Despite Sony finally removing the curtain for its ambitious Home project and the Xbox providing a compelling fall update, the Wii is still the holiday 2008 gift to put on Santa’s list. Check out the subject of the Amazon email just received:

 

Plenty of Xbox 360 and PS3 in stock. Plenty of Blu-ray movies. Guitar Hero, Rock Band and all music games which have been a huge hit for me personally the last month are starting to wane interest thanks to a dirth of adding appealing songs. Where are more great album from the 60s, 70s and 80s? These music games and the struggling music business are missing a huge opportunity by not pushing out a steady stream of albums in videogame format. The console market as of this writing isn’t being soul sucked by the peer to peer sector.

But how about Nintendo? Major props to Mario’s proverbial parents for thumbing their Wiimotes to the hardcore gamer crowd. Even though the Wii gets little play time in our home, yes even with Wii Fit (sigh, we should be using more), it’s still favored over the PS3 but not the Xbox 360.

Our household appears in the minority that craves the Xbox 360 over the Wii:

In fact, Nintendo’s red-hot Wii system outsold the Xbox by almost 3-to-1 in November. Wii shipments in the month totaled 2.04 million, while Xbox shipments came in at 836,000 … PlayStation 3 ranked a distant third, with shipments of just 378,000 units, said NPD.

And it’s not just the Wii that’s a hit, the Nintendo DS has shipped 1.57 million to the more stylish and chic PSP with 421,000. Should any of us feel sorry for Sony? I don’t. They have a beautiful piece of hardware that is collecting dust due to an inexplicably slow launch of new titles. Yeah, they have some great games and as a blu-ray player movies never looked better, but people never were and never are going to buy a game console in large numbers for a proprietary movie format.

Keep on ignoring blog posts like this one, Sony, but the console graveyard is littered with game starved systems.

Sony PS3 Home limp emphasis on gaming

I was excited this week to finally get a peek at the PS3 Home long in beta. I was hoping to see a strong emphasis on gaming. Forget that.

My biggest disappointment with Home is that it launched with exactly the opposite. Why can’t I put buy arcade cabinets from their mall to put in my apartment and invite friends over to play? They could have bought Atari for a pittance and put every Atari game each in an arcade cabinet and offered them for sale in Home. Instead we get as flashy avatars living in this beautiful waterfront view outside that is devoid of any interaction capability whatsoever. You can walk out on the balcony and look in the distance at gorgeous virtual scenery.

Can see but not touch; the PS3 experience personified. Heck,I can boot up Everquest II or Lord of the Rings Online and both see and interact with cool scenery, why can’t I do (enough of) that in Home?

Hey Sony, go check out PhantomEFX Casino MMO. That has user custom spaces that you can get game machines to put in your apartment and invite friends over to play and has been available for a couple years. Not in beta, not some promise maybe in the future, it’s here and in use now.

Now before the Sony apologists start ripping me in the comments for not appreciating Home being beta and free. I get beta and get free, that’s great, thank you Sony, but somebody, anybody tell me why I’m going to bother going into Home at this point rather than launching straight into a game? If I want to hang out with friends online, why not do it outside the PS3 where interactive possibilities abound, thank you very much. There are a bunch of other places online to find fellow PS3 owners that don’t feel nearly as gimmicky and under-utilyzed as Home in its current open beta state.

Frankly I would have rather seen the money spent on Home being used to kick out a lot more fun games.

Home seems destined to be more of the same underappreciated potential squandered, which appears to be the sad state of arguably the best designed game systems ever. Look, I know this is going to seem like Sony bashing, but it’s really PS3 owner frustration that the PS3 could be so much better than it is. I’ve been through this with too many consoles in the past. The Dreamcast was an awesome machine, but review the sobering history if you need a lesson in how software outshines hardware.

The PS3 doesn’t score serious points for being cool and having great hardware, they need to deliver games or rip a card from Nintendo’s marketing brilliance: focus on fun at an affordable price for the whole family. Being the elite gaming system in an economy where every dollar counts isn’t helping Sony, despite offering a free online gaming community compared to the Xbox Live Gold which costs $50 a year.

My friend keeps saying he won’t buy an Xbox 360 because there aren’t enough of the type games he wants to play. This is something Microsoft needs to listen to and try and fill over the next year. He owns a PS3 and Wii and in his post at VTOR shared similar disappointment as me with Home. If Sony can’t get somebody like him excited who is already on board – as you might say about me with the Xbox 360 – then they have a big problem on their hands. Home is supposed to be their stunning, revolutionary dashboard interface. It’s supposed to make people buy a PS3 so they can be a part of the excitement.

Yeah, right.

How can Microsoft and Sony overtake the Wii in 2009?

Is this even possible? I would bet on the economy rebounding first. The real console sales battles were supposed to be fought this season, but I’m moving my projection to holiday season 2009 when the PS3 has a more refined Home experience and will be at full strength. By then the Xbox 360 will have to prove it’s aging gracefully and we’ll find out if the Nintendo Wii continues to do well on the strength of their game library rather than system shortages. Looks like Nintendo may have enough momentum and sales to call it already. If the Wii can be in demand in these troubled times, you have tip the hat. Big time.

As a PS3 owner, I’m worried about the system. It’s starting to feel close to joining the endangered species list. This is the time when I should be talking about how many awesome games I’m looking forward to on the PS3. What am I looking forward to? Well, Home was on that list because I expected it to be more game focused. Yeah, there is a game launcher there and a few very rudimentary games in the bowling alley and elsewhere, but too little, too late.

More games in 2009, Sony please. Get rid of the silly, overpriced Qore and virtual world wannabe fluff and give us more games. Gamers go where the good games are flowing in great supply.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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