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An Evening With Sony Computer Entertainment
Thursday evening, senior Sony representatives such as Phil Harrison (President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios) and David Karraker (Head of SCEA's PR division) sat down with the posters from a bunch of websites, looking to ease relations between the company and their customers. Along with folks from The San Jose Mercury News, Joystiq, Kotaku, and MTV, we discussed a number of the issues raised in the comments here on Slashdot the day before yesterday. My goal in going to the event was to make sure that your concerns were heard. Over the last several months, I've heard many complaints leveled against Sony and their products, and I was hoping to bring back some answers. To be honest, I walked away not fully satisfied. Read on for answers to some of the criticisms you, the readers, have leveled against Sony in the last several months.
I took notes, but a lot of ground was covered, and not all of it was probably of interest. To give you a sense of context, we were all gathered around a large table in a hotel just off of Union Square. The event was held in the early evening, and lasted for approximately two hours. While everyone was certainly civil, there were a number of tough questions passed around. Here is what I felt was most important to you folks:
- A goodly amount of the discussion centered around Sony's newly announced Home project. The dangers of allowing uploadable content were raised, and we were assured that PSN parental controls will be fully in place within the game world. There will be a few quick button options to black out the screen (in case of offensive images) and to kill the audio (in case of offensive language). Public spaces will be moderated (and instanced, if you're curious), though they were a bit vague on just how those individuals would work economically. They're still working out the details.
- I was intrigued on Wednesday (as were a number of readers) by the possibility of indie games in the Arcade rooms they showed off. Phil Harrison responded by saying that it is something they're very interested in. Originally, all of the games were going to be done in Java but technical problems arose. The games are now done in C. If they can wrap up the tools in an easy package, they'd be very happy to release them and allow community-created games onto the service.
- Revenue for the service will be handled via object sales, advertising, and b2b elements in vendor areas. Those concerned about the 'amount of free' that you'll get as an intro Home user should know that they're hoping to offer a fair amount off the bat. 'Free' includes a basic apartment, access to the public spaces, a 'reasonable' number of avatar customization options, and a 'starter' set of furniture. Better views out your window will be purchasable, along with new apartments.
- Everyone from Sony in the room heavily resisted comparisons to Second Life, and other services. In Mr. Harrison's words "That would be heavily oversimplifying both Home and Second Life." Along the lines of hacking the service to allow Second Life-style sexual animations, the reps were fairly confident that they'd dodge that bullet. The service itself doesn't allow avatar touching, and doesn't currently have emotes that approximate those actions. They eventually hope to have 100% of online-connected users on the service. Currently, the number of online connected PS3's is somewhere around 500,000 in NA; roughly 50% of the North American consoles.
- Right now the download is around 450 megs, but that's going to probably shrink and grow over the course of development.
- The subject of Sony's arrogant public demeanor was broached, as well as the poor public relations message we've been getting in the last several months. The ThreeSpeech blog was broached, and the folks in the room actually clarified the purpose and reality behind the 'semi-official' blog. ThreeSpeech is actually a European entity, intended to be a public forum in which Sony-related matters can be discussed and information can be brought to the public's attention. The people behind ThreeSpeech are some of the most respected games journalists in the UK; it would be like if a US version of the site were staffed by the likes of CNN's Chris Morris, and man-of-many-talents Geoff Keighley. Because UK gamers know and trust the ThreeSpeech staff, there's an implicit understanding (in that country) that the message coming from the site is not 'tainted.' It was pointed out the lack of attribution to posts across the site is a barrier to acceptance, and they took that under advisement. For the most part, it seems, the bad reputation that ThreeSpeech here in the states seems to be a case of cultural misunderstanding. While I still don't like the term 'semi-official', I did feel as though the concept behind the site made a great deal more sense to me after this chat. Some of the other attendees were not as reassured.
