This perfectly highlights the difference between Playstation fans and everyone else. To me, especially back in 2013 before games were a service fueled by subscriptions and microtransactions, a system is defined by its games. Nintendo fans in particular know that their system of choice has weak hardware, but they’re willing to put up with it because they love the exclusive experiences offered by those systems. Would Nintendo’s games be better if they were on more powerful non-Nintendo hardware? Probably. But the fact remains that you can’t play Mario Odyssey or Kirby Forgotten Land on anything other than a Switch (no, emulators don’t count).
Nintendo has the most loyal fans I've ever seen. It's kind of funny because Nintendo treats them like shit.
They're using the PAL ape escape on NTSC store again? And even more insane it's ps5 exclusive, not shared with ps4 like other games fromt he olderconsoles? AND plays better on the OG console thanon the more powerful and expensive one?
Yeah, they really do. But the fact that fans are willing to put up with Nintendo’s shit and talk about how much they love “Nintendo the developer” but hate “Nintendo the company” shows how much they value the games.
Oi, mate. Ya got a loicense for that 60fps?
Was that the game where a dev got punted for not knowing that the mouse was non-binary?
While you will find dedicated fans of certain franchises, these fanbases are highly fragmented. As you said, you will find people who love Ico/Shadow of Colossus/The Last Guardian and nothing else by Sony. The love isn't for Sony itself, but that IP exclusively. Nintendo fans tend to embrace anything Nintendo puts out, more or less. Many will buy games just to show their support to the company. Sony titles just don't engender the same mass embrace by Sony fans. This is not helped by the fact that Sony abandoned the vast majority of their IP after only three or four titles, at most. So if you are a fan of, say, Legend of Dragoon or Wild Arms or Resistance, you've pretty much given up any hope of those series ever getting sequels. After years of Sony doing this, you realize that loyalty to a series will only carry you so far. Nintendo like to keep series going. You may have to wait a while (see the length of time between Metroid Prime 3 and the announcement of Prime 4), but Nintendo do tend to eventually go back to the well for series that prove they have an audience. The embracement of Sony is very much tied to the brand name, but not necessarily to the individual products, while Nintendo loyalty is very much predicated on Nintendo's products themselves. And those products tend to have larger fanbases and healthier sales as a result.
That’s an interesting point, actually. The PS1/PS2 eras and what they’re known for are so different from later systems (especially PS4/PS5) that they might as well be two different fandoms. And there are classic Sony-inspired indies out there; the Toree 3D games are inspired specifically by PS1 platformers, and Post Apocalyptic Mayhem is a spiritual successor to Twisted Metal (Rocket League feels like a stretch though; I’ve played both a decent amount and outside of both games involving cars doing non-car things, I don’t see the similarity). However, the sort of dedication to/inspiration from these games - impressive as it is - isn’t reflected in the community at large. Maybe I’m just not looking in the right places, but 90%+ of the explanations I hear for why Playstation is the best involve something that’s not actually specific to Playstation, like multiplats. Meanwhile, Nintendo fans recreating old games, reviving deprecated services, and digging through decades-old games for obscure secrets is par for the course. Hell, there are 300+ people playing Mario Kart Wii online right now - and that game’s official servers shut down nine years ago.
As long as it's not a Mario game from the "new" series. Shit got stale after the Wii and 3DS versions.
The PlayStation brand's still coasting off of a lot of goodwill that came about during PS3/early PS4. A big reason to go with a PS3 at the time was because of Xbox 360 paywalling apps like YouTube and Netflix, and even the (crappy) web browser behind Xbox Live Gold. And this was before they started handing out free games monthly. It was more of a "pay this subscription fee to actually use your system for more than games" kinda scam. PS3 never had that crap, and Plus launched as a thing for free games. They didn't paywall multiplayer until the PS4.
The MLB probably wouldn't let them keep the license if they kept it exclusive, so now they half-ass ports to meet obligations (looking at you MLB: The Show on Switch).
That's true. I liked PS3 too, but that's when it got rocky.
The PS3 was the ultimate underrated system to me. The Dreamcast or GC for my age group. It wasn’t a complete winner, but Sony pulled out a lot of shit that gen that I wished flourished into more past it. For me, I played the hell out of Ratchet & Clank Tools and Crack. I also played a ton of LBP and LBP2. I have grown more of a fondness for PlayStation All-Stars and Twisted Metal (2012) as I have gotten older. While I hate how it pioneered the movie style games with Uncharted and TLOU, it had a ton of unique experiences to make up for that.
That's an interesting perspective, it's sort of your Dreamcast huh? That's neat. I do think there were a lot of cool games and stuff, and I liked the Vita connectivity (Cross-Buy/Play/etc). The controller was really good too, especially compared to the 360's trash.
I don’t get the hype for a lot of underrated systems such as the GC, but the PS3 was one that I had and honestly still like the games even when going back. I also had the Wii U as my primary system during its gen, and liked it more than the rest, but still cannot get behind the movement to place it as a great system. It really lacked that big title, the game you really go back to. The PS3 in contrast had games I would place in my favorites, even if not all were exclusive. I had it during elementary school and have super fond memories of getting Arkham City or skipping school work for LBP2 content.
NGC's best games are "love them or hate them" kinda stuff, so I get that. Dreamcast's fondness is largely due to being Sega's last system and an early next gen console, most people who weren't kids when it released probably won't care about it much without that nostalgia.
