Is there honor in third place?

I ran across this article via N4G and thought it was a bit ridiculous. The author is claiming that the PS3 is really not doing that bad. Huh?

In their lifetimes, the Gamecube sold 21.74 million units, and the original Xbox 24 million. With the PS3 at 23 million, that means that it has sold the same amount as the Gamecube and Xbox in about half the time.

Ooh! Ooh! I know the answer to this one. Dreamcast! I am sure Sony never saw the day coming where their shiny new Blu-ray of wonder would get compared to the Gamecube. Good grief. There are silver linings and then there are dark clouds of mumbo-jumbo.

Lastly, there’s the issue of cost. Sony lose money on every PS3 sold. In 2006 when the PS3 launched, Sony were losing approximately $250 on every PS3 sold. But now with Blu-Ray development costs dropping (as well as Sony taking a few features out of the console), the development costs are (as of January last year) about $450. 80 GB PS3s currently cost about $400, which means that Sony is now only losing $50 per PS3. The development costs of Blu-Ray will continue to drop, which means eventually Sony will start making money off of the PS3. Until then, though, they still have sales from the PS2, PSP, and other electronics (such as TVs and standalone Blu-Ray players) to help recover their losses.

But mom! I am only a little pregnant. Something like that. The author can spin the numbers any which way they darn well please, but the simple fact of the matter is that Sony has had it handed to them the last few years.

How is this current generation going to play out? Will a $50 price cut [you know we all want to see $100, but predictably Sony will do the wrong thing] actually salvage things for Sony? Will Sony attempt to keep the PS3 on a 10 year cycle similar to the PSX and PS2? Will Sony abandon the PS3 in hopes of competing with Microsoft by simultaneously launching the next PlayStation with the next Xbox?

There are lots of questions to ponder, but no real answers right now. Maybe I will start a rumor or two later. Until then, happy Sunday!

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High Cotton

I have not had a whole heck of a lot of time for gaming lately, but I still get by. Hopefully I will get to pay a little something in the next couple of days. If not, I should have plenty of time (20 hours to be precise) to play GBA games. I am flying out to Frankfurt, Germany this Sunday, and back home on Friday December 3rd. Plane trips suck, especially these long Europe trips – they drag on and on and on and … well, you get the picture. Thankfully my GBA and iPod are there to get me through the experience. Too bad the new Final Fantasy I and II GBA title is not going to be out in time to help me with this trip.

My Seinfield Season 1-3 DVDs arrived a couple of days ago. Man, my wife and I love this show. I know it is on all over the place, but there is nothing like getting to watch something when you actually have time to watch that something. I probably have too many DVDs, but these are absolutely worth owning.

I hope everyone that celebrates turkey day had a great Thanksgiving! What a wonderful day we had at the Calvert household. We had the meal catered in – turkey, dressing, sweat potato casserole, and some great BlackStone chardonnay (1999) for starters. Plenty of other good stuff including champagne to go with pumpkin and chocolate chess pies. All in all, a very good meal – too bad the football pretty much sucked. Even if you are a Colts fan – Payton was awesome – the game sucked. The Dallas game really sucked. Oh well, maybe Texas will play well today and I hope that Georgia beats the living snot out of the bumble bees tomorrow.

The holiday season kicked off, but we stayed home. Tonya and I did our shopping via the internet. You have to love Amazon – you can get pretty much anything you need to pickup for Christmas presents. EBGames online had some pretty solid deals – the same ones they were advertising in-store. It is pretty unusual for stores to honor sale prices online, and even with the sales tax added, I saved a good deal. Joshua has been asking for Kirby Air Ride since forever, but I have not wanted to spend $50 on it because I have read such poor reviews. I got it on the cheap this morning, along with the newest Midway Arcade Treasures – hey I had to get me something! Arcade Treasures for $9.99 was a major bargain.

The Frankfurt trip will suck the life out of me, so do not be surprised if the content is fairly sparse this week.

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No Joke, Calvert Games is 3

No bells, no whistles, no fanfare as Calvert Games turned three a few days ago. Keeping on keeping on is my motto, and it looks like Calvert Games is doing just that despite the many ups and downs and current blog iteration of the site.

It is hard to believe that Calvert Games posted its first content September 27, 2001 (the site was officially launched the following week). Calvert Games launched with two articles and a review, and the rest as they say is history.

Interestingly enough the first ever article was titled “Re-return: MJ Bounces Back”

As a white kid who could not jump, I certainly spent plenty of time trying to imitate a MJ buzzer beater. I certainly look forward to seeing if MJ can recapture some of that old magic.

In “System Wars 2001″ I predicted that Microsoft would struggle badly behind Nintendo:

When all is said and done, games sell systems. The average Wal-Mart shopper could care less about broadband, hard drive space, or any other perceived advantage that Microsoft is currently trying to push. At this point, I do not feel that either system offers a compelling lineup, but as a fan of video games, my money is on Nintendo over Microsoft, but Sony will win the 2001 System Wars.

The first review was Le Mans 24 Hours for the PS2, earning a 3/5, and a couple of giggles as I look back on the style of the day.

I admit that I am a whore when it comes to racing games, especially those leaning towards the simulation side of the spectrum — I just cannot get enough. I spent many hours with Test Drive Le Mans (TDLM) for the Dreamcast (DC), awarding the game a score of 80%. It was with baited breath that I anxiously awaited the PlayStation2 (PS2) conversion.

Contrails [thanks Paul K.!] make a spectacular appearance. In fact, seeing the contrails is a sign of things to come — overdone, and over emphasized. Much like TDLM, brake rotors glow, but in Le Mans they look like someone taped an old orange Hot Wheels strip of track around the inside of the wheel. Night racings are almost a mockery of lighting effects. As I said in the beginning of this review, night races look like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Not trying to toot my horn or anything, but the review was actually entertaining. I am not sure where I lost it, but somewhere along the way I have forgotten how to review games. I guess life was much simpler in those days; too bad I lost my innocence. Maybe one day I can recapture the magic.

It would be a huge mistake not to send a special thank you to the guys that really made the site churn over the last few years. My hat goes off to the talented staff that made Calvert Games so special: Adam Simpson, Derek Mirdala, Kevin Mosley, and Ted Leiker.

After a rather inauspicious ending in August, leaving Calvert Games “off the air” for a couple of days, Calvert Games has managed to struggle kicking and screaming to year three. Many happy returns, and thanks for the continued support!

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