PS3 Fanboy

An article published by Bloomberg today concludes that the PS3 "is gaining ground" on the Xbox 360. The article cites the PS3's ability as a Blu-ray player and software exclusives such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and LittleBigPlanet as reasons why it will "hold onto its lead" after outselling the 360 in the first five months of 2008. According to the NPD Group, the PS3 sold 1.2 million units while the 360 sold 1.12 million units. Of course, Microsoft isn't about to give up so easily. When asked about the PS3's dominance over the 360 so far this year, Microsoft spokesperson David Dennis claims the race is "far from over and we are confident that we have a winning strategy."

We love Sony - you know we do - but sometimes the company's figureheads will come out with the most ridiculous things when a microphone is pressed against their faces. We're not going to reel off a list of previous atrocities, in order to prevent some peoples' blushes (Phil Harrison and Ken Kutaragi, we're looking at you). Instead, we'll look at the latest batch of hilarious sound-bytes-in-text-form, this time from Sony CEO Howard Stringer. He suggests that PS3 games are infinitely more fun than than the Wii's.

We're perfectly happy to believe Stringer when he says this, but without clear proof (preferably on lined paper, worked out with a 2B pencil with the answer underlined) we're not going to be satisfied. PS3 and Wii games are very different, yes - but is one system more fun than the other? That's down to personal taste, surely. It's a shame, really, because everything else Stringer said in the article we've linked to below makes a decent amount of sense. Let's stay away from the "I" word from now on and we'll all be much happier.

[Via Joystiq]

Coupled with a cheaper model and an extensive marketing push, the PS3 is positioned to have a very successful holiday season. And despite the PS3's bumpy start, which we recently chronicled, Sony's CEO Sir Howard Stringer believes the PlayStation 3 will be every bit as successful as the PS2 for the rest of the year and onward.

"The momentum shift and the energy behind PS3 in time for Christmas is extremely fortuitous," he said. "It was planned by the PlayStation group, but I think this momentum now -- particularly the number of games coming out, including our own as well as third-party -- is the same as it was with PlayStation 2."

However, Stringer admits it's taken awhile for developers to gain the full understanding of PlayStation 3 development, but it was no different than when the PS2 was still in its infancy. "It takes time to build a new format [and the PS3 is] not behind the curve compared to PlayStation 2 in terms of momentum," he added. "The amount of bandwidth and the processing power of Cell give game manufacturers a lot more work to do to use this system to its full benefit -- and it's taken awhile to do it. The same was true of PlayStation 2." With PS3 titles increasingly pushing the graphical and gameplay boundaries once thought impossible, we absolutely believe him.

Here's some more quote cud to chew on, this time from CEO Howard Stringer. The big boss has admitted that they're taking a pretty big gamble with the price of the new console, but if the full potential is realized then the console will essentially be "future-proof" while kickin' around for years to come.

The "total potential" is the key point to that issue. The only way we're going to see the full potential lived up in the console is if third-party developers can push the hardware as far as they can (and how about some more innovation while we're at it?). Of course the more complicated the system becomes, the harder that's going to be. But once that happens, fans might be echoing his sentiments of the competition: "I don't think anyone will be worried about Nintendo or Xbox's cheaper price." We'll see!

Well, you know what they say about what to do when you have nothing nice to say ... erm, say that the competing gaming platform (in this case, the 360) is an "obsession"?

That's exactly what Sony CEO Howard Stringer had to offer in an interview with Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal recently. While sharing how The Da Vinci Code from Sony beat up on "X-Men 3" (aka The Last Stand) over in Europe, he seemed to mistakenly throw in "Xbox 3" in the stead of Fox's great summer blockbuster hope. Following Mossberg's correction, Stringer is reported to have retorted, laughing, "There's an obsession!"

We don't know if he's referring to the media's obsession with the corporate gaming rivalry, his own obsession with the console that would dethrone the PlayStation, or some combination of the two (irony really doesn't help here), but he does seem to at least outwardly admire Bill Gates' salesmanship (as well as his hypocrisy in delaying Windows Vista while lambasting the PS3 delay). Of course, a lot of supposed compliments could go both ways, so we've provided a few handy links below to check out what other "nice" things hardware execs have had to say about their competitors lately. We're sure it's all in good fun.

[Thanks, JC & SickNic; also via GameDaily BIZ]

See also:

• Nice words -- "Thanks," "flattered," and "flattering."
  
• Not-so-nice words -- "Plagiarism," "no need for PC," "not mainstream for most games," and "same old experiences with new graphics."