GOONL!NE

We’ll admit it.

You know it, I know, practically everyone knows it.

The pre-launch hype for the PlayStation 3 was a joke. A ridiculous price at £425/$599, barely any decent games at launch and PR which is probably the worst in history. Needless to say, the PLAYSTATION 3 has not had the best of lifecycles compared to the Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii.

But since then, slowly but surely, things are getting better.

The games are starting to come thick and fast with high quality tagged on them If you asked any PS3 owner what their top 5 games were, these would be them:

• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• LittleBigPlanet
• Uncharted: Drakes Fortune
• Resistance 2
• Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction

Notice something? These games came out a year after the launch of the PS3 in America. Since that launch, only things are starting to get better for the PS3. Developers are starting to harness the power of the CELL and make their games on the PS3 top notch stuff, even more so due to the fact that EA are making some of their games on the PS3 as the lead platform, such examples of this is Burnout Paradise and Mirror’s Edge as well as Infinity Ward and Rockstar Games having seperate dev teams for each platform for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Grand Theft Auto IV.

And of course, you have Insomniac who have produced 4 top class PS3 games with Resistance: Fall of Man, Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty and Resistance 2 with them working on their 5th PS3 game right now, that says something.

And with Naughty Dog planning to surpass the quailty of PS3 titles with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves with them using most, if not, all of the power the PS3 to harness the graphicial power of the system, you cant help but be amazed by what PS3 developers are putting their minds to.

So for Valve and Gabe Newell to say that the PS3 is useless, that they should start over with it again and that it’s hard to design for is kind of pointless to say and renders their opinion invaild and useless.

A prime example of that will be coming in only 18 days time when Killzone 2, nearly 5 years after that infamous video at E3 which we all took as in-game or at least real time graphics only to be CG, has turned to match or at least come close to that target video.

We’ll know soon if the game will be a hit or a flop but from our recent hands on previews of multiplayer and single player, the former seems more likely then the latter.

But Killzone 2 isn’t the only one which could make the PS3′s fortunes swing. There is still 2 other games to come this year by the end of the year which should sell alot of PS3′s, Heavy Rain and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves as well as inFamous and Insomniac’s 5th generation PS3 game which will most likely be a new Ratchet and Clank.

And come Q1 2010, we’ll see Gran Turismo 5, the superior version of Final Fantasy XIII, God of War III (granted, it may come out this year but we’ll put it as 2010 for now, we’ll find out more anyways tomorrow when the previews go up) as well as possibly MAG and trICO from Team ICO with particularly large sales expect for God of War III and Gran Turismo as well as another game should it actually go into development, a remake of Final Fantasy VII which is seen as a goldmine for Square Enix. So for Square and Sony to miss this chance to bring a remake of one of the best games of all time to the PS3 could see both companies lose money and sales.

Although we both know that it’ll be a question of when, not if, it’ll be coming for Final Fantasy VII

But even then, it’s not just the games for the PS3 which may see a turning point, no. The games are there but there is still somethings that need doing right. Two of them is this, advertising and price cuts.

With advertising, this is one of Sony’s weak points. Not alot of big campaigns for their big games at first compared to Microsoft or Nintendo but since then, Sony are starting to get their head around it with campaigns for LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2 in the UK. To see proof of this, you only have to see the top 40 all format games in the UK this week. While they aren’t in any significant positions on the charts, LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2 are in the charts, LBP in the top 30 at 24 while Resistance 2 is in at 31.

It shows Sony that a big ad campaign can go a long way in promoting your game so just imagine that when Sony start up their new £4 million ad campaign in the UK for their games like LBP, R2, Motorstorm Pacific Rift and Killzone 2, which is getting half of that £4 million with its own £2 million campaign, in the middle of this month.

It could go a long way in selling PS3′s but even then, there is still one thing that keeps consumers away from the PS3 and that’s price. Since the launch of the PS3, it has only come down in price once since the launch of the system back in Europe in March 2007 all the way down to £299.99 despite the fact they dropped the 60GB SKU which came in at £399.99.

It’s possible then that, to meet the 2 year anniversary of the PS3 in Europe, there will be a price cut for the PS3 that could range anywhere from £50 to £100 although we think the former would be the most probable if Sony want to make even with the console. However, there is the Killzone 2 bundle on it’s way from SCEE which will come with the game and an 80GB PS3 which we think will come in at £349.99 although retailers like Argos could add in other things towards the bundle and keep it towards £299.

The PLAYSTATION 3 is not gonna be a PlayStation 2 in terms of sales or legacy, we all know that surely now. But it does still stand a chance in this generation with the quality of games that are being churned out and while there are still problems that need fixing like the PR and Price, in the long run, the PLAYSTATION 3 could see the tides changing for it big time. We better hope though that Sony realise this before it’s too late to do anything about it by then.