Who will finish out the year the strongest?

[Peench]

Reading through snippits of news stories tonight I was struck by a thought: This year is almost over. Dayum, where did it go!? Seems like only yesterday we were lighting the candles on the 2007 PGL cake and blowing them out on the stroke of midnight 1/1/08. And here we are 8 months into the year and loads has happened.

Well a few things haven't happened. Some of the games promised to be released haven't happened and some of the hype and fun we were all promised at events in years past haven't happened, but I think we're doing alright.

So with 4 months left in the year which one of the consoles will finish the strongest? We have several big title games heading to both the 360 and the PS3 and not much highly anticipated for the Wii. But you never know, Nintendo has surprised us in the past and maybe they've held something back for this holiday season. I dunno.

Which console will finish the year 2008 the strongest and why?


ps - does anyone else think this author has no idea what he's talking about?

[lovekeiiy]

of course that author is an idiot, that's why he's doing news pieces and not working in the gaming industry, for lack of a better term.

Personally, I don't think we'll really see a outright clear winner. The 360 still have XBL over the PSN. The PS3 will make more of mark when people are ready for Blue Ray and the system hits a good $100 lower on it's price.

Towards actually selling of units, Nintendo will probably still win, which may mean they'll end up moving more software since they have a bigger install base.

Personally, I don't see any new content that we already don't know about that is going to be a major unit mover. Sony has some more interesting content coming, which may or may not sell well. I think we'll be all underwhelmed overall by the holiday season.

[Jon Liu]

Winning by a landslide? 360.

Honestly, the games right now, and in the next year or so, look better for the 360. The PS3 I think will be longer lasting and might end up in the lead in a couple years, but not in this year and not likely next year either.

[Thornes70]

I don't know about that, really - I mean, the 360 is coming out with that 60g hdd unit and phasing out all of the 20g hdds, which is probably related to phasing out the "issue" models, and there's still only a few exclusive titles for the PS3 that even come close to interesting to me... Pair that up with the 360's new dash dealy and.... are we still waiting for PS Home? LOL

[Quo]

3 years now in to the 360's life cycle and the Sony has yet to do much of anything significant in terms of online play. They will find their stride, but I think Microsoft has won this round for sure and will finish this year strong.

With only 3 years or so until the next consoles come out, I just don't think Sony has the time to really establish an online venue that's a worthy competitor to Live before the next round.

[Thornes70]

Bottom line: if Sony wants to compete with MS in the online realm, they are gonna have to drop this, "We leave it to the developers" stance. They can only avoid the responsibility for providing quality online service for so long.

[KEEZY]

I'm still on the fence. While Live is kickass, and there is no way in hell Home will get out of Beta this year, there are some good games coming for the PS3. LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Motorstorm 2 and SOCOM. I'm sure I'm missing some too.

If anything, 360 is still the top but the PS3 has covered the most ground this year.

[Jon Liu]

Amen, Keezy.

[Lord Geoff]

You know what sucks for the 360? By the time 9/7 comes around, the system will have two solid months of having to deal with price cut rumors. That has a major effect at the retailers among those people that do any kind of research or are interested in tech news at all. The real test will come when / if the across the board cuts come on that day. If they do drop the price in accordance with the rumor, then they should start seeing an increase in sales.

[lovekeiiy]

Just think, at some point, the price cut will get the level that when someone buys a console on a credit card at your store, you won't loose money.

The XBL is what is saving MS from the RROD fiasco. Unfortunately, there is still stigma attached to online anything. Plus, it's an additional cost to gaming.

PS3 could make up ground, but most of the games they have, I don't think have a biggest general consumer appeal. LBP looks really cool, but I still don't get the concept of the game. I hate to say it, but I think that game is going to suffer high critic acclaim, but poor sales. It just may be too different.

And at this point, Sony doesn't enough to win this year. 360 is cheaper. People know people with the 360, so it makes online gaming on the 360 more appealing, and there isn't enough graphics for games, as of yet, to really distinguish the PS3 from the 360. And I don't see nearly as many RROD stories like in the past, which could indicate the consumers' may give the 360 more of chance.

[AlphaQ GehaD]

Well just by reading my precious Game Informer, i can say the 360 is gonna be solid for the rest of this year.

Exclusive console games for the 360 (not including PC):

Left 4 Dead
GoW 2
Fable 2
Halo Wars
Banjo & Kazooie

compared to PS3:

Killzone 2
Resistance 2
Heavy Rain: The Oragami Killer
Little big planet

Im ready to take GOW 2, Left 4 dead & Fable 2 over Killzone, Resistance, & little big planet anyday. This is not including the games that will come out for both consoles, but will be Xbox360 preferred because of XBL.

as for the Wii...what about it?

[The Milk Man 09]

I had to say xbox even though the wii will probably be best, but when it comes to what core gamers want box will be number 1.