February: The month that...
Sony said PS3 was still on track for a spring launch
After business analysts Merrill Lynch published a report suggesting that PS3 would be delayed, Sony spokesperson Kei Sakaguchi was given the rather unfortunate task (oh how we love retrospectives) of reassuring the world that PS3 would still be out in the spring. Remember that? The spring launch? It wasn't until E3 in May that this was revised for November and then again for... you know the rest.
Gizmondo went tits up
Did you forget Gizmondo? Well, we're not going to remind you of its lack of games, ugly design and weak media player features. Somebody else did that at the time. Instead we're going say how Gizmondo's premature demise proved how difficult it is for an outsider to break through into the mass market in the face of the 'big three' gaming giants. Mind you, we had a go on a Gizmondo once and it was, by all accounts, a bit rubbish.
An analyst nearly got something right
Back in February 'analysts' were still getting a lot of press out of guessing the prices of as yet unreleased consoles like Wii (then still called Revolution) and PS3. This month's top story was that Wii would cost just $200, a considerable saving compared to Xbox 360 at $299 and a snip compared to PS3 which, at this point, was predicted to cost $800. As it happens, Wii ended up costing $250. Well done analyst PJ McNealy, you weren't far off.
UMDs didn't sell very well
This month it started to become painfully clear that PSP's UMD movie format hadn't been as successful as Sony had hoped. Both Paramount and Warner announced they were scaling back their schedule, with Warner's senior vice president saying, "We're disappointed with consumer demand". Piracy and a lack of decent titles were among the reasons blamed for the poor sales.
Above: Gizmondo made a short-lived appearance on Regent Street before being boarded up, to the utter surprise and dismay of absolutely no one
An analyst nearly got something right
Back in February 'analysts' were still getting a lot of press out of guessing the prices of as yet unreleased consoles like Wii (then still called Revolution) and PS3. This month's top story was that Wii would cost just $200, a considerable saving compared to Xbox 360 at $299 and a snip compared to PS3 which, at this point, was predicted to cost $800. As it happens, Wii ended up costing $250. Well done analyst PJ McNealy, you weren't far off.
UMDs didn't sell very well
This month it started to become painfully clear that PSP's UMD movie format hadn't been as successful as Sony had hoped. Both Paramount and Warner announced they were scaling back their schedule, with Warner's senior vice president saying, "We're disappointed with consumer demand". Piracy and a lack of decent titles were among the reasons blamed for the poor sales.
