Razoric said:
If Sony didn't have the Playstation name and a GTA game to hype up I'd be inclined to agree. While is seems 360 is 'hitting all the right notes' we really haven't seen what Sony has yet. All they've shown are a couple video demos and 'prototype' hardware. And some of those videos, namely Killzone and MGS4, have caused so much talk, uproar, hype, etc that I believe Sony still has it in them to win over the U.S. public. All they need to show is GTA Next Gen, get the press to go insane about it and you have PS3 selling millions.
But yeah, the U.S. is the warzone for next-gen in terms of MS vs. Sony.
Undoubtedly, Sony is no slouch. I think they have demonstrated by "winning" E3, "winning" TGS, and stealing Microsoft's thunder at every single major gaming event that they know what it takes - at least to maintain their hardcore userbase and to keep a steady growth of hype.
But Killzone and MGS4, they still mean nothing to casuals. Casuals don't know about that shit. Neither does E3 or TGS mean anything to them. "PLAYSTATION" means something, sure, and it's a powerful brand. But price, timeline and initial game lineup means the entire world to whatever marketing campaign Sony brings going forward. Microsoft knows the US market well, I believe. And I think it's difficult to say whether or not it'll beat Sony in the long term. But I can say with some certainty that Microsoft will gain ground, and that Sony should not take anything they do lying down. Sony took the market by storm with PSOne because they had an intelligent, almost guerilla-like campaign that targeted all the right people without embarrassing those who love games (polygon man aside). The difficulty ahead is to be able to show the public in a substantive way that:
a.) Waiting will be worth it.
b.) The technology contained IS valuable, and a true leap (critical Blu-Ray branding, critical visual showcases)
c.) The price will be attainable within at least a few years for casuals.
But Microsoft is doing a helluva job to tell casuals, at least in the US, that they are getting a LOT of what they love on the machine right off the bat. It's going to be a tough battle.
Mrbob said:
Next gen breakout GTA is coming and is X360 exclusive. The game is called Crackdown.
L-M-F-A-O