- The element that I want to convey, which I took away from the discussion of Sony's arrogance, was that arrogance is not the feeling I get from them in person. These people are, instead, supremely confident in their products and services. Thanks to the impersonal nature of quotes and the numerous (rightly decried) public relations gaffes they've suffered, their confidence can easily be seen as arrogance by third party information consumers. This is not to say the company on the whole is not arrogant; I just want to make it clear the people I was in the same room with Thursday night did not have the attitude of inherently arrogant individuals.
- This discussion went on to include the question of the PS3's pricetag, which was a subject never fully addressed to my satisfaction. There was some talk of the PS3 as a lifestyle, and the still-important question of why Blu-ray technology is necessary. Peripherals such as the EyeToy were mentioned as 'making the PS3 disappear from the equation', which given the cost of the system seemed to be a poor choice of words. Not much of substance resulted from the Sony 'side of the table' on this subject, and that attitude left me feeling a bit frustrated. The system's cost won't be changing for some time now, and there's apparently not much to talk about on that subject. This was the one element that I went into the session hoping to deal with directly, and unfortunately came away feeling let down.
- As a final note, it was stated directly that "There is no direct evidence that Blu-Ray has been hacked." Their attitude is that the encryption is strong, and that it will be a long time before it's cracked.
critisizms in the past months ? They are fucking up customers for over 3 years in star wars galaxies. Not only that, but they are fucking up entire star wars fan community as well. Ask them why.
Read radical news here
"Right now the download is around 450 megs, but that's going to probably shrink and grow over the course of development. "
That clears it up.
Is there actually a difference between arrogance, and being supremely confident when you have no reason to be?
Arrogant: "making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights; overbearingly assuming; insolently proud"
Why yes, yes that does sound like practically everything we've heard from anyone influential at sony regarding, well, anything that's come out since the Playstation. Playstation 2 was supposed to be the god box, the supercomputer. It fell DRAMATICALLY short of the announced specifications. Playstation 3 is too cheap. PSP is a fantastic value and UMDs are highly desirable. Blah blah blah.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It is a great example of the bullshit that Sony subjects us to. Why was it not mentioned?
I don't care how confident those people are, PR folks have got to put at least a LITTLE thought into what they are saying and how it will be interpreted. Quotes like "$600 is too cheap!" don't sound remotely like a statement of confidence on paper.
If Sony does Not reduce their price within the next year they will be i nall sorts of trouble. All it takes is one $360 price drop and there is serious trouble. Most games are for both systems. So if the 350 reduces its price you can buy a 360 and a wii (with wii sports)and possibly a 360 game for the price of just the ps3. They really need to try to reduce the price. otheriwse they can be in a lot of trouble. Especially with the stellar line up of the 360 and the ps3 towards the second half of this year
It seems like this new "Playstation home" crap that Sony is really pushing is going to be an over-hyped piece of junk. Given Sony's track record for the past few years, it'll just be a rip off from Second Life, Xbox achievements, and Nintendo's Mii's all wrapped up in one big rootkit. I'll stick to buying a Wii then an Xbox360 thank you very much, and hey both of them will total the cost of one PS3.
Yes, at it is essentially built upon existing Sony MMORPG technology, but that is really just an implementation detail.
http://www.scedev.net/home/
Home is a platform for third party developers to build custom spaces to market and sell their games directly to gamers. Sony is providing all the tools you need to build your company's space out in the theme of whatever game or games you want. Just take existing art and use the Maya tools Sony provides. Existing game artwork should be easily used to deck out a space with streaming videos on the walls showing the game and things like being able to jump right into the demo from the game's space. Get custom stuff for you avatar or personal space. Pretty much anything you can think of you should be able to implement and are willing to use to the tools to generate.
When you compare Home to the online disaster that Nintendo has on their hands with the Wii, it should be clear why Sony has the largest amount of support from third party developers and why game developers view the Wii as a place to dump PS2 ports onto. Wii developers are struggling to get the information they need to put their games online and things like Wii integration in games is mostly a Nintendo title only thing right now.
