(Why are all the blog pictures being up-scaled to a resolution wider than the blog itself >_< )

As an owner of all three of the current generation this generation has to offer, I have obviously discovered that none of them are perfect or blatantly superior to the other. This is one installment of a three-part blog entry that discusses what, in my opinion, needs to be done to improve the three consoles of this video game generation. I’m only going to be covering the ‘big three’ in this;

--Xbox 360
--Wii
--PlayStation 3

The current era of handhelds will be left out of this discussion. I once again point out that these articles are my opinions based on experience with all three systems.

The PlayStation 3 was the last of the next-gen systems that I purchased, partially out of hesitation since I had a lack of an HDTV (and thus lack of need for BluRay) and also because I for a while had been buying into the bandwagon gamer hype that went into the Xbox 360. However after getting first hand experience with the PS3, a more steady income, seeing the upcoming lineup of titles, and remembering that this was the successor to the PS2 (a system I felt was second to only the SNES all time), I decided to give the PlayStation 3 a chance.

Despite being the successor to the still ever popular PlayStation 2 the PS3 stumbled out of the gates, a mistake it could not make considering the Xbox 360 already established a strong head start against them. It had decent but not top quality titles at launch and primarily had to lean on Resistance: Fall of Man for a while as its top exclusive title, and the PS3 had what we’ll say was a less than stellar marketing campaign. However the PS3 did flaunt a free online system in the PlayStation Network, something that was to the ire of Xbox owners, was an incredibly more stable system than the failure prone Xbox 360, and became the best BluRay player on the market, which dealt a blow to the 360 once HDDVD bit the dust. Eventually the quality exclusive titles came; Warhawk, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Ratchet and Clank, Metal Gear Solid 4, and gamers all knew that there was a certain title named Killzone 2 on the distant horizon as well. As we currently stand, the PlayStation 3 has a definite foothold in the video game industry but it is still playing catch up to the Wii and its more direct rival the Xbox 360. The PS3’s current third place stance truthfully isn’t the fault of anyone but Sony, with a little helping of consumer ignorance in the way as well. But Sony, the PlayStation 3 certainly can make a strong comeback in the industry and you guys can hit big blows to Microsoft as long as you improve in the areas you are lacking.

--Marketing
From day one the PlayStation 3 has been terribly marketed by Sony. Whether it’s crazy crying baby commercials or flaunting your system as a movie downloading machine, the simple fact is that Sony needs to fire their PS3 marketing team quickly so that they can stop focusing on every little neat thing their system can do and start talking about the system itself and the games it has. The worst case of this probably came when 300 was released on BluRay, Sony was so desperate to sell off the PS3 as a BluRay player that they used the 300 momentum and created the most pitiful commercial I’ve ever seen. Allow me to summarize what the commercial said (and I’m not removing much).

--Buy 300 on BluRay next Tuesday.
--Witness the stunning art of 300 on crisp BluRay.
--Watch 300 on the PlayStation 3’s BluRay player.
--Watch 300 on your PlayStation 3.
--Buy a PlayStation 3.

Really? These were the same people who helped make the PS2 so awesome? Seriously Sony I’m glad your system can do everything short of cure cancer, but you have great games for your system and you need to flaunt them to your fullest extent. I’m not saying we need Nathan Drake Mountain Dew or Old Snake Silly String but Sony needs to put the focus back on what made the PlayStation so popular in the first place.

--Stop Losing Exclusive Titles
Losing exclusivity to Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy XIII were substantial blows to the PS3. Now while you didn’t lose the games entirely it’s one less weapon you have against your competition. Use some of that extra cash that you’re still hauling in from the PS2 and use that to make sure your remaining exclusive titles stay exclusive to you. I doubt Sony nor any fanboy want to see Kingdom Hearts 3 cross enemy lines as well.

