First off, Derek wrote this at work and told me to post it for him here: Soooo all you fellow livejournal enthusiasts, here's a brain teaser for ya! I have been thinking at length lately about Sony's newest video gaming console, and the thoughts I've been thinking do not fare well for the console that was once toted as an 'Xbox 360 Killer'. Despite my original over the top enthusiasm for this system, I cannot help but think that this could be on track to become the biggest disappointment of 2006. Now of course, before fanboys start jumping down my throat, let me explain that I was once a fanboy myself, but that recent mistakes by Sony have done little to make me feel comfortable about laying down such a large amount of money for a system. I believe the first clue in regards to Sony's impending failure came when they first released the price figures for the Playstation 3 way back in the late spring, early summer. The premium version of the console came in at a whopping, hard to swallow, 599 for the 60GB version, officially putting it at least 100 dollars above the premium system for the Xbox 360. Now history will show that this was not the highest priced launch for a system ever, but in a now money conscious society, a 600.00 price tag could make or break the system for parents looking to get a decent gift for their kids this holiday season. And naturally, this would be if they were even able to find one this season. Another thing that has former sony enthusiasts like myself throwing our hands up in the air, is the fact that Sony is only releasing an abyss-mal 400,000 units in the United States when the system launches this Friday. Considering that the state of Pennsylvania already has 12 million people alone, it is a mere 'drop in the bucket' for Sony who is likely to face criticism for having so little systems available at the time of launch. Once all PS3's are sold out at launch, disappointed customers may very well buy a 360 or a Wii just so they can have a so called 'next-gen' console, which leads to the question: Has Sony failed too much to win this Console Race and take sales away from Nintendo Wii and the 360? My prediction is yes. I predict a rather terrible year for Sony Entertainment, who have done nothing but let down their loyal customers with hit after hit of bad news. I feel for the people in Europe who will be waiting till Springtime to get their playstation 3's. Sony you have failed us. You put root kits on your CDs, release batteries for laptops that are a fire hazard, and now you have overpriced your newest console and allotted a laughable amount of consoles to be released on launch day. What's next? I for one, am afraid to find out.
It'll still sell everywhere right from the off, regardless of the price, the quality, and whatever else Sony do to shoot themselves in the foot.
I really wanna know why I'll go for the 360, but Wii is the 'ultimate' next-gen. It has a real next-gen controller, one step closer to virtual reality.
Well, as of right now, there is obviously plenty of dirt on the PS3. The Xbox 360 is pretty damn good as far as games and graphics go, so its hard. I don't suppose any of you will provide any ideas since the Xbox is so popular. It's a persuasive speech, so of course I have to be controversial. But anyway, I'm interested to see how well the PS3 launches.
The PS3 will do fine. The price seems expensive to most, but considering that most blu-ray players are $1,000, with the PS3, you're getting a blu-ray player AND a badass gaming console for nearly half that. The PS3 and the 360 are going to be the main contenders, because IMO, the Wii is a joke.
Gotta question for you Derek, how does Microsoft treat modders? Does it lock them down from being able to do any mods, or is it opening it's arms wide open and saying, "Hey, here, we'll save you the trouble and give you an easy way to change the OS! We'll even make it easy to replace the HDD!"? The fact that Sony is actually open to the modding community, is a HUGE plus to me. Of course, I wish they'd do the same for the PSP, but oh well. That's another story. You have to remember that Sony has multiple divisions, even Microsoft does, so the divison that is making the PS3 isn't necessarily the same one that installed the rootkit on your computer, or blew up your laptop. Everyone makes mistakes.
