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PS3's Smart Back-Compat, PS4 Doesn't Play Discs
Good news for Sony fans looking forward to the PS3. Eurogamer reports that the system will feature backwards compatibility with memory cards as well as games. From the article: "An update to Sony's PlayStation 3 website has revealed that you will be able to use older PlayStation memory cards with PlayStation 3 - providing you buy an adapter. An entry in the official PS3 FAQ states: 'To use saved data on a PlayStation 2 memory card, you must copy the data onto a virtual memory card within the hard disk.'" Microsoft could have really used something like that for the Xbox/360 switchover. Relatedly, Sony is looking ahead ... way ahead, even to their next console. Wired has a piece looking at the future of downloads in the games industry. From that article: "Microsoft is releasing an HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360. Both companies are even touting the ability of these new discs to play movies in even higher hi-def. That struggle, however, is ultimately meaningless. 'I'd be amazed if the PlayStation 4 has a physical disc drive,' [Sony's Phil] Harrison says."
"Microsoft could have really used something like that for the Xbox/360 switchover." It's hard to say how much good an adapter for xbox memory cards would have done, though. Many xbox games won't allow you to transfer saves to a memory card and given that no game (that I know of) required one, a much smaller percentage of owners had them. There's nothing to say that MS couldn't still release software to allow users to transfer saves from one xbox to another or from an xbox to a 360, though.
The Wii will offer backwords compatibility with the Gamecube through hardware support, and at least the first batch of PS3's will include hardware support before switching to software emulation. So at somepoint you will have a lower price for the PS3, but less reliable backwords compatibility.
[javac] 100 errors
It's not naive. I work for a major retailer. And I am privy to our product margins. When the 360 launched (last time I checked) margin on it was something like $0.40 for us. The Gamecube has like a dollar or so. And I think it's the highest margin console we carry (it's had like 10 SKUs through it's life, possibly more, so it's hard to check that one).
We don't lose money on any of the consoles (unless they go clearance at the end of the life cycle, or it's a failed console like the Jaguar for instance, but that's not an ordinary situation). But we also don't make money on consoles. We cary them for a simple reason. We make about $5 on the average new game. Not to mention accessory sales.
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
I figured I'd give Valve the benefit of the doubt, and wait until it'd been a few years after the first release on Steam and they'd still not come out with a Steam-less installation of that game (HL2, of course). At that point, I would oppose them ideologically. In the mean time, I tried it, and decided that I already don't like it for entirely different reasons.
It's annoying, almost (*almost*) on the same level as Bonsai Buddy.
Typical experience:
Me: Huh, haven't played CS:Source in a couple of days. I think I'll play a quick round, maybe 15 minutes' worth.
*click on steam*
Steam: UPDATING...
*progress bar makes one tick after nearly a minute*
Me: Right, how about we try offline mode? I don't want to wait for Steam to do its thing before I play the game that was working just fine 2 days ago.
Steam: Now in offline mode.
Me: *click on the game*
Steam: (bullshit about uncompleted updates, or it lost its validation when it started to update and can't play without it, and it can't re-validate until it finishes this update, or any number of other ridiculous things)
Me: *uninstalls Steam, leaves, having now wasted most of my 15 minutes screwing around with it and getting no-where*
That's about how it's gone the last couple of times. I've just given up now. It's not worth it. It would be kind of tolerable if it didn't grind the system to a halt doing its stupid decryption crap for long periods of time; the downloading itself isn't that big a deal, I'd just do something else while I was waiting if that's all it was.