380 Games by Spring 08 or Kaz Hirai commits seppuku.

[schild]

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) expects a sharp increase in the number of games released for the PlayStation 3 this business year, in a move that should help the game console's slumping sales, the Nikkei business daily quoted the head of Sony's game division as saying in an interview.

Nintendo Co.'s (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) Wii game console has been outselling the PlayStation 3 console 3-1 in Japan and more than 2-1 in the United States so far this year, according to game magazine publisher Enterbrain and research firm NPD.

A lack of attractive games has been widely cited as a reason for the PS3's relatively weak performance in addition to the fact that it is far more expensive than the Wii.

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) President Kazuo Hirai was quoted by the Nikkei newspaper as saying that 200 software titles and 180 download-only titles would be released for the PS3 in the current business year to next March.

At present, there are 60 software titles and 50 download-only titles available for the PS3 worldwide, the newspaper said.

No one at SCE was immediately available for comment.

Hirai told the Nikkei that Sony would work with game software publishers on marketing, including events and in-store promotions, to help ensure an increase in the release of games.

3 things:
1. He is Japanese.
2. He will not lose his HONOR.
3. And this might be what Sony has over Nintendo. There's no doubt Kaz knows more about the industry and has hands in more pockets than Iwata or uhhhhh, what happened to J. Allard?

[MrHat]

That title really made my day.  Thanks :-D

[Murgos]

Playstation 3's are selling so fast they can't keep them on the shelves!!!

Right, no one at Sony lies.  The real questions is, as always, how many of those 380 games are ones that people want to play?

[Yegolev]

I have no idea what those sixty games could be.  Must be JP games?  Most of the PS3 games I see on ebgames.com are not yet available.  If there is a PS3 game worth a damn out now, somebody let me know.

[Miasma]

He must be including PS2 games since they also run on the PS3.  I mean if these games are supposed to be available by March wouldn't they have to be at least halfway through development by now?  There is just no way.  And the 180 downloadable titles must include old console titles that will be emulated, that is not 180 new games.

Maybe they're going to force all blu-ray movies to stick in a mini-game to meet that number .

[Yegolev]

I am quite sure that the downloadable number is going to mostly include PS1 games.  Also, he can't be counting PS2 games or he would have to add a zero or two on there.

[schild]

200 are on store shelves.

180 are in the downloadable network.

Nintendo counts VC titles as new games on the their downloadable network. Microsoft counts things like Galaga Remixed as a new game on XBL. Sony sure as shit can count PS1 games. Which I'm fine with. There's a ton of PSX games I'd love to play again.

As for 200 new titles on the shelf. Well. Yea, I get that it's a shitton. I also get that Kaz Hirai is a businessman. Our glorious PS Brand leader up to a few weeks ago was an engineer, and probably knew as much about business as my 8 year old cousin. I can see Kaz spending the money to get back on top.

[Velorath]

The real questions is, as always, how many of those 380 games are ones that people want to play?

Agreed.  Numbers don't get most people excited.  People don't run out and buy a PS3 when Q-bert, 2Xtreme, or Go! Sudoku are added to the PSN store, just because the number of available games went up.  It's more important that they focus on getting good games and not losing existing franchises to MS (word is going around now that Beautiful Katamari is ending up 360 exclusive).

[schild]

Pssssst.

Beautiful Katamari was always a 360 Exclusive. PS3 was never mentioned until recently.

Katamari doesn't want to be on the same system as Loco Roco anyway.

Also, it's important to keep repeating that only 180 of the games are PSN. With 200 boxed games, it almost assuredly means some stuff that normally wouldn't get localized WILL get localized.

[Velorath]

Also, it's important to keep repeating that only 180 of the games are PSN. With 200 boxed games, it almost assuredly means some stuff that normally wouldn't get localized WILL get localized.

How do you figure?  They seem to be talking about worldwide numbers here (at least they are when they're talking about the present number of titles).  I don't see anything to indicate that all 200 boxed games are coming to NA.

Oh, and as far as the Katamari thing goes, the JP website still has the PS3 listing up on it.  You can say that it's always been a 360 exclusive, but it still hasn't been officially confirmed.

[Murgos]

Also, it's important to keep repeating that only 180 of the games are PSN. With 200 boxed games, it almost assuredly means some stuff that normally wouldn't get localized WILL get localized.

See, I read that as, "With 200 boxed games, it almost assuredly means that some stuff that normally wouldn't get released WILL get released."

I'm skeptical that there has been sekret developer resources allocated to "Climb Mt. PS3!" so that they may crush their enemies with a cunning surprise attack.

[Yegolev]

More like a sekret team that rides the asses of developer studios so that they release a box before December 25, 2007, that is how I took that.  Hard to be sure, however, since PS3 is region free and I have to assume those are global numbers.  Since I have no idea what the current list of 60 PS3 games consists of, I expect to be similarly dumbfounded as to the contents of the larger list.

[HaemishM]

It isn't by December 2007, it's by March 2008, the full business year, not calendar year. It's still a bit unrealistic, IMO, but less so than trying to squeeze out 200 games in 6 months time.

[Yegolev]

Not if you count the various dating sims and fishing simulators undoubtedly slated for the bottom shelf of Japanese stores.  Jokes aside, I would play a PS3 version of River King.

[Murgos]

I'm just saying that if there were 200 AAA titles set to be released over the next 9 months there would be a shit-ton of preview articles and information floating around.

No, the only AAA titles out of that 200 are the few that we already know about and have been on the skyline already plus a couple that are flying in under the radar.  The vast majority of that 200 is going to be crap.