Damn Derek... You need to research a bit more... The first flaw I see in your argument? Sony's got an advantage over seas. The US may be getting very little units, but that doesn't mean it won't sell or sell well in the right places. You can be sure PS3s will sell out at launch AND it will sell (if not all) most of the units on release as well... You know people know this because even eBay is cracking down on the resell of them at launch. That's something that the Wii's not getting and neither did the Xbox 360. Between the Wii and Xbox 360, expect even the Wii to surpass the Xbox 360 sales in (at least) Japan, probably the biggest place to make an impact industry-wise. If that's not enough: Sony is the king of releasing the dud "next generation" technology. Betamax anyone? It's the same with the PSP and UMDs. However, Sony always seems to stay in the game. The Playstation itself is a monster and it's going to take more than a slip this year to say with confidence Sony will "fail." I'm pretty far from fan boy, but I've got to say man, your points are weak. The main problem people keep making a mistake with is simple: The Playstation 3 seems to be "farfetched" from a single unit point of view. What's that mean? Because people cannot afford it, or cannot find it, they automatically excuse it as a failure. It's actually good for marketing. Less supply, more demand... at least for something like the PS3. High price tags may shrug off the bitter, jobless individuals who can't afford it, but there's no doubt those who buy the HD-TVs, the next generation DVD players and everything else technologically advancing in our day and age will be buying a PS3 at some time. Man, I could go on and on about gaming but I'll cut it here. The Wii is in it's own field at the moment considering it's new take on game play, so with that said, it's going to be the Xbox 360 versus the Playstation 3. The PS3 is coming out (almost?) a year after the 360's launch so you definitely know that Sony was watching the competition. As a lot have already stated, we'll have to wait and see, but I highly, highly doubt the PS3 is going to "fail." But to be fair, the wrongs the PS3 have done so far are the following: Replacing rumble with motion censor, though I've seen games using it nicely. They've been hyping the console trying to point people away from concerns considering pricing and other topics, calling it "more than a gaming machine" and such. They've also apparently built a console that's hard to create for. This will definitely weed out the bad developers, but may result in less releases and never using the console to its fullest potential.
The PS3 will be a short-term success... long-term, if it wants to succeed, I promise you that Sony needs to lower the price within a year, and more likely half a year. The PS2's launch was nowhere near as bad as this, although there are some similarities. If you ask me, Sony's arrogance led them on this path.
The PS3 will sell just as well as the other systems, despite it's limited availability and ridiculous pricing...mainly because of the loyalty they've gained and the hype behind this "OMG UNBELIEVABLE BLU-RAY". Besides that, a lot of people will buy it to resell it for a thousand dollars on Ebay to some fool hundreds or thousands of miles away. Of course, the PS3 will have a ton of flaws with their initial release just like the PS2 and Xbox and Xbox360 have had. I'm just going to get a kick out of watching a lot of people who are "lucky" enough to get one on launch day cry when it breaks somehow and are unable to replace or fix it because of the overwhelming demand for one.
Do tell me, how many games actually used the rumble (forget the proper name for it, atm)? I mean, how much of a difference does it really make that the rumble is gone? From the reviews I've read of people who have a Wii, it's barely noticeable that the rumble is gone. Microsoft barely has any territory overseas, eg, Japan. It's all Sony territory, along with some Nintendo, but Sony still is #1 over there, iirc. So just because North America doesn't seem to like the PS3, the Japanese are probably pretty eager for it. Even if Sony doesn't make out well in NA, they've still got the income from Japan. Oh, something I haven't understood yet. People are saying things against Blu-ray [perhaps because of Sony's somewhat failure, UMD], but I haven't seen much against HD-DVD, they're both new tech. Are you people against Blu-ray just because it's Sony? [fan-boyism?] *shrug* Also, I don't understand how people can bash a product when they haven't tried it themselves, basing their arguments solely on facts. In order to properly be able to bash something, you have to have proper un-biased experience with the product. Just because stats say the PS3 is less powerful than the 360, that doesn't say much about the game play and games. Remember, developers. It matters how much effort the devs put into making the game. But then again, isn't it all about the game play? Not the fancy graphics, and how powerful your console is? At least Nintendo's got their thinking right. This is such a brainwashed generation thinking "omg! shitty gfx! = shitty console! omg omg, suckage!" and they completely forget how fun the game is.
