Who's Winning the Battle for the Hardcore?

via Kotaku:

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Only a Game has an interesting musing up on who's winning — or potentially will win — the battle for the 'hardcore' market share. Nintendo is rather clearly running away with the so-called 'casual' market, but that still leaves room for Sony and Microsoft. Chris Bateman takes the opinion that Sony has managed to squander the biggest market lead in the history of gaming, but that doesn't mean it's easy sailing for Microsoft:

The battle is far from over, and Sony have more up their sleeve right now than Microsoft appear to be able to muster, but by stealing hardcore loyalty from their market rivals, Microsoft has gained an edge that could allow them to give Sony a seriously bloody nose this time around. But if it came to 360 versus Wii in a battle for the mass market, Microsoft should save their warchest and call it quits – it may be the hardcore gamer’s ideal machine right now, but even in a dream scenario the 360’s installed base is probably going to top out at about 40 million (not coincidentally, roughly the size of the installed base of Sony’s hardcore-friendly PSP handheld).

The Wii might not have the legs to beat Sony’s 140 million PS2’s, since that was the consequence of a convergence between gamer hobbyist and mass market support which doesn’t exist now that the console manufacturers have torn the market dynamic into two very different halves, but with a good tailwind it could match or exceed the 75 million DS handhelds Nintendo have sold. I suspect it will outsell the 360 by 2:1, perhaps 3:1.

And the PS3? It’s final unit sales may depend more on the uptake of the Blu-ray format than anything else, so at least it will help Sony with the promotion of their media format, even while it teaches the multinational the lesson the N64 taught Nintendo: you still have to be nice to people when you get to the top, as it’s a long way down...

I'm still irritated with Sony for a variety of reasons, most tied to the lead up to the PS3 release, but Bateman points out some PS3 features that may broaden its mass market appeal (e.g., Blu-ray). I'm am so not looking forward to whatever these companies have to dish out the next 'next-gen' release time around, which hopefully won't be for a while. In any case, the essay is worth a read — an interesting analysis of what is and what may be happening.

Battle for the hardcore is a though one

If sony doesn't start making some amazing EXCLUSIVE titles for the PS3 wich show the full potential their machine has, they'll end up losing.

So far I've lost my faith on the PS3 as I thought it would have a lot better graphics than the 360 and a lot of exclusive titles that have been released for both. Force unleashed is a good example, it looks the same on both consoles

If things keep on going this way, no exclusives and games being released for both consoles, microsoft will win. Maybe God of War 3 will make me change my mind, but at this rate I'm thinking it will get released for the 360 too.

Xbox 360 has its flaws,But so does the ps3,I would go for neither,and buy a pandora :D :D :D

For me, the PS3 wins. The exclusives on PS3, both now and in the future, are appealing to me over the one on the 360.

I don't like the way it's worded. He says Microsoft vs Sony. He should say Xbox 360 vs PS3. Other wise Microsoft wins hands down, as the real hardcore gamers play on Windows OS computers.
If he meant to say 360 vs PS3, it's debatable. In my opinion, Microsoft is winning. My family owns both consoles, and instead of playing his PS3, my brother plays my 360. There has got to be some reason for that, and that reason must be he likes my 360 more. Also, based on people I know, I would say I know seven 360 owners for every one PS3 owner.

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Originally Posted by gutbub

I don't like the way it's worded. He says Microsoft vs Sony. He should say Xbox 360 vs PS3. Other wise Microsoft wins hands down, as the real hardcore gamers play on Windows OS computers.
If he meant to say 360 vs PS3, it's debatable. In my opinion, Microsoft is winning. My family owns both consoles, and instead of playing his PS3, my brother plays my 360. There has got to be some reason for that, and that reason must be he likes my 360 more. Also, based on people I know, I would say I know seven 360 owners for every one PS3 owner.

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Just gotta point out your contradiction, firstly you say you dont like the way it's worded, you then go on to say if he meant to say 360 vs ps3 that microsoft is winning.

I have a PS3 and a 360. The 360 I bought for Gears of War 2, and that's just about it. I think the 360 started well, but will ultimately end up 3rd.

PS3 is comin' up fast...