If you are a third party developers Sony is sending you a message that your game or games are important and will get the full support on the Playstation/Home platform on the same level as first party titles. Whereas Nintendo...why risk a big budget title when the company makes it clear that third parties are second class citizens just like they have been on previous Nintendo consoles.
I wouldn't expect them to say otherwise. If they admitted that Blu-Ray was in any way flawed, the non-Sony content providers would be much slower to adopt the standard (if at all).
Peripherals such as the EyeToy were mentioned as 'making the PS3 disappear from the equation'
Ummm... How does an overpriced and underutilized webcam accessory accomplish that? And what does that have to do with the price of the base system?
The system's cost won't be changing for some time now
Then neither will the sales figures.
They eventually hope to have 100% of online-connected users on the service
Sony, Microsoft, and even Nintendo need to understand something...
A lot, probably even the majority, of casual gamers, don't want the whole live/home/online "experience". We want to pop in a game and waste a few hours to unwind between getting home from work/school and having dinner.
I don't care if the world knows how much I rock (or suck) at the newest games. I don't want trinkets and scenery and furniture for a virtual apartment. I don't want to spend time doing anything beyond slaying dragons, drag-racing through densely populated urban areas, slappin' hos, and getting the little colored blocks lines up just right so they go "bleep" and vanish.
My style of gaming doesn't fit Sony's ideal revenue model. Too bad - Give me what I want, or you don't get any revenue from me.
arrogance is not the feeling I get from them in person. These people are, instead, supremely confident in their products and services.
Trying to tell people what they want to buy doesn't count as confident. It counts as arrogance.
People generally have some sense of shame and humility, and in live meeting, few people will come off as truly arrogant. That doesn't make the company itself any less so.
I'll repeat myself - Give me what I want, or you don't get any revenue from me. If Sony responds to that by trying to explain to me why I really want what they have, you have arrogance, not confidence.
The fact that Sony is aware of their ongoing and continuing PR problems, and is actively and publically trying to address it is a good thing. The impression that I have had recently is of a bunch of ostriches with their heads buried in the sand, waving pom-poms and leading cheers about how great Sony is. However, having read the summary of the article, I don't see anything that would lend itself to the author's sense of "cautious optimism" in what was said in the meeting itself. There wasn't anything that struck me as new or showing that Sony is trying to move in a different and better direction. At this point, I know for myself, that it will take more than just a well packaged, rehashed version of the same message delivered by articulate and likeable messengers to give me any sense of optimism, cautious or otherwise, about where Sony is, and the direction that they are heading in.
Ok, great, everyone say what you could buy for a price of a playstation 3. fallacious argument? Well, I could buy 2 Hondas and 2 Ford cars but that doesn't exactly mean that I got a better deal than buying one Mercedes, Lexus, or BMW. It's great to know that you could buy more with your money, but the quality isn't necessary reflected in your purchase. If you just give the systems an equal chance, you might realize they all are good in their own respect and all have their flaws. Play the games for all the systems and quitting crying, just cause you or your parents can't afford a Playstation 3 doesn't mean you should shun it or it's company.
Believe it or not, every console out there has games you speak of. Not Sony, Microsoft or Nintendos fault you don't look for them.
Just so happens the major fanbase want innovation - across the board. If you had played Xbox live its transparent whether the game is on or offline for the most part, there isn't much "doo daa"'ing around to get up and working. That is why they're loved & addored.
I tell you what, those games from 15 years ago polished & wrapped up on xbox live are well worth the 5-10 bucks to play again against live people over the internet.
Especially for those of us who work, get an hour to play a game here and there and enjoy playing against people we know who may or may not live in the same house.
Simple games are out there and have been for ages.
I really don't understand why people go on and on about the PS3's price.
It retails for $499 usd
Not $700, not $800, not whatever other made-up numbers people use (although yes, europe got screwed here as usual).
What do you get for that price?
$800 worth of hardware.
