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Dave Barry Takes On Sony
Warrior writes: "Humor columnist Dave Barry decided to tackle Sony in an editorial about the hype surrounding the Playstation 2. And just in time for the holidays! Children don't need the latest toys anyway."
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the absence of competition in the console market
You mean like the N64, PSX, and Dreamcast? Yeah, there's an absolute dearth of other consoles out there. Given the relative game line ups at the moment, I don't know why anyone would be buying a PS2 over a Dreamcast today. Maybe in 6 or 12 months when the PS2 has some true killer games out...but not today and not for Christmas.
For a hillarious song on this topic by my favorite Canadian humor group (okay, so it's the only one I know), Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, go check out The War of 1812. While you're at it, listen to their other pieces, including the Internet Help Desk and the Toronto song. I laughed myself silly when I first heard their stuff.
hey... Think of all the hits this brought to the gamespy site, and think of all the people who never heard of gamespy. Any marketing technique is as good as the next and in this case, it worked like a charm.
/.'s headlines.. it's called "trolling".
It's not the first time we've seen a site write up an article flaming Linux, just cuz they knew it'd appear on
If you want something good - try his book "Dave Barry Slept Here (a sort of history of the United States)". Great reading and very funny. The man took it upon himself to educate the masses after a survey of high school history student revealed that 75% of them though that Abraham Lincoln was "c) some type of lobster." It's definitely worth a read... that, and I was born on October 8th (no, really, I'm not making this up).
--
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
Dave Barry is a columnist for the Miami Herald and the author of several funny books (for example, "Dave Barry Does Japan", "Stay Fit and Healthy Until You're Dead", "Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex").
In the '80s, he was just about tied with Douglas Adams in my estimation as the funniest writer alive. Like Adams, his work has slipped somewhat, but every so often, he writes a column that still makes me laugh out loud when reading it. This column was one of them.
You miss the point: most of the parents rushing out to get the PS2 for their kids are raising spoiled brats! The parents who have normal kids are waiting a few weeks until they purchase it for their kids!
I think Sony contributed to the frenzy, but this is just another example of how our society has become a cutthroat case of "I gotta have it before the next guy does, or life isn't worth living!"
Pathetic!
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
Anyone who buys on the bleeding edge should have their heads examined.
Ahhh, but we must be thankful for those that do buy the bleeding edge...they subsidize our second stringers afterall!
Don't forget "Dave Barry Slept Here" (my personal favorite) and "Dave Barry's Guide to Homes and Other Black Holes"
DBSH is still the funniest book I think I've ever read. Besides, anybody who makes we want to test the Exploding Pop-Tart Theory is OK by me...
--
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
[If Sony was smary, they would FLOOD the market with cheap PSX2s to get a HUGE installed console base. They then would be able to sell loads of games for years and years]
.18 to a .13, and there were some problems during the transition. They didn't want to pass up the Christmas season, so they released it (in limited quantities)
.25 to .18. Second, they never planned on releasing more than 2.5 million American PS2's by Xmas (now they will be lucky to hit 1 mil., as they are reported to have not only cut the launch numbers from 1 mil. to 500k, but have missed their subsequent shipping targets as well), because they knew they couldn't make more than that.
That was Sony's plan, but IIRC, they switched the chip manufacturing process from a
First, that's
Third, they are already losing money--quite a lot of money--selling them for $300. (I've seen estimates of a loss of $170/console, but they are probably outdated.) Fourth, it's not like this was a brilliant stroke of marketing genius on Sony's part--all consoles are sold at a loss, always and forever; the money is made back (theoretically and then some) by licensing fees on every game sold.
Fifth and finally, a $99 PS2 would compound Sony's worst fear (and biggest miscalculation IMO)--that is, that everyone would buy a PS2 because it was the cheapest DVD player around, and not to play (read: buy) games for it. Then Sony loses money on the initial sale, and doesn't gain it back on license fees for all the PS2 games that no one is buying because they're all using their PS2s as DVD players. Indeed, it appears as if this is what has happened so far in Japan, where the ratio of PS2 games/PS2 consoles sold is abysmally low. (Of course, the initial round of Japanese PS2 games were themselves abysmal; the US ones, while still no better than the Dreamcast, were much improved.)
