"Console Wars"... guess who won?

Back in November I posted an article about the “new console wars” and how there was just too much damned hype about it and that they really weren’t worth the fuss and aggravation.

Here’s a quick snippet:

Listen, all you're really doing is feeding the selfish nature of your children when you buy into this hype. I'm sure the graphics and sound are phenomenal, but you shouldn't go broke looking for these things. If your kids don't have a game console at all, look a little further up the isle and grab a PS2 instead of a PS3. You'll save about $300 and your kids will have a larger number of games to pick and choose from. You buy the new console now and you're going to have to wait for the really good stuff to come out!

Bear in mind that this was back in November, when the “new console wars” were just beginning.

Well the people at MSNBC have declared the “new console wars” to be over with, and guess who came out on top?

I’ll let them break it to you…

Much ink has been spilled over the so-called “console wars” between the new Nintendo Wii, the PlayStation 3 and the year-old Xbox 360. So now that 2006 is over and the numbers have been tallied, who won the home-console slugfest?

The PlayStation 2.

That’s right. The PlayStation 2 outsold all next-gen consoles by a fairly wide margin.

And the reasons given for this “shocker”? The unrealistic price of $500 per game system, and the lack of games to play on that system. The very reasons why I was telling folks to not spend their money on the system.

As has been demonstrated time and time again, when I’m right, I’m right. That’s not arrogance… that’s experience.

And I’m GLAD that I’m right in this case. I’m sick and tired of these companies cranking out needless hype for game systems that they KNOW they will never have an adequate supply of, to play on games that they KNOW would not be available during that time, and to demand a price that they KNOW is more that it would ever be worth! I’m sick of it! And I’m glad to hear that the consumers are sick of it too!

If Sony and Nintendo and Microsoft want us to buy their “next generation” console system, then they need to add two words to their vocabulary: REVERSE COMPATIBILITY! Sony should have designed their PlayStation 3 to allow us to play PS2 games on it. Same for Microsoft’s Xbox360. They’re running on CD-ROM discs! How difficult would it be to adapt? Cripes, they probably could do that right now and release it as a firmware upgrade! Why have us use TWO separate game consoles to play these games, especially when the really cook games for the new system wouldn’t really be ready for a few more months or years?

Anyway, kudos to those of you who DID NOT drink the Jonestown Kool-Aid of hype. Maybe the console makers will actually learn something from this so that there would not be another “console war” and they will instead release games that we would really WANT to buy.