Poll: Opinions on the console war?

[northeast rower]

I don't mean for this to be a trolling thread, but merely a place to give your ideas on who's winning, losing, or whatever else.

Frankly, I believe that neither Microsoft nor Sony is winning (I'm not counting Nintendo here, I've never played the Wii). However, MS is losing ground FAST. It doesn't seem to be capable of holding onto exclusives, and the exclusives it has are often underwhelming. Take, for instance, the past year and the year ahead: MS has already lost the majority of its exclusives to Sony, such as Mass Effect 2, Bioshock, and Oblivion. What has it gained? A lackluster Final Fantasy and a Metal Gear... spinoff. I'm not advocating exclusives, I hate the entire concept. However, MS really has to stop financing lesser-known flops like Alan Wake as well as tried-and-true franchises like Gears and Halo. Instead, it has to try holding onto exclusives like Mass Effect (no one is going to buy a 360 for a years-old game, Microsoft. I myself have sold my copy of the first) and taking exclusives away from Sony, like Uncharted and Killzone. In conclusion, Microsoft really needs to pull out the stops and get some better exclusives underway instead of pouring faith into Halo and Kinect.

Your opinions?

Edit: Let me just point out that I hate the console wars, I just needed a phrase for who you think is "winning" right now.

 

[theComposer]

Wii is fading because everyone who wants one already has one, and third-party support is crap.
Xbox360 is still going strong and bolstered by Kinect.
PS3 is catching up with some good exclusives and online functionality. Also, Kevin Butler is an advertising god.

Eh, overall it's been interesting and should continue to be. So long as the competition stays fierce; that means better games, systems, and features for us all.

Also, PC gaming master race FTW!!!

 

[ProfessorLayton]

There shouldn't be a console war...

I will say that Kinect really helped Microsoft if you're just looking at sales, but you should also keep in mind all the upcoming PS3 exclusives. Microsoft is catering for the kiddies now, and while that might last them for the next couple of months, I think Sony's got them 1upped in the long run.

 

[loc978]

It all really saddens me, is all. I can't even properly vote on this one. I find the mere fact that Microsoft, of all companies, broke into the console gaming market and took the lead in the US to be incredibly disturbing. The fact that it did so on the backs of sports games that rehash every year and first-person shooters is doubly disturbing. But they really aren't ahead in the worldwide market, so... *shrug*

and...

Also, PC gaming master race FTW!!!

^this is my stance as well^

 

[Gindil]

PC for me. More options and less BS from everyone else. I wonder what's going to happen when the Xbox and PS3 have to update to a new system and no one gets to keep all of the games from Xbox live and PSN...?

 

[Twad]

I care about games. We all win when good games are made.

 

[dogmachines]

There really should be an "It's all retarded" option. They all have their strengths but I think PC wins out over all 3 because the hardware advances more often, making it easier on developers. If I had to choose one console I'd choose the 360 though, of course that's because I have one that I very much enjoy.

 

[jamradar]

The console wars are stupid.
Just pick which console you like the best and leave the rest alone. By tearing the other consoles down it makes yours look worse.

 

[zehydra]

I think it's safe to say that the PC is going to be beating all of them very soon.

 

[VanityGirl]

I have all 3 consoles! MUAHAHAHAHAHA. Yay smart money saving before the economy turned into a big turd!

In all honesty, the console war is stupid. I like that the consoles compete with each other, because it means they'll try to 1up each other when it comes to consoles exclusives.

I think the 360 will take the lead though, only because the Kinect is like the new Wii to casual gamers. I'm highly surprised it had done so well and is still going strong.
*shrug*

I'm no analyst though.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Everyone wins in their war, just like the conflict in Nineteen Eighty Four. The point is to ensure their coffers never run dry, not to prove ones superiority over the other.

 

[Chibz]

I own all three consoles, and both handhelds. So... Other?

 

[Mortons4ck]

Wii is fading because everyone who wants one already has one, and third-party support is crap.
Xbox360 is still going strong and bolstered by Kinect.
PS3 is catching up with some good exclusives and online functionality. Also, Kevin Butler is an advertising god.

Pretty much sums up my thoughts on the issue.

The giant lead that the Wii had in sales a few years back seems to have dwindled, and may continue to dwindle with the advent of the Move and the Kinect. Though I must say I'm surprised they Move and Kinect are doing as well as they are. Equally surprising is the comeback-kid PS3.

From the handheld side of things, Nintendo is dominating the market. People are speculating that the iPhone may take a portion of Nintendo's marketshare, but I don't think this is going to happen. People with iPhones may use them to game and refrain from buying a Nintendo handheld, but I seriously doubt that people are going to buy iPhones just to play games without using the phone functionality. The cost of the phone as well as the cost of the service plans seem to make it prohibitively expensive for a good chunk of consumers.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Nintendo has easily won this war in the financial sense, they're so far ahead that Sony and M$ can't catch up.