Right now there is a small selection of PS2 games, so there is little competition between developers, plus releasing a game early means sales throughout the life of the console, not just a few months. Releasing a game early in a popular console's life is very beneficial to the developer
Actually, this is wrong as well. The PS2 launched in America with a remarkable 27 titles; over 50 are expected by Xmas. (Contrast the other extreme, the N64--which launced in September of 1997 with just 2 or 3 games IIRC and had only like 7 by the end of the year, something awful like that.) The problem, of course, is that those 50 titles are going to be split amongst what now appears to be barely 1 million PS2 owners. Assuming a game/system ratio (for the year) of 3 (this may be generous considering everyone has already shelled out $300 for the console, plus more for a memory card or extra controller required to many of the best games), that's an average of 60,000 sales/game. And that, in the console business, is a collassal failure. Meanwhile, because the PS2 presents programmers with a notoriously steep learning curve, most of the initial games are quite unimpressive, so it's doubtful many will become long-lasting classics or boast the public's perception of the developer.
A lot of developers are going to lose big with their initial PS2 games. While there are other forces at work, the general pace of a system's releases is chosen by the system's manufacturer. Many are predicting a lot of developers very unhappy at a Sony which goaded them into glutting the PS2 game market while being unable to fill their end of the bargain by making PS2 consoles. Many developers are already complaining about the PS2's extremely unorthodox insides and complete lack (at this point) of high-level programming libraries. There are several other options out there... So far it looks like a disaster of a launch for Sony; the question is whether the PS2 has enough power, hype and support to rule the market anyways.
Websense blocked me from reading the editorial until i get home from school. Stupid school board can't even find hte on button for their own computers, and the person who installed websense (and knows how and why it works) didnt get to make decisions as to what was filtered. Im sure it was a funny article too =(
I am !amused.
It's much easier to persuade your parents to buy you a PC than a playstation ('I'll do homework and research'), and with the shortage of Playstations, the absence of competition in the console market, Windows PCs, and Windows games can expect a bumper Christmas.
Free Anne Tomlinson!!
If Sony was smary, they would FLOOD the market with cheap PSX2s to get a HUGE installed console base. They then would be able to sell loads of games for years and years
.18 to a .13, and there were some problems during the transition. They didn't want to pass up the Christmas season, so they released it (in limited quantities)
That was Sony's plan, but IIRC, they switched the chip manufacturing process from a
. Instead they're wasting the Xmas season and ensuring that game developpers will favor making PSX1 games (that both PSX and PSX2 can play) because there's not enough PSX2s out there to justify risking releasing a PSX2-only game
Most developers will tell you that it's best to get in on the ground floor when a console is released. IIRC, Sony shipped 500,000 PS2's to the USA on launch date, and several thousand each week after that. Right now there is a small selection of PS2 games, so there is little competition between developers, plus releasing a game early means sales throughout the life of the console, not just a few months. Releasing a game early in a popular console's life is very beneficial to the developer
Doh!
I hate Sony, but I hate FUD more.
Here's the deal: You don't need lots of RAM, 'cause you can stream textures from main memory every frame. How? 3.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. That's why the PS2 can look so good with so little VRAM.
Become a FSF associate member before the low #s are used
Every toymaker wants to have the hot toy that people wait in line for. It is much more valuable to get all that publicity, and be anointed as the "one to have," than to make a few extra bucks by selling to everyone who wants one at Xmas. I am convinced that Sony planned this carefully and will have lots of PS2s available come February. Until then, get in line - preferably the one with TV cameras rolling!
sulli
RTFJ.
Yesterday, one of my office colleagues passed around a copy of a 15M MPEG video shot by an amateur videographer of the PS2 launch in Paris, France. (Perhaps another kind Slashdotter will post the original link?) I found I was actually disturbed by what I saw.
The camera was positioned on a balcony high above the main floor where the unveiling took place. A kiosk in the middle of the floor was covered by a two-story-tall phallic mylar curtain. High-tech lighting effects splattered over the curtain and the crowd. A half-dozen or so Sony salesdroids were manning the kiosk, preparing to hand out units to lucky buyers. Surrounding the kiosk were a solid ring of red-shirted security personnel, and surrounding them were easily over a thousand people on the main floor.
As the MPEG opens, the curtain begins its rise. My ears were hammered by the volume of the cheering crowd. As the curtain clears the top of the kiosk, one of the Sony people in the lower right portion of the picture takes a PS2 box from the kiosk and moves to hand it over a security person to one of the dozens of hands stabbing out for it. A dimple forms in the security ring, heading towards the Sony guy...