It mostly depends on the games. So far I think Xbox360 is still in the lead, but that is just my opinion. I will get a PS3 when the price drops significantly. Only regret about Xbox360 right now is that online gaming isn't free. That could actually make me turn to buying multiplatform games on PS3 and just avoid playing 360 online. I rarely play online as I prefer playing with friends and most of us got jobs, families and other stuff to do. Having a running subscription makes a single online gaming sessions extremely expensive, because it happens so rarely.

Personally i think the 360 has the most hardcore gamers at present as it appeals to a wider market as its cheaper and there is more games both consoles have there pros and cons the 360 has a superior multiplayer service yeah you need to pay but you get what you pay for i own a 360 have played the ps3 and they are both the same graphics wise just now are bar some higher rex textures on the ps3 but this is due to the hdd installs currently the 360 doesn't have the feature so everything has to be streamed where as the ps3 can compress stuff them uncompress it to the hdd (ie hdd install) thus giving higher rex textures and less pop up in games but the 360 can still hold its ground against the ps3 with a bigger fan base and more exclusives coming out for it also developers will favour the 360 as its costs less to develop for and is also allot easier to develop games to.

right now in the UK i don't think blue ray is much of a big deal as allot of people still don't have HD tvs also its costs more to buy blue ray than a dvd and if you sit 2mts away you cant tell the difference so right now its not a big deal maybe in about a year or two it will be.

I own a HDtv 32inch and i still play my 360 on my monitor as the tv is on the HDtv :(

i think the PS3 could have been better Sony put the bar to high and it was a flop it came no where near the the top of the bar all these exclusives are on 360 there is i think about a hand full out the now that are ps3 exclusives (iam not sure about this) but they are mainly bland games MGS4 looks good but the damn uninstall, install after each level is taking the pi**.

once again this is my personal opinion.

PS3 wins for me.
There is nothing on the 360 I want to play that I cannot play on my PC.

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Originally Posted by rocky5

Personally i think the 360 has the most hardcore gamers at present as it appeals to a wider market as its cheaper and there is more games both consoles have there pros and cons the 360 has a superior multiplayer service yeah you need to pay but you get what you pay for i own a 360 have played the ps3 and they are both the same graphics wise just now are bar some higher rex textures on the ps3 but this is due to the hdd installs currently the 360 doesn't have the feature so everything has to be streamed where as the ps3 can compress stuff them uncompress it to the hdd (ie hdd install) thus giving higher rex textures and less pop up in games but the 360 can still hold its ground against the ps3 with a bigger fan base and more exclusives coming out for it also developers will favour the 360 as its costs less to develop for and is also allot easier to develop games to.

right now in the UK i don't think blue ray is much of a big deal as allot of people still don't have HD tvs also its costs more to buy blue ray than a dvd and if you sit 2mts away you cant tell the difference so right now its not a big deal maybe in about a year or two it will be.

I own a HDtv 32inch and i still play my 360 on my monitor as the tv is on the HDtv :(

i think the PS3 could have been better Sony put the bar to high and it was a flop it came no where near the the top of the bar all these exclusives are on 360 there is i think about a hand full out the now that are ps3 exclusives (iam not sure about this) but they are mainly bland games MGS4 looks good but the damn uninstall, install after each level is taking the pi**.

once again this is my personal opinion.

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I'd like to know what these "exclusives" are cause the only ones I know of are fable 2 and gears 2 while the ps3 has killzone 2, resistance 2, littlebigplanet, wipeout hd, DC Universe Online, Fat Princess, Infamous, MAG, Socom Confrontation, The Agency, Heavy Rain, God of War 3, etc.

PlayStation 3 exclusive games Xbox 360 exclusive games

I think once people realize they can watch movies for free if they have xbox live gold and netflix (in the states) the xbox will set its place to be insanely dominant next gen.

Not quite a casual gamer, but definitely not hardcore - call me a 'firmcore' gamer. We got a PS3 because it's got Blu-ray, built-in wifi, and the online stuff is free, and it plays latest-gen games. (Non-gamer geek in me also liked the user-upgradable disk and Linux support.)

Graphically, the PS3 hasn't gone much past the 360, but on the other hand, it's got more headroom. Graphics will get better as developers learn how to program for it. (Compare early PS2 games to the latest ones.) The 360's graphics will improve, too, but it's got less room to grow, just as a PS2 can't compete w/an XBox at the high end.

That said, price is a big advantage for the 360; the PS2 was outclassed by the Xbox hardware-wise, but sold better. But for hardcore gamers, price isn't as much of a decider.