Arms a-Racin': XBLA vs. PSN
The folks over at GamingTarget have complied some interesting stats, graphs, and figures to help uncover the truth in the console battle of exclusives. Originally, they did not consider downloadable titles worthy of comparison with retail titles. But now, their readers (and a lovely quote from Steve Dille of Sony Computer Entertainment America) have forced them to reconsider and finally detail the battle of exclusive downloads between the three consoles.
Steve Dille, Head of Marketing SCEA: Whereas our competition takes a bunch of old content and catalogs content from previous generations and offers that in a download fashion, our development organization are making games specifically for PS3.
I can see right away why this quote might motivate some investigation but is not the first time someone from Sony (or strongly tied to Sony) has made these types of comments. But to be fair, XBLA has released a ton of great content that is also on the PC. But if the content is good, why would that be a bad thing? Especially when the XBLA price is typically half the PC price. More inflammatory quotes and analysis after the break.
Phil Harrison: "...what we've seen on other systems tend to be retro 2D games, and we're pushing the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation 3."
In fact, I already brought up Sony's wide-reaching dismissals of XBLA with David Edery (Worldwide Games Portfolio Planner for Xbox Live Arcade) and to start he said, "Weβre lacking neither 3D content nor fun games."
I couldn't have said it better myself. And since then, the XBLA library has continued to improve. But that is all subjective evaluations. Let's let GamingTarget break it down logically and impartially. Their only rule: If it was seen on a home console before, it does not count.
Omitting those games has taken the Wii's Virtual Console completely out of the mix so the fight rages between Sony's electronic Distribution Intitiative (eDI but more commonly just called the Playstation Network or PSN) and Xbox Live Arcade.
The end results?
- XBLA Exclusives: 45 Released, 16 Unreleased
- PSN Exclusives: 11 Released, 12 Unreleased
Looks like XBLA has more content. Lots more content. And if Sony wants to pull the "quality over quantity" defense, consider that only 3 of the 11 released PSN titles have a Metacritic score above 75, whereas out of XBLA's 45 released games, 20 of them are at or above 75.
XBLA has a major headstart on PSN so it is not a totally fair fight, but when Sony executives and developers alike come out taking shots at XBLA they are inviting comparison. Check out the rest of their breakdown for fun with charts and graphs.
At the end of the day, the real winners are lazy people like me that want to sit on their couches and download new games with out having to actually move. Hooray!
[via GamingTarget]
More reason to dislike Sony
For a company that's last in the online distribution race, Sony certainly has a lot of bad things to say about their competition. Does anyone even have to mention that there's usually two games a month released on XBLA that is original content built just for XBLA in addition to all the great "old" content that's also released?
I will never buy anything from Sony just out of sheer dislike for their ignorant, pompous employees who can never seem to give credit where it's due.
"Yeah, the Wii is too expensive. It's actually the PS3 that's cheap!"
Give me a break.
hahahahhaahaa
U just know that the SCEA Spin comment is going to be even more hilariously spun up on www.sonydefenseforce.com
I do not provide that URL lightly. the site is an obvious parodly of fanboyism in general, and sony fanboyism in particular. It is made even more fun that they pretend to do it without any tongue-in-cheek.
And I do predict they will comment on this to (deliberately) hilarious results.
Steve Dille is right about
Steve Dille is right about one thing, though: Sony are using their development teams to make interesting PSN-games. As far as I can see, Microsoft aren't doing the same. They're mostly just relying on third party games. Right now, when XBLA is both the "cool kid" and the most established & safe downloadable games market on consoles, this is not a problem. But the situation might not remain like this forever.
Uh, if it is exclusives then
Uh, if it is exclusives then what about the whole Nintendo is Nintendo thing?
Last I heard ther were also Wii downloadable exclusives in the works, which is about as worth counting as any unreleased other content considering some unreleased titles never get released.
Too much information missing and general lack of depth, but I wouldn't say ridiculous as I prefer the term "poor journalism".
Yes, to have the whole
Yes, to have the whole picture we must consider Nintendo's Wii Ware initiative. However, up to this point we know little to nothing about the games that will be coming to the platform. So, yes, Nintendo will eventually be competing in the exclusive race, but up to this point have shown nothing.
As for Sony's first party devs making unique PSN titles, absolutely they are. And Microsoft's first party devs (Carbonated Games basically) have only brough fairly safe and established ideas to XBLA. But Microsoft does not have the stable of devs that Sony has. And they seem to be much more content on the retail *and* downloadable side to encourage and foster the third party devs. That's neither here nor there IMO as long as good games are coming.
That said, I sure wish I had Super Stardust HD and the upcoming Echochrome and Everyday Shooter to look forward to. (^_^)
1. Steve Dille's comment is
1. Steve Dille's comment is kind of ridiculous, considering most of what's released thus far for the PSN is also older games, too. MKII, Tekken 5, flOw, Gauntlet II, etc. aren't new. Even Super Stardust HD is a remake.
2. Phil Harrison's comment is kind of ridiculous, considering...well, a lot of PSN games are 2D. Sure there are games like Pain and Warhawk, but that still doesn't exclude Piyotoma and Joust.
3. David Jaffe's comment is kind of ridiculous, considering he goes from saying XBLA is like Ashlee Simpson, and then saying it's an oldies station in two sentences. They basically contradict each other.
4. GamingTarget's lists are...you guess it... kind of ridiculous, considering they're counting games like Warhawk and Super Stardust HD (one is currently available for both PS3 and PSN, the other's a remake) and they're also not discounting games like Marathon and flOw because they're PC games.
5. Oh, and just for good measure: RIDICULOUS!