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Indeed, but let us now look at how much they lose... I'll base these figures as if everyone was buying in America and getting the system on which they lose the least money (I think that should be fair, although you can take it with a pinch of salt if you like...)

Sony PS3 sales; 662, 847

Loss per PS3; $241 ( source http://ps3.ign.com/articles/746/746482p1.html )

662,847 * 241 = $159,746,127 loss.

Now thats a real kick in the crotch, not to mention that they spent millions more on R&D and Blu-ray DRM (which has already been cracked)...

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/763/763050p1.html

Let's try and get people on the right page, shall we?

Not quite. I've read a few articles that challenge that view. IGN has a good one. I'm not sure if this is without a doubt the case, but numerous sources have claimed it is. As always, grain of salt.

Review here...

"Make it for the DS."

They did.

Do you think they gutted it as a joke?

According to the blog of Larry Osterman, veteran engineer at Microsoft, "the amount of code that runs in the kernel (coupled with buggy device drivers) causes the audio stack to be one of the leading causes of Windows reliability problems."

Also:

"A software mixer can mix 100 voices at once in about 1% of the CPU these days on a Core 2 Duo. EAX quality reverb is something we have and can be done in about another 2% of that CPU," says Paterson. "This will still come out faster than using hardware accelerated audio."

From this IGN article: http://pc.ign.com/articles/759/759538p1.html

Do you remember the game "America's Army"? http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/579/579289p1.html In the early 1940's, Japan learned an important lesson - "let the sleeping giant lie."

Review: http://ds.ign.com/objects/707/707312.html

Porn or not, I find it quite worrying that Sony is able to dictate who is allowed to print films onto Blu-ray. If indeed that is the situation.

It's not. Sony has unequivocally denied a prohibition of porn, yet it still gets parroted as fact all over the place (including on slashdot). Here: http://gear.ign.com/articles/756/756148p1.html

Be sure you read the update near the bottom for the quote from Sony.

AVN didn't find a "workaround" for Blu-Ray - that's just spin, as is pretty much everything else the porn industry says. Why would we not believe their sales numbers but we do believe they've somehow "reverse-engineered" Blu-Ray?

It doesn't help the German case that in the last story they sought to connect separate murder and kidnapping charges to the alleged perpetrators playing a turn-based RPG. I mean, apart from their aliases, how the hell did it inspire them; did they and their victims take turns attacking each other?

BTW, don't mention RPG Radiculopathy; I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it all right.

I wonder if there was a rash of teenagers jumping their cars through buildings would Germany finally have a backlash against David Hasselhoff?

EA has complained about the entire generation from the PSP onward. They're shoving love all over Nintendo and complaining about Sony and Microsoft. I wouldn't have a problem with this except for the fact that 90% of their problems on the new consoles are their own. They complained the PSP was too difficult to develop for, which is proven by showstopping bugs on Madden 06, NCAA Football 2007, and insanely long loading times in other games like Sims 2. Does the PSP have a problem with the UMD? Yes. Is EA's problem justified? No. Rockstar had no problems adapting their games to the PSP with very short loading times by streaming the media, which is exactly what we saw Bethesda doing for Oblivion on PS3, so the fact that a big box developer like EA can't program worth a damn is not entirely Sony's fault.

Personally, I've stopped buying EA games. I'll buy Spore, but that's it. Until they start developing quality code, I'm not listening to a word they say.

EA has complained about the entire generation from the PSP onward. They're shoving love all over Nintendo and complaining about Sony and Microsoft. I wouldn't have a problem with this except for the fact that 90% of their problems on the new consoles are their own. They complained the PSP was too difficult to develop for, which is proven by showstopping bugs on Madden 06, NCAA Football 2007, and insanely long loading times in other games like Sims 2. Does the PSP have a problem with the UMD? Yes. Is EA's problem justified? No. Rockstar had no problems adapting their games to the PSP with very short loading times by streaming the media, which is exactly what we saw Bethesda doing for Oblivion on PS3, so the fact that a big box developer like EA can't program worth a damn is not entirely Sony's fault.

