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Sony Runs Out of 60GB PS3s
Next Generation has word from Sony that they've shipped all of their 60GB PlayStation 3s. They don't have any more in the warehouses; retailers still have ample stocks, though. From the article: "Once all of the remaining 60GB PS3s have been snapped up for $499 apiece, the only option left open to consumers will be to purchase the 80GB model, which currently retails for $100 more at $599. It has long been rumored that once all 60GB PS3 stock dries up, the 80GB will be subject to a price cut, but SCEA has failed to be drawn on the matter to date. 'We won't be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60GB model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated,' the company has said."
Many PS3 fans pitch the "won't talk about it until then" as proof that there will be a cut -- some suggest an 80GB unbundled for $449. Hard to say. A lot of people are arguing that Sony will definitely cut to $500 once the 60s are gone, but it's hard to say; I mean, you wouldn't expect them to have a PR stunt with a decapitated goat, but they did. So who can predict what madness Sony's sales people will think of? I'm sort of skeptical about a cut, just because the holiday season tends to boost sales, and they may not need a cut to keep systems moving.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Get 'em while they're ho-...errr...lukewarm!
Caffeine is my anti-drug!
Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
Holy shill alert, batman!
Given that the majority of PS2 owners purchased their console when it was NOT the most technologically advanced console out there, what makes you think that owning the most gigahurtzy console will be important to them this time around?
The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
Lair is getting some lukewarm reviews, and Heavenly Sword is as well. I'm a PS3 owner, and I'm looking forward to the games like UT3 and Haze more than the other games you list. I think they finally have enough in the pipeline that the system will be attractive to consumers this Christmas, but I think that UT3 is probably going to edge out Warhawk for Online GOTY. And I love Warhawk.
A week later an auditor is fired for not noticing that a majority of those shipments went to "warehouse corporation".
It's fairly likely that once the 60Gb is history that a "barebones" 80Gb model will replace it at the same price or possibly lower closer to Christmas. I'd expect they'll also revamp the "bundle" too in some way, e.g. throw Heavenly Sword or Lair into it to make it more up to date.
LOL. Yeah, right.
Here and here. Regardless, if you dry up on producing machines, I'm sure you'll eventually sell them.
import system.cool.Sig;
They managed to sell both of them?
Brand loyalty amongst gamers is the dumbest thing ever conceived. You miss out on so much by being "loyal" and by not delving into other systems that it makes you very much like the all-show-no-go crowd that emerged after The Fast and the Furious...
In other words, it makes you a fucking moron.
Living With a Nerd
How can you be so rose tinted about these games being released. Firstly the reason sony has run out of stocks now is because they've known how badly the console was selling and that there was not much demand. Secondlly for a game to be game of the year, you kinda have to wait till the end of the year, frankly if halo 3 comes out, that claim could very very easily be gone. Then of course you are listing games about to come out, and that about sums it up, 1 year after sony has finished it's console they're starting to release some good games. Finally, assuming 110 million consumers are going to buy the new console just because they bought the previous product is absolute crap, yes, maybe after 7 years (that's how long the PS2 has been out) maybe THEN sony will have near that number of customers, but last generation there was much less competition so its unlikely.
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the 80GB model isn't getting a price cut, even when the 60GBs are gone. Sony has a pretty good lineup coming up, and they stand to lose a lot in the short term if people buy reduced-price PS3s but only one or two games.
On the other hand, they might want to get Blu-ray players into as many homes as possible, given the recent adoption of HD-DVD by many film studios- even if it means absorbing a big short-term loss. They know PS3s will move once their AAA titles start coming out, so there isn't much motivation for a price cut now, game-wise.
Overall, I think the PS3 is just too speculative for most consumers. The price in and of itself isn't the major concern, (people will spend hundreds of dollars on home entertainment) but rather questions like "Will Blu-ray become the de-facto HD format?", "How many price cuts will occur between now and when the games I want are released?", and even "Are AAA titles eventually going to be ported to 360 or PC?"
Actually, it makes me $600 richer and no worse for the wear.
I have every Nintendo system since the NES, and a decent library of games for every system since the SNES. I'm fairly certain that there will be games I want to play on ${CurrentNintendoSystem} and that this statement will be as true 10 years from now as it was 20 years ago and every year in between. Why should I buy a Sony system?
