This is one that we’ve been pondering for a bit before we decided to do an article about this story. Apparently, right after making a claim that this will be the year of the 360, as well (which he had the right to opine), Gaming Target editor and contributor John Scalzo lists “Further Proof the PS3 is Done”. All well and good…IF he hadn’t gotten most of his claims either wrong or completely sourceless.

For one, we do concur that the sales of LittleBigPlanet are not something to write home about, but it’s not as bad as what Scalzo claims there to be. LBP has has 1.5 million plus sales since its launch according to Sony, and if you remember, it also was released in a game filled month of October, and the marketing of games like LBP and Resistance 2, or lack thereof, has been the main reason why the PS3 games weren’t catching on as quickly as one might have thought it would. Still, though, John insists that it is a flop based on NPD sale data, even though NPD data only lists North American sales, which John somehow fails to address. Also in this: The claim that Fable II outsold LBP four to one. While it could’ve had, how are we supposed to know that you’re telling the truth, Scalzo? You give no source as to where you get this information, and yet your expecting us to just BELIEVE you.

Unfortunately, this article only gets worse from there. GT5 Prologue (which Scalzo claims that Sony tried to sneak in the back door) and MGS4 were also mentioned as sales flops. Also, he claims: “All of this is compounded by the fact that Kazunori Yamauchi, CEO of Polyphony Digital, said at E3 that the real Gran Turismo 5 might not be released until 2010.” Again, this was unsourced, but at least he gives a when to this (at E3, though which one? 2007? 2008?). But again, that was E3, and thing’s change. John conveniently forgets that the very same person laughed at the 2010 rumored date and made the “sooner than expected” line. Whatever John used was not only incorrect, but also out of date.

As for MGS4, here’s Scalzo’s quote:

Amazingly enough though, at 775,000 copies sold it its first month in America, MGS4 doesn’t even hold the distinction of biggest sales month of the year. In fact, its not even in the top ten. It has been beaten by the aforementioned Fable II, GTA4 on the Xbox 360 (twice) and PS3, Mario Kart Wii (twice), Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War (the Xbox 360 version), Wii Play and Madden 09 (the Xbox 360 version). It’s a solid release, but hardly the system seller that the forum fanboys would have you believe it would have been a few months before its release.

Amazingly enough, as well, that he always cites the 360 versions of CoD:WaW and Madden 09. The games were Multiplatform, why not include both sales? Oh wait, it would then compound the point that he’s making: That gamers only buy the 360 versions of multiplatform games and forget that the PS3 exists. Even when citing both versions of GTA4, he puts the “twice” label on the 360 version. All while never sourcing where he gets this info. Okay, so he’s GIVING us this NPD thing, but no links or anything else that we can click on in the article that would give us some proof to his claims. John, you’ve GOT to do better than this, especially when you’re claiming that your last article about this got you a ton of heat.

But wait, here comes a kicker:

In fact, few PS3 games even make the NPD monthly Top 10. And the system’s lack of a deep library (compared to the Xbox 360 and Wii) continues to show that gamers who choose two systems more consistently choose an Xbox 360 and a Wii than a PS3 and a Wii or a PS3 and an Xbox 360. This is most apparent in November when Gears of War 2 and the Xbox 360 versions of Call of Duty: World at War and Left 4 Dead sold as many copies during the month as every PS3 game combined.

Wasn’t the “PS3 has no games” argument been debunked countless times over, even by Torrence Davis at the Bitbag when slamming Souja Boy for his fanboyish claim, by several people? And plus, Scalzo went on about MGS4, GT5: Prologue, and LBP as if they WERE good games, and then telling US that the PS3 doesn’t have a deep library, all while never sourcing his latter claim. Once AGAIN, no sources leading us to ponder where he actually GOT them. That coupled with what he said before that claim about the sales only further solidifies John’s true colors, and they are rather neon green.