Moments later, the entire ring collapses like wet tissue paper, and the kiosk is engulfed. Screams of terrified women emanate from the mass, which has abandoned all pretense of civilization. The security people are now helplessly trapped in the crowd itself, and the Sony people have climbed up on the kiosk, giving themselves a bit of safety on higher ground.
The camera zooms in, and we begin to see details of the throng. It looks like a study in fluid dynamics as pressure waves move through the packed mass of people. As the camera slowly pans around, we see a Sony guy pull a woman from the crowd to safety on the kiosk (someone pin a medal on that guy). A French voice booms out impotently over the PA system pleading for calm. One red shirted security guy remains near the kiosk trying to keep the four or five people immediately near him from getting too close; it's not clear if he can see over their heads to see what a job he's got. Meanwhile, the Sony guys continue to hand out PS2 units to the insane crowd.
While all this is going on, the moron running the high-tech light show doesn't turn it off and go to normal lighting. So along with all the pushing, shoving, yelling, and terrified screaming, the crowd continues to be bombarded with panning spots and flashing strobes, adding to the already disorienting environment. I have no idea if anyone was seriously injured.
From the behavior of the crowd, you'd swear there was a food shortage going on. But it wasn't a critical resource that was in short supply, it was a fscking game machine. And, from all reports so far, not even a very good game machine. I found it disturbing to watch, to see that so many people could go so bonkers and inflict such harm on each other over something so unimportant.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
I'm not exactly sure why there is a shortage on PS2s. I haven't really kept up with it since I certainly don't have $500 to spend on a game system and a few games. Barring a parts shortage, here's what Sony should have done:
For the sake of argument, let's say Sony would expect to be able to sell 5 million PS2s between release date and December 24. On the release date, they release 100,000; but there exists demand for at least 2 million. Now those 1,900,000 people who are willing to buy one but can't are just dying to be one of the few lucky ones.
Now fast forward to mid/late November. Sony could release several hundred thousand. These would be bought up quickly, but most importantly, it would keep the PS2 on everybody's Christmas (or whatever) list because they now think they can actually have a chance at getting one.
Now fast forward further to somewhere around December 10. Sony can suddenly release millions of PS2s and they'll sell like Brittney Spears pornos. The kids are happy because they got their PS2 (which they still think is very in-demand), and Sony is happy because they've sold hundreds of thousands of units more than expected.
-- "Complacency is a far more dangerous attitude than outrage." -Naomi Littlebear
A funny article, as usual. Berry writes well but this article doesn't have much content.
You see, Dave Barry is what they call in the publishing world a "humourist." (Or what's known as a humorist in the States.) A humourist's job is to write articles that are funny. Being funny does not necessarily require any actual content -- in fact, many humourists find that things like content and truth get in the way. (Though, given the US election situation, that's not always true.)
If you want quotes, statistics, news stories, etc., you'll have to find what's called a "journalist".
I can spell. I just can't type.
Well. I looked into this and thought I would share the results for those who have not:
Sony had everything set more or less for their U.S. launch but decided that they would outsource production of the main graphics CPU to a fab plant that could do 18 micron chips instead of their plant which did 21 micron chips. The other company was also supposed to make chips at three to four times the rate of Sony's plant. About a month or two before launch, Sony found out that the chips the other company was making weren't working and that they had to produce over a million chips out of their arse. Sony cranked it's 21 micron plant into overtime, and tried to salvage as many 18 micron chips as possible (not bloody many).
End result: Sony's graphics chip plant has been in hyper overtime ever since, and Sony is air-shipping hundreds of thousands of units they had planned to ship via ocean as they can finish the units. I'm given to understand that they are rather upset with the company they had originally outsourced these chips to and are still trying to bring them online, simply because it would increse the rate at which they can sell completed PS2s that are missing the critical main graphics chip.
Think what you will of Sony (I like many of their products but not their overall mindset), but I seriously doubt that they destroyed their profit margins like this on purpose.
B. Elgin
B. Elgin
"Read at your own risk; feel free to ignore."
I suspect, regardless of what else happens, the PS2 won't be a failure. There is this very nice gradual transfer from PSX to PS2 that exists; developers can continue to make and release PS games, to be bought and played by owners of both PS2 and PSX consoles, while releasing and selling 'enhanced' PS2 versions of exact same games(Thereby reusing much of the same art, animation, music, and production costs, while only incurring the, admittedly not inconsequential, development costs of the PS2). There is also the advantage, to Sony, of buyers indulging in DVDs, if only because they just happen to have a DVD player, in their PS2. VCDs never had this kind of option with the Saturn.
