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Sony, Nintendo Announce 'Fixes' For Their Consoles
Gamasutra reports that both Nintendo and Sony still have a few kinks to work out from their newly launched systems. It may seem funny to an onlooker, but the spectacular Wii strap blowouts are being taken very seriously by Nintendo. People are evidently 'even more excited' by playing the little white console than the company anticipated, and they're investigating the possibility that the straps aren't strong enough. Meanwhile, Sony has updated the PS3's firmware to 1.30 in an effort to take care of the much-complained-about resolution scaling issues. Ars Technica (and several other sites) are saying that the fix doesn't really do anything, despite Sony's reassurances. From that article: "The priority of resolutions has been changed, putting 1080i over 720p. So if you prefer 720p as a resolution, be sure to uncheck 1080i as a possible resolution on your television, or else games that support both resolutions will automatically display at 1080i. Of course, if you uncheck 1080i as a resolution, your Blu-ray movies will display at 480p. So you'll have to just manually switch the resolution yourself depending on what you're doing ... If you have a 720p set, not only has Sony not fixed the scaling issues, they've made the process of playing games and watching movies less user friendly. Sony really wants you to upgrade into a 1080p set, and they seem to want to punish you if you don't have one."
i can understand the Wii's prob, but wow, the PS3 is having some high-def issues here
WulframII - Free Online Mutiplayer 3D Tank Shooting Game
Sony, fix the price first!
Nintendo may call it "even more excited", but the UK Sale Of Goods Act calls it "not fit for the purpose intended" and would entitle the consumer to their money back from the retailer. So yes, better to get it sorted.
Okay, so before it was: "If my machine doesn't show 1080p, fall back on 720p, and 1080i (only) is screwed". Now it's "If my machine doesn't show 1080p, fall back on 1080i, and everyone else is screwed".
So it went from a minor annoyance to a severe problem?
Who put Don Rumsfeld in charge of patches?
You think there's any chance that the Nintendo Power Glove will be resurrected?
Sony actually has good hardware with the PS3, despite all the FUD. But if they don't pull their heads out of the sand and overhaul the software, they're going to lose a lot of customers.
I am a PS3 owner. Wake up, Sony.
Caffeine is my anti-drug!
Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
Even by Zonk standards, this is some impressive spinning -- it's not a defect, it's just that the fantasticness of the Wii is so all-encompassing that the designers couldn't have anticipated how much players would love it!
Microsoft should have come up with that: "Players are so exhilarated by the 360 that they can sometimes set the carpet on fire!"
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
If you look at a wiimote from the more recent batches (especialy if its one that got sent by nintendo because of a defect or another, as a replacement), and compare the straps, the newer wiimotes have much, much better straps. So its already fixed in the newer batches, as far as I can tell.
If you're honestly worried about the strap breaking on your Wiimote, check out this quick how-to on flickr. Just use some heavy duty fly fishing line to reinforce it.
My work here is dung.
There's a warning screen before each game to tightly grip the Wiimote. I wouldn't blame Nintendo for my inability to grip an object. On a related note, society on the whole is far to sue happy and I'm of the opinion that they should institute a mandatory penalty for bringing frivolous law suits.
I was hoping this there would be news of a Wii system update, perhaps to allow the Classic Controller to be used with Gamecube games on the Wii. As it is, you have to use a Gamecube controller. The Classic has all the buttons you would need, even the analog-style L and R triggers, but for some reason, it is not set up that way. I really don't want to buy a Wavebird, and I really REALLY don't want an ugly dongle sticking out of the top of my nice new Wii.
Suggesting that Nintendo needs to be sued because people misuse the product, to a degree far enough beyond sensibility that it is almost laughable, makes me want to suggest suing microwave manufacturers because microwaving a baby makes a real mess.
The strap for my Wiimote was broken when I got it. I don't know for sure whether it was the one that came with the console or with the extra one I got, but the little string that connects the strap to the Wiimote was broken in the package. Has anyone else seen this?