We then get the interview with former Shiny Entertainment guru David Perry about the Sony’s loss of money from the PS3, but never saying the things that Joystiq mentioned that might convlute John’s case, like:

In all fairness, the article goes on to explain that Microsoft lost $4 billion on the original Xbox, and has had to spend over $1 billion replacing faulty hardware in the 360 and extending the warranty for original purchasers. So, we tend to think $5 billion trumps $3 billion. The real winner in this struggle? Nintendo. It has been churning a profit on that little Wii since it hopped out of the gate. Rassin’ frassin’ wand-wagglin’ profiteers.

This is never mentioned. Instead, we get, from John:

The final nail in the coffin that the PS3 is not as relevant, saleswise, compared to the Wii and Xbox 360, is that Sony has squandered all of their profits from the glory days of the PS2 on PS3 development and advertising. Or at least, so says Dave Perry.

This is taking things out of context (but at least he links to SOMETHING here to back up his claim. It’s the only time he DOES, though). Oh, and where exactly ARE all those 360 system sales coming from. Remember the hardware issues that the 360 has that John didn’t say. Microsoft DOES count those replacements as sales for their console, as well (and some replacement consoles are legit sellings, some aren’t). Scalzo doesn’t say this or about the lawsuits that they now face. Oh, and what about the eight months in which the PS3 outsold the 360 for 2008, or that Sony has sold more PS3 units in their first two years than Microsoft did for the 360’s first two years on the market. Where are any of those facts in this article?

The article has another page, though, and it gets worse. We all know that Gabe Newell can be a complete douchebag, but this left us scratching our heads a little:

It doesn’t look like things will get any better in 2009 as development support for the PS3 is drying up. And there is no higher profile recent release to prove that than Valve’s Left 4 Dead. Gabe Newell, Valve’s head honcho, has routinely blasted the PS3 and has vowed never to develop for it. That means that one of the biggest games of the fall will never appear on the PS3.

Actually, this is not completely factual. Yes, we all know the infamous “waste of time” thing back in 2007, but this is somewhat out of date. Valve’s Doug Lombardi mentioned a 50-50 chance of the game hitting the PS3 (though he denied the development of the version a few months ago, the denial is similar to the Bioshock issue last year before a PS3 port was confirmed). Plus, Lombardi made some interesting points in the same interview that he made the 50-50 chance claim about where the hate came from, and what Valve’s options would be in the future.

At least now someone made a correction about one thing that was incorrect: The Command And Conquer Red Alert 3 thing. EA had resurrected the PS3 version, but listed in the heading “Development Support Slipping Away” (by the way, Capcom, Level 5, and EA, for starters, would love to say HI to you), John brought up the then cancellation of the PS3 version of RA3, but an editor’s note corrects this, so that’s at least a plus.

However, this article also mentions the Final Fantasy 13 and Tekken 6 defections, and saying that these games were the only reasons gamers would hold out for the PS3, and they didn’t have a reason to anymore since they would be out for the 360. What about what the lead platform is, or that the people that would’ve wanted a PS3 for those games have already acquired one?

This other paragraph also boggles the mind:

A confluence of other factors has also come to pass recently that continues to pound away at the PS3’s self worth. First, the system is receiving no support from Sony’s handheld, the PSP. The PSP has been utterly routed by the DS and only saw the release of six games in the month of November. And only one was a game unique to the system. The rest were quick and dirty PS2 or PS3 ports. For comparison’s sake, the DS never had a week in November where fewer than six titles were released.

John never mentions the SALES of these games, just the quantity of the releases. He never mentions the titles of those games, which DO mean something when talking about the DS, because, sadly, alot of developers seem to push their shovelware onto the Nintendo systems. We wish they wouldn’t, but unfortunately, they seem to believe Nintendo fans like us to be easy targets for those things.

Also:

Finally, GameStop may have put the final exclamation point on the non-Year of the PS3. With their end-of-the-year announcement of their internal sales numbers for the holiday season, not a single PS3 exclusive was cited as a top seller. And the PS3 was a notable exclusion when GameStop called out the stellar sales of the Wii and Xbox 360.

This is where the need to mention the economic recession comes into play. That and Sony’s need for a price cut, but this is nothing to truly be concerned about. And, AGAIN, NO SOURCE THAT MENTIONS THESE SALES ARE LINKED! John, c’mon.