Geek dating!
GPL Deconstructed
We really don't know what the hold up is; it could be anything, and we have to accept what Sony says at face value, barring some other startling revelation.
As for the RAMBUS, which is my point, that's just a low blow.
I agree that their legal tactics are dispicable, but the technology is real and demonstrated. RAMBUS has certain performance artifacts, as well as price, design, and technical constraints. For low latency, RAMBUS is a bad choice. For high throughput, it's a winner.
Which is why they happen to be in the N64 and PS2; if future developments of DDR and SDRAM change that... well, that's just speculation.
Geek dating!
GPL Deconstructed
IANAL: is this legal?
Given the anti-circumvention provisions in the DMCA, does that mean that Copy and Paste is illegal in the USA?
I can spell. I just can't type.
but must we always accept articles submitted by people who work at the site?
Yea, all the guys at gamespy are cool, but it still bugs me a bit when Slashdot posts a story on (insert site here) and the person who submitted the story is from (insert same site here).
Moller
Is how many of the buyers are actually getting PS2 units for their kids?
I know *I* would like one; as would every other friend I have, and we certainly don't qualify as kids, in the traditional parents buying Christmas gifts for kids sense, though we would certainly qualify as kids in the still playing video games and reading comic books despite owning a car, having a job, and graduating from college sense.
I can't imagine how many of these consoles would be wasted on 'kids', vs being wasted on 'adults'. Who would get it for the games? Who would get it for the DVD playback? Who would get it for both?
I would imagine that the PS2 would best be targeted towards the working graduated geek who still acts like a kid demographic; we have disposable income, no kids (dinks!), and plenty of recreational habit to feed.
Geek dating!
GPL Deconstructed
Dave Barry is still the best reason to actually get a Sunday paper delivered. Drinking my coffee, reading Dave, and laughing myself silly while my son watches cartoons and my wife sleeps is usually one of the highlights of my week.
---
DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
Think of it this way: somewhere out there in America, there is a guy who is entirely too rich. He bought a lot of stock in Microsoft, or Disney, or whatever back in the day, and sold it when it was still at $140. Or maybe his daddy had a bunch of oil wells in Texas in 1983; doesn't matter. He's got way to much money to spend, and by now is used to getting whatever he wants.
So his kid tells him that if he doesn't get a PS2 at release, he'll kill himself. Mr. Rich has no idea what a PS2 is, but Jr. is really starting to intrude on Daddy's Nasdaq time. So the old man heads over the fao Schwartz, but finds none in stock. Desperate, he degrades himself to Best Buy, Circuit City, and *gasp* The Mall, but still no luck. Sorry mister, should have been in line at 1:00 last night.
But this is a man used to being able to buy whatever he wants, price be damned. Solution?: Ebay, of course. On Ebay, money talks. Would he really spend $15,000? I saw some of those, and my guess is that the really high-end auctions were goof bids. But I would bet there are many out there who would have dropped $1500+ on one, just to prove to themselves that their money CAN buy whatever they want.
Time will only tell if the PS2 is more successful than the Saturn was, but Sony desperately needs to get these things in peoples' homes if they're going to have any success. There's a lot of demand now, but it's not going to last forever.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
For better laughs get a copy of Complete Guide to Guys, read the section on exploding vacuum cleaners.
The Exploding Hoovers would make an excellent name for a band.
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Well, *I* could get the QB to pass, as could my little brother.
The only difference was that his QB always threw incomplete passes, while mine always threw interceptions. Indeed, most of the points scored in our games happened when my QB threw an interception to his "magic guy", if you know what I mean.
On the bright side, the rest of the points in our games happened when his lame ass kicker dribbled a kick on the ground to my "magic guy", or the occasional safety happened. I think I did kick a field goal, once.
Way better than this was the rods-and-slots hockey game, where the "players" were these cardboard things that snapped onto the "stick" bases; you could get different teams in different "uniforms"... On the down side, no magnets were involved. :-)
Babar
... that theory would kind of be like discontinuing Windows 95/98/ME so that everyone would jump to Windows 2000. Aside from the issue of "If you don't buy a PS2, what guarantees you'll stick with Sony?"...
