Gears of War doing its job as a system seller?

by Blake Snow on Jan 2nd 2007 2:00PM

As of December 15, Gears of War for the 360 sold an estimated 2 million copies. It has won several "game of the year" awards (including ours) as USA Today reports on its "break out" status. From the article: "It's no doubt [Gears of War] sold a lot of Xbox 360s and has made existing 360 owners feel very good about their investment. It came at exactly the right time and has proved to be a great counter to the launch of the PS3."

In the same article, Newsweek's N'Gai Croal disputes the game's "system seller" moniker but goes on to say, "Microsoft can hold up Gears of War and say, 'Sony says their machine is more powerful than ours, yet we have this game that looks better (than any PS3 games).' "

System seller? If not that then at least really good backup. Get it ... backup? (Cue lame sounding trumpet.)

Source

Tags: GearsOfWar, PS3, USAToday, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (62)

Gears was fun, but very shallow.....R6V is a killer app, system seller!!!

Gears was way overblown and over hyped. Fun, short and very shallow.

Gears of war, or Plastic of war!!!!!!

I played GOW over New Years for the first time at my friend's house... Now i'm jonesin' for an Xbox 360 just for that game alone. It will be mine. Oh yes.

Captain Obvious says that's a novel idea

good games sell systems

hmm...

"Gears of war, or Plastic of war!!!!!!"

Don't be upset the 360 can do effects the PS3 can't. The sooner you accept it, the better for everyone.

Of course, because no other gaming platform has characters that look like they are made of plastic!!!!!!

I was hyped for Gears.. but the closer it got to launch i was nervous that i was going to be disappointed and it would be overhyped. Nearly two months later, I can say i was that i was/am impressed. I love the online multiplayer even though it is in dire need of an update.

(We've started playing dodge ball rules: player with top points on each side picks their players.)
fun :)

this place needs more gears of war blogentries plz!

I know at least two people who bought 360s after playing Gears at my house. Minus Gears, both would have waited several more months and may have ended up with PS3s.

Now, if Epic would just fix the mic issue and let you play with friends on ranked matches, it would be nearly perfect.

OKAY so they think it looks better NOW, what wave is this title in for the 360? the ps3 just launched, lets compare the games for the ps3 later this year, with GOW, cause remember tony hawk and PDZ when the 360 came out? yeah

you say shallow.

I'll say diverse. If every "shooter" game was like r6v what would the point be.

I personally can't stand to play the rainbow series or the call of duty series. but it's alright, i know they're good games, just not for me.

Plastic? I'll assume by that statement that Flash has never actually seen plastic before. Well, given the obvious lack of knowledge on hise part of course. Plastic looks all shiny and smooth. Gears of War looks all bumpy, realistic, smooth where it needs to be, and above all, lifelike in it's textures and normal mapping.

I bought the original Xbox after playing Halo for the first time. If it were not for the Wii I would have a 360 because of Gears.

I liked gears, but i dunno, there just something about the game that didn't click with me... i have beat it twice and am working on insane at the moment

Great game none the less, but its not on my top 5 of the year, but then i'm more of an RPG player and not REAL big into shooters.

Still, Like halo, if you own a 360 you should Own this game.

its a good game but its too short i mean we need games that are as long as Halo 1

I own all 3 systems and I have to say xbox360 had a great year in 06 and I can't stop playing wiilda but I am sick of hearing the SDF and xbots make all these bogus claims about there systems

Gears of war is a great looking game but by no means can it not be ported to the ps3 .Remember the unreal tech demo for the ps3 (if i remember right unreal2k7 is still coming on the ps3).All you fanbois are falling for this dumb hype for a game that got its power from having a few models on display at once...

The wii has more power than any game that has been shown so far but has a long way to go if it is going to keep selling systems (mario ,zelda and samus cant always carry the system)

The ps3 is a big hot mess but there is power there and games like final fantasy 13 devil may cry 4 , metal gear 4, heavenly sword and lair will show what that grill can do. If anybody thinks games like final fantasy and metal gear cant push that console than you really havent gamed for that longed.....