Now, that's not to say that I won't buy a Sony system. I have a PSX and a PS2. I bought the PSX when FF8 wouldn't work in emulation. I bought the PS2 for Guitar Hero. I have half a dozen games for each (a paltry sum compared to my dozens of games for each Nintendo system). I haven't missed out on much by delaying these purchases, and in fact, I've saved a bit of money. The PSX was under $100 brand new, and the PS2 was about $130 brand new. No used stuff (questionable maintenance and possible abuse = no thanks). Compare that to the $300 price tag on those systems when they were new... Yeah. Saved a bundle.
That's not moronic. It's selective and fiscally responsible.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Looking at the price difference between 60GB and 80GB 2.5" HDDs, the $100 more for the larger disk strikes me as very close to theft.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I think you misunderstood me...I was referring more to the people who own consoles from ONLY one brand because it is "better" than the rest and the rest "suck".
Timing has nothing to do with it...I fully agree with you, waiting is indeed a very smart path to choose. But when people have the "all gaming systems/companies but this one suck" mentality....that's what I was referring to.
Living With a Nerd
Brand loyalty amongst gamers is the dumbest thing ever conceived. You miss out on so much by being "loyal" and by not delving into other systems that it makes you very much like the all-show-no-go crowd that emerged after The Fast and the Furious...
In other words, it makes you a fucking moron.
ie. Rabid Fanboyism.
Remember them, the ones who started slagging the 360 right away, then the wii before launch, and then the ps3 right now. The success or failure of a Companies console doesn't really determine the size of your penis. So taking any of it as seriously as people here have tends to diminish the human race as a whole.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Is it just me or does this look like a 'panic buy' tactic? There's still no way I'm shelling out £350+ even for the 60GB model.
I'm sorry, but games drive console sales, not brand names. The number of consoles currently in the marketplace drive the platforms that developers target. You only need to look at what the CEO of EA said to realize that. When you have the top dog of the single largest game publisher coming straight out and saying that your console was the "wrong horse," you are in some serious trouble.
The PS2 was a huge hit because they got to market early and were able to get a snowball effect going. Developers targeted the PS2 because it was the most widely-sold console, and that in turn drove additional console sales. The PS3 will not come anywhere close to experiencing that level of success. It appeared too late, it cost too much, and they've been bleeding third-party exclusive titles at a phenomenal rate as a result. They're experiencing a slight uptick in sales thanks to the (maybe temporary) price cut, but the only numbers developers and publishers are looking at are total number of consoles sold, and the weekly numbers are only a drop in the bucket compared to those totals.
Thanks to http://vgchartz.com/, we know that there are 10.5 million 360s, 10.5 willion Wiis, and only 4.3 million PS3s sold worldwide. What 3rd-party developer in their right mind is going to drop serious money on developing a AAA title if they can only sell it to 17% of the next-gen market? Without exclusive AAA third-party titles, there's pretty much no chance of a major increase in the rate of PS3 console sales. You only have to look at Nintendo's experience with the GameCube to realize that all the first-party titles in the world just aren't enough to get the job done.
As for Microsoft "flunking" in Europe, the weekly numbers may look a little rosy (or at least not dismal) for the PS3, but the 360 is still the most widely sold console in the "other" (i.e. not North America or Japan) category by a fair margin at 3.3 million, which is mostly Europe. The Wii is second with 2.8 million, and the PS3 hardly even rates with 1.3 million. The PS3 outsold the 360 by a whole 6000 units in Europe for the week ending August 19th. That's simply nowhere close to enough to erase the 2 million lead the 360 has. At a rate of 6000 more consoles sold per week, it would take the PS3 seven years to catch the 360 in Europe. For the same week though, the Wii stomped them both, selling almost twice as much as the 360 and PS3 combined.
As for Japan, MS completely botched the 360 marketing plan there, without question. You can Google for Japanese reactions to the 360's "Do Do Do" campaign, if you'd like a laugh. However, while the 360's failure to crack the Japanese market is bad news for MS, it isn't automatically good news for Sony. Japan was supposed to be Sony's stronghold, and look at the Japanese sales numbers: 3.4 million units for the Wii, and only 1.1 million for the PS3. Even in their own backyard, Sony is getting their asses handed to them.
"It should be obvious where all of those former PS2 users are going to end up