Editorial: A PlayStation Thanksgiving

With turkey just around the corner, I’d like to take a look back at this last year and why I’m grateful for the PS3. Released at the end of 2006, the Playstation 3 has had an interesting run. From a struggling competitor to the Xbox 360, to now a dominating player on the market, it’s influence can be seen in it’s sales and game production.

I first picked up my PS3 around June of 2008 with the release of Metal Gear Solid 4. It was one of the big games that helped raise PS3 popularity due in part to its exclusivity. A 20-hour romp into the world of Solid Snake, the game is now a best-seller and continues to enthrall people not only with it’s incredible story line but also with a robust online multiplayer game. Along with Metal Gear, I picked up a few of the launch titles to get started: games like Resistance: Fall of Man and Assassin’s Creed. Resistance was an amazing first-person shooter that was a new IP for the PS3. The game followed a key soldier, Nathan Hale, on his journey through an invasion of an alien species and his struggles to not become one of them. The story, action, and most of all, weapons, were incredible and made the game one of my favorites even to this day.

Now skip ahead a few years to 2010. By this time, the PS3 has had many hugely successful titles ranging from Uncharted 2 to God of War 3 and even to smaller release titles like 3d Dot Game Heroes. The system has had its share of multi-platform blockbusters as well, such as Modern Warfare 1 and 2 and many, many sports games. The platform has outperformed all original expectations and has recently picked up sales thanks to a new marketing campaign and much needed price drops. With features such as free online play and the best Blu-Ray player on the market, the console should have a very long life. Having the PS3 these last few years has been an adventure. Whether I’m traveling around on horseback through the Wild West in Red Dead Redemption, or if I’m pulling headshots in Modern Warfare 2, the console has never let me down. Playstation has always provided great service to it’s customers in the form of fun games or a well developed console to play them on. Not once in these past years have I had to worry about my PS3 randomly dying, nor have I had to worry about not having a good game to play because of the consistent quality exclusives.

Although I’m grateful for my family and health, the Playstation has been something I appreciate as well. I’ve gotten my fill of killing baddies and racing around cities this past year thanks to the system. So this Thanksgiving, I urge all of you to stop for a minute and think about your console, be it PS3, Xbox 360, PC, or even Wii, and consider the fun you’ve had and the great games you’ve played. And from one gamer to another, Happy Thanksgiving!