New Year’s Announcements & Sony’s 2006 Review (Update)
We’re just one day away from a series of announcements hitting UNSCleric.com!
Tomorrow night, at Midnight Central time, right as we enter 2007, a post will go up announcing the winner of Contest #3, which was for the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote. If you still haven’t entered, you can find the link to the contest on right hand side of the page.
Also included in tomorrow night’s post will be the announcement of what game was voted by you as Game of the Year! If you still haven’t entered in your choice, you can also find a link to that entry on the right hand side. You have until around midnight tonight to enter your choices.
The 1/1/07 update to The Halography will also be officially live (most changes have already been made however). Several hours this past week were spent working on the update, as I was not only adding a new section on the new Halo 3 videos that have come out, but also going back and adding a bit to some of the older pages, and just making the entire thing a little better looking and easier to navigate. I’m also trying to get through the new Halo novel so that I can add a page about that as well in the first two weeks of January. I was hoping to have that done for the 1/1/07 update, but I decided I would rather focus more on making the rest of The Halography the best I can before I go ahead with even more. The book so far has been incredible and is going to make an excellent addition to The Halography once I get an analysis/summary of it written up.
There’s also going to be a couple special announcements tomorrow night. Nothing huge, but they’ll be good.
UNSCleric.com won’t be the only place to check out on New Year’s Eve though. Xbox Live is running a contest where ten people can win a signed copy of Gears of War by playing Gears of War on New Year’s Eve any time after 10pm Eastern (9pm Central/7pm Pacific/8pm Mountain). Major Nelson of the Xbox Live team will be who is signing it. Click here for details.
In other news, the Nintendo Wii has now sold 3.19 million consoles, while the PS3 struggles to sell even 800,000. That’s a little under the 4 million number Sony bragged about all year long isn’t it? Just for fun, here’s the “Quote of the Week” I posted on August 26th:
In last week’s Quote of the Week, I posted an interview where Kaz Hirai says both the PS3 has yet to begin manufacturing, and will only have 2 million by the end of the year worldwide. Sony has now been doing damage control for the last week and now say this:
“SCE has not changed its shipment schedule and is still on target to ship 2 million by launch window, 4 million by the end of this year, and 6 million by the end of FY 06,â€Â
Now this is just a blatant lie. They’re now saying 6 million by next April. This is the same company who launched the much-easier to produce PS2 with less than 300,000 units. With the PS3, they’re trying to shove the hardware into a case seemingly too small (See this week’s Picture of the Week) and they’re dealing with several new, mostly untested technologies. I also have a feeling that quality control is not high on the list here, since as you saw this past week, both Apple and Dell had to recall several million laptops due only to a Sony battery in them that explodes and starts on fire.
Analysts have come out and said that Sony will have 3 million by April, which I believe to be accurate. They’ll have ~ 1 to 1.2 million by the end of the year, a majority of those going to Japan, and then by April maybe get three million and maybe actually have the system available in USA.
As we all know, the PS3 ended up launching with 197,000, and failed to even reach the low standard I expected of them. Let’s not forget that they also completely canceled the 2006 European launch of the PS3. Gamers in Europe have at least three more months to wait until they can waste their money on the PS3.
2007 looks to be an incredible year for gaming, if not the best ever. If the gaming industry and the independent media within the industry can continue calling out corrupt business practices like they did with Sony in 2006 and previous years, things can only get better from here.
Update: “Natural Mystic” over at GameSpot has posted the following timeline of Sony’s actions in 2006:
We all know Sony has been taking a lot of bad press from the PS3, but lets take a look back at the year that has lead us to the Nov. 17th release date.
First, we start with Sony itself. Yes, I was going to only make a timeline of the PS3 news, but how can you ignore this arrogance from late 2005?
Now that we know Sony cares about us, lets move on to the PS3…
Feb. 27th, 2006 - Sony misses it’s Spring launch date
May 8th, 2006 - Sony holds it’s E3 conference announcing the pricing of the PS3 at $600/$500
May 8th, 2006 - New PS3 controller will have six degrees of motion, but no rumble feature. Sony’s Phil Harrison states that rumble was last gen and no longer needed.