--Focus More Towards Online Gaming
The PlayStation Network has a lot of good things going for it but Sony needs to drive further with its online potential. I personally experience equal and better connection speeds on my wireless PSN then I do on my Ethernet Xbox Live and have no trouble finding games on either system. System updates are frequent and bugs are squashed quickly. I find the PS Store to be more organized than Xbox Live’s Marketplace and there are no goofy Microsoft Space Dollars to deal with, just plain old dollars and cents. In fact there are only two major things that PSN seems to lack compared to Xbox Live;

--$50 Yearly Fee
--Online Party System

Obviously the former is less desired than the latter and I would like to see a party system similar to the NXE setup on 360, although Home is a step in the right direction, but there are a few little things that Sony could do to push its online system a little further. PS3s need to be shipped with Bluetooth headsets. The one common complaint among most PS3 owners I’ve met is the lack of a headset shipped with the system, voice chat definitely speeds up the online gaming experience despite having to occasionally put up the annoying cocky 12 year old who thinks he’s a thug.

--Offer different PlayStation 3 models
Besides special editions, you really seem to be stuck with one type of PS3 to buy and that is your all-bundled together $400 version. Now while, considering how much it would cost you to get all of these features with a 360, I don’t find this a steep asking price I think gamers should have options. A cheaper PS3 that lacks wifi, lacks PS2 support, and has a smaller hard drive would be a good cheap bundle to sell as long as you allow them means to upgrade their systems later. Then you could have the ‘ultimate bundle’ PS3 that has all of the features you want as well as a big hard drive and PS2 backwards compatibility at a higher asking price. Basically Sony, let the people choose.

I’ll include a side note on the PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility. Sony I definitely understand why you cut out PS2 support on the PS3, you want to save money and the actual PS2 itself is still turning in profits for you. Selling another system with the same PS2 hardware would be a form of profit cannibalization. Like I mentioned in the paragraph above, I’d only offer PS2 support in an ‘ultimate package’ kind of PS3 and I’d keep PS2 support out of the other PS3’s until the PS2 finally stops turning in a profit for you.

--Update System and Game Software
Trophy support for a lot of games still falls on the shoulders of developers, I know that, but for some reason gamers seem to be attracted to the whole ‘achievement’ thing that Xbox 360 started. And while Sony does require trophies for a lot of their games, a few of the A-level titles missed out on having trophies and Sony needs to apply a little pressure on them to try and get those included. The same could be said for custom soundtracks, while they aren’t a big deal in my opinion, some people really just want to jam out to their own tunes.

The actual system software and OS are pretty flawless in my opinion, with the exception of a few things. Unlike the 360, the PS3 seems to shy away from system link and split screen gaming. While this could be viewed as them trying to push their free online system, not everybody has internet and people still like to get together to throw the occasional LAN party from time to time and the current PS infrastructure is too counterintuitive to this. Once again this is something that falls equally on the shoulders of developers and Sony alike, but it’s something Sony should try to put a tad more focus onto.

The final issue with the PlayStation software comes in terms of portability. Now while I know others don’t do this, my PS3 is fairly mobile as I take it from friend’s house to friend’s house gaming with them. Resetting the PS3’s display and audio settings is a slight hassle when TV A doesn’t have the same settings as TV B, the same could be said for setting the system up to another person’s wireless network since that whole process must be redone in order to get on PSN in the new location. Now while I understand that it may be hard to get around the resetting of the display settings, Sony definitely needs to add in a feature that allows you to save wireless network configurations. Why this feature hasn’t been included with the PS3 boggles my mind, especially when the PlayStation Portable has the exact same OS and actually has this feature built into it.

Overall the PlayStation 3 is almost there in regards to catching fire like the PlayStation 2 did before it. Sony must overcome these hurdles however in order to regain their supremacy over Microsoft and the Xbox. Even with these fixes there’s no concrete guarantee that PS3 will catch the 360 simply because the 360 has already set up a huge install base, but Sony will have no hope unless they get on the ball.