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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."
If it wasn't for the £500 ($800) price tag, I might consider getting one; I've had good use out of my brothers PS2, and a feature like this sounds great. I hope that Nintendo and Microsoft are watching as I havn't bought a Next-Gen console yet, and this can only be good for compitition.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
I doubt the PS4 will exist if Sony doesn't concentrate more on making the PS3 more appealing.
'I'd be amazed if the PlayStation 4 has a physical disc drive,' [Sony's Phil] Harrison says.
Considering the reaction to the PS3 thus far, I don't think it's safe to make ANY predictions about the PS4. There will almost definitely be one, yes, but who knows what Sony will have to do to make it successful?
Actually, scratch that - it's an idiotic idea. No longevity once Sony moves on to a new console, no physical ownership, no used games market to help make the hobby more affordable...and there's that fact that broadband still isn't widespread enough or fast enough to support the massive game downloads that this generation of consoles, let alone the next one, is going to demand.
Something tells me that, if Sony eliminates the disc drive, it'll be an even bigger blunder than anything they've done to date.
Goo goo g'joob.
....to find some good news when they're making a big thing about being able to your old PS2 memory cards. Especially when you consider that you need to buy an adapter, and that you can't use the data on the card as such, only a virtual version of it copied to the machine's HD. Therefore what this *actually* means that you in fact *can't* use your old cards, you can only convert the data, assuming you're prepared to shell out for another piece of optional hardware, and I dread to think how much these adapters are going to cost.
This is hardly a major positive for the PS3, but they're trying desperately to dressing it up as one.
If you've got a memory card with game data on, then I'd say it's more than a little likely that you've also got a PS2. Why not just save yourself the effort (and additional cost) and run your old saved games on that?
I am a twenty year old console gamer. I actually prefer having a physical medium on which the game code resides. I have had too many problems with hard drive failures, damaged systems, etc. to trust the system to hold all of my games. And what if I like to share? I do not want to have to lug my PS4 to my friend's house and hook it up just because my copy of Tony Hawk: Ripping it up in the Nursing Home is bound to my system's serial number. I smell DRM in this, and I do not like it.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
You just made my decision for me - I will never buy anything associated with Blu-Ray, as you have just indicated that it is a stop-gap for a diskless content delivery system in approx. 5 years but no more than 10.
I guess I'll just hold on to my "plain old" DVD's and non-HD TV until then, or show patronage to another company's products/standards.
Man, I was on the fence about Steam for quite a while. I bought HL2, I played it, I played a little CS:Source. Now? I'll occasionally consider installing HL2 to give it another play-through, but then I always decide that it's just not worth the time that my computer will be occupied downloading and decrypting shit.
Worse for Valve? I'd like to play Episode I, but I've put off buying it, because I've got unpleasant memories of large downloads and inconveniently-timed, seemingly-pointless Steam updates. At this rate, if I ever play it, it'll probably be a spur-of-the-moment Bittorrent download of some pirated version that'll sit in BitComet for a day or two while I go on with my other gaming and computing tasks (since it's not doing decrypting bullshit like Steam does, eating processor cycles) until I remember that I had it downloading, check, see that it's done, play it, then delete it.
If I didn't have to dick around with Steam, I'd very likely have given up the $20 they want for the box at stores within a couple weeks of it coming out. Now? I doubt they'll ever get my money. It's not an ideological thing, it's just that Steam is too damn annoying.
Yeah, kind of offtopic. Sorry.
Considering I can buy a 2GB flash drive for ~50$ (on sale now at Best Buy), I don't see why the 'next gen' media couldn't be solid state again. Assuming the trend continues, the price in bulk might be competitive enough to make it happen.
They also could use something akin to Sony's MagicGate (tm) format, where the data is encrypted in the drive itself, except that the content is somehow tied to a TPM chip in the PS4. This would give them the advantage of a solid state memory design, combined with tying it to their platform and "securing" the data from piracy. I would be surprised if I'm the first to think of this.
The only reason, I think, that consoles moved to optical media was because of the density increase and price to produce. If solid state memory improves enough and is cheap enough I see no reason to think colsole manufacturers wouldn't jump back to making carts.
I just hope they throw in an add-on Optical Drive so we can play our PS1/2/3 games/movies on there as well.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
You forgot that a lot of us have games we go back and play from time to time - also a number of PS2 games have looked for saved files from older games and upgraded some features in a newer game if you had specific items in the old one.
Lastly, the PS2 could slightly enhance graphics in PS1 games. If a simialr feature is offered for PS2 support it could be kind of nice to revisit some parts of older games.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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.
And my grandma still insists on using her phone book, her home phone, radio for weather and the newspaper for the news.
/. are not should tell you something. As far as I'm concerned, doing away with physical goods goes against human nature itself. It will not be a successful strategy, any more than e-books so far have been a successful strategy (or ever will be).
I use the internet, the internet, the internet and the internet.
And she can do a lot of things you can't. Namely, look up a phone number in a power failure. USE her phone in a power failure. Read the news while sitting on the crapper or in the subway.
More importantly, she knows to diversify her information sources. You rely on one data path. That data path goes down, for any reason, and you're officially screwed.
Those of us who have been around long enough - even those of us who are just young enough to not really remember the days before the internet - all know the benefits of this data diversification. We also know the benefits of tangible goods vs. virtual goods, because we've all experienced the headaches that come from "losing" your virtual goods - even though we may still have the media that may contain them.
You're underestimating the number of people who would just never buy a console that didn't support physical media. I wouldn't, the guy you're replying to wouldn't and the guy he's replying to wouldn't. There are a lot of us out there. Add in the fact that there will probably always be at least one competitor willing to shuck the current convention and provide what the other systems lack, and I doubt any console will ever succeed without physical media support. I'm serious. Even if we're talking DS-size (or smaller) memory chips... there has to be something you can hold in your hand that contains the game on it, separate from the game console. Something you can buy in a store, trade with friends, borrow, collect, re-sell, back up or whatever. That's just for starters. I'm sure there are people who, like you, are perfectly willing to trust the internet and their connected consoles for all their gaming needs, but the fact that even a number of people here on tech-centric
(It can be *part* of a larger successful strategy, but it is not a strategy unto itself. Games have to be available on physical media, end of story.)