Hardware that no other console has. Hdmi, standard high capacity optical drive, user replaceable hard drive, in a package that has had essentially no manufacturing defects.
Yeah, its expensive, but it's a lot of machine for the money. If you don't want to pay for it, don't buy it, but stop acting like sony owes you a cheaper machine.
It's $599, after tax possibly $650. No way has it ever been $700.
..as threespeech doesn't seem to have any details?
There aren't exactly a large number of journos that'd be respected, so I guess the lack of identification is because they're all employed on one of Sony's various "Official" magazines?
to th3m...7hen Users With Large The numbers. The move any equipment has ground to a Core team. They I see the same would mar BSD's
Ummm no. Its a mmofps with experience points and unlockables.
It is lacking but its nothing like EQ.
Not before Sony. It's simple business sense - if you're making money and selling well, why do you need to drop your price? Why increase the loss you have on your console? I don't see any need for Microsoft to drop their price any time soon. Sony will move first, and it won't be for a while. I'd stop holding onto the hope that a price drop is coming if I were you.
This will probably come across as trollish, but this is a serious question - Zonk, what is your love for Sony / the PS3?
"Sony Keynote Offers Hope For PlayStation 3 Fans"
"Today was Sony's day to deliver: and in my opinion they did with flying colours."
"Finally, finally, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel for the console."
"Note the first: There may finally be a great reason to buy a PlayStation."
"Your avatar is customizable, and extremely detailed. These is *not* Miis, these are better than Second Life quality digital characters."
"[Little Big Planet] is the reason to buy PlayStation 3." (bolded)
And from this op-ed:
"The element that I want to convey, which I took away from the discussion of Sony's arrogance, was that arrogance is not the feeling I get from them in person. These people are, instead, supremely confident in their products and services."
"I came away from the meeting with a sense of cautious optimism."
"...it's possible the games arm of this particular megacorporation may have put its launch troubles in the rear-view mirror."
Maybe it's just my view of things, but everything *sounds* sugar-coated. Your (Sony) article(s) read more like hype than unbiased reporting.
It's fine if you're personally excited about what goes on, but I think in the interest of full disclosure, you need to say *why* you're so interested. I don't own a PS3; I have seen nothing in these recent articles to indicate, to me, that Sony has taken any steps to change their ways. And yet, you repeatedly say that this is the case.
Why? Because they're implementing a Sony-branded Second Life rip-off? Because of one good game? Because they put their best personal face forward during one meeting?
We've seen this exact pattern before, from a number of companies: nicely worded "promises". Pretty ideas. Friendly faces. The reality of it from Sony has been, consistently, lies and dashed hope. Does meeting these people face-to-face really make you want to forgive and forget so easily?
-lw
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
It's $599, after tax possibly $650. No way has it ever been $700.
He means the UK price. The Japanese price (street retail) is about $450.
Basically, the EU, especially the UK, and then the US, are being ripped off.
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It's interesting to see Sony has taken a turn towards positive marketing steps and desirable products- I only hope that the Playstation Home does not overly complicate the networking system for PS3, which lacks a good core network framework.
:(
Trust me, I have a PS3 devkit on my desk.
I can tell you that our company had a pretty morose outlook on the product, but we are still spending unbelievable amounts of time supporting the console for our future releases.
Coming in to GDC Sony is in a hard last place in a lot of ways, yet apparently at this talk it sounds like a huge amount of the time is spent on Home, that's a huge win. Avoiding talking about the Blu-ray, price and games for the most part and talking up their new Home is good. Let's forget that GDC is about developers rather then the press, and the fact that they have taken the first steps to turning GDC into the next E3.
But from the sound of this they really got away with something at GDC this year, and kudos for them, too bad most of us are already too jaded to turn back and most developers still find the system a hassle even with this new item. Overall though it sounds like a huge win for Sony at least this week.
they 7earn fr0m our
"The system's cost won't be changing for some time now, and there's apparently not much to talk about on that subject. This was the one element that I went into the session hoping to deal with directly, and unfortunately came away feeling let down."
