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Playstation 3 In the Works
Kredal writes "The Independent is running a story about Sony's work on a new console, being built around online games, such as Everquest Adventures and Final Fantasy 11. No word on backwards compatability, but expect it to be the X-Box killer if it is."
FF11 already has me lusting.
During the release of the Playstation 2, Sony badass Ken Kutaragi announced that the Playstation 3 would be released in 2005. If you want to get the details, check out these google results.
More interesting is the news today that Sony and Real have announced a tie-up. They'd already announced an alliance to use Real software in the PS2 - this is a further development, with Sony buying a stake in Real with the aim of using its software in other consumer devices.
Real has put out a press release here, which says: "Sony plans to adopt these combined digital distribution solutions in a variety of networked CE products such as Sony's networked audio products and Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation2 computer entertainment system."
The Wall Street Journal notes that the deal brings together two Microsoft rivals - the WSJ story requires $$$+registration, but the basics are:
The companies didn't announce specific product agreements, but said their research and development groups will regularly collaborate on developing new technologies. Sony said it would adopt RealNetworks' media technologies broadly in a variety of consumer electronics devices with network connections to personal computers and the Internet, and RealNetworks will consider using a Sony antipiracy format in its software.
While the financial side of the deal is small and RealNetworks is in no immediate need of cash, the investment gives Sony at least a symbolic stake in the future of RealNetworks. RealNetworks competes fiercely with Microsoft in the market for Internet audio and video software, and it has joined other companies in accusing Microsoft of anticompetitive practices that threaten their businesses. Sony and Microsoft, meanwhile, became archcompetitors in the videogame market with Microsoft's introduction late last year of the Xbox, a heavily promoted rival to Sony's market-leading PlayStation 2.
Dave Fester, a Microsoft general manager, said the alliance with Sony wouldn't affect the appeal of Microsoft's own media software to electronics companies, but adding that it could "drive a wedge between Real and other consumer electronics manufacturers."
Heh. Microsoft pulls this stunt all the time, except doing it against their competitors. Remember all the hype about waiting for the Xbox as it would clean the PS2's clock? How many fewer PS2s do you think Sony sold as a result of this? Sony is just using MSFT's playbook against them. And I say "go for it". But then again, I still have my original PS and have little intention to upgrade. Unless GTA3 doesn't come out for the PC soon *grumble*.
No word on backwards compatability, but expect it to be the Playstation 3 killer if it is.
(Of course it will be compatible - the Xbox is basically a PC.)
Remember how ridiculously overhyped PS2 was?
I expect the same with PS3. But why does it have to start now??
As for me, I don't own a console. The only reason I'd get one would be the games, not the technical superiority of a particular console when compared to another or when compared to PCs (which is simply not happenning anyway).
For example, there are no fighting games on the PC (Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur etc.).
But that's about it - I couldn't care less for the RPGs and the racing sims are comparable to what I get on the PC.
The FPS genre is pretty much nonexistent on the consoles (it may be starting to change).
Maybe I just don't get the console culture.
-jfedor
(And yes, I own the cartridges. heh.)
This has been blown out of proportion. For the facts, please have a look at: http://www.sonyweb.com/features/insidethecell.html
May 1st is a day of special significance. Its a day of worldwide solidarity. But why Mayday? What is its history?
Over a century ago the American Federation of Labour adopted a historic resolution which asserted that? eight hours shall constitute a legal days labour from and after May 1st, 1886?.All across America in the months prior to this resolution, workers in their
thousands were starting to struggle for a shorter
week. Skilled and unskilled, men and women, black and
white, immigrant and native were all fighting
together. Chicago was the main centre of agitation.
Over 300,000 workers came out on May 1st, and here
Mayday was born.
The Chicago anarchists considered that struggles for
reforms, like the eight hour day, were not enough in
themselves. They considered them as only one battle in
an ongoing class war that would only end by social
revolution. On May 1st, in Chicago, one half of the
McCormick Harvester Company came out on strike. Two
days later the police opened fire on the pickets,
killing one and wounding several more. Outraged, the
anarchists called a protest meeting at the Haymarket
for the next day.
Although the meeting was peaceful, a police column of
180 men moved in and ordered the meeting to disperse.
At that moment a bomb was thrown into the ranks of the
police, killing one and wounding about seventy others.
The police opened fire on the spectators, killing and
wounding many.
A reign of terror swept over Chicago. Eight men, all
anarchists and active union organisers, were blamed
and stood trial for murder. No proof was offered by
the state that any of the eight had anything to do
with the bomb.
In spite of world wide protest, four of the Haymarket
Martyrs were hanged. Half a million people lined the
funeral cortege and 20 000 crowded into the cemetery.
In 1893, the new Governor of Illinois made official
what the working class in Chicago and across the world
knew all along and pardoned the Martyrs because of
their obvious innocence and because ?the trial was not
fair?.
In 1889, the American delegation attending the
International Socialist congress in Paris proposed
that May 1st be adopted as a workers? holiday. This
was to commemorate working class struggle and the
?Martyrdom of the Chicago Eight?. Since then Mayday
has became a day for international solidarity, but has
also been used as a day of celebration by reformist
trade unions and authoritarian communist groups alike.
It is not surprising that the real history and meaning
of Mayday are hidden. If the anarchist ideas of the
Chicago Martyrs became better known and put back into
practice, the trade union bureaucrats and labour
politicians who run the labour movement would be out
of a job! The ?Chicago Idea? of the Martyrs shows that
there is a real, practical alternative to both the
present labour movement and the present system. That
idea is revolutionary anarchism.
Mayday, like the Labour movement itself, must be
rescued from all those with a vested interest in the
present system. Mayday must again be a day to remember
the past struggles of working class people and a day
to show solidarity with present struggles.
>From the pages of Resistance#11, regular monthly
bulletin of the Anarchist Federation Ireland. To read,
or download in PDF format, go to:
http://www.afireland.cjb.net
I am into the copy and paste.