Next-Gen Console War

The outlook is awfully grim. Next month marks the 6 month anniversary of the release of Sony's Playstation 3, and things haven't been shaping up as they should be. The utter lack of games has and will continue to dwindle and have severe effects in sales if things don't change now. Its rivals, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii, couldn't be happier with the situation.

The PS3 is a state-of-the-art piece of sleek, awe-inspiring, and jaw-breaking technology that has huge prospects behind it. The PS3 blazes through its competition with its better engine under the hood. The 360 and Wii have nothing on it -- no competition whatsoever. So, what's the problem?

There has been a "release drought" for all three consoles, but none in worse shape than the PS3. And what does Sony do in response? They drop its basic 20GB PS3 completely, just as Microsoft adds a third. While the release of the 20GB PS3 seems pretty pointless, with only a mere $100 difference from its 60GB counterpart, I think the smart move would have been to lower the price of the 20GB, rather than dropping it altogether.

And is it just me, or has Sony been losing its exclusive titles left and right? One of the factors that have consistently set apart the Playstation brand is its exclusive games -- "Final Fantasy," "Kingdom Hearts," "Devil May Cry," "Metal Gear," just to name a few. Just look at "Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings" for the Nintendo DS coming very soon. If anything, Sony deperately needs more "big name" games and exclusives to burn the competition away, and it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon.

Check out the "big name" line-up -- sure to change, no doubt:

• Devil May Cry 4 - October 2007
• Metal Gear Solid 4 - November 2007
• F.E.A.R Next - 2008
• Final Fantasy XIII - 2008
• Resident Evil - 2008
• Soul Caliber - 2008
• Tekken 6 - 2008
• FF XII Versus - 2009!!

I'm especially bummed out "Tekken 6." I feel like trailers have been shown since the early days, but who would have thought this game wouldn't be out yet. I'm sorry, but I refuse to settle for "Virtua Fighter 5." And speaking of which, it looks like we are going to have to submit to settling for games we may or may not have purchased if the games we really wanted were available now. Q3 2007 releases include games such as "Spider-Man 3," "The Darkness," "Lair," "Medal of Honor," and "Harry Potter." The much talked about "Home" has a tentative date of September 2007. And can someone shed some light on why "Castlevania" (December 2007) is only showing up on the Japan release list? Still no word on "Silent Hill 5" and the "Kingdom Hearts" sequel...

With incessant delays, loss of exclusives, and slow "small time" releases, the PS3 is just a piece of unused hardware with awesome capabilities. PS3s may collect dust or turn into your standard DVD/Blu-ray player. Time to look at the PS2 and PSP releases.

Just a word of thought -- I realize that games shouldn't be rushed, I mean, who would want some low quality game, but this is just ridiculous. All I have to say is that I see no reason that all future game releases not be in Full HD.