What Sony Can Learn From the 3DS Launch?

Yay, Nintendo, it managed to sell out of hardware on the launch of the 3DS, but the software failed to light up the games charts. What can this tell Sony? Well, for one, this race is a marathon and not a sprint. And, second, don't rely on your old properties to propel the next generation of gaming forward - which applies to all developers.

Looking at the line-up, Capcom had Street Fighter, Namco had Ridge Racer, Nintendo could only bring Nintendogs, no wonder something relatively new like Professor Layton is the biggest seller. So, Lesson One, Sony needs a big new game to generate interest (by interest I mean chat show hosts talking about it, kids in school wanting to try it, gamers going nuts over the "idea" whatever it is!), preferably one that uses the touchscreens and other console neat features to get people used to them.

Stories last year suggested that Nintendo wanted to sell 4 million in the first month, but if it could only get 400,000 out for launch, it has a long way to go, assuming it can supply another 300-400,000 a week - it'll do half that number. Sony has more time and, although the hardware isn't finished, needs to get higher inventory for the launch, even if it does mean delaying the western launches, sob!

Get the perfect game and decent numbers for launch and Sony can demonstrably claim to win the day. Then its "just" the small matter of a solid roster of new games, not just rehashes, remakes and .1 updates to PS3 titles. If Sony really wants to capture the spirit and mentality of the original PlayStation it will be with new stuff that makes us go "wow!", not just games that make us go "been there, done that."

What will that game be? Well, the ability to take a picture and render the image in 3D (as demonstrated at GDC) or use a photo in a game has bags of possibility for a populist game. If you want something more "core", then how about smashing the three big concepts together, Halo-esque characters in a GTA city with a Red Dead characterization scheme and see what happens. In eight months please!