Oh, and by the way, did anyone catch Scalzo NOT bring up the biased media like Kotaku and GameDaily that have had it in for the PS3 since the get go, and the articles on CNNMoney and the Wall Street Journal (which is owned now by Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Fox News (/NOISE) Channel, which not only did that ridiculous Mass Effect sex story thing but is also where you can go for right wing bias in your news) that shouldn’t even be REPORTING about this stuff like they know anything about the gaming industry? Maybe because John

This is all concluded with this:

Can the PS3 be saved? I would say the answer is no. The Xbox 360 and the Wii have carved up this generation and Sony is left scraping up the scraps (much like Nintendo and Microsoft did last generation). They could always declare 2009 the “Year of the PS3″, but there comes a time when a system has to stop being sold on potential and instead be sold on the realization of that potential.

Actually, some people already have declared this the PS3’s year. And the “saving” that this guy thinks it needs (we agree the answer is no, because it doesn’t really NEED saving)? How about the loads of praise that the upcoming Killzone 2 is getting right now BEFORE its release? Did this guy also catch the amount of PS3 exclusives this year (and for that matter, Nintendo) compared to what Microsoft has so far for the 360? Microsoft may try to pickoff another PS3 exclusive, but it seems as though Sony might be instead picking off one of Microsoft’s  exclusives if the Mass Effect 2 rumors hold up (Bioware has tried to keep the “exclusive” word out of people’s mouths when discussing ME2, so something is up).

Finally:

The PS3 is most assuredly done and all they can do now is plan for the PlayStation 4. Hopefully they learn their lesson from this generation and do not make the same mistakes again. Healthy competition pushes everyone to new heights in the game industry and I’d love to see Sony return to the innovative and smart Sony we saw that nurtured the PS2 to its lofty peak as one of the greatest game consoles of all time.

What lessons? Why does the PS3 need saving? Oh, and after all of this, why is the PSN COMPLETELY ignored? What is going on THERE?

Before to OUR conclusion, let us say that we were mistaken. He DID make one other actual link, but it was this update:

UPDATE: Yet more proof has emerged with this Reuters report that Sony will post a $1.1 billion [loss...we assume] for the year when they release their quarterly financial numbers. This will be the first loss Sony has posted since they launched the original PlayStation in 1995.

This is to SONY, and no word as to the PS3 being a direct cause of this. Plus, Microsoft didn’t sit too pretty, either, as layoffs are also affecting THEM, too. In a recession, ALL companies suffer, not just those you hope DO suffer.

In short, Scalzo may be right or he may be wrong, but for us to believe him, he has to learn to post factual information with sources that back up his claims that don’t also prove his point wrong. This is troubling especially after we’ve seen a NUMBER of these stories about the PS3 hit the N4G front page (and shoot right up there, such as this one did). Somewhere, there is an audience for this kind of shit, we’re sure. However, the general public just wants to now talk about the GAMES, and Scalzo is bringing back fanboyish antics in a gaming blog. We’re only discussing the PS3’s successes because this article is to counter Scalzo’s claims about the system, but we’re getting tired of this fanboyism from all sides. It seems right now, though, it’s the PS3 hate that gets the hits because people love to see turmoil and that is guaranteed hits (plus, that is the “hot button issue” right now, such as what the RROD issue became again when the NXE dropped onto 360 users). This fanboyism needs to stop, and Scalzo’s article, that fails to provide any proof and sounds as though he had something completely against Sony (his claim about his thoughts about competition at the end be damned) does not help in this matter.

Thankfully, most of the gaming public are smarter than to fall into such a trap as Scalzo’s.

OTHER STORIES ABOUT THE PS3 HATE:
Why All The PS3 Hate? (The Bitbag)
PS3 Haters Lose Advantage, Jealousy Fuels Hostility (PSX Extreme)
To The Media: Stop The PS3 Bashing, Now (Game Gazette)
If Microsoft pay, we’ll write another “Sony is Doomed” article  (Gamezine)