The Next-Gen War.

We all know of the war. The last console war was a complete win over from Sony's PS2. The Nintendo Gamecube, was a fun platform but the advertising and marketing for it was horrible. The PS2 won the console war by along way, selling over 200 million worldwide. Years later the Microsofts Xbox game out. The gaming console that was a huge step up graphically, memory and the processor. BUT Slowly and surely the xbox took over the GameCube in sales. Years later, (present day) the next-gen console wars.

The Xbox 360, released last christmas (05) made a storm with its online play, very nice graphics. Selling 6 million consoles sold to date. The packages, premium and core packages for the average gamer and the rich kid. Some brilliant launch titles consisting of COD2, Ghost Recon: Advanced War Fighter and NFS: Most Wanted. The console has a huge head start for the war, Microsoft hoping to sell atleast 10 million copies by the PS3 release which might happen, but we have to be optimistic so time shall tell.

Then we have the Wii. The Nintendo come back to hardcore and gamers everywhere. Their finally trying to stretch out to people of all ages and groups not just the pasty white kid or the 23 year old leet geek. They really are trying to stretch out. So far Nintendo have been reluctant to release specs of the console. But it can be seen that graphically un-superior to the Xbox360 or the PS3 it has the most innovative gameplay of any console EVER!
The Wii graphically speculated by gaming industry guru's is around 3 times as power as the Gamecube/PS2 so it could be said it "might" be closely matched and better to the Xbox. Although ATi's chairman has stated that what we seen at E306 is only the tip of the iceberg for what the Wii can hit.Not commenting exactly on how it is the tip of the iceberg but from the horses mouth itself, the Wii is going to be very powerful. Perhaps even comparable to the new Xbox360.
Even though he stated that the Wii's chip known as "Hollywood" and the Xbox custom made ATi "Xeon" video card cant be compared because they are both used for very very different things. SO again your own personal speculation can interpret this as you see fit.

The Games at the Wii's release hopefully will be some of the best and exciting of all the consoles. Alot of companies will have launch titles, those being:

Nintendo
Wii Sports (bundled with console)
Excite Truck
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Activision
Call of Duty 3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Rapala Tournament Fishing
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions
Atari
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Atlus
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
EA
Madden NFL '07
Need for Speed Carbon
Konami
Elebits
Midway
Happy Feet
Rampage: Total Destruction
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
The Ant Bully
Sega
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
SNK
Metal Slug Anthology
Tecmo
Super Swing Golf
THQ
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Barnyard
Cars
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Creature from the Krusty Krab
Ubisoft
Far Cry: Vengeance
GT Pro Series
Monster 4X4 World Circuit
Open Season
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Red Steel
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent
Vivendi
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Virtual Console titles:

NES
Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Ice Hockey, Pinball, Soccer, Tennis, Urban Champion, Wario's Woods, Baseball, Solomon's Key
SNES
F-Zero, SimCity
N64
Super Mario 64
Sega Genesis
Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Columns, Eccothe Dolphin, Gunstar Heroes, Space Harrier II, Toe Jam & Earl, Ristar, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
TurboGrafx16
Bonk's Adventure, Super Star Soldier, Victory Run, Bomberman '93, Dungeon Explorer.

Exciting is it not?

The PS3 already released in Japan and very soon to be USA. Europeans sadly wont be able to get their hands on it until March 2007. One of the most over hyped consoles of the war. Sony have made publicity cockup after publicity cockup. Making the price far too high for your average gamer to buy. The console graphically the best in physics and processing speed. not to mention the new hardware "BlueRay" which is losing Sony over $1000.00 per PS3 sale.
Not only have Sony had complaints from the media and gamers, Gaming Developers have started to complain. The PS3 is so advanced that dev's are finding it exceedingly hard too work around the consoles graphic / processor architecture. Granted the PS3 is superior but most if not all of the companies are now using the Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. (Xbox360 exploiting it the most) So far not one console has reached anywhere near its full potential.

The PS3 will also have a host of launch titles, these being:

Resistance: Fall of Man - Sony -
NBA 07 - Sony -
Genji: Days of the Blade - Sony -
Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII - Ubisoft -
Call of Duty 3 - Activision -
EA Sports Fight Night Round 3 - Electronic Arts -
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Bethesda Softworks -
F.E.A.R. - Vivendi Universal Games -
Full Auto 2: Battlelines - Sega -
Madden NFL 07 - Electronic Arts -
MARVEL: ULTIMATE ALLIANCE - Activision -
Mobile Suit Gundam: CROSSFIRE - NAMCO BANDAI Games -
NBA 2K7 - 2K Sports -
Need For Speed Carbon - Electronic Arts -
NHL 2K7 - 2K Sports -
RIDGE RACER 7 - NAMCO BANDAI Games -
Sonic the Hedgehog - Sega -
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 - Electronic Arts -
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas - Ubisoft -
Tony HawkÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s Project 8 - Activision -
Untold Legends Dark Kingdom - Sony Online Entertainment

Journalists and myself are agreeing the only game that we have to look forward to for the PS3 release is Resistance: Fall of Man -Sony  . Not as exciting as i had hoped for such an advanced console.

So far all companies have released that there will be online play for each platform (Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony). Nintendo and Microsoft have released stacks of features for their online systems (Microsofts already out: As seen on Xbox 360). Nintendo stating that we will be able to download Nintendo and other platformed games from the last 30 years. Not only that we will be able to Play games online which most, if not all gamers want to do anyway. Sony on the other hand havent given that much away about their online features, again making a big publicity mistake for fans and gamers alike. I think Sony owes the fanboys an apology.

In my own personal opinion Sony are out of the console war. Third place has already been given to them as far as i can see. From publicity foulups an Overly priced hardware, they have made things go tits up. Relating to price the Wii and Xbox360 are cheap as chips compared to the hugely over priced PS3. You could buy a Wii (Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£150-180) and Xbox360 (Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£200 (core) & Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£300 (prem) for the price of a PS3!

The two runners now are Xbox360 and the Wii. They both have alot to lose especially Xbox360 (Microsoft). The top dog no doubt will decide what will happen in the game industries future. I hope its the Wii, Nintendo have given the journalists and gamers what they want. Nice graphics, genius gameplay possibilities and have fed news to their avid listeners & readers.

In the end it comes down to the everyday gamer and the average joe. So what do you all think?

To sign of, this has been Lucas McCartney, your resident gaming expert to finish, The only Fatality of this war will be Sony's PS3.

Thomas Lohse · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Articles: 6 Comments: 8

um very good article but you forgot to mention the growth of the 2 latest handhelds the psp and Nintendo DS.

Alex B · Joined: 09 Dec 2006 Articles: 2 Comments: 1

Great Article! You should add information about Handhelds as they were also part of this "competition"

Nitronumber9 · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Articles: 2 Comments: 1

Not a bad artical from the list of PS3 games on release most of them will be ports of the Xbox360 versions so can't expect the PS3s real power to show untill more of the PS3 excusive games are realised such as MGS4.

tomo359 · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Articles: 2 Comments: 2

I know he kept saying the PS3 is overprices but remember it is a blue ray player as well. A standard blue ray player without the games console costs as much so really it is a good price, but what sony should have done it to have a ps3 without the blue ray at a much lower price. This is where they messed up.