I guess I should have already admitted a bit of a bias against Sony and the Playstation 3 (PS3). I don't dislike Sony, I'm just not ready to run out and plunk down a lot of money to get a PS3 when I've already spent money buying the HDTV and the Xbox 360 I currently have to go with it. I'm happy with the 360 for the most part, and enjoy my gaming time on the box a lot. It's a good system with good games that I enjoy a lot.
If Sony had been first to market with their next generation box (for example, if they had put out the PS3 before Microsoft released the Xbox 360) I probably would have blown my money on that system and would be ignoring the 360 instead. In Microsoft's case they got their system out first and allowed gamers like me to enjoy a year's headstart on the other competitors (Sony and Nintendo).
Anyway, the one thing I hope goes incredibly well for Sony is their sports game line-up. I hope they sell millions of units of their sports games, if not tens of millions. Lots of copies of their NBA game, lots of copies of their NFL football game and lots of copies of their MLBl game.
Why? Because I want lots of competitive pressure on Electronic Arts and 2K Sports. I want them both to have to look up at Sony as a leader in the market so they both have to work their butts off to get sales of their own products, and so that both of them wind up putting out much better software because of it.
Ever since Electronic Arts made the anti-competitive exclusive deal to be the only third party video game maker that has license to produce an NFL themed game I've wanted things changed, and I continue to want to see change. EA's move shut 2K Sports out of the football market and that inspired 2K Sports to go for their own exclusive deal in the MLB market. Now gamers on the Xbox platform and Nintendo platforms are basically stuck with no choice for NFL games and no choice for MLB games. If EA puts out a clunker too bad. If 2K Sports puts out a clunker (which has happened badly on the 360 platform this past year) that's too bad too. Customers don't have a choice and if they want a game in either sport they'll have to swallow hard and just accept whatever title is available.
If Sony is able to sell enough units to make the exclusive deals basically worthless than perhaps EA and 2K Sports will see the light (along with the various leagues) and end the exclusive deals entirely. One can only hope so.
