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Prior to E3 I had begun writing an editorial titled "The Comeback Kid" that talked about Sony and their history of the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and also the PSP. It stated that Sony had not gotten off to a great start with any of these systems, but had come on late in the game as a dominant competitor and how that could be the same for the PlayStation 3. Now jump forward to post-E3 2008, or more importantly post-Microsoft's conference. Now we are at a crossroads really, a point of no return for Sony. Sony is bleeding money and exclusives, and need something to bring them back up. Final Fantasy XIII was looking to be that game for them as it would have been a system seller, for me at least. Regardless of how late it was coming, if Sony's taking the 10 year lifespan route, this would have helped. Having Metal Gear Solid 4 as an exclusive helped, so Final Fantasy XIII would have likely done the same in terms of sales.
I'm not here to take a pro-Sony or pro-Microsoft stance, merely to place the writing on the wall for Sony. You cannot keep bleeding and continue to live, especially when there are vampires all around drinking up your blood and getting stronger. Sony needs a new hope. Microsoft isn't staking their claim of RPG dominance by grabbing Final Fantasy XIII for English-speaking areas. They are doing so with Infinite Undiscovery, Fable 2, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope. It doesn't hurt that the 360 is getting The Last Remnant before the PlayStation 3 either. Well, it doesn't hurt Microsoft, at least in terms of RPGs. For better or worse, the 360 already has Blue Dragon, Mass Effect, and Lost Odyssey while the PlayStation 3 is still sitting around with ports and Folklore.
Sony is not out though, not by a long shot, but they have reached the point of no return. There is no more kidding around. They may have the greatest lineup of action and adventure titles, but for RPGamers they only have Disgaea 3, the long-awaited White Knight Chronicles, Valkyria Chronicles, and the even more long-awaited (and still exclusive for now) Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Sony needs to get something to bring RPGamers back. As I was going to say in the editorial I talked about earlier, Sony started off rather sadly on the PlayStation 1 and 2 as far as RPGs went, but then became almost the only option for RPGamers. That was mainly because the Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Gamecube, and original Xbox offered no resistance. The Sony consoles became the de facto RPG consoles, but now all of that has changed. While Microsoft is doing horrid in terms of 360 sales in Japan, they are still the leading console for RPGs and are doing quite well in North America. Sony has competition for the title, and at this point in the match, Microsoft is winning in terms of RPGs. Sony must turn things around. I know that they cannot release anything this year that can counter the current Microsoft momentum, but they can get some announcements started and some hype going. They need something, because the scales are tilting. I know they still have it in them, but can they pull it out in time?
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