Unfortunately, this new age of gamers depend on fancy graphics rather than good game play. Many, many games nowadays have little to no replay value because they spend so much time making it look nice... Yet it usually handles horribly and runs on horrid and outdated engines. That's just the marketing ploy of the time being, though... Sadly, companies think it's all about high-end add-ons and unnecessary advancements rather than actually pushing foreword the industry by its traditional standards. Nintendo did it this year with true motion sensor technology, but sadly the negatives are overshadowing its positives: not looking flashy and not up to par with the PS3 and 360 hardware/graphical-wise. Anyways, it's expected nowadays. New generations demand new and updated hardware or it's not acceptable in their eyes. @Tomi: The rumble actually has been used well since the N64 debuted it. It's always given emphasis in terms of interactivity by giving the player that little extra addition to their game play experience. When your character got hit, you'd feel your control vibrate. Hell, sometimes that's the only time I'd notice I was being shot at in some of those "extremely realistic" first person shooters. I can't say it'll be the same with a motion/tilt sensor until I try it, but I can at least say that rumble really immersed me sometimes and I'll miss it in my PS3 experience. Especially in skating games where the rumble helped me with balancing. I also bring it up because Sony must have not done its research, turned the blind eye or lied to the public. Removing rumble because it would (could?) interfere with motion sensor isn't true. The motion sensor controller that came out for the PS2 had the rumble feature and worked like a charm (it wasn't popular, but it worked). For Sony to tell us in this day and age their team cannot do what has already been accomplished and to give us an argument simply as "they conflict" doesn't impress me. However, I would give them some benefit of the doubt if they proved they did what they could in the time given. Nevertheless, it's the only variable I look down on Sony as of right now from a marketing point of view. They have a powerful machine, but they're trying too hard to sound superior and forgetting some of us know when they're telling fibs. If we then were to ever continuously announce them that would give the fan boys of rival consoles more reason to blindly bash the system. All I have to say is sometimes they need to just be quiet and let the console do the talking because in the end, that's what it comes down to... presentation in its truest form. Finally, on the note of Blu-Ray: Majority of those who've actually done their research (not those who just say for the sake of trying to be "cool"), are afraid Sony is going to release another Betamax (for those who don't know, Betamax lost to VCRs during the time period that they were the "latest" in technology in terms of popularity). I think more or less, we're afraid Sony is investing too much time and money into something that could end up like the UMD. It serves its purpose but has a tarnished reputation due to not being the "top dog" in next generation entertainment. From a spec standpoint, Blu-Ray seems to outweigh HD-DVD because it holds much more space (can't remember how much, but I'm sure it's at least over five gigabytes) and seems to just be the overall better of the two. However, it isn't what hardware can do... It's all about who markets their product better. It's a real immature "I can do anything you can do better" type of thing where the bragging rights are all that matter to and in the public. *shrugs* All in all, I still stick by my guns that Sony isn't going anywhere, at least not any time soon. Even if the PS3 fails, it'll take more than this to shoot the company down... They'll probably never be in the same boat as Sega was with the Dreamcast (RIP). A lot of us have only seen the PS3 via third parties and until we truly experience it first hand, we should not consider its demise to be so sudden or anything of the sort. The console wars are just beginning, after all!
2 reasons why Sony isn't using rumble: 1. It will interfere with the motion sensor 2. Some company has a patent on rumble and sued the crap out of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Microsoft solved the problem by buying out the company.
If you really think about it, putting a vibrating controller on a floor will make it move. If the controller is motion sensitive that means...yeah, you get the point.
I love how the PS3 isn't compatible with about 200 PS1/PS2 games including Silent Hill 2, Onimusha, and Final Fantasy XI.
But then again, the PS2 had a crapload of issues with PS1 games when it came out, including very popular ones of the time. I just bought a slim to replace my old PS2 that died on me. My new ps2 runs the old Tomb Raiders without an issue, whereas I always had to fight my first generation PS2 to get them working.