PS3 VS XBOX 360: DROUGHT

In tradition with console launches there is always a subsequent drought afterwards where a console company has to catch up. In the case for this article we are talking about the PS3 and the Xbox 360 launches and the differences between the two when you look at overall games for the first three months of each console’s life cycle. Before I get into the article I would like to say before moving on that for the sake of this argument Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network games are counted as games. All information used in this study was gathered from Gamespot. This article is about the first 3 months of a console’s life cycle highlihting on the 2 months after the launch month.

Crunching the Numbers

Xbox 360:
For the month of November 2005 (launch month)  - 25 games were released
8 of which were sports games
4 of which were shooters
0 of which were RPGs
3 of which were racing games
6 of which were arcade games
4 of which were action/adventure games
4 of which were exclusives (arcade games not included)
0 of which were fighting games

For the launch window (start of November 2005 to end of January 2006) - 35 games were released
8 of which were sports games
4 of which were shooters
0 of which were RPGs
3 of which were racing games
15 of which were arcade games
4 of which were action/adventure games
5 of which were exclusives (arcade games not included)
1 of which were fighting games

The rise of games released from the first of December 2005 to the end of January 2006 for the Xbox 360 -
10 Games (with arcade titles included)
1 Game (with arcade titles not included)

There is nothing really outstanding with the data on the launch game lineup of the 360. The one thing that is surprising about the data is that the majority of the games came from the Xbox Live Arcade - 15 titles. If you take away the arcade titles from the 3 month launch window there were 20 games released but if you look at the rise thats where things get really concerning - 1 game released from the first of December 2006 to the end of January 2007. Now lets take a look at the PS3 launch window.

PS3:
For the month of November 2006 (launch month)  - 16 games were released
6 of which were sports games
2 of which were shooters
1of which were RPGs
2 of which were racing games
2 of which were arcade games
3 of which were action/adventure games
6 of which were exclusives (arcade games not included)
0 of which were fighting games

For the launch window (start of November 2006 to end of January 2007) - 21 games were released
7 of which were sports games
2 of which were shooters
1 of which were RPGs
3 of which were racing games
3 of which were arcade games
5 of which were action/adventure games
6 of which were exclusives (arcade games not included)
0 of which were fighting games

The rise of games released from the first of December 2006 to the end of January 2007 for the PS3 -
5 Games (with arcade titles included)
4 Games (with arcade titles not included)

Huh? 21 games? So only 5 games were released in the 2 months after the launch month for the PS3. I know I counted them right. Now to give them the same evaluation as I did with the 360 I have to subtract the arcade games from the number of titles released - 21 - 3 = 18 games. So between the two systems if you do not include arcade games the PS3 had two less games which is a better way of looking at it if you’re Shane Bettenhausen from 1up. Yet there are two areas which the PS3 looks really good in when you consider this data - exclusivities and the rise of games between the first of December 2006 to the end of January 2007. The PS3 had six exclusive games that you could not get anywhere else while the 360 had five which is still not that big of a difference but it IS a difference nonetheless. The 360 however, when the number of titles are considered, is still on top.

The success of the 360’s amount of titles is almost solely due to the success of Xbox Live Arcade early on with 15 titles in the first three months but when you analyze the data the PS3 did better when it came to spreading out the amount of titles between the three months (look at the rise for the ps3 vs 360) if you do not consider the arcade titles as games that you would want to consider. It surprised me and I am that dude they call the Microsoft fanboy.

The topic for this article may mislead many people as it is a discussion that has been going on for quite some time. Is PC gaming mainstream? According to Robbie Bach at this year’s CES 2007 he stated that “Over 200 million people play PC games in a month”. After hearing that you may think that PC gaming is mainstream already and always has been, but due to the cost factor and intimidation it has been a platform that has swayed people from jumping in. Now with Vista around the corner Microsoft is looking to dominate the market even more so by bridging the gap between consoles and PCs with Live Anywhere.

For those who have not heard of Live Anywhere I will explain the basis for what it is by quoting Wikipedia: “Live Anywhere is a feature for the video game console Xbox service, Xbox Live. It will enable a variety of non-Xbox platforms such as a Windows Vista PC, Windows Mobile phones, and Java-enabled phones to connect to Xbox Live. Users, each with a unique Gamertag that carries over from Xbox Live, will be able to play online, keep track of their friends’ status, send and receive messages, purchase Xbox Live Arcade games for cell phone use, gain and keep track of Achievements, and more.” With that being said Live Anywhere is something that PC and console gamers have been wanting for quite a while as it will definitely enhance the experience of both platforms at the same time.

The bridging of both of these platforms will mean that Microsoft will have the biggest number of people playing on their platform, surpassing what Nintendo and Sony will ever be able to reach – combined. This is something I think Microsoft has seen for quite a while as it is one gigantic bulletpoint they would have in their pocket over their competitors, especially when you consider the developers would see the fact that they could pitch their games to an even broader audience that any of the competitors could EVER offer. Microsoft sees this opportunity and gets it – 210+ million gamers out there playing on their platforms wanting more. The only concern for Microsoft right now seems to be rolling out Live Anywhere.

Microsoft has been sitting on Vista for so long and obviously it has been because of Live Anywhere. Rolling out Vista and Live Anywhere at the same time is crucial. Microsoft’s competitors surely are not going to sit idly by and wait for them. Vista is due for release in January and the whole gaming community is waiting to finally see what Live Anywhere will do.

Digg it

Feature: Does the indy game/modding community matter?

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Is the PC market still viable in today’s ‘next-gen’ console world?

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