PS3 take I lost count

[Spriggan]

So the PS3 has been limited to 400,000 in the US and 100,000 in Japan due to manufacturing problems, it's been well publicized that SONY has had a hard time getting the lenses for the lasers from a 3rd party.  The rest of the world now has to wait until next March to get their hands on one too, this is a big change from 2,000,000 for a world wide launch.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/06/north-american-japanese-ps3-launch-limited-to-500-000-units/

[Parker]

Sony's screwed up the PS3 launch in just about every way I can think of now.  The price, springing new functionality on their developers, an underwhelming E3 showing, and now this?  Oh--and I also just read that it won't come with HD cables, as opposed to Microsoft's cheaper console, which does.  Good thing I wasn't holding my breath to buy one.

[Spriggan]

Eh, 360 doesn't come with HMDI cables either.  That's not that big of deal, only about 40% of HDTVs have support for those cables.

In fact, no console has ever come with every way to connect it to the TV, just what the manufacture thought would be the most common.

Also SONY screwed up the PS2 launch in most the same ways at the time, low stocks, high price for the time ($300) and no games what so ever at launch and look where they are now-about 60%+ of the console market.

[Miyabi]

Yeah, but you can't help but love sony for putting out the Final Fantasy games!!!

[Spriggan]

Actually Square publishes them, not Sony.  If that was the case there'd be no FF on the other systems (360, DS, GBA, GC and Wii all have some type of FF game).  And to be honest, FF13 doesn't look too interesting, I don't know why Square insists on removing as much game play from their games as they possibly can.

[Miyabi]

Well, I know that I was refering to the fact that most of the FF games are for sony consoles.

[Spriggan]

Back to something interesting I find it interesting how in the past few years the US market is taking priority over the Japanese market when it comes to hardware.

Nintendo releases the DS first in the US, several months ahead of the Japan launch.  Though considering the only reason Big N is still around in the console market is practically due to the US since we're the only people that bought, and made games, for the Nintendo 64.  Not sure on the Game Cube stats, but considering one of the most popular games for the system, Metriod, was made for the US in mind (since it was never popular in Japan).  Also Zelda 64 was more or less released in the US before it was in Japan.

Now the US is getting 4 times the PS3s then Japan is, though it may also have to do with economics since Amercian's have more money to spend due to a better economy, but I doubt that's it.

[Entsuropi]

Japan has under half the population of the USA, don't forget.

[Miyabi]

About your comment on Metroid not being popular in Japan... basically everyone in Japan either has a PSP or a DS or both.  EVERYONE who has a DS has Metroid and plays in constantly... at least from what I saw.

[Entsuropi]

I never saw a single DS or PSP in Japan that wasn't brought there by my party.

[Spriggan]

About your comment on Metroid not being popular in Japan... basically everyone in Japan either has a PSP or a DS or both.  EVERYONE who has a DS has Metroid and plays in constantly... at least from what I saw.

That's a quote from Miyamoto as to why they made Metriod a FPS game.  It might me more popular now, but a few years ago it wasn't, also I'd love you to prove everyone that has a DS has Metriod statement considering it was only a top 10 game in Japan for a few weeks unlike Brain Age and NSMB which still are in the top 5.  There's about 200,000 DSs sold a week in Japan (compared to 20,000-30,000 PSPs) so that would mean that Metriod would be still in the top 10 if it was that popular.

Heck the Metriod DS game hasn't even been that popular in the US, it's sold ok but nothing spectacular.

And here's a quote from a nintendo developer on Metriod from this years E3
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/11/overheard-at-e3-japanese-dont-accept-first-person-shooters/

[Spriggan]

Hey look some good PS3 news!

Looks like SONY is working with Xfire to allow that software to work on the PS3 but whether or not this is the actual PS3 online network is unknown.  Either way seeing SONY actually taking matching the 360's online features seriously is a good thing.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157494.html?tag=latestnews;title;0