What did you expect them to say? "Oh ok, we'll cut the price in half, just for you!"
Building a console has fixed costs, and they made choices that cost too much. End of story. Now they are stuck having to sell it at the price they do.
Did you ask them why they hate their customers? That's what I really want to understand.
is competition good, or is duplication of effort bad?
1. no 20gig option (idiots)
2. 40% price difference outside japan to EU/AU/UK
3. Now with cost reductions, their profit margins are way higher.
4. I say it again 40%!!!!, shipping costs are TINY, $1200 for large containers. Its the same price to ship 10000 ps3s from X to USA, and X to AU
local taxes are nearly identical, USA 8-9% sales taxes, close to AU's 10% GST.
5. I had to buy something for $1300 (3 games inc) then i have a LONGER list of goodies to buy first before buying a ps3.
6. if it was $650, or $700 I might be tempted earlier for sure. Sony Australia doesnt need a larger profit margin because it cant sell TVs/AMPS/Phones.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I don't have time to find references for the other stuff you ask (and if you can't remember the fake polygon claims which both Sony and Microsoft released, you're not much of a gamer), but this is just plain wrong:
Not being able to sell modchips in the UK is not what killed Lik Sang. Lik Sang was not able to defend against multiple lawsuits started by Sony all over Europe and was thus forced to go out of business.
They never had a chance to defend themselves because Sony started so many lawsuits that they could not afford fighting them, even if they had a chance of winning. I don't care what you think, that's just plain evil.
"An Evening with Kevin Smith" was WAY funnier.
-Peter
As a consumer, I don't care about supply and demand. The PS3 isn't food or oil or water. It's a toy. I don't need it. I only care about one thing: Is this toy worth 600 bucks to me?
And it's definitely not. 300 bucks, maybe. More? Forget it.
If Sony really intends to price this based on demand, they'll end up pissing off both early adopters and latecomers. That would be a seriously bad move. And it's probably not what Sony is doing. This thing costs 600 bucks because Sony can't afford to lose even more money on it than they already do, not because of demand.
I agree. I think somebody at Microsoft even plain said it after Sony announced the PS3's price: "We don't need to cut the price. Sony just gave us a price cut."
Governments make money from payroll taxes, land taxes, landlords profits of rents through income taxes, taxes on shops sales profits.
Yet they still are GREEDY to take a cut of the final sale price, often MORE than the manufacturer's profit.
Most taxes are used to pay back govt debt, that NO ONE ASKED for. If they were not so irresponsible, then we wouldnt need
all these taxes. Why cannot governments make laws that require banks to lend to governments at 1% max rates.
Anyway, most smart people know 12-15% of all economic yearly activity is created through credit, if it were not for that we'de see
a massive depression. As long as rates are less than credit pumping, and people can pay rates, the casino sham keeps on rolling.
It only takes one wheel to fall of a high speed train to derail.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
This seems to broach on the subject of the PS3. However I have a HUGE problem with Sony in general, and by that I mean in every arena, such as music, video, gaming, and computing.
When arrogance is mentioned, it should be applied across the spectrum. For instance someone mentioned Sony MMORPG and those issues. That was a nasty shanking. The absolute deplorable arrogance of the rootkit. The stupid licensing, DRM, and issues that plague Blu Ray, MD Disks, and SACD.
SACD and MD have especially peeved me off with their arrogant licensing issues, and paranoid DRM tactics that remove the ability use the media in ways that you would want. Ever seen a SACD player for your car? Too much for licensing. MD? they had MD players since the early 90s. An absolute incredible technology that they completely squandered and screwed up because of their paranoia.
The licensing side needs to come to grips. Sony comes up with phenomenally good technology. Then the licensing side shanks the hell out of it rendering it pretty close to useless, and frustrating for the consumer. Arrogance. Complete and pure.
