Gameindustry.biz and Gamespot has some coverage leading up to the launch of the long awaited Playstation 3 launch in Australia. Both sites describe some of the anticipation at various stores in Sydney from store owners as well as the people lining up for them. The turn out has been fairly good at some of the more larger stores such as Myer at Sydney's Pitt St mall which had about 70 people lining up by midnight, whereas other stores only fared a much smaller number of enthusiasts...Gamespot at Myer, Sydney:
11.20pm: There are now about 60 people in line, but the crowd outside the line has dwindled somewhat to about 200. We just spoke to Bernie Brooks, CEO of Myer, who said that the PS3 had by far the most pre-orders of any next-generation console. Brooks quoted a pre-sale figure of close to A$2 million.
Official PlayStation 3 launch gets off to slow start - Gameindustry.biz
Click the following link for the AU Gamespot's coverage of the launch...
A really disappointing launch. Can't really compare to the excitement and anticipation the Wii generated few months ago. Hard to be excited if all games can be played just as well on the 360. Hope the PS3 goes well, though. Would be a great loss not having those beautiful PlayStation exclusives to play. I personally won't be buying one before the price comes down to less than AUD. 600.
While the PS3's success would be fantastic for the industry, at that price point I can't see it being anywhere near as successful as the Wii. yay second post!
This is not surprising at all. Expensive price point, only a handfull of titles (few of which are worth playing), horrible online support and Phil Harrison. Not to mention ps3 exclusivity flying out the window.
I'd say the public is finally coming to realise how over-rated and hyped the ps3 has been.
I'd much rather play my retro nintendo consoles until I can afford a 2nd hand Wii.
70 people? "Fairly good"? LOL.
I think most people where too busy playing Wii or 360 to bother. The only PS3 exclusive worth looking at is Little Big World.
At the UK launch, Sony gave out to around 120 people a 46-inch Bravia high definition TV as well as a taxi ride home. They should have done something similar here!
To be honest, I think it's hard to get people excited about a console that was released elsewhere three months ago, where those dying to grab one had imported it already. I'm sure there would've been much more excitement if it were released back then. But like Neale said, there aren't too many titles to get excited over either.
However I can remember the fairly disappointing launch titles on the PS2 as well, and it's only within a year or more that we really get to see some must have titles for the new machine. It was the case with the Xbox 360, and they definitely have some incredible games at the moment.
Anyway, launches are never indicative of a consoles success, and I'm pretty sure within a year from now, we'll be seeing some incredible things on the PS3.
If HD TV's were more established in Australia and stand alone Blu-Ray players were out then that may have contributed to a better launch. Everyone seems so hung up on the $1000 PS3 price tag despite the fact that a stand alone Blu-Ray player will cost more then that. The cheapest I could find was around the $1300 mark.
You will probably find that the people "Hung up on the $1000 PS3 price tag despite the fact that stand alone blu-ray players cost a lot more" are the ones that DONT want a blu-ray player :P
Who cares how much they jack up the price of the Blu-ray players to make the PS3 look good? Who seriously is going to go out and re-purchase their entire DVD collection? Blu-ray is just another Sony format like Betamax, MiniDisc and ATRAC, and I reckon it will be just as successful. This has nothing to do with its technical merits, its just that consumers don't want it.
The only reason why i got a PS3 in Ninja Gaiden Sigma (i will be set for God of War 3 in what, 2009?). DMC4 is now coming to 360 so the only thing the PS3's got going for it is Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Ninja Gaiden Black with far far prettier graphics, lots of new content and improved combat? Yes please! I just wish there was something to do with my PS3 at the moment. Resistance is way overrated. It's like the devs played Halo and decided to make a first person shooter yet don't understand the subtleties that make a great FPS (something Valve understand in spades). It's no where near as bad as Perfect Dark Zero and Killzone, but it is poorly done. Then there's the other of the two only worth while PS3 titles (well, three with Virtua Fighter if you like fighting games. Not me.), Motorstorm is a bore. Played one race then quickly went back to God of War 2, which by the way is freaking fantastic! The best game on PS2.