Personally, I've stopped buying EA games. I'll buy Spore, but that's it. Until they start developing quality code, I'm not listening to a word they say.

True, I've got quite enough minigames now and I'll have Zelda finished as soon as I can work out how to hit back at Zant (I can dodge or block his feeble attack forever, though... don't tell me, I'll find out myself!) Some more substantial games would be nice.

I'm currently looking forward to Metroid, Mario Galaxy, and The Godfather, plus Dragonball when that finally gets to the UK. That said, the game I want most is yet another party game: DDR.

His point is that the originally intended for PC Halo took at least a year from when it was announced as an Xbox first title to its launch on the Xbox itself. So it's pretty comparable. Oblivion is actually more impressive when you consider that not only did they have to migrate to a different platform, but unlike Xbox, which was basically Pentium 3/Nvidia hardware, but to completely different and unrelated hardware on the PS3.

I have, however, seen target renders and target render movies for Motorstorm, and the japanese version does most definitely not look like the targets (for example, check out the awesome dust behind the cars in the targets - that's simply not there in the real game). It is a good looking game, but it's not what we've seen in the movies.

That is definitely the case; in fact, Motorstorm (at least from the demo) doesn't really look that great at higher resolutions period (sprites become far more apparent), though it's fairly impressive at lower resolutions. (Compare this with the GT:HD demo, which decent in SD, but amazing in HD.) Add this to the original Virtual Fighter 5 E3 renders which are absolutely nothing like the plastic-looking screenshots I've seen.

This being the case, the original E3 demos were more Sony saying "this is what the PS3 will be capable of," rather than "this is what launch-day games will look like". Clearly, launch-day games don't look like that, but then, compare some PS2 launch-day crap to the demos and to modern stuff and the difference is telling. (Compare GT3, which took over a year to accomplish, to GT4, many years later, too.)

So, while they're full of crap about the current Motorstorm looking like that, it's not difficult to imagine that a few generations of games down the road, Motorstorm 2 will live up to it.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Third, Sony did lie about the PS2 and (to a lesser degree) about the PS3. They lied about the tech specs, and they showed target renders which they must have known were not achievable with the final hardware (I have no yet seen games that look as good as the target renders, but admittedly, I'll have to give them the benefit of the doubt here - they may yet deliver this). Also: they promised WIFI standard, and (which I thought was most interesting) up to 7 controllers.

These are all a myth:

• The "target renders" presented on the PS2 is the infamous FF8 dance-scene tech demo. People have said everything from "Sony never delivered" to "looked better than FF8 FMV". Neither of these are true. You can check and compare the screenshots I have stored for posterity. Compare them to the original scene here and here, and it's fairly evident they are nowhere near close. Additionally, compare them to older games like Gran Turismo 3, Jak II, and Final Fantasy X; or newer games like Black, Gran Turismo 4, Shadow of the Colossus; or upcoming games like God of War 2, and they all make that demo look downright primitive.
• As for PS3 prerenders, compare Killzone PS3, a claimed prerender, and arguably the flashiest video Sony demonstrated, to Resistance, or Motorstorm, and you can see they're already very very close, if not exceeding, the prerender. And these are launch titles.
• Wifi is indeed only in the 60GB model for now, but they have left the ability to later upgrade both HDD and wifi in the systems.
• It should be theoretically possible to have 7 controllers, even all wireless. This is the maximum number of bluetooth devices one can attach to a single receiver, and while there may not be 7 lights on the controllers, it's not inconceivable that a firmware upgrade could enable this. Treat the lights as bits, not positions, and you can show up to 16. Also, the PS3 has 4 USB ports, where you can plug in 4 controllers in addition to 4 wireless controllers.

Most claims about "Sony lies!" come from people misremembering, misstating, misunderstanding, or outright lying. Yeah, Sony has changed a few things, but nothing like people would have you believe. They've even added a few arguably more important things: HDMI and HDD to all models, and the ability to upgrade.

Konami recently announced a DDR game for the Wii that will combine the traditional DDR gameplay with motion controls. IGN article is right here.

