Sony has been slowly but surely making a fan of me, and I was about as resistant as it gets.

Let's start at the good old original Playstation.

Me: "So?? My Nintendo 64 is 64-bit! The menu for Mortal Kombat Trilogy looks cool! I have an analog stick on my system! So what if it uses CDs, the Nintendo 64 has no loading times!"

So I missed out on the original Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII, and a number of other fantastic titles. I didn't even pretend to take notice. I was a blind Nintendo fanboy who laughed in the face of a new console coming around. Nevermind the fact that I had a freakin blast playing Mortal Kombat 3, X Games, and Resident Evil at my friend's house on his spanking new PS. NEVERMIND.

Then came the earth-shattering PS2:

Just like that, Sony blew us all away. Now you had a cutting edge system, loads of IPs that had just got their start on the original Playstation, TWO analog sticks, and a freakin dvd player. Everyone on the block had one. Grand Theft Auto everywhere. New Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid titles. And what did I get? The Gamecube. Hardly groundbreaking. I actually jumped ship and got the Xbox eventually, mostly due to Xbox live, and my unshaking resistance to admit that Sony was on to something big and had a real hold on the console market.

And then there was a glimmer of hope for the Sony resisters like myself:

The Playstation 3! Yes! Sony messed up! They released a console for WAY too much, and even got it out late! My Xbox 360 is already sitting in my entertainment center and kicking ass! And that pesky Cell processor that no one wants to code for! It's over, Sony, you screwed up! I got my Wii and I got my Xbox 360 and I'm laughing! I even get the better ports of multiplatform titles on my 360! But now, I survived the PS2's heyday, and they're so cheap now... so what the heck, I went back and bought a PS2 and picked up Final Fantasy X and XII and borrowed a few games from my buddy.

That is... until my 360's optical drive died. I'm handy enough, so I did a little research and replaced it myself. Good as new. That is... until I got the RROD. So I wrapped my console in towels a few times to squeeze some life out of it and eventually went out and bought the newer model with improved cooling. Ok, so it's all good now, just that by this time I've spent more than I would have on even the maximum-priced PS3, and I would've gotten a blu-ray player out of it.

That's still not what turned me... see, what eventually happened was I got a 1080p TV. And I wanted blu-ray. [sigh] Well, I have a bunch of Xbox games, tons of PC titles, a handful of Wii titles, a PS2, and all I'm missing is the PS3. I had some extra money saved up, so I went out and bought a used PS3. I got my blu-ray, and I figured, what the hey, I'll get a few exclusives that I haven't played yet. So, I picked up Little Big Planet, Resistance 2, and Metal Gear Solid 4. I only had to play these games for a short time when I found myself thinking... hm... uh, I really like this system. I like the OS. I like the controls. I love the free online play. And MGS4 is fantastic. Plus, my controller seems to last forever on a single charge. Very little recharging to do. So when a game that I had been excited about for so long finally came out (UFC Undisputed 2009), what did I do? I went to Gamestop and I came home with the PS3 version. Uh oh, what's happening?

Then the PS3 slim was released. A friend of mine had recently come over and decided himself that he was fascinated with the PS3 as well. So, I sold it to him and I went out and picked up a brand new PS3 slim. Now it looks pretty to boot. I went out and bought NHL 10, Brutal Legend, and reserved MW2, all the PS3 versions. I also picked up Uncharted and had a blast. I rented Killzone 2 from Gamefly and piled my queue with PS3 titles. I found myself caring about trophy collecting. I downloaded handfuls of demos from the Playstation Store. I proceeded to effortlessly convert another Xbox 360-owning friend into a PS3 fan and he is now purchasing one (I didn't have to say anything, he just came over and spent a little time with it).

See, all of this had made me a fan of the PS3, and now that it had become reasonably affordable, I wanted it to succeed. But it still didn't make me a Sony fan, persay, I just liked this console, and was truly happy that I had bought one. In fact, only in recent days have I started to become a true fan of Sony...

First, I posted a recent blog inquiring as to people's choices for GOTY up until now. When I went back and started reviewing the best releases of 2009, I started to find something... Xbox 360 had way more games, but in turn, way more mediocrity. It started to look like a quantity-over-quality situation. PS3 had less games available for it, but a lot of the best games of 2009 were PS3 exclusives. Uncharted 2, inFamous, and Demon's Souls jumped out at me, but I hadn't realized up until that point how many great games there were for the PS3. Of course, Xbox 360 had Mass Effect which has become one of my all-time-favorite games, but I'm a PC guy, and apparently the PC port was better regardless. Not a knock on the 360, but more to point out that I didn't need it to get what I wanted.

Beyond that, the finishing blow caught me completely off-guard... the Playstation 2. That's right. Look at the menu bar at the top of the Gamespot page... do you see the Xbox? How about the Gamecube? No, you don't. But you do see the PS2. And there are still new games coming out. Sony said early on that they planned to enjoy an extremely long life of the PS2 console and no one took them seriously. Well, they've sure kept their word. Now you can pick up a PS2 for $99 and still pick up brand new games for it.

You know what this tells me? Sony's serious. They're not kidding. When they say that the PS3 will have a 10-year life cycle, now I believe them. They've stuck by the PS2 faithful and continue to support them. Now, the PS3 is cheaper, more affordable, supports the new standard in media storage, has free online play, doubles as a blu-ray player, and has built-in WiFi and bluetooth. Cutting corners they are not. We also see the hardware sales shoot way up, and for the first time, the PS3 is on top of all consoles, save for the DS. Why is this? Well, obviously, the price cut has a whole lot to do with it. But I feel like the details will snowball from there... There are going to be people like me who never gave the system a chance, and once they do, they'll get hooked fast. Then, like me, they'll look back on what Sony has done and see that they're still sticking by the good old PS2 and aren't just abandoning it. They'll start to realize how many quality titles there are for the console. They'll notice the growing on-line community, and appreciate that it's free. They'll see that they're not being charged an arm and a leg for peripherals ($99 for a wireless adapter? Really MS?). And I think many people will come to the same conclusion that I am: the tide is turning, and everything is going Sony's way.

From day one, we've been hearing over and over again about Sony's superior hardware, and we have not seen any tangible evidence of that in the games. More often than not, the Xbox 360s ports have actually looked and performed better than their PS3 counterparts. However, the line is blurring, and at that trend, it may actually swing to Sony before all is said and done. It's been announced that the new Crytek engine has been released to developers. That gives them the ammunition to really push the limits of what this generation of consoles can handle. This is the window of opportunity that the PS3 needs to showcase its capabilities.

I've been as resistant as anyone to Sony's success, and even their superiority in a lot of areas. Ultimately, their unflagging dedication to the PS2 is what has turned me into a believer and a fan. They've proven that they're sticking around, and they're sticking with their consumer. They're not kidding around. Coupled with the quality of exclusive titles, Sony is poised to make a run in the current console war. Many thought it was over, and that the PS3 was dead last. It's not over, and we might just be coming up on halftime. It's looking like 2010 has the potential to be huge for Sony, and MS and Nintendo had better have some significant tricks up their sleeves if they plan to hold on. Sony has taken the slow, hard road, and has continued to do what it takes to build a loyal fanbase. They're doing it right, and I'm officially on board.