RFOW NO WTHAT SELLS SYSTEMS BABY!1 PS3 RULES 13337 L33T

To be fair, Microsoft could have put out E.T.: Da Return (featuring Xzibit), and it would have been a step in the right direction, as PS3s didn't really exist and the ones that did were being bought for eBay/Craigslist flipping.

Gears of War was a great game, but what analysts and pundits need to recognize is that of all the things this season was about, it wasn't the PS3.

Why do people keep bringing up God of War (GOW) here when they should be talking about Gears?

For the record, I bought my 360 because of Gears and Dead Rising.

"OKAY so they think it looks better NOW, what wave is this title in for the 360? the ps3 just launched, lets compare the games for the ps3 later this year, with GOW, cause remember tony hawk and PDZ when the 360 came out? yeah"

I'm disappointed with you Sony fanboys. It took ELEVEN replies for you to organize the SDF and stated the "compare first gen ps3 games to first gen 360 games lol!" excuse. You guys need to practice more ;-)

Metal Gear Solid made me pick up a PS2
Halo and Knights of the Old Republic made me sell my PS2 and pick up an original Xbox
Gears of War and Xbox Live Arcade games convinced me to sell my Xbox and buy a 360

GoW was a really quick game, but it was some of the most fun I've had on a video game since Halo 2.

I already owned a PS3 - which I love.

But I did buy an Xbox360 last week 25% for Gears of War, and 75% for Dead Rising.

While the games are great, I've already had to return a defective hard drive, and a defective wireless controller.

Still, it was indeed the games that sold the system to me. Give sony another year and I'm sure there will be PS3-selling games out as well.

Better system: PS3
Better games: 360

Lets compare a 2006 game to a 2006 game. We'll wait a year or 2 for ps3 to have a game that looks better than gears, but then the excuse will be that gears is 2 years old. Its a never ending cycle.

"OKAY so they think it looks better NOW, what wave is this title in for the 360? the ps3 just launched, lets compare the games for the ps3 later this year, with GOW, cause remember tony hawk and PDZ when the 360 came out? yeah"

Sorry, but somebody here needs a reality check. I get sick and tired of people using this moronic reasoning. No matter what the system, you always compare games that are released in the same time-frame. I think we would all be very concerned if a top-tier game released a year from now DIDN'T look better than Gears of War. The simple fact of the matter is that the Xbox 360 was released a year earlier than the PS3, so we will ALWAYS be comparing games that are one generation apart for these systems. Now all of you morons who thought you were smart can stop using this ridiculous argument.

Iamfalcon

"OKAY so they think it looks better NOW, what wave is this title in for the 360? the ps3 just launched, lets compare the games for the ps3 later this year, with GOW, cause remember tony hawk and PDZ when the 360 came out? yeah"

So what you are saying is that Xbox 360 games will never look any better than Gears? Oh my, I should go and trade in my 360 for a Ps3 right away. Ok, SFB, which is it, gameplay or graphics? Last gen it was all about Sony's superior library, now its about graphics? Why is there such a die hard allegiance to Sony? If Apple came out with a kick ass console with great games, guess what I would be playing? Exactly. I go where the games I prefer are, regardless of brand. Crap, that was a rant, but it was a non-fanboy rant.

"Gears of war is a great looking game but by no means can it not be ported to the ps3 .Remember the unreal tech demo for the ps3 (if i remember right unreal2k7 is still coming on the ps3).All you fanbois are falling for this dumb hype for a game that got its power from having a few models on display at once.."
-Wiistation360

actually Cliff from Epic said that gears of war would not work on the ps3 because it only has 256mb of ram that would work well for holding textures/geometry. The other 256mb on the ps3 is behind the cpu. Every single time the gpu wants to use that other 256mb, it needs to go through the cpu.
As with the 360, all 512 is between the cpu and gpu. The gpu has direct access to all of the ram and makes all the ram realistically usable for textures/geometry.