No, I'm sorry, but I don't agree at all that this is some type of spin. Nintendo designed the Wiimote to what they felt would be appropriate safety standards when used responsibly and with a modicum of common sense. How exactly it is their fault that a bunch of people are far too overzealous for their own good? The strap is there for backup. The Wiimote should never have left the people's hands in the first place.
This whole thing might convince me to put some adhesive rubber strips on the Wiimote for a better grip, (get your minds out of the gutter, guys...) but it's not Nintendo's fault if I act like a freaking maniac and the Wiimote flies out of my hand because I'm swinging it faster than I should or need to.
As far as I'm concerned, Nintendo is taking the high road by saying that they're going to look at making the wrist straps more secure whereas they could just as easily say, "The Wiimote wrist strap was not designed for people who don't know how to control themselves properly" and leave it at that.
And, no, that's not a troll or a flame. I'm just so tired of people pushing things beyond their limit of tolerance due to their own lack of self-control and common sense then blaming the manufacturer for it. If you buy a car, never take it out of first gear, red-line the engine by going 50 MPH, and end up in the hospital when the engine explodes, that's not the car manuacturer's fault for not making the engine more tolerant of your bad actions.
Nintendo just gained some credibility in my book.
As for Microsoft, I'm not as willing to let them off the hook. People have been putting consoles on the floor since the days of the Atari 2600, so that is not an unrealistic expectation. Yet Microsoft designed the 360 and its power supply to be a small toaster oven. They could have put a bit more planning into the heating/cooling system of the 360.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
Is it that there are just quite a few people who are just unable to properly grip an object designed to be gripped? Or is the mu just not high enough?
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
I have a 480p TV, as does almost everyone still, and the PS3 looks amazing. The PS3 is the first device to even do HD that I've ever owned. I had been waiting for such a device to enter the mudstorm that is the emergence of HD to spark my own entry. I'm going to skip the entire 780x range and buy a 1080p TV, which now costs about 2x the cost of the PS3. It's a non-issue for me. I am sorry that 780p/i folks are not going to see the absolute best from this, but, seriously, it's not as if they get a completely blank screen with no play options, and early adopters always get screwed, welcome to technology. Contrary to the early cries from this (questionably) injured group, Sony is trying to give them some options to improve their situation. But, complainers do best when they complain, and nothing is funner to them, it seems, than complaining about active responses to their complaints. It's not 100% the first time; I'm sorry, but that is pretty much the Japanese way. Incremental improvement is a cultural fetish bordering on a compulsion for manufacturers over there, so I'd expect this to only get better as we go forward. It's always about balancing tradeoffs when you attempt to combine 2 high end pieces of tech: if you care more about longevity and color range, you would go LCD display; if you care more about color intensity and motion response, you go plasma. Neither decision is wrong for what you desire, and both products will converge into each other's space as we go forward. If upscaling is absolutely more important to you than whether the device at least basically functions, I'd say you do have a right to complain, but you do still have a functioning product that delivers on its real promise: it still looks astoundingly better than the previous version no matter what resolution. To the ones complaining simultaneously about this and the price, upscaling was left out as a hardware decision, and would have likely made the machine more expensive. So, even if this hadn't been an issue, there would still be focus on the price, no matter how much money Sony is losing. Welcome to the cake that no one will be allowed to eat, unless it's to say the cake needs more frosting.
...when they said "the next generation doesn't start until we say it does." Well, we're still waiting.
Maybe the next patch will be the start of next generation gaming. Or the patch after that. Hey, somewhere in there the next generation will definitely start.
From the first article:
"...people are becoming more and more excited playing with the Wii."
"...sweaty hands [...] exacerbating the issue."
The jokes just write themselves.
The european virtual console is stuck @ 50 hertz, the games are about 15% slower and the screen has ugly black borders around it.
As much as I am a nintendo fanboy, I really must admit they badly botched the it on this one...
So please make eu games run @60Hz and use the overscan... pretty please?