May 31st, 2006 - Sony’s Phil Harrison denies copying the Wiimote and states that the PS3 will replace the PC
Sept 6th, 2006 - PS3 is delayed in Europe until March 2007
Sept 6th, 2006 - PS3 launch shipment is cut from 2 million to 400,000 in the US (100,000 to Japan)
Sept 8th, 2006 - Sony’s President admits that the company’s hardware is in a current state of decline
Sept 26th, 2006 - PS3 first-party titles announced to be the same price as third party titles, at $59.99
Sept 26th, 2006 - Square Enix will not exclusively support Sony’s PS3 as much as they did with the PS2.
Sept 29th, 2006 - Sony’s President Ken Kutaragi states that his company does not care about the Xbox 360 and Wii competition.
October 12th, 2006 - Sony Exec calls the 360 and Wii “too expensive”
October 19th, 2006 - The infamous spec sheet comparison and how Sony claims the Xbox 360 requires HD-DVD to play games
October 20th, 2006 - Announced that Sony may have to replace your PS3 controller for you after it no longer holds charge
October 24th, 2006 - Sony sinks Lik-Sang
October 26th, 2006 - Sony’s Q2 profits decrease by 94%
October 28th, 2006 - Sony president Ken Kutaragi said he expects the PS3 to be capable of running games at a stunning 120fps
October 30th, 2006 - PS3 will push Sony $1.71 billion into the red
October 31st, 2006 - Japan launch of the PS3 is cut to 80,000 units
Nov 8th, 2006 - Sony ships without update. You must update your PS3 out of the box in order to use PlayStation Network
Nov 9th, 2006 - NBA Live 2007 is cancelled on the PS3
Nov 9th, 2006 - Oblivion is pushed back from launch title to Jan 2007
Nov 10th, 2006 - Sony’s Phil Harrison states that he can no longer confirm a March 2007 launch for Europe
Nov 11th, 2006 - PS3 launches in Japan and rewards few
Nov 11th, 2006 - Sony unprepared for Japan launch
Nov 14th, 2006 - Sony will miss 400,000 unit target for the US. Approx 150k to 200k will be shipped for launch
Nov 14th, 2006 - PS3 has backwards compatibility problems
Nov 16th, 2006 - PS3 downscales 720p games instead of upscaling to 1080i
Nov 16th, 2006 - Sony’s Jack Tretton comments on the PS3 BC problems and states that the Wii has 0 backwards compatibility
Nov 20, 2006 - NYT not impressed with PS3
Nov 21, 2006 - PS3, PSP Rainbow Six held till ‘07
Nov 23, 2006 - Saving Sony, one console at a time
Nov 26, 2006 - More PS3 exclusives head to 360
Nov 26, 2006 - Bloomberg: Sony missed PS3 ship targets
Nov 30, 2006 - Sony shuffles senior execs
Nov 30, 2006 - Analyst: “I cannot imagine a PlayStation 4″
Dec 4, 2006 - Sony Australia: Wii “More Fun” than PS3
Dec 8, 2006 - Court rules for Immersion; Sony to pay up
Dec 11, 2006 - Industry watchers weigh in on “record-low tie ratios” for Wii and PS3 and other results from the month of the new systems’ debut.
Dec 19, 2006 - Time says PS3 was a bust
Dec 21, 2006 - Virtua Fighter 5 dukes it out on Xbox 360
Dec 21, 2006 - Sony filed a patent for wiimote style hand-held controler
Dec 27, 2006 - PS3 Greymarket Watch: Scalpers Returning PS3s Back To Stores.
Dec 27, 2006 - Gamers who queued for days to buy Sony’s PS3 are frantically trying to trade them for the much cheaper Wii.
Dec 28, 2006 - Sony’s PS3: High-Scorer No More
December 30th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Since when have units sold been the same as units shipped?
December 30th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Sony has gone by units shipped as units sold since the first PlayStation. Nintendo may be the only company that doesn’t do it that way, with Microsoft it’s never been clear. Technically, once Sony ships a console, it’s been sold in their books, since the stores buy it from them to begin with.