"Microsoft can hold up Gears of War and say, 'Sony says their machine is more powerful than ours, yet we have this game that looks better (than any PS3 games).' "

And yet he seems to be forgetting the fact that Gears of War cannot be compared to any PS3 games because GoW is a second generation game while the PS3 games are first generation. The real comparison would be a game that launched with the 360 matched with the PS3 games.

I just got a 360 this weekend and picked up Gears of War. I must say this game is amazing. I don't see the need to flame people on their opinions. The PS3 will have killer games as well. They are both good sytems and if you look at the graphics comparisons done by GameSpot, they are very similar.
Despite what console you think is better, Gears of War is a great looking game and is a lot of fun. I can't wait to get more into it.

Sorry, but somebody here needs a reality check. I get sick and tired of people using this moronic reasoning. No matter what the system, you always compare games that are released in the same time-frame. I think we would all be very concerned if a top-tier game released a year from now DIDN'T look better than Gears of War. The simple fact of the matter is that the Xbox 360 was released a year earlier than the PS3, so we will ALWAYS be comparing games that are one generation apart for these systems. Now all of you morons who thought you were smart can stop using this ridiculous argument.

Iamfalcon

Took the words right out of my mouth.

Is toilet paper used for ass wiping??

I'm actually more excited about Silicon Knight's next game: Too Human. Their last adventure game(Eternal Darkness) was one of the best games of the previous generation.

I am also keeping my eye on Forza 2, Mass Effect and Crackdown. I'm waiting for the English version of Blue Dragon also.

If BioShock or Shadowrun turn out well I would probably pick up the PC versions.

Assassins Creed, Army of Two, GRAW 2 and Indiana Jones could turn out to be good cross-platform games as well.

I haven't picked up a PS3 yet, but I'm still watching MotorStorm, Lair and Heavenly Sword. If none of those are amazing I guess I'll keep waiting...

No way did I buy my 360 for GOW. I actually bought it so I could finally beat Oblivion properly. GOW is great and looks awesome, but it doesn't have the entertainment power that Oblivion does. Way too short of a game!

What you people don't understand is that game is running on a game engine that can fit PS3 too... and you don't seem to understand that GOW is for now one of the most beautiful game on 360, and even other 360 games can't be prettier now... Later games will be, and other ones that seems to beat GOW graphics are running on the Unreal Engine too... Wait some time for home made engines that beat long time existing unreal engine !

So yeah it shows how the 360 can run the unreal engine well, but it doesn't mean PS3, with the same "old" engine, couldn't do same or better... all games on PS3 now are made with home made Engines, so I think we can say that GOW is for now the most beautiful game on any platform, but it'S not necessarily thanks to te "better power" of the 360, but thanks to the nice engine from Epic, that can be ported over PS3 too...

Can you play split screen two player modes online?

What wave was Resistance?

I think you should seriously consider that question. Remember that the PS3 launch was delayed for eight months by Sony back in February.

http://www.ps3focus.com/archives/185

The excuse they gave at the time was that the AACS standard hadn't been finalized (you know, the one that recently had a player weakness exploited to permit the decryption of it's high definition movie content?)

These guys had nearly an extra year to spit polish their launch titles, and Gears still beat them out. Those are the facts.

I dunno if I buy the 1.5M in December thing. But I do know that given that Gears was out for almost all of November and only 511,000 360s were sold, Gears probably isn't the reason 1.5M were sold.

Honestly, I've give more credit to the $100 rebates (effectively price cuts) that occurred in December in certain stores.

I also found Gears disappointing. Honestly, Viva Pinata holds my attention far better.

well...personally i bought an HDTV and Xbox 360 just for Gears of war :)

Gears of War also happens to be a very short game. Poor lads are subjected to playing the same game on three different skill levels to try and get more gameplay out of it.
DVD-9 titles are beginning to show their age. This is exactly why Blu Ray is an important factor in the Next Generation of Gaming. The storage capacity allows for alot more than 7 hrs of gameplay with graphics of this quality.

The Xbox 360 is already a dated system.

There wont be a better looking game on the PS3 a year from now unless they add more video memory to the PS3. You'll be limited to crap textures, which is why the 360/PS3 games always look better on the 360.