However, I feel Sony has won this war in the gaming sense, the only thing Sony doesn't have on M$ is cross-game chat, which I personally don't care about. Sony has the most exclusives because Sony has a bigger set of 1st party devs than both Nintendo and M$ combined. M$ has to resort to buying exclusives instead of making their own, which I'm guessing is where the majority of that Xbox Live money goes. Think about it, M$ paying for exclusives and timed exclusives is not even helping the Xbox gamer because you were going to get that game at its regular released date anyways, it's just that other people have to wait longer for the game. Nintendo has and will always have great exclusives but Sony puts out more and is more diverse.

M$ just made crap hardware in like the 1st 3+ years of this console cycle. Really, how could you gamers support such crap hardware? Plus, the 360 didn't even get built-in WiFi until recently, the fucking DS has built-in WiFi. Sony isn't perfect either because of YLOD issue, but it's a lot better than M$'s RROD issue.

M$ also charges for online multiplayer when they incur no expenses whatsoever when you are playing COD or any 3rd party online game. I can understand them charging for playing Halo online, but then people would be like fuck that, I'll just play COD for free.

If there were no hardware issues whatsoever, it would basically break down like this:

Wii: people who want to play the casual games will buy it, along with gamers who want to play the Nintendo games. There's very, very little 3rd party support so if you are a gamer, you can't only have a Wii because you'll miss out on like 90% of the games.

PS3 & 360: Buy whichever console has the exclusives you like more. The 360 is basically down to only Halo and Gears, not much diversity there. Sony has a boatload of 1st party games with great diversity. So, unless you are a Halo or Gears fanboy, get a PS3 and a Wii. The Move is just a glorified Wii and the Kinect is only good for the dancing games; yes, I know there is talk of using a controller with the Kinect but you gotta stand to use the Kinect to begin with. Come on, you need buttons to play almost every game (even Nintendo knew this), and the Kinect currently fails in that regard and people like to sit and play games.

I think that was a very objective look at the console war. I like the PS3 a lot more than the 360 because of the objective points I made and the fact that I don't like Gears or Halo (subjective). Nintendo is always going to make some really great games each generation so your gaming is never complete without a Nintendo console, it's just that you can't only have Nintendo's console as there hasn't been even decent 3rd party support since the SNES.

 

[Zhukov]

Nintendo.

By a lot.

Whether you love it, hate it, or just don't give a flying fuck about it, the Wii has sold like crazy. Why do you think the other two suddenly decided that motion control was a big deal?

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Microsoft, they've got the PC on their side.
[sup]Or at least quite a big portion of the PCs...[/sup]

 

[Netrigan]

MS has two big things going for them. XBL subscriptions and 360 owners buy more games. Con is that they don't really have a lot of contractual exclusives. I think Gears is the only major non-MS contractual exclusive and Epic is going multi-platform with their next IP. Halo & Fables seem to be the biggest MS owned hits.

Nintendo sells a lot of Wiis but their third party support is awful and wii owners don't buy a lot of games. Every store I've been in has had a much smaller Wii section than PS3 and 360.

Sony is kind of like the corporate giant that could. They're catching up to MS in console sales, but don't have the subscription money to bolster them and PS3 owners don't buy as many games as 360 owners. But they're the only company that has lined up solid third party exclusives, which might explain why they've been surging recently.

My gut feeling is MS has the edge, even though their console sales are only slightly better than Sony and far below Nintendo. They're the console that shaping the industry right now.

 

[CleverNickname]

Nintendo is winning and will always win. Why? They're the only actual game company - and it shows, time and again.

Also, the internet and therefore the console wars are too US-centric. That's the only reason why the XBox has so many supporters... and why they're all wrong (because they're Americans). That RRODing abomination just has a fairly specific target demographic and... that's had some unwelcome side-effects. Especially in shooters. Design them for gun-crazy handegg-watching manchildren who have to volunteer for the army and you get Modern Blehfare instead of Serious Sam.

Sony has its pros and cons. I'm sure if they tried they could be a much stronger counter to the XBox, but they seem fairly content with making the Japanese and Europeans happy enough. The PlayStation 1 changed the gaming world. Nintendos were for kids, The PSX were for older teens who can watch the slaughter of vampires and zombies, beat each other up in Tekken insteaf of Street Fighter, and race in real-world sports cars instead of Mario's karts.
Now they mostly share the multiplatform "glory" and ruin Final Fantasy (or so I've heard).


Note: I don't have any of the consoles, only played the Wii briefly last week, always went to a friend's to play PlayStation titles - but never failed to find a reason to laugh at the XBoxes.