Analysis: Xbox 360 or PS3: Which performed better in 2010?
2010 has been a great year for gaming. It’s seen improvements and even advancements in all departments. The battle between the next-gen consoles reached its peak during this year as both the Xbox 360 and PS3 decided to venture into the motion gaming arena and give the dominant Wii, a run for its money when it comes to motion gaming. But that was only a part of what ensued between the HD consoles. Both were seen pushing each other’s tech capabilities aswell as promoting their products in full-force in order to gain an edge over its competitor.
2010 didn’t fall short in delivering an amazing gaming experience and in the war of the HD consoles, only one clear winner emerged, the gamer.
Gamersmint takes a look back at the year gone by and compares various aspects of both the Xbox 360 and PS3 during this year and tries to find out which performed better overall:
Exclusives:
Both the consoles delivered some blockbuster exclusives during 2010. The PS3 saw games such as God of War III and Heavy Rain lead from the front while others like Yakuza 3 and Demons Soul getting an international release did brisk business. Their holiday juggernaut, Gran Turismo 5 has already sold more than 5 million copies according to Sony and it’s been a successful year overall for the PS3. However, 2011 promises to be the best ever for the console in terms of exclusives and fans have a lot more to look forward to.
The Xbox 360 fought with the PS3 neck to neck this year when it came to exclusives with games like Alan Wake and Fable III getting good critical acclaim, however both these games along with Crackdown 2 failed to sell as much as Microsoft wanted them to and the only major success that MS had in terms of exclusives this year is Halo: Reach, with the game having sold more than 5 million copies so far. Things look even bleaker for the Xbox 360 when it comes to mainstream exclusives in 2011 with only a handful of games announced so far which are slated to release next year.
Winner: Although, Halo: Reach remains the most successful exclusive to have released this year but if you look from a cumulative viewpoint, the PS3 has had much more commercial and critical success when it comes to exclusives being released in 2010. God of War 3, Heavy Rain and Gran Turismo 5 have sold north of a few million copies each so far and it’s undoubtedly been the PS3’s year when it comes to exclusives. Things doesn’t look to be changing much in 2011 either if you go by what’s been announced for next year for both the consoles as yet.
Kinect and Move:
2010 saw the release of two significant motion sensing hardware for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. While Sony decided to build a controller in the form of the Playstation Move, which would track your movements with precision and deliver an amazing motion-sensing gaming experience which can be implemented in most of today’s mainstream games, Microsoft thought it was best to totally do away with controllers and introduced Kinect, which allows your body to be the controller.
Both these techs surprised the world and did brisk business once launched in the market, while Microsoft developed many launch titles for Kinect and tagged it as a separate system altogether and not an extension for the Xbox 360, Sony thought it was best to promote the move as a accessory for the already successful PS3 and focused on implementing the tech with their existing and upcoming line-up of blockbusters rather than developing an expansive line-up of  standalone games for the device.
Winner: Both these motion-sensing sensation has tasted incredible success in a short span of time with Move confirmed to have sold upwards of 4.3 million units since its launch and Kinect selling more than 2.5 million units in the first month of launch itself. It’s very difficult to draw a clear winner out of these two when it comes to commercial mileage.
Microsoft’s Kinect has more promise than the PS Move when it comes to tech and MS can implement the device in innovative ways in the future and people are more intrigued by Kinect than the Move, tech-wise. But, when it comes to the line-up of games, 2011 seems like the year of the PS Move so far with it getting support on most of Sony’s exclusive line-up while Microsoft are yet to announce any major mainstream titles for Kinect and most of its games are aimed at a casual audience right now. However, MS has promised to announce some games aimed at the core audience in 2011 and it’s still very early to proclaim a clear winner when it comes to the line-up of games for both the devices.
Overall, Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s PS Move has both succeeded in making a market for themselves and proved many trade pundits wrong. It’s still too early to declare a clear winner over the other and both seem poised to deliver the goods for their respective companies in 2011 and have been off to a flying start in 2010.
Next Page: Cont’d – Multiplatforms, Hardware and more…