Blue ray promises to be that exact same shanking. Im not that excited frankly anymore. I have my DVDs which I can pull and use as I see fit. I buy a lot too...I have several hundred DVDs. If I could watch the Blue ray disks as I wanted, I might buy into that as well. DRM is crap. If the security hurts the legitimate users of your product, then it should not be worth implementing.
now all this talk about 3d Worlds and interactions on the "3.0 games". WHY would I want that? Myspace is already on the web. I dont need or want that from my game console. I want one thing, and one thing only. Games. Good games. In fact for $600 plus another $50 per game they better be SPECTACULAR games. Everything else is chromed plated crap. Where are the good games?
Sony IS arrogant, and I quite frankly dont see why anymore. You can take your ball back now, Sony. There are others I would rather play with.
Yeah, Nintendo is dragging its feet with the Wii online component. That sucks. But really, you act as if Home was the second coming or something. It's a 3D online chat room. Seriously, who cares about this? Why in the world would I want to go into Home to play an arcade game if I can just click on it on my Wii? Why would I want to sell games in this fake world instead of in the easy-to-use Wii shopping channel? It makes no sense.
:-/ I'm happy to see that you're finally taking Nintendo seriously, though.
Little Big World, however, that is something that excites me about the PS3.
Aw, damn, now I'm starting to think that you're just another paid-by-Sony astroturfer
You'd hate living in our state then. We have no income tax here, only sales tax.
Which works fine for me, since I'm a compulsive saver.
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As was reported on slashdot a few days ago, Kotaku was "blackballed" by Sony for reporting on rumors about Sony Home. Even though Sony and Kotaku are back on speaking terms now, the following is quite amusing:
e v-hands-me-my-balls-242974.php
http://kotaku.com/gaming/oddities/gdc07-warhawk-d
GDC07: Warhawk Dev Hands Me My Balls
There was this moment, just seconds after I sat down between Phil Harrison and David Karraker, when the entire table of bloggers, PR people and developers at Sony's Blogger Congress were quiet.
Then Dylan Jobe, Warhawk game director for Incognito, spoke up.
"Before we get started, I have something for Brian."
I noticed Jobe had a small box on the table in front of him. He is a big fan of Kotaku and was impressed with what the site did last week over the whole Sony Home dealio.
So he said he wanted to give me a present to thank me. Opening the box he revealed: A set of brass balls.
Actually, at the current currency rates, it's about 60,000 yen ($508 US dollars) for a PS3 that sells for $600+tax in the US. In essence, the Japanese are getting the console for about $100 cheaper; depending on what the sales tax is in your home state.
Some states don't have sales taxes. Our state has no income tax.
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Then - as promised by their leadership ("we'll firewall it at the PC!") they embedded a rootkit on music CDs. This criminal act, followed by their arrogant defense of this action, proved to me that they are nothing more than the lowest level of corporate scum.
So I made a choice - no more money to Sony. Hasn't hurt a bit; I've spent freely on electronics and entertainment and don't miss Sony a bit.
Those who haven't learned yet are doomed to suffer at Sony's hands - Sony hasn't learned their lesson yet. They don't have a public relations problem, they have a corporate ethics problem. I don't see anything that indicates any change in this situation at any time in the forseeable future.
I don't seem to have noticed any great consumer demand for the console to come bundled with a HiDef drive. The games don't need it (not noticed many 2 disk 360 games anyway) - and as one of the main advantages I see for the PS3 over the 360 is the use of the hard drive to spool in games AND all machines having a hard drive - if they did need more space, they could've just put a data DVD to put on the drive and a Boot DVD to shove in the PS3 in the case and been done with it.
The BluRay drive is in the PS3 as sony wants to own the next big media format. If it takes off and beats HD-DVD, then you've kindly donated to this with your PS3 purchase. If HD-DVD wins, then you've just pissed away a load of money.
