Holiday Wars: Sony Counts on Games, Microsoft on Price

Ars Technica reports: Going into this holiday season, it's clear that Nintendo will sell as many systems as it can get on store shelves, but the fight for second place is where the real action will be found. The good news for both Microsoft and Sony is that each enjoys a strong position, but each has quite distinct advantages.

Microsoft has the proven franchise... and the price

Microsoft is rolling into the holiday season with a strong weapon: Gears of War 2. The first game was an instant hit, and new maps and online communities kept interest in multiplayer strong. The second game features better graphics, tightened game play, and it has been hinted that you can ride the Brumack; what isn't there to love?

"Currently, we expect Gears of War 2 to be the single best selling SKU this holiday season," EDAAR analyst Jesse Divnich wrote about the title recently. The first game sold two million copies in six weeks; with a larger installed base and more demand for the sequel, it's hard to overestimate how well this game will perform.

The most important weapon Microsoft enjoys going into this holiday season, however, is price. The Arcade model Xbox 360 is only $200, making it cheaper even than the Wii. The new bundle will even come with a game, though it's a mediocre title (Sega Superstars Tennis).

Arcade doesn't come with a hard drive, but with the included memory card, gamers will be able to save their games, even if they won't be able to download much content. For the casual or single-player gamer, that might not matter. That price point is powerful, and with a game? Parents and grandparents will buy in droves.

If you listen to Microsoft, the price cut has already "worked." The company stated at the Tokyo Games Show that sales have doubled in the US and are up more than 60 percent in Europe. With a new casual-friendly user interface launching November 19, Microsoft will be launching one of the highest-profile games in the industry along with the lowest-priced system and a fresh coat of UI paint.

In other words, the Xbox 360 is cocked, locked, and ready to rock.

Sony does what Nintendon't... but you'll pay for the privilege

Since Sony has yet to go into specifics about the launch of Home, its social online service, let's leave it out of the equation. The big news for Sony this holiday season has to be LittleBigPlanet.

We've been hooked on the beta since we received our keys, and the player-created levels have been amazing. The full game will also come with a full slate of levels ready to go, allowing both single-player
and multiplayer fun out of the box.

Frank had a chance to play some of this content at Sony's last event, and he walked away impressed with what Media Molecule has achieved. The nay-sayers are flat out wrong; this is a game with wide appeal, that will be fun in fifteen-minute or fifteen-hour bursts, with content easy enough for casual players and a level editor deep enough for game developers-in-training.

Frankly, this is the casual game Microsoft so desperately craves, and it appeals to both casual and hardcore gamers, which must make even Nintendo envious.

Sony will also bring Resistance 2 to the market, and now that the PS3 has a much larger installed base, the second title may get the sales the first entry deserved. Featuring an extension of the story, graphics much improved from the first game, and a co-op campaign that is class-based to stretch out the replay value, this could be an even higher-quality release than Gears of War 2.

Sony also has yet another weapon: Iron Man. Now that movies like Iron Man are enjoying high sales in Blu-ray format, the PS3's Blu-ray capabilities should give Sony a boost when consumers want a system that can do more than play games. Anecdotally, I know two people who picked up the system just to watch Iron Man on Blu-ray, and now they're shopping for inexpensive games they have missed since launch.

Still, the $400 price tag remains too high for most people. For your average consumer, DVDs may still be "good enough," and the lowest-priced PS3 is $200 more than the lowest-priced Xbox 360. With both the new Resistance title and LittleBigPlanet still lacking the established reputation of games like Gears of War 2 and Fable 2, this may be an uphill struggle.

Our verdict?

It's going to come down to two things: price and games. Both systems have great games, but the lower price of the 360 gives it an advantage that the PS3 is going to find hard to beat. Sure, it has a Blu-ray player, but value-added features are often a harder sell than a lower price on the store shelves.

Both systems are going to sell well, despite the weak US economy, but those $200 units are likely to give Microsoft the win. Sony has the games, but to compete, it needs to get the price down, and fast.

by Ben Kuchera

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