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Eighteen months ago, Ceri Thomas reported in ACADEMY on the first skirmishes in the billion pound battle for the UK home market. In this follow-up, he reveals the phoney war is over.
According to a recent report by British researchers The Informa Media Group the industry worldwide is on track for a 12 percent increase in sales, taking it to a record high of $31 billion. Console and hardware sales, estimate Informa, will account for $22 billion (nearly 70 per cent) of that figure.
But how are the consoles doing individually? After a decade dominating the industry with the original PlayStation, it was assumed that Sony would continue to dominate with the new, all-singing, all-dancing PlayStation 2. And, after initial hic- cups with distribution, they have.
If Informa’s predictions are correct, then by the end of the year 70.4 million games consoles will have been sold. And 48.4 mil- lion of them (around 69 percent) will be the oldest of the three, the PlayStation 2.
“PS2 is dominating because of huge brand loyalty and, after a slow start, a great line up of games,” says Robin Alway, editor of leading UK gaming magazine Gamesmaster.
“For most people, PlayStation is now videogames – it’s a brand that’s now become synonymous with gaming but has also man- aged to stay cool and desirable. It’s dominating because, quite simply, it was the right machine at the right price with the right games. It’s also had some good luck – the likes of Grand Theft Auto 3 turning out to be one of the biggest games ever and only on PS2 for starters.”
Garath Ramsay of Computer and Video Games magazine agrees, adding that “The first year it was out there wasn’t much of a reason to buy it, but the last year has seen a lot of really good games for it. If you’re going to buy a console at the moment then it’s going to be that one.”
Photos from left: Stills from Grand Theft Auto and Halo
But if the PlayStation 2 is win- ning, then which of its competi- tors is in the Silver medal position. Surprisingly perhaps it’s not Microsoft’s more technically sophisticated Xbox, but Nintendo’s Gamecube that’s coming in second. According to Informa’s estimates, Nintendo will have sold 15.1 million Gamecubes by the end of the year, while Microsoft will only have managed 6.9 million Xbox sales.
“GameCube’s forced Xbox into third place but it’s still very early days,” says Robin Alway. “Partly, it’s down to Xbox’s launch price of £300 seeming very expensive compared to GameCube’s £130.
“But GameCube’s also an easy-to-understand proposition – a cheap console that only plays games and comes with some of the biggest exclusive franchises – Mario, Zelda, Pokemon – not
just in gaming but popular cul- ture, generally.”
“In terms of purely technical features, the Xbox is the best of the three,” points out Jason Jenkins of popular technology magazine T3. “It can do more and the graphics look better, but persuading people to buy it for those reasons rather than just because the games are good is proving a challenge for them.”
The general perception is that with one or two exceptions the games for the Xbox just haven’t been good enough so far. But that should change as designers begin to make better use of the machine’s capabilities.
“Microsoft really need more top quality games which’ll show off the power of their machine and grab gamers in the same way that launch title Halo has,” says Robin Alway. “It also needs some bigger, exclusive franchises to compete with the likes of GTA, Mario and Tomb Raider.
Ultimately, breaking new, original games takes time.”
Noises from within Microsoft indicate that they have no inten- tions of cutting their losses and running away from the console market. In fact, they’re already pushing forward plans for an online gaming network.
“Where Microsoft could suc- ceed is with their online plans,” concedes Alway. “The machine’s built in hard-drive makes it a much more attractive online prospect than having to buy the add-ons needed to get PS2 or GameCube online. The other thing to remember is that Microsoft tell us that they’re in this for the long term – we only see them start to make a huge impression on Sony’s lead when Xbox 2 comes out.”
Xbox 2? So soon? Microsoft have already confirmed that they’re working on a second ver- sion of the console. Rumours have it that it might even feature a built in digital video recorder.
But is adding more bells and whistles to it the way to go, when the pared down Gamecube is already outselling them?
“Whether it’s a good or bad idea remains to be seen,” says Garath Ramsay. “Five years ago, if I’d said to you that one of the biggest uses of mobile phones would be for text messages, you’d have said I was mad.
“But here we are now and people are using their mobile phones for much more than tele- phone calls. Is it going to be the same with game consoles? Microsoft seems to think so. Sony are moving along that route too. Is Nintendo making the right choice?”
Only time will tell. The initial skirmishes are over, but the con- sole wars aren’t going to end any time soon.
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