It seems to me Vista has had a lot of its inner gears re-tooled so that others can add-on the new applications. The sound features alone seemed to have been re-oriented more than people might be aware of.

"Vista redefines the audio landscape, but is it a landscape of forced obsolescence?"

http://pc.ign.com/articles/759/759538p1.html

In this blog there is video about how the audio stack in Windows Vista has been rewritten so people can have per-app audio control.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=1163 47

I don't have Vista and am not in a rush to get it, but I think perhaps in time there could be more benefits to Vista than meets the eye. Certainly the 64 bit security functions don't seem exciting but if they block remote code execution then that's something to like.

Voodoo extreme has nothing to do with this article. They are only pointing to it.
The real article is at IGN:
http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/759/759538p1.html

Please, skip the redirections and ad views...

And I must say that this decision (no hardwrae acceleration) will badly hurt Creative Labs. Maybe, just maybe, this screw up will restart some competition in the sound card market?

I think it's funny that none of the analysts mention pre-installed base of portable units.

An interesting idea, but I don't know if it will be a huge factor. After all, integration with the GameBoy Advance was supposed to be a huge selling feature for the GameCube.

The only console I own is a GameCube, and I love it, but the GBA integration is actually an annoyance for me (as someone who doesn't own a GBA). I hate the fact that my Metroid Prime disc has the original Metroid on it, but it can't be unlocked unless I buy a GBA, a link cable, and Metroid Fusion.

Also, at a time when more and more developers seemed to be abandoning the GameCube, Nintendo released the Zelda Four Swords Adventures, which required *multiple* GBAs to play fully. This made me feel like even Nintendo was abandoning the GameCube in favour of a GameCube-GameBoy hybrid platform. I love the Zelda series (the Zelda Collector's Edition is what convinced me to buy a GameCube), but I passed on this one since I couldn't play it the way it was meant to be played.

If Sony and Nintendo can leverage their handheld sales from the last year properly, they will make up ground they lost from the Xbox360's head start.

Nah... seriously though. I'm waiting for UT 2007

You me Unreal Tournament 3?

Well, I just picked up a copy of Yggdra Union for the GBA, and can report that it's definitely not another iteration of a franchise. It's not an original concept, a tactical RPG with turn-based strategy and cards, but it's a unique combination of those.

Plus, it's got the wierdest name I've ever seen for a game :) It made me think of Yggdrasil Linux, how many other games can do that?

Suggestions:
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
SSX Blur Snowboarding

Suggestions:
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
SSX Blur Snowboarding

"such as the PS3 winning IGN's console of the year."

Try to get your facts straight.

Yeah, the article about FF is a terrible fluff piece. What do you expect from IGN?

Although it contains this image on page 3: http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/article/741/7419 91/final-fantasy-xii-20061027031035821-000.jpg which makes me chuckle every time I see it. Someone's about to bite it hard.

I think Nintendo is finally realizing that they might sell more games if the rest of the family (read: not the kiddies) had something to play too. They might be adopting something that Disney has started doing recently and that's attaching it's name to stuff other than "G or PG" material (Pirate of the Carribean and Kingdom Hearts).

There was an interview with Suda 51 (head of Grasshopper) basically stating they were making No More Heroes for the Wii because it'd stand out more from the usual "kiddish" games and might be something an older crowd would enjoy. http://wii.ign.com/articles/749/749899p2.html

Apparently the main items are:-

- Replacement of pixel/vertex shaders with multi-purpose geometry shaders.
- Sharing of Windows virtual memory between RAM and VRAM.
- Tighter integration with OS, meaning access from game to the API to the card is quicker.

I don't think we'll see any demos until Vista is released, but apparently Crysis is a DX10-enabled game, as is the new Unreal Tournament.

Closest thing is DOA Volleyball for Xbox.

And PS1 owners will find it in Pong: The Next Level.