December 30th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Doesn’t it bother anyone that in a matter of ONE MONTH Nintendo has sold a third of the total number of 360’s sold in ONE YEAR? Assuming these statistics are true to begin with, they worry me. Nintendo has sold this many (apparently) with ONE must-have game (GC port) and a control scheme that may turn out be a gimmick. With its price point and more must-have titles coming out, Nintendo could match 360 sales in a matter of months. Microsoft is ahead of Sony now, they can not afford to drop the ball…
December 30th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
If Nintendo gets up to Xbox 360’s number, which I doubt, or even passes it, that is fine with me. I would actually LOVE for that to happen, to have a TRUE gaming company competing with Microsoft is a dream of mine, and I knew the Wii was going to be good, but I didn’t think people would be buying into it so quickly (I may never buy one). It’s good to see though. There’s still hope that Sony won’t grind the industry to a halt with all the trojan horse technologies within the PS3. Nintendo made the Wii for gamers, Sony made the PS3 for Sony, that is what separates them from being quality competitors to the leading Xbox brand.
December 30th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Nintendo had its spot at the #1 spot in the industry and they blew it. I think its time for a new king and Microsoft be thy name…
December 30th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
2007 may be an awesome year for gaming, but I think my wallet could beg to differ. ;_;
December 30th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
You work at MS though, you make the big $$$.
December 30th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Sony makes me laugh, the only thing they do consistently, besides f ail that is.
December 30th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Funny stuff.
December 31st, 2006 at 5:45 am
Next Year Will Be Great For Gameing
December 31st, 2006 at 6:14 am
I just finished reading that timeline and was about to send you a link. Weird.
Guess we both checked digg about the same time, eh?
December 31st, 2006 at 6:40 am
Yeah, I saw it a couple hours ago and was going to wait until later on today to post it, as an appetizer to the New Year’s Eve announcements, but I decided to put it up before everyone sees it on every other site.
December 31st, 2006 at 6:41 am
Google…
Google is the best search engine…
December 31st, 2006 at 12:57 pm
The timeline is great, every Sony fan should be forced to read that, and “A New Era - The History of Launch”
December 31st, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Anonymous, actually blingo (click my name) is the best way to search, imo. It’s google just.. you can win stuff when you search. I’ve won 2 movie tickets so far, but haven’t used them because I rarely watch movies.
January 1st, 2007 at 5:53 am
“Doesn’t it bother anyone that in a matter of ONE MONTH Nintendo has sold a third of the total number of 360’s sold in ONE YEAR? Assuming these statistics are true to begin with, they worry me. Nintendo has sold this many (apparently) with ONE must-have game (GC port) and a control scheme that may turn out be a gimmick.”
Keep in mind that the two systems don’t seem to be competing, and there’s a reason… they’re not.
The Wii has a HUGE target market, that’s one of the reasons sales are so high. It’s actually changed what analysts would consider the “console demographic”, at least in relation to itself, while the 360 is touting the heavy graphics advantage without the bullshit of the PS3, and the future HD-DVD capability, which many predict will win the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD battle for next gen video.
If even the Wii beats the 360 in sales, that doesn’t necessitate a victory, just as I wouldn’t call the PS2 a victory given it’s myriad of problems. They’re in different market niches, and at their price, can eventually be afforded by even the average families, just over time. Think abou it, the 360 is due for a price slash soon, it’s been out over a year, Christmas is over. The people that just bought a Wii for 250 will find it easier to snag a cheap 360 Core, and run both. It’s not bank-breaking.
As for the “one” must have game being a GC port, I assume you mean Twilight Princess. That actually was NOT the most popular game by sales for the Wii so far, at least in Japan ((Haven’t seen American numbers yet.)) Though it had a 74% attach rate, TWO other games had higher sales. And the controller isn’t a gimmick, I can honestly say that now, it’s for real. I was worried as well, but it’s functional beyond what I figured.
Between MS and Nintendo, regardless of the winner, SCE might just wind up buried.
January 3rd, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Random question: Where can I e-mail stories I come across of interest? Becuase I think you might like this one.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6163625.html
According to this, PS3 will win the current-gen console war with sales of 75 million by 2010. I think I actually snorted I laughed so hard.
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Well let’s give it at least one year before we declare Wii’s controls a gimmick or not. And in regards to Link being a ‘must-have’ game I was going by the ‘game of the year’ honors it was being given, not neccessarily sales. It will be interesting to see how all three systems sells once we hit the gaming drought that seems to hit each summer…
January 4th, 2007 at 10:02 am
You can e-mail stories to:
Admin@UNSCleric.com or UNSCleric@yahoo.com - both addresses go to the same mailbox.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
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