Sony apparently makes a very large chunk of it's profits from the original Playstation. The reason why Sony was supposed to take off into the stratosphere with the PS2 launch was that, even though they would be losing money on PS2 sales themselves, the licensing and the market share would add up to humongous bucks... that is, if they could get it into as many households as possible. Personally, I found the idea mind-boggling, as stomping out the Dreamcast while leading the other consoles by a year might have been the beginning of a home entertainment revolution...
But it didn't happen that way.
The difference? Sony no longer looks invincible. Dreamcast will have strong sales for another holiday season, and Sega will stay healthy for once, something that hasn't happened since Sega Genesis! Nintendo and MS now look very much fearsome on the horizon. And, Sony will prosper, but not nearly as much as it could have with more penetration into the market. Sony might actually be in TROUBLE, since it'll take a while for them to get heavy penetration into the market now, and the day-traders might not be too keen on that...
It would have been in their best interests to saturate the market with systems, at a loss, so they could sell more games for the system, at a huge profit (in licensing fees). Sony was prepared from the start to do that, and I don't think they changed strategy... I think they screwed up somewhere. But, they'll do well in the end.
However, the idea that Sony cut back on PS2 units to make more DVD players... it's possible, but not smart. Sony makes more revenue on game licensing (minus losses from hardware sales) than on DVD player sales no matter what. Considering that Sony can do a lot of things and have a lot of control (licensing revenue, product expandability and integration) if they sell a lot of PS2 units, it's in their best interests to do just that. DVD players, on the other hand, don't offer that... and for that matter, don't soothe the angry hordes outside the stores who can't get the must-have gift of the season (never piss off the consumer)...
People need to wake up and stop being sheeple. There was an excellent documentary on PBS about this called "Affluenza" - people are so taken in by having to always have the latest - driving themselves into debt and misery because of this. Apparently, although in real terms we earn about twice as much as we did in the 50s, and our houses are twice as big, and we have twice as many toys, we are a lot less happy than when families typically lived in 1000 sq.ft and had only one car, and no color TV. Why can't parents tell their kids "No!" when they demand the latest expensive toy? We are bringing up a generation of spoiled brats. Why is hanging out at the mall cool? Are people's lives really this dull and consumer oriented?
Worse of all, the rampant consumerism of the West (the United States in particular) is unsustainable. Something will give sooner or later - the economy or the environment, or maybe both. People like Sony, to quote Douglas Adams, will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Frankly, I'd much rather play a good old MUD like Shades (been running since 1984) than any console game. The beauty of a text-mud is that you can play it on any ancient box that supports telnet if you're hard up ;-)
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
It's alredy been stated by many other posters in more words that Dave Barry is a satirist and not a mindless consumer. But this isn't the first time he's spoken out on rampant consumerism, even rampant consumerism based on a religious observance. Check out Barry's take on Halloween
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this just another case of people who want bleeding edge technology getting screwed out of their retirement savings? If they wait three months, won't everyone be able to pick up a PS2 at Walmart for the regular price tag, rather than shelling out $15,000+ on eBay?
Let the parents give their children rain cheques for Xmas. I've gotten those a couple of times. As long as the kid isn't a spoiled brat, will it kill them to wait a few weeks for their gift? Hell, I've sometimes waited 4 months for a rain cheque I got for Xmas to show up. It didn't kill me, just taught me a little patience.
Just so you all know, I apply the same reasoning to computers, as anyone with half a brain will. Three years ago I got an AMD 233MHz with 32MB RAM, 4GB HDD for $1000 new, at a time when 300MHz machines were selling for over $3000. Now, I'm finally considering getting an upgrade (yes, my computer has served me faithfully until now) and I can get 600MHz machines etc. etc. etc. for $1200. Anyone who buys on the bleeding edge should have their heads examined.
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
what happened to the moderation on this one? Or am I just too stupid to find it funny? Somebody make this thing interesting or insightful or something, unless I'm just too much of a dimwit to catch the humor, and then reply to this and list in careful detail what's supposed to be funny about this so I know what to laugh at.
I agree with you completely, actually. I found that pretty odd. My best guess is that someone thought they detected thickly-veiled sarcasm towards the end. Who knows.
This is just like television, only you can see much further.
...CmdrTaco is going to change his nick to
Wokohito Mumuwama
then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel is just a freight train coming your way
Nevertheless the Mumuwamas have been cranking out these babies at the rate of nearly one per month, for a total of 11 so far
Ya - or maybe it's RAMBUS. Not the easiest part to get through fabrication. The PS2 contains two things that should make any technologically aware citizen sick to their stomach: Rambus and a DVD-CCA licensed player.