This is something I seriously don't get about the latest generation of consoles. Every previous generation, one of the plus points was that once you buy the console, that's it - everything Just Works (tm Apple). Now the first thing you have to do when you switch on is download patches? WTF?
It's cheaper to make any application like this. You don't have to do quite as much testing because it doesn't have to be perfect first time. It just has to be Good Enough. Some bugs are very expensive to eliminate by testing alone because a large amount of test effort is required to expose them. And now that consoles are normally connected to a network, these bugs can be found by "distributed testing", i.e. actual use of the product.
In effect, some of the test cost has been passed on to you, the customer. What do you get in return? A cheaper game? A better game (after patching)? Hmm... unlikely. What you get is a game disc that isn't complete, and an extra requirement to provide your console with an Internet connection. Not really a great deal.
I think that the wiimote should have textured rubber grips on it, material not entirely dissimilar from the non-slip grips that people put into the bottom of their shower/bath to keep from slipping. That would probably largely solve the issue of it slipping away from people simply on account of sweaty hands.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
http://wiibrokemytv.ytmnd.com/
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
It's not ok for a manufacturer to just say "Well this breaks easy so be careful with it," if it is going to be used in an environment where it is likely to be handled roughly. Companies should know that people are vicious with their controllers and indeed classic game controllers are designed with that in mind. As a kid I remember chucking a SNES controller on occasion and always pushing the buttons waaaay too hard and it took the abuse. It was designed to, they knew that kids like me were going to use and abuse it.
Well, this should have been tested with the Wii controller. Sure it only needs small movements but is that what people are actually going to do? Of course not, they are going to get in to it and start moving dramatically. That's just how we work.
One would assume Nintendo would have playtested the Wii with normal gamers and found this out. It's not like we are talking about something that's taken a long time to find out. It's been, what, a week?
Well I'd say yeah. Nintendo is taking the strap problem serious which is pretty awesome. They know for the most part the strap isn't the problem, it's a problem with people letting go of the controllers completely, but I'm sure they'll figure out someway to make people happy. However I'm sure they can't go around giving free tvs away for idiots who let go of the controller (and seriously that's fair) but they should probably offer a free stronger strap. Of course those who couldn't hang on to their controller really shouldn't expect much more. I've yet to have an occasion where the controller flew out of my hand.
Then again on Sony's side, there's so many known problems with the console, this update feels like lipservice at best, and it's not even solving any problem that a normal person would have. What's worse this is a problem their console has and they arn't even acting like it's a real problem or taking it seriously. But the priority of video feeds? That's crucial, except what happens when my 1080i TV revert to 480p because I don't have 720p?
Oh that's right, it's Next gen and HD generation? That's when graphics and games are amazing... as long as you have the right tv, and the right connector, and the right game, and sony will be glad to sell you them all, for more money.
Microsoft has become a more caring company then sony, they are at least finally repairing Xbox 360 with drive problems for free. Sony, well I guess the good news is under 400,000 people will be effected by these problems.
An explanation for what the fuck this "strap" is or what it does is notably absent from both the article and the summary. A strap to carry the wii? A strap to attach it to the television? the comments to the story suggest some sort of strap for a remote control, but WTF would anyone need a strap on a remote control for?
None of this makes sense.
Just that it was as good as they were advertising. There was all this talk about cinema experiences in realtime and so on, combine with some amazing teasers. Then we find out the teasers are all prerendered, the graphics chip is about the same as an nVidia 7900 which, while powerful, isn't anything more than what the 360 has and the games look about the same.
It wouldn't be a problem if Sony didn't promise the Sun and Stars all the time. If they had told the truth that the graphics would be competitive with the 360 (which they are) then great. But when you tell everyone it's like nothing they've ever seen and show them shit that had only previously been done in Maya it's rather disappointing to find out you were lying and indeed the shit had been done in Maya.
People are mad about the hardware because it's capabilities were greatly oversold, and because it's real expensive.