BTW, wanted to post a link to gamespot hands-on with NGS, has some new video footage, but i couldn't for some reason?? Anyway, worth checking out
Latest news says 20,000 units sold since launch. Sort of reasonable figures, although the first launch I can remember that didn't sell out - which is disappointing. But for the price, there isn't much else to expect.
There are plenty of HD TV's in Australia - but the majority of them are NOT 1080p 'Full HD' (nor do they need to be). The reality is that the 360 will work just as well (if not better) on these sets - and the games for the 360 are a leap ahead of the PS3 at the moment.
Also agree with Sonic Wang - Motorstorm is a complete bore (ExciteTruck on the Wii is heaps more fun). I'll stick to my Wii thanks.
To Souri:
"Anyway, launches are never indicative of a consoles success, and I'm pretty sure within a year from now, we'll be seeing some incredible things on the PS3."
The PS2 was a fantastic machine, I can still remember getting mine at launch. It was a lot cheaper, came with more demos, was a DVD player (rare back in 2000!) and had some cool games at launch (like SSX). More importantly, it was a leap ahead of everything on the market - and launched a lot earlier than either the GC or Xbox.
I have serious doubts about the PS3. From what I hear and read, its not that much better (i.e. powerful) than the 360 - and worse in several respects (less flexible memory, definitely harder to program, etc). BluRay is pretty much unnecessary (and I can't see it ever replacing DVD), and actually has a SLOWER read rate than the DVD drive in the 360 (important when streaming, such in games like GTA).
Sony have also lost various exclusives - and major companies like Capcom, Konami & SquareEnix have a much more open "cross-platform" policy these days. Economics pretty much determines that most big 3rd-party titles will be cross-platform (or 360 exclusive - as long as they have the larger install base).
All this coupled with the success of the Wii (about double the PS3 install base - in the same launch time - and constricted by supply), and the head-start of the 360 - makes this a much more challenging situation for Sony than they had with the PS2. Sony are going to have to deliver some fantastic, ground-breaking titles - to have a chance.
I agree.
Although, any thoughts on the 360 elite. it's keeping track...
360 elite is microsofts way of saying "woops we messed up, here's a real HD ready console".
And old users are shafted because of it. You cant hand in your old 360 and replace with the new one and pay the added cost, its messed up. And the price for the 120GB HDD standalone is $180 US, which means something like $250 AU... no thanx.
I couldn't care less about the Elite version. My 20 gig hdd works for me. Never gets fill up. I've only got 1 HDMI port on my TV and it's being used by the PS3. Also, the black colour is fugly. The PS3 needs a larger hard drive cause all their freaking games install sh*t to it. The load times are still freaking long. Also, wtf is with downloading a demo on the PS3 and THEN having to install it before you can play it?
To Sonic Wang:
We noticed the "installation" of PS3 games at our office, and speculated that its decompressing or simply unpacking the game. It doesn't take too long (at least), and I presume its a one-off?
re: Elite 360:
As I mentioned on some other forums, I think its generally a positive for MS. The new model *will* get the some extra sales (at a high profit margin). It will satisfy some people that want/need a HDMI port, some gamers that want a black 360, etc.
If it came with a HD-DVD drive (for about the same price), I'd consider getting it as my 360 unit (still only own a Wii - no 360 or PS3).
I feel good that I can finally have a unit that matches the shade of the rest of my system.
HD componants sound good to me... But my commments reflect Some Dude... To a point.
MS broke into this generations consoles early, grabbed the worm by the beak, now a vast majority have them before PS3. problem after that is that they lack the technology that the PS3 has in spades. "Keeping track" refers to the fact that the elements found on the PS3 can be found on the Elite.
I add this point only because it's interesting to see the push-come-pull-come-shove-dance-around action thats happeing...
Maybe the controller for the PS3 will get rumble back, maybe 360 controllers will get some version of SixAxis (that works).
I find it somewhat amusing that many of you have changed your tune somewhat to the PS3 now that it is finally out there... though my amusement does borderline on distaste.
mayby they should just wait 2 years actually do a decent JOB xD hehehe