"Just the same, the folks that spoke for Sony yesterday honestly seemed like passionate businessmen with an interest in making a good product"
No, Sony could give a crap less about making a good product, just like they could give a crap less about making a good movie, music, game, hardware, software or ANYTHING.
If they make a good anything it's simply a BYPRODUCT of trying to make money, which is all sony has ever cared about.
TruePunk | Games
the discussion of Sony's arrogance, was that arrogance is not the feeling I get from them in person. These people are, instead, supremely confident in their products and services. Thanks to the impersonal nature of quotes and the numerous (rightly decried) public relations gaffes they've suffered, their confidence can easily be seen as arrogance by third party information consumers.
Gotcha, arrogance.
Slashdot = -1 Redundant, Asperger, kdawson FUD, Libertarian, and Linux
Sony subsidises the hardware, as do the other manufacturers. Value for money is not at issue, and never was.
The only question is, how much is a PS3 worth to you, right now? Those that want a cheap Blu-Ray player + two decent games and have $700 to spare, can buy it today and feel happy if they want. Those of us who are accustomed to paying no more than a $300 entry fee for a games platform will probably want to wait, regardless of what else is thrown in.
Personally, I'm not big on paying extra for "potential". If it doesn't do everything I want yet, I'll wait until it does - and save a few $$$ in the process when the price drops.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Two evenings with Sony Computer Entertainment!
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
Your comment that HDMI provides very little advantage indicates that you don't understand about HDCP. If the PS3 didn't have HDMI and only had component, there would be no BlueRay because there would be no Protected Video Path. Google HDCP and get a handle on the HDCP spec and how high definition video content is not allowed over component video hardware witout down-sampling.
I'm slightly disappointed to hear that nothing was said or even mentioned about a more lenient stance on psp home brew which i have been trying to get into since the beginning but can't for various reasons.. (namely my idiot friend upgrading my psp firmware)
Even though it would most likely never happen, it would be good to see some backing from Sony on this issue
BTW, I forgot to mention that despite that BC issue, Europeans won't get the 20 GB option either. And the prices? Even bigger than in the USA...
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
sony said Blu-ray wasn't cracked
*puts fingers in ears*
"i dont hear you hackers lalalalalalalala!"
way to sugar coat a story btw..
also.. this q&a session didnt touch the fact that, at least in my region, sony has halted ALL ps2 sales in their vane attempt to push the 5 dusty ps3's off the shelves.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
actually i have quit swg around 1.5 years ago, having created a major guild in eclipse with one of my friends, and initial members, set up a major city together (Freedom City), and got the maximum of 'rebel' sentiment as much as can be get from the game.
some people are so much star wars fans that they STILL continue, hoping that someday lucas will intervene and set matters right or hand it over to someone else than sony to do it.
Read radical news here
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Although Sony has made a few mistakes in it's public relations, one can't help but wonder if Microsoft has a hand with all the hate that is going on towards Sony. Microsoft has prior experience in creating FUD towards it's competitors, and in the fanboy culture of gaming, this has never been easier.
Microsoft's fanboy conversion rate is very high. Although there are some valid criticisms regarding the PS3, much of the same criticisms can be applied towards Microsoft.
For instance, the cost of the XBox 360 when WiFi and HD-DVD, and online gaming are added, is far greater than the cost of the high-end PS3. Sure you might like the modular approach, but the fact is, quite a significant portion of gamers use the online service, and use WiFi. If you add those two components, the XBox 360 costs over $100 more than the PS3 over 4 years. Add the HD-DVD player, and it costs $300. If the PS3 is prohibitively expensive, than the XBox 360 is more so, notably for online gamers who don't want to punch holes in their walls or ceilings.
Sony's business practices have been terrible in the past, but Microsoft's has been even worse. At least Sony is starting to embrace open standards, and we need to encourage that sort of thinking by buying their open products. The PS3 includes support for any USB webcam, or headphones, accepts flash cards other than Memory Stick, allows you to install other OS'es.. you can tell much of the machine was made by people who "get it".