I'm a PS3 owner, and the new settings are the right ones for my non-1080p HDTV. So, I'm happy with them. The better choice, of course, is to make these choices more user configurable so people can get the mode they prefer for each situation.
I'm a little miffed that when a patch comes out they force me to install it before I can log into the playstation network. This patch had nothing to do with networking. Of course, the 360 works the same way.
I remember reading somewhere at some point (gotta love my memory) that the main reason that console games are great, in the opinion of the writer, is the fact that they work when they get to you, and don't have to have any patches later on, like computer games. Well, there goes that idea...
Eagles may soar, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines...
Maybe Nintendo should just put a warning sticker on new boxes:
Warning: Not recommended for aggressive fatty kids with sweaty hands.
1. If I had an expensive TV, before using fast throwing motions etc, I would sure as hell make sure the strap seemed durable and wouldn't somehow come off mid-throw. A bit of cautious enthusiasm is called for with your new toy.
2. Generally when you make something such as a wrist strap, you design it so that it can take MORE abuse than general use as a safe precaution. It sounds like Nintendo massively undershot or had gone the cheap route. I wonder if the person who designed the wrist trap has now been moved into a corner of the office to do less dangerous work now.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
Now if they could only fix ps2 emulation on the PS3, PS2 Final Fantasy, that came out a few weeks before the PS3, looks like crap even at 480p on the PS3. Now I have to keep my PS2 connected so I can finish the game with usable graphics. Very anoying....
Ars is making a HUGE deal out of this resolution nonsense, and I don't know why:
Almost every TV on the market can scale down from higher resolutions (or from interlaced to progressive and vice versa) to its native resolution and refresh rate with (in my opinion) no visual effect. Most cable HD comes in 1080i as well and I don't hear the conspiracy theorists talking about that.
i bought a DS with a dead pixel. no arguments, a straight return. apparently, the same applies to the cracked hinges. THAT is what i want to see when i spend a decent sum of money on something; after-sales service.
nice one, Nintendo.
I have a 2 year old 1080i only HDTV (well it has 480p also), Does this mean the games will play at 1080i now instead of being downgraded to 480p? I wasn't going to buy a PS3 if all it was going to do was provide 480p to my TV.
Oh, I don't know. They could .. perhaps .. hold onto the damned thing so that it doesn't fly out of their hands???
Just a wild thought, I know. No one would ever believe it.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
I don't know of any cable STB's that support 1080p and I've never heard a complaint, I think SONY made the right decision here. I still don't understand why you can't just set it and forget it. If you have 720p you select that only, if you have 1080i you select that only, cable boxes can do it, why not SONY?
Is to get a Wii, so you really don't need any patches to the PS3 for that.
...)
Except the patch to your wallet for wasting $600 for a console with only one good game (I did that when I got the xBox when it came out
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Damn you! How could you be so culturally insensitive as to insult my god!?
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
If Nintendo is smart they will milk this for all that it is worth. "Oh no people are soooooo excited and having soooo much fun playing our new revolutionary console that they can't hold on to our controller. So because we are worried about our consumer here's a free super duper deluxe strap so you and your stuff will be safe."
However I don't think people should really be able to sue Nintendo because they are a butterfingers.
"Sony has updated the PS3's firmware to 1.30 in an effort to take care of the much-complained-about resolution scaling issues."
This is something I don't understand. I have never seen a statment from Sony saying that's what the patch was for, all I've seen is some notes on what the patch DID fix on their website. The only places I've seen these comments are sites like Ars Technica and Kotaku, where they assumed that's what the patch was for. Complaining that it doesn't do what you assumed (wrongly) it would fix is like saying a PBJ sandwich sucks because it doesn't have ham.
Of course, if someone has a source to Sony stating they fix the issue, I'll be sure to bite my tongue off next time.
Your TV is 1.78:1. A lot of widescreen movies are shot in 2.40:1 and transferred to DVD with black letterbox bars to pad it out to 1.78:1. Blame CinemaScope for introducing 2.40:1.
I didn't go behind a Bush in the 2004 election; why should I now?
