14 DAY TRIAL // You wouldn't be surprised to hear only good PS3 news from now on, would you? With the cheap 40GB PS3 model out and 65 titles (spanning all genres) promised to hit the system by Christmas, we suppose you wouldn't. Here's another person who thinks that it's Sony's time to shine: Daniel Dawkins, editor of PSM3 Magazine in the UK. According to tech.co.uk, Dawkins "predicts that the new PS3 might sell twice as many consoles in the three months to Christmas," mentioning the 60GB SKU's success as an example.
"Will [the new 40GB model] convince people to buy a PS3? Of course. With the impending release of EA's excellent Skate, Pro Evo 2008 and Call of Duty 4 - plus system exclusives like Warhawk, Ratchet and Clank: Tools Of Destruction, Singstar and Haze, we've reached that critical tipping point where the price of hardware is low enough to justify the increasing volume of AAA games," he said.
The reality is, as much as we editors like to blame the PS3's lack of success on the few titles it sports, the games currently available for the system are pretty much everything it needs to sell. However, there's one more issue surrounding the 40GB PS3 that isn't helping it one bit: the lack of backwards compatibility for PS2 games. Dawkins weighs in on this issue as well:
"Backwards compatibility is only annoying in theory, and will be leaped upon by the internet's legions of Sony naysayers. But be honest, how many times did you play PSone games on PS2? In my experience: once - to see if the graphics smoothing option worked. If you really want to play PS2 games, why not turn on your PS2? Sony isn't going to steal it when you buy a PS3."
Dawkins makes a good point... up to a point though. The one where he asks how many PSone games has everyone played on their PS2. You see, the PS2 sports better titles than PSone did. Sure we'll probably be able to say the same thing about the PS3 when PS4 arrives but it just doesn't translate like this. PS2 was a huge leap as far as graphics, sound and gameplay are concerned.
Still, many of those getting themselves a 40GB PS3 already own a PS2. Some of them might not even care about older titles, wanting to move on to the HD stuff as soon as possible, so yeah, it's definitely not going to be a big issue.