Instead of arguing logical points, fanboys have been ranting over just about everything, even though some can be directed towards Microsoft, and some are just trivial in nature. For instance, Zonk ranted against Sony about long lineups at stores, and how people paid homeless people to buy a PS3. It's gotten to that point where logic no longer applies, and it's a mob mentality that's taken control of XBox gamers everywhere.
If you're getting paid by Microsoft, either in the form of advertising, laptops, or cash, then good for you, at least you're doing it for sound reasons. But if you're bashing Sony for everything they do, posting snide remarks under every Sony story, then you should ask yourself if you've been infected by Microsoft's viral campaign.
They're a company. Thats all companies do care about. Nintendo and Microsoft are the same. And typically, you make money by making a good product. Thus they're interested in making a good product to make money.
Thank you for not shooting me (the messenger). I recently bought a large display for my computer because my eyes aren't soo good. The display happened to have HDMI with HDCP. I was lucky because I didn't fully understand the issues when I bought it. Then I bought the PS3 because I wanted to program it with Linux and utilize the multiple cores for an embedded application. As a matter of course, I happened to buy several BlueRay titles, and they are lovely. I am not very happy about the HDCP protection of BlueRay titles, but I lucked into a working combination of hardware. If you happen to own a compliant display, the PS3 is a fun choice for console, Linux computer, and BlueRay player. The whole HDCP thing is a fiasco and it is much worse for PCs wanting to play BlueRay media. Not only do you need a compliant display, but the current breed of video cards don't have encryption chips on board, and can't do the job. Google for "HDCP Fiasco" to read more about it. Cheers, Doug.
So far they've tried telling me I should be happy to give them $650+ USD for a worthless product (leaving BluRay out of this, they're talking about it in the sense it's a game system) that's only assisted by crappy, arrogant interviews that produce asinine hubris-tainted quotations.
In short, Sony is telling me as a customer that I should reward them for being complete and total dicks to me. It does not matter what they're like in person, that is the image they're sending me as a customer.
Sorry Sony I think I'll stick with Nintendo and MS who at least don't fail too often on these prior points and, at the VERY least, not all at once when they do screw up.
"Just a fox, a whisper."
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They're a company. Thats all companies do care about
The problem with your statement is that corporations/companies are run by humans, not robots. It's far cheaper (profitable) to send executives on commercial airlines, and yet we see almost all major companies flying their execs around in private jets. I would posit that most executives run their companies out of self-interest rather than some lofty ambition to maximize profits.
For the guys out there that have gone up in the ranks and achieved astounding financial success, the next step is to boost their own ego by being seen as "a good citizen." Some CEOs use their companies as extensions of their own charitable intentions, securing personal satisfaction from giving out millions and getting a front seat at the Red Cross Annual giving awards. Many publicly held companies give far more than they need to secure public goodwill.
Milton Friedman wrote a famous article deriding corporate leadership for giving too much to charity, claiming "the business of business is business." His point was that public corporations should give money to the shareholders, who then get to decide how to spend their money.
Then, you always have the oddball company that is not privately held and does "profit-irresponsible" things. Bosch Gmbh, with $50 billion a year in revenues (auto parts, primarily), was set up as a charitable entity and gives 96% of shareholder dividends to charity. Privately held companies have no responsibility to do whatever the hell they want, and their actions primarily depends on the mood of the founder or owner.
I would propose that the folks who work at Nintendo would rank making good games above being profitable. Doing well-enough financially allows them to keep their jobs and keep doing what they're passionate about.
The avatars can never touch each other. Everyone will have their personal space that is never ever violated.
/wave from a foot away.
How sterile. In order to dissuade people from having sex, even shaking hands is forbidden.
I don't think this will help people do business, as if I see a man on my screen that is a representation of my new client, I want my avatar to shake hands with him, not just
Did you ever get the feeling the story is too damn long and in the present tense?