Oh come of it. Whats with all this nintento apologizing? Every cracked strap I've seen on the internet has been frayed and broken in half. If they made them out of that "snakey metal" like expensive camera laynards this kind of thing probably wouldn't happen.
Its 100% nintendo's fault. Would you say that people who got in accidents, and had their seatbelts snap and fail, were at fault because they got in an accident in the first place? The laynard sole use, as I understand it not personally owning a wii, is to make sure the controller does NOT fly out of your hand. If it fails at that, then what is the other purpose of it? So that you can hang it bling styles off your wrist when you go to the mall?
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
Use a sledge hammer on it and go out and buy a Wii.
The articles I've read regarding the strap issue have mentioned the Wii-Sports baseball game. I guess people haven't figured out that you don't need to move your whole arm to throw a good fastball, just flick your wrist down; you'll get the maximum speed every time.
I thought that was what the "[ytmnd.com]" was for, right? If you're not familiar with YTMND, see YTMND on Wikipedia and YTMND's wiki (silent). Then see Defective DS and The Pooh and Wii Song for more Nintendo-related examples. Yes, yes!
...in the music industry?
By reading this you acknowledge that you have read it.
Don't use Spiderline or any other "high performance" fishing line for this purpose. These lines are high-strength, low-stretch. That means if your controller slips and starts to fly, the line will not stretch and will arrest the controller's motion in a very short distance time. This will create a huge impulse loading which can easily exceed the yield strength of the line. Fishermen like these lines because they let them "feel" the fish nibbling the bait at the other end. But fishermen also use a rod which acts as a shock absorber and eliminates much of this problem of impulse loading.
Instead, you want to use a stretchy line like regular monofilament or tennis racket string. If the line can stretch, it spreads the controller's deceleration over space (and time), resulting on lower load forces on the line, making it less likely to break. It's just like falling onto a soft cushy mat vs. falling onto concrete. Both falls have the same amount of energy, but hitting the mat creates smaller forces than hitting the concrete.
At least until you have a good grasp of which spelling to use: to, too, or two....
2. Some of the motions are mimicking real-life actions where you release the object (e.g. bowling). So your brain is already pre-wired to let go in the middle of the motion.
Except supply and demand isn't the only factor. There's also longer-term issues like PR.
PR shifts the demand curve to the right (good PR) or the left (bad PR). They're one in the same.
DATABASE WOW WOW
I'm looking at my Wiimote right now, and I can't imagine moving this thing fast enough to break a nylon strap unless I were actually swinging it by the strap itself.
Barring that, here's a likely scenario:
1. Use Wiimote without wearing the strap.
2. Forget Wiimote isn't really a bowling ball.
3. Let go of Wiimote, smashing $4000 television set.
4. Scream, cry.
5. Pull on Wiimote strap until it snaps. May need to hang a chair from it.
6. Claim Nintendo owes you a new television.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata spoke to Japanese reporters on the issue, saying that: "Of course before the launch of the Wii hardware Nintendo had a number of tests on the durability of everything, including the strap, but our understanding right now is that even beyond our expectations people are becoming more and more excited playing with the Wii."
The jokes write themselves.
I'd really like to moderate this thread, but I gotta give you props for closing your parentheses AFTER your smiley, not WITH your smiley. Well done. /golfclap
The United States of America: We do what we must because we can.
I own a Wii, and I play Wii Tennis, and I swing pretty hard. It's quite unlikely that you'd lose grip, though, and even if you did, you would not swing hard enough to make the strap break. In the video I've seen, the person broke it when throwing in Baseball. That's where you might throw very fast, and also let it go intuitively.
However, there are tons of warning screens telling you to be careful, and I've never let the controller go - never been even close to it. Suing Nintendo? Come on.
At first I read the title of your post with one p, so I was expecting something completely different. I even mentally prepared a little rebuttal along the lines of "no, I'm quite sure fanboys have already perfected the art of griping."
Dam my inn ability too reed.