Can Drake Save The PS3?

As any regular readers will know, I’m a big fan of the PS3. It has some cracking games available for it, many of which are exclusive to the Sony console. However, almost without exception, the big titles that were meant to sell by the bucketload and to sell the console have failed to deliver. After the disappointment of both LittleBigPlanet and Killzone 2, can Uncharted 2 finally manage to do what it’s being hyped to do?

The Playstation 3 is a great console. It was lumbered with poor launch titles and a hefty price tag which meant it got off to a slow start. But things have improved ever since, especially in terms of the games. Unfortunately, even the biggest exclusive titles have failed to really sell in the numbers that were expected and arguably deserved.

I’m thinking first of LittleBigPlanet. Here is a game that couldn’t fail to delight anyone who played it, and the review scores proved this was generally the case. It was one of the best games released in 2008 and yet it failed to really sell in the quantities Sony would have liked it to. Also, maybe even more importantly, it failed to sell the console.

Then there was Killzone 2. Here is a first-person shooter, a genre always guaranteed to invoke interest and a considerable amount of publicity. And so it proved, much of which was positive to the point of hyperbole. And yet Killzone 2’s sales fell off rather sharply after the initial rush to buy. And again, crucially, the game failed to sell the console.

And so we come to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. This is the latest PS3 exclusive to have been hyped as the game which will sell to everyone and finally persuade people that the PS3 is a console worth owning, even if they already have an Xbox 360.

The game looks absolutely fantastic, and the reviews which are still coming in thick and fast show that the title, despite a few minor flaws, is even blowing the minds of hardened reviewers. But is that going to be enough to make people dip their hand in their pocket and buy the game, and possibly a PS3 to go with it? Especially in the middle of a recession and with a host of other great titles also releasing this side of Christmas.

I’m not convinced. I think we’ll have to wait until Gran Turismo 5 comes along until the PS3 gets a true system seller.

stolen and posted by [mobiletone]

ps: my copy of GT on UMD got shipped last night. updated firmware to 6.01