[schild]

I very much expect to see some Japanese titles getting released simultaneously with USA titles with both audio tracks and subtitle tracks on them. Being region free + The ability to put many many soundtracks on blu-ray makes things Much Easier. Just have to change the packaging. They've already got region auto-detect on games (see: Gundam Musou) and demos. As for Europe, I expect to see them get a lot of shit with only English on it.

[Roac]

I'm just saying that if there were 200 AAA titles set to be released over the next 9 months there would be a shit-ton of preview articles and information floating around.

Who said anything about 200 AAA titles?  It's just 200 titles.  Hope for 10% to be AAA.

[schild]

Well, ho-de-doo, someone at NeoGAF kinda made a point.

68 PS2 games released in the year of 2000

193 PS2 games released in the year of 2001

200+ PS2 games released in the year of 2002

200+ PS2 games released in the year of 2003

200+ PS2 games released in the year of 2004

200+ PS2 games released in the year of 2005

200+ PS2 games released in the year of 2006

200+ PS2 games released in the year of 2007

[Yegolev]

The only point there is that we are guaranteed to have multiple PS3 yaoi dating sims by FYE 2008.

[Murgos]

That there are a butt load of PS2 games released every year?  Yes, obviously.

Roac:  No shit?  I think that's what I said, "The 200 number is going to be mostly crap."  Yep, that's what I said alright.

[schild]

Hm. I disagree on mostly crap. If we go by the fact I have trimmed down my PS2 collection of games and still have ~170, that means there were over 10 games per year I _wanted_ to play. I'm a lot more tolerable early on in a generation than most (except maybe Yegolev, but he suffers for his art). I bet we get 25-30 solid games out of this. Gundam Musou, Folk's Soul, Haze, Army of Two, Kane & Lynch, The Darkness, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Warhawk, Stranglehold, Lair, Heavenly Sword, Little Big World, Sega Rally Revo (Skipping DiRT for this), Ratchet and Clank: ToD, CB's Jericho, Eye of Judgement, Dark Sector, Fatal Inertia, Bladestorm, Drake's Fortune (I can't believe I forgot the new name to this game, le sigh), and uhmmmm...

Oh, that's 20. Off the top of my head. All in 2007 (afaik). Maybe R&C will slip to 08. Possibly Dark Sector (not likely going to slip though, delayed enough already). I'm not normally one to count cross-platform stuff, but 200 exclusives is too unreasonable for any system (except the DS in Japan, but how many of those are actually GAMES? like 8 of them). As such, can they do it, oh yes, they can do it. Will they? Well, 3rd parties have to deliver.

[schild]

Gamespot has confirmed that 145 of them are for America. Makes it safe to assume that 150 or so are for Japan. And Europe gets leftovers. Suckers.

[Velorath]

Gamespot has confirmed that 145 of them are for America.

Which they broke down as being 105 boxed, 40 downloadable

[schild]

Gamespot has confirmed that 145 of them are for America.

Which they broke down as being 105 boxed, 40 downloadable

Which is f'ing amazing since 60 are already out. That would outperform Nintendo and Microsoft's first years put together for boxed games. Of course, Sony is really the only company that could pull that off at this point...

[Yegolev]

It begins.

[schild]

Commence froth?

[Nonentity]

I will promise to clean the dust off of it if we get that many games. I swear.

[WindupAtheist]

I've resigned myself to hearing "YEAH BABY OVER 68 DIFFERENT JAPANESE GROCERY STORE SIMS ARE COMING OUT FOR PS3, THIS IS WHERE SONY TURNS IT AROUND!" for the next half decade.

[schild]

I've resigned myself to hearing "YEAH BABY OVER 68 DIFFERENT JAPANESE GROCERY STORE SIMS ARE COMING OUT FOR PS3, THIS IS WHERE SONY TURNS IT AROUND!" for the next half decade.

Ya ya, shooters on the 360, minigames on the Wii, ... restaurant sims on the PS3.

One of these is not like the other.

With Diner Dash, the DS has more Restaurant Sims than the PS3. And it's not even Japanese.

Go away.

[Yegolev]

I can hold off on the frothing for now, but with a nice chunk of PS3 games materializing and the strong statements from Hirai-san, it looks like the PS3 will be really arriving soon.  Maybe October, but at least I can almost count on March.

If a grocery store sim is fun, I'll play it.  I already play things like River King.  It's hard to get more gay than Ar tonelico without actual men kissing; the saving grace there is the boy-girl dynamic, though.  I don't talk to my dad anymore and I don't worry about him calling me a fag, so I'm sure as hell not going to worry about some Internet Figment doing so.

[Chimpy]

I don't talk to my dad anymore and I don't worry about him calling me a fag, so I'm sure as hell not going to worry about some Internet Figment doing so.

[WindupAtheist]

I'm just fulfilling my duty as the anti-Schild.

[schild]

I'm just fulfilling my duty as the anti-Schild.

But you're not the anti-schild. Schild plays and loves a wide variety of games. He's also a dick about it.

You're just a dick who quotes himself in his sig.

[Roac]

More on the games bit.  Sony's comment was with respect to worldwide totals, which is expected.  The US is to receive 145 titles, with 105 of them boxed.

[schild]

More on the games bit.  Sony's comment was with respect to worldwide totals, which is expected.  The US is to receive 145 titles, with 105 of them boxed.

Yea, I posted that about half a page up. For some reason that news was on Gamespot while everyone else ignored it.