PS3 Sales Going Up, Gamers Nonplussed

Pop quiz: Name a successful video game company (and their flagship, late-blooming, overcomplicated black monolith of a console) whose leading luminaries can’t seem to pull their ideas together for a unified vision of their company. Pencils down… or rather keys up. Partial credit if you answered “Atari,” but this is Current Events, not Ancient Video Game History. Of course, they say those who don’t know the past are doomed to… something.

The numbers have been looking good for Sony’s console sales lately. According to SCEA’s numbers, the Playstation 3 has been building the momentum it needs to take the Number 2 spot in overall sales (13 million to Xbox 360’s 19 million, April 2008) soon enough.

Of course, it isn’t just the hardware nuts getting into the mix. Soon-to-own-everything software juggernaut Electronic Arts has tied their favor to Sony’s sleek black armor.

But what can a bunch of city-slickin’ suits dropping hype do for us gamers? We can be told who’s going to buy what, but at the end of the day it’s our dollars, euros and yen that make the biggest difference.

Case in point: The magnates can make all the predictions they want. Grand Theft Auto IV is going to move. Period. The gamers have decided this. Some of the black box lovers backing Sony hoped for (and talked about) possible sales jumps thanks to GTA IV’s future success on the PS3. And back in April, some thought GTA IV may even move a few of those PS3s collecting dust on store shelves. Wrongo. Or maybe just…not quite Righto. Whatever the case, even curb-stomping blockbusters like Grand Theft Auto IV aren’t moving PS3s at a rate that will allow Sony to rest on their 360-stompin’ laurels. And of course, we have to remember GTA IV, and now even the massively pined-after juggernaut, FFXIII, are / will be moving units on Xbox 360, too…

But the spin wars will continue. And why not? They’ve all got families to feed. Even though Nintendo has far outpaced its rivals in both console and portable sales, Sony and Microsoft will continue to slug it out for the Big Deuce, el dos grande, le duex grande. But they shouldn’t get caught up in their own hype. Especially Sony. They’ve been knocked down a place or two in the past five years. Companies have made the mistake of taking Nintendo too lightly before… Wait…

Could it be? A window into the future? From the past? If 1993 taught us anything, it was to expect the unexpected. And also not to flood the market with newfangled 64-bit crap when your old VCS was working just fine. I’m looking at you, Atari.

Now, if only it stood on its side.

Hmm… So what were Nintendo and the SNES doing in 1993 that eventually allowed them to overtake Sega and claim console dominance of that age so many years ago?

Oh… oh, dear. Just as weird and creepy and kooky and Nintendo as ever. Forget I asked.