Check out this glowing review: http://gear.ign.com/articles/679/679235p1.html

IIRC there were three main problems with the PS2 to start with, the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer were poorly documented, the tools Sony provided were inadequate, and the system had several bottlenecks. Early in the life of the PS2 developers were blindly programming on the PS2 without a real understanding of the system, and when they were getting awful performance they didn't even have tools which allowed their code to be profiled so they didn't know why their performance was so bad. The result was that middleware developers started providing tool packages with PS2 support (which contained most of the tools and documentation Sony should have had when they released their first dev-kits) and developers who had 'survived' initial development started sharing what they learned with other developers.

The fact that the problem was mostly about information and tools (rather than it being a serious architecture problem) meant that developers could rapidly adapt to the system when provided the proper tools and documentation; look at some Madden Screenshots to see how much improvement there was

Madden 2001
Madden 2002
Madden 2003

Now, I could be wrong, but from my understanding Carmack is implying that the PS3 has architecture problem which will not (easily) be fixed by middleware or developer experience; what this (could) mean is that the majority of developers will not be able to get decent performance out of the PS3.

IIRC there were three main problems with the PS2 to start with, the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer were poorly documented, the tools Sony provided were inadequate, and the system had several bottlenecks. Early in the life of the PS2 developers were blindly programming on the PS2 without a real understanding of the system, and when they were getting awful performance they didn't even have tools which allowed their code to be profiled so they didn't know why their performance was so bad. The result was that middleware developers started providing tool packages with PS2 support (which contained most of the tools and documentation Sony should have had when they released their first dev-kits) and developers who had 'survived' initial development started sharing what they learned with other developers.

The fact that the problem was mostly about information and tools (rather than it being a serious architecture problem) meant that developers could rapidly adapt to the system when provided the proper tools and documentation; look at some Madden Screenshots to see how much improvement there was

Madden 2001
Madden 2002
Madden 2003

Now, I could be wrong, but from my understanding Carmack is implying that the PS3 has architecture problem which will not (easily) be fixed by middleware or developer experience; what this (could) mean is that the majority of developers will not be able to get decent performance out of the PS3.

IIRC there were three main problems with the PS2 to start with, the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer were poorly documented, the tools Sony provided were inadequate, and the system had several bottlenecks. Early in the life of the PS2 developers were blindly programming on the PS2 without a real understanding of the system, and when they were getting awful performance they didn't even have tools which allowed their code to be profiled so they didn't know why their performance was so bad. The result was that middleware developers started providing tool packages with PS2 support (which contained most of the tools and documentation Sony should have had when they released their first dev-kits) and developers who had 'survived' initial development started sharing what they learned with other developers.

The fact that the problem was mostly about information and tools (rather than it being a serious architecture problem) meant that developers could rapidly adapt to the system when provided the proper tools and documentation; look at some Madden Screenshots to see how much improvement there was

Madden 2001
Madden 2002
Madden 2003

Now, I could be wrong, but from my understanding Carmack is implying that the PS3 has architecture problem which will not (easily) be fixed by middleware or developer experience; what this (could) mean is that the majority of developers will not be able to get decent performance out of the PS3.

I hope you don't mean this, which looks like a Playskool toy. And no matter what 1up says, this isn't anything like a Gibson Flying V.

Except that Square-Enix has already shifted their focus back to Nintendo.

Dragon Quest IX is DS exclusive. Dragon Quest is THE big gaming franchise in Japan, I'm told it sells bigger numbers than the top 3 franchises in the US combined. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6163073.html?sid=6163 073

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings and It's a Wonderful World (a Kingdom Hearts spinoff) are also both DS exclusive. Being spinoff titles and not major releases, this isn't as big of news, but it's still pointing at the end of SE's relationship with Sony. http://ds.ign.com/articles/732/732509p1.html http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3154010

although, good games (read: original) seem to only be found on the Wii right now.


Yes that's right! In the coming months we can look forward to original titles from Wario, Mortal Kombat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SSX, Prince of Persia, and Medal of Honor. Nope, never seen those before. And let's not forget all of those original rehashes for virtual console!

although, good games (read: original) seem to only be found on the Wii right now.


Yes that's right! In the coming months we can look forward to original titles from Wario, Mortal Kombat, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SSX, Prince of Persia, and Medal of Honor. Nope, never seen those before. And let's not forget all of those original rehashes for virtual console!