So Resident Evil 6 and Fifa 13 are scoring higher sales on the Playstation 3. The PS3 has owned 44% of the 2012 market compared to the Xbox 360’s 34%. The marginal lead of the Xbox 360 has been reduced to a mere 1.7 million. Microsoft in Japan is being outsold 8 to 1 against Sony. So with all these negative news, you know the momentum is pure Sony when these two get to complete a couple years from now with the next-generation systems. The Playstation 3 is almost fully recovered from the God-awful launch seemingly ions ago, while the Xbox 360 is sputtering thanks to its extremely weak non-American sales.
The question is, why? And how can Microsoft win back the crowd when the next gen hits?
Lack of IPs is the problem, IPs will become the solution.
They need new IPs. Now.
The reason why the Xbox 360 had survived at first was because they were able to pull off some of the exclusives in the Sony side when the PS3 was sputtering for an audience. Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid are examples of franchises that separated their exclusive ways and became multi-platform. So Xbox was beginning to look like an improved and inexpensive form of the Playstation.
And then the new exclusives happened.
God of War. Uncharted. Little Big Planet. Resistance. Killzone. And (this bears repeating) Uncharted happened. All of these started conquering the gaming airwaves, winning awards, earning good sales, and helping Sony establish a new audience of fans they didn’t have before. And then we have old-school exclusives making their return like Sly Cooper, Ratchet and Clank, and Gran Taurismo. So the shift happened---now we have PS3 looking like an improved version of the 360 with its more diverse lineup. While both horrifically pale in compassion to Nintendo in terms of the first-party offerings, Sony is closing in quite nicely in the way Fox Sports is sneaking in to ESPN’s sports viewership market.
Fun fact: On the Wii, the 13 best-selling games in its history are first-party. For the PS3, 8 of the 10 best-selling games are first-party. Microsoft? Only 5 of 10.
Where are Microsoft’s exclusives?
Surely they got Halo, but there are dozens of shooters to counter it, with Call of Duty finally becoming that fabled Halo-killer and becoming the biggest franchise in the seventh generation outside that infamous plumber we all know. Even Bioshock, arguably the best game ever to grace an Xbox system, wound up becoming a PS3 game as well. So, the question remains: where are your exclusive IPs Microsoft?
Time to make some, or bring some from the dead.
Bayonetta became a potential AAA success that got swooped up by Nintendo, but there are a few others ready for the taking. We can start with the Rareware brand, which is still under the Green Machine umbrella, even if the company is leagues behind what they used to be in its heyday. Like I had mentioned before, Perfect Dark, Conker, Banjo, Killer Instinct, Blast Corps, and Jet Force Gemini are all exclusives not even being mentioned to be having a future. Even Battletoads hasn’t seen the light of day since 1994. How can Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have at least 5 re-imaginings yet Battletoads get none?
In order to compete, first-party games are a necessity. Nintendo is going HD and if they play their cards right, will continue to run their model of first-party-rules-all strategy of competing against the big boys. This is why the N64 survived with NO third-party support, why the Gamecube even sold anything, why the Nintendo Wii was able to fly far away from the competitors between 2007-2009, and why the WiiU will have a successful launch even if most of the launch titles are multi-platform. Remember Halo was the only reason the original Xbox was even relevant, but nowadays it takes much more than just one or two exclusives to truly aim for the crown.
The NextBox needs more variety, shooters will help you plenty in America, but in Europe and especially in Japan it won’t help at all. Microsoft needs more exclusive role-playing games to even have a shot at Japan, while they need more action games to enhance the Europe/South America sales.
Lastly, they need more mainstream-accessible games that can be picked up by anybody. Nintendo’s Wii victory can be traced to the simple games (that don’t have the Kinect price tag) that sold phenomenal: Mario Kart Wii with 32 million, Wii Sports Resort with 30 million, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii with 26 million. Argue all you want, but shooters will NEVER hit those numbers.
Microsoft, your lead is dwindling simply because you have no new cards to offer, playing the same hand year after year. If you can’t fix this soon, then expect the Xbox 720 to look like the original Xbox:
Clunky, and barely surviving.
All Information Obtained From: VGCharts
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