Variety’s Ben Fritz has tackled the on-going uphill commercial battle Sony is currently enduring with PlayStation 3, suggesting that the platform holder may be “too artsy” for its own good.
Elaborating, Fritz turned to Media Molecule’s critically acclaimed LittleBigPlanet, considered by many to be the biggest PS3 release of last year. Despite its success, the game didn’t quite reach the commercial heights expected of it. So, who’s buying the game, Fritz ponders? "From what I can tell, fans of quality, "artsy" games," he said.
Moving on, Fritz said of PlayStation Network that Sony remains "the only one of the big three console makers that’s investing its own money on downloadable ‘indie’ games,” noting that other companies have more downloadable titles, but feature more ports and "junk."
He also addressed the console’s XMB, describing it as "much cleaner and more Google-esque than Xbox Live, filled as it is with ads and other clutter, or the boring grid on the Wii menu,” while labelling the hardware as "smoother, prettier, quieter — a superior work of art."
Fritz, however, ultimately concluded that these attributes do not paint an ideal image for a product that needs to appeal to the mainstream – which he reckons is exactly what Sony needs to do in order to replicate success of PlayStation 2.
Agree or disagree with Fritz’s assessment? Be sure to leave your comments below.