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September 6th 2006
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Oh man. Poor Sony. Since
their E3 disaster (GIANT
CRAB LOL), gamer's
confidence in their new
PlayStation 3 system has
slid week by week. Huge
promises have been made
about the system, what
with the creation of
extra dimensions and
pre-rendered gameplay
videos, and these
promises have been
broken at around the
same rate as the loss of
ports on the system's
rear. This morning,
gaming forums across the
world exploded when Sony
announced that they were
delaying the release of
PS3 in every territory
across the world bar
Japan and North America,
who would instead see
drastically cut
supplies. One day after
SCEE announced the
rollout of their
marketing campaign for
this Christmas, the
Japanese branch pull the
carpet from under their
feet - they'll have no
new product until March
2007.
Now, usually we wouldn't
report on news like this
because we're a Zelda
site, not a Sony-bashing
Nintendo site. But I
want to offer a response
to people who are
downplaying this move,
citing the horrific PS2
launch as an example.
The two situations are
in no way comparable. By
the time PS2 was
released, it's only
released competitor
(Dreamcast) was already
dead in the water, and
it would have the next-gen
market to itself for
another year and a
half before the
GameCube and Xbox came
thundering over the
hill. At this point in
time, the Xbox 360 has
made significant inroads
in the American and
British markets,
mainland Europe knows of
its existence, and
Japan... well, I think
they have Windows in
Japan. Xbox 360 is
playing for the same
hardcore gamer market as
the PS3, and demand sans
supply for PS3 will
drive American and
British gamers to
Microsoft's collective
this Christmas.
I've heard there's
another console coming
out this Christmas,
something called the
Wii. Wii really will
change everything, and
it's just been given a
wide-open playing field
to do so. As long as
supply is good, a
worldwide launch will
absolutely crush Sony's
chances of succeeding in
the upcoming generation.
Nintendo DS is storming
the mainland Europe and
Japanese markets;
they'll eat the Wii up
regardless of PS3. In
Britain and America, the
360-owning hardcore
looking for a little
sum'in-sum'in this
Christmas can't escape
the Wii60 effect, while
the true successor to
Western-favourite
Ocarina of Time will
ensure that Wii is taken
seriously amongst Sony
expatriates.
Both Nintendo and
Microsoft are going to
benefit immensely this
Christmas - while
Nintendo will blitz the
DS non-gamer market
anyway, it's nice to
know that the
Zelda-flagship will have
calm seas on which to
sail. We only have a
week to wait before we
find out the full story
about the Wii and
Twilight Princess - an
expose which could
completely crush the
competition. This may
all sound like fanboy
ramblings, and to a
certain extent, it is.
But this generation,
Nintendo have something
extremely special on
their hands with Wii,
and as sorry as I feel
for fellow Europeans who
were looking forward to
PS3, I have to celebrate
the fact that Zelda is
now guaranteed to
storm the world.
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