It has nothing to do with 'programmers dont know the power of the system yet!', and everything to do with an actual limitation of the PS3. Period. You wont lead into gold here, it just isn't possible.

Oh yeah!!!!!

Just wait 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 more years and you will all see.

The programmers will get off their fat lazy asses and learn how to program for the Cell.

It just launched, so what!

Why is everyone so bias?

And that's all I have to say about that!

@19 "Despite what console you think is better, Gears of War is a great looking game and is a lot of fun. I can't wait to get more into it."

Yea for a short period of time. GoW looks great but content wise, it was too damn short.

#35 "The storage capacity allows for alot more than 7 hrs of gameplay with graphics of this quality."

How do you explain the 100+ hours of gameplay from Oblivion? :o

-Russ

Yes, you can play unranked games online with 2 players (1 being a guest)
SONY4ever needs to die a slow and painful death. I wish I could block users because that guy needs to just shut the hell up.
GoW kicks. It was short, but the graphics were amazing. Online gameplay is ALL SHOTGUNS, and therefore sucks now, though I hope it'll get better with this patch we were promised.

Please, someone mention how developers haven't "harnessed the power of the Cell Broadband Engine" yet...I'm going through withdrawal over here.

"DVD-9 titles are beginning to show their age."

Uh, no. Gears is short, but it has nothing to do with storage space and everything to do with the time and money it takes to make more content. If they had wanted to add more than would fit on one disk (and they could have added plenty more before reaching the limit), then they would have done what console game devs have been doing for ten years now, and (gasp!) include a second disk. DVDs are cheap.

Anyway, the real replay value is online. I know some people prefer GRAW or R6, but Gears is by far my favorite online game.

I can't wait for new maps, which hopefully will hit in the next month or two.

"Online gameplay is ALL SHOTGUNS, and therefore sucks now"

You know, I've seen a couple people say this now and I don't get it at all. Shotguns are good if you can't aim well and have to rush in close. If you try to rush at someone who has a lancer and can shoot straight, while you're carrying a shotgun, you will die every time. They're good for when you sneak up behind people, but then so is the chainsaw or grenade or pistol.

@ #13
""its a good game but its too short i mean we need games that are as long as Halo 1""

As long as Halo? That's saying alot since it only had like... 8 to 10 levels and only few dozen enemies? Still, i didn't realize it at the time, so I was shocked to check out my profile that all the levels I completed to finish the campaign only lasted that many levels.

GoW SP might be right up my alley.

Yes!! Thank you #43 for giving me my fix. I knew this thread could not last without someone mentioning the all-mighty cell processor and all of its untapped potential.

Did you know that in 3 years time the Cell will be able to control your dog via 802.11b and take him for a walk? If you bought the 20 GB model you are fucked on this feature.

"And yet he seems to be forgetting the fact that Gears of War cannot be compared to any PS3 games because GoW is a second generation game while the PS3 games are first generation. The real comparison would be a game that launched with the 360 matched with the PS3 games."

No, the real comparison would be with what they're selling right now, because they're trying to get you to buy right now.

It doesn't matter how long the PS3's been out. I can only buy things right now. By the standard of time being linear and you having no ability to go forward a year and grab me a game that doesn't exist, you can't decry a comparison between the best that both systems currently have to offer, because that's all they'll ever be able to compare.

#33. "There wont be a better looking game on the PS3 a year from now unless they add more video memory to the PS3. You'll be limited to crap textures, which is why the 360/PS3 games always look better on the 360.

It has nothing to do with 'programmers dont know the power of the system yet!', and everything to do with an actual limitation of the PS3. Period. You wont lead into gold here, it just isn't possible."

When you don't know what you're talking about, just shut up :) RSX accessing video memory is faster than the X360 and accessing the main memory is quite the same speed as the X360 is taking to access it's shared memory... What's the point of texturation then !?! 512mb = 512mb no ? Next time, think before posting ;) Or at least inform yourself :D

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Gears of War doing its job as a system seller?

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