Sitting This One Out

Today is PS3 day; the Sony PlayStation 3 is finally hitting American shores. Nintendo will follow with its new console the Wii on Sunday, November 19. The other big console, Microsoft’s XBox 360, has been out on the market for about a year. As a video game addict you would think I’d be really excited and camped out at my local electronics store to get my hands on one.

But to be honest I can’t say I’m very enthused about the next generation of game consoles and I don’t see myself owning any of them by the end of the year. I’ll try to explain why.

Let’s start with the XBox 360 since it’s been out the longest. There are a couple of reasons why I haven’t given Microsoft my $400 yet. First of all as I’ve mentioned before, I hate Microsoft and I don’t want to contribute to Bill Gates’ plan to rule the world. The second and most important reason, I haven’t been impressed by the games. None of them seem much better than the games released for the last generation of consoles. I think it says a lot that the system has been out a year and only now are 360 owners finally getting what might be a must-have game: Gears of War. I haven’t seen a review for Gears of War yet, but I was thoroughly impressed by the preview in last month’s Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Granted launch titles are usually not very strong, but you can usually count on at least one really great game that is exclusive to the new console. That’s what sold me on the original XBox. If it weren’t for Halo, I probably would never have bought the system. The 360 just didn’t have that. Perfect Dark Zero was supposed to be it, but the game didn’t live up to the hype. Finally, a big feature of the 360 was the expanded on-line service. Since I’m not a big on-line gamer and don’t like the idea of having to pay extra money for stuff that should be in a game to begin with, that wasn’t much of a selling point. So for now, I have no plans to buy a 360. There are a couple of games coming out next year, like Mass Effect, that might change my mind, but for now I’m saving my $400.

Then there’s the PS3. At this time last year, I was a lot more excited about the PS3 than I was about the 360. First of all, the game trailers for the PS3 looked a lot better than the 360 ones, especially for Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Granted there was some controversy regarding whether the games would actually look as good as they did when you played them, but I was still sold. In addition, the PS2 had much better exclusive titles than the XBox and I figured history would repeat itself and if I were only going to get one system, it would be the PS3.

But then things started going downhill. First of all, and most importantly, it was announced that the system would cost $200 more than the 360. Sure there’s a lower end model that cost’s $500, but if you’re going to spend the money, you might as well get the system with all the bells and whistles. Yes the PS3 would come with a Blu-ray DVD player, but $600 still seems like an obscene amount to pay to play video games. I also started doubting whether the Blu-ray DVD format would be successful. Not only is there the competing HD-DVD format, but there’s also the question whether consumers will be interested in a higher quality media format. Does anyone remember laserdiscs?

Then came out the stories about the lower number of consoles that would be available at launch. Even if I wanted a PS3 it looks like it’ll be impossible to get one unless I sell one of my kidneys and a lung on eBay and use the proceeds to buy the PS3 on the same site. Then I heard about the price drop for systems sold in Japan but not in the United States. The base model there will sell for only $423. Then I found out that of the 22 or so launch titles, only 6 of them would be exclusives. And out of those six, only one of them, Resistance: Fall of Man, looks like it’s going to be any good. So now I’m kind of soured on the PS3 as well. There should be a lot more exclusives available next year and probably a price drop and of course greater supply. Maybe then I’ll get around to buying one. For now, I’m perfectly content to continue playing my PS2, finishing up the exquisite Okami and Final Fantasy XII and patiently waiting for the release of God of War II early next year.

Finally we come to Nintendo’s Wii. I initially thought the console’s name was pretty stupid but it has actually grown on me. Like everyone who’s seen the system’s motion-sensitive controller, I was very intrigued by the new console. Unlike the 360 and PS3, it looked fresh and innovative. I also loved to hear that it would only cost $250 and would focus on gaming rather than try to be some sort of media center like the 360 and PS3. I was all set to buy the Wii early next year (I figured it would be too difficult to get it before Christmas).

But then Nintendo slapped me in the face when I found out that the GameCube version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess would be released about a month later than the Wii version, which would be a launch title. I felt that Nintendo was sending all GameCube owners a big “Ha ha.” Not only will you not be able to find a Wii to play the new Zelda game; we’re not even going to let you play a version of the game on our old system. This is even though there were hardly any good exclusives for the GameCube and Twilight Princess was originally supposed to be released last year for the GameCube. I also took a look at the release dates of their future games and realized it probably wouldn’t be worth owning a Wii until spring of next year at the earliest.

So for now I’m sitting out the next generation of video game consoles. I hope there’s a wave of games next year that convince me to shell out my money. If not, I’m going to have to find a new addiction.