Buy a Dreamcast. It's better for your Constitution.
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
exactly. His randomness is exactly what makes me laugh a lot of the time. While not razor-sharp, you can see there's a wit back there though. He's not an idiot.
;-)
For wickedly funny satire that relentlessly and mercilessly beats its target into a pulp, waits for it to try and get up, and then delivers another sharp kick to take the fight out of it and crush its very soul, I read the Onion. Those people are good
For stuff to really deliver some substance and jar your thinking, there are lots of good, high-profile writers. Read any highbrow literary publication.
-------
Vidi, Vici, Veni
I've always had much more fun playing NES and Super NES games than with these modern systems like the N64 and the Dreamcast.
New games are either clones of great ideas from the past or lame adaptations from computer games. They don't cut it and probably never will.
Most of the times you just need simplicity. For an analogy, just look at Microsoft and their need for more features.
It's all in your head, not in your optic nerves.
Flavio
HAHAHA all microsoft has to do now is market it's X-Box with the slogan. "X-Box, because we made enough" It amazes me how many dollars a company will spend on advertising, and how LITTLE damn money they spend on production, if sony had spent the billion or so dollars it spend on pushing the PS2 on actually making the damn thing, perhaps everyone would be raving about how good it is in real life, instead of how good the reviews all are.
3-Server OC-3 Linux Counter-Strike Cluster
www.rnp.ca
why do kids need a psx2 now?? why can't they wait a month.. dave barry is pretty funny, and he is hip to whats going on..
psx2 isn't that hard to find. I saw them on the shelves about 2 weeks ago, of course this was before the thanksgiving day sales started.. I don't think kids would mind getting a raincheck and a few games for their playstations, instead of their parents spending 700 dollars on one.. think of how many games they could have bought if they didn't scalp one off of ebay..
Victoria Palmer - I brake for unix.boys, Windows just breaks. - http://www.escape.com/~juliet
Happily, I'm not yet at the point in my life where I have kids, forcing me to choose whether or not to perpetuate the myth of Santa Claus. Santa has some good and bad points. On the good side, I think it reduces the degree of spoiling that occurs, because the kids don't think that they should expect to get quite so much from their parents, but it still allows the parents to go overboard in buying their kids presents. On the downside, you have situations like this, where kids want a certain present, and have every reason to expect that Santa will get it, but parents will be unable to find it.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Dave Barry section of the Miami Herald Web site
Way better than this was the rods-and-slots hockey game, where the "players" were these cardboard things that snapped onto the "stick" bases; you could get different teams in different "uniforms"... On the down side, no magnets were involved. :-)
Yeah, but the puck could get stuck behind the net!
P.S. My daughter's favorite fictional character is Babar!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Funny, I just downloaded an Atari 2600 and 512 games yesterday :) and the first thing I played was Adventure, too. I grew up on that stuff, I'm 32 :)
Sony is probably selling these things at a loss. That's generally the way with game consoles, with the presumption that they can make up for it in licensing when everybody buys the games.
But as we've all read before, there just aren't many PS2 games out there. And they aren't very good. Mostly because the SDK isn't really ready for primetime.
DVD laser heads are in somewhat short supply, according to various industrial news sources. If that's true, Sony had to make a decision.
DVD video is main-stream this holiday season. Sony has a good name in video systems, and an intense rivalry with Toshiba, who aparantly has a very good name in DVD players.
The DVD players are sold with a good margin, and make good money. This is more than likely where Sony believes they can make big money this season.
So, what would you do, given a limited supply of a component, needed for the construction of two devices, both in very high demand, both involving equally heated competition, where one of them probably won't make any money?
It's unfortunate that the PS2 isn't yet everything they told us it would be, but it's not, and they have to go with what's going to increase the bottom line.
This is just like television, only you can see much further.
Altough Barry is obviously trying to be funny - I think he is also trying to slap a few parents upside the head. This attitude that we have to have everything NOW is what drives the massive consumer debtloads in this country. Parents make sure that the attitude is passed on their kids by going to these extrodinary lengths to get this years hot toy. Anybody remember the $100 Furby's on Ebay a couple of Christams' ago?? Or the talking Elmo? It nuts.
...
Hell, I stil can't win on most of the games I have for the original Playstation
Still is, but now this namestealer has stolen the name and made it bad!
I am !amused.