're still in for quite a rollercoaster ride as the Wii (a 'strong' competitor with a better quick returns setup) steps in and the production of both console start to kick in to high gear for the USA Mega-holidays Spend-O-Rifica period. Rumors and unverified reports put PS3 second salvos in the US stores ready by the 20th (launch +3 days) and Wii at about the same time (launch +1, though these are rumors) and we can only guess they're going to be out in their bests ready for Post-Turkey day Shopping Madness.

Considering numerous games on the PS3 list are non-exclusive and exclusives like Genji have often been review, criticied and praised by Japan-launch capable news orgs, US shoppers have a lot of choice and information on the games to choose. Even if the PS3 sells out in the US, the different environment games are presented in here in the US (PCs and Xbox 360s being bigger here for things like CoD 3) could greatly impact Sony's success (in terms of profit and market share.)

Re:Uhhuh

[StarvingSE]

I've been using the same setup for the past 4 years: Athlon XP 2500 oc'ed to 3200 speed, a gig of ram, and more than enough HD space. Initially cost me about $700 for the setup. The only thing I've done is buy a new mid-range vid card and another gig of cheap memory. I can play all the games I want, even oblivion, at max or damn near close to max details. Plus I get custom content online for some games, and I do use it for programming and dual boot to linux to get my open source fix. PC's are more extensible plus more flexible than the PS3.

I just picked up a 360.

[Blimey85]

I picked up an Xbox 360 last night along with Gears of War and Dead Rising. Will pick up a few more games in the next week or so and then of course Halo 3 when it comes out. The main reason I decided to go with a 360 and not a PS3 right now had nothing to do with the price. I wanted a system that had some games available. The PS3 won't have a large number of good games for at least several months. I'll buy one probably next fall unless something really great comes along. Having just bought a 360 I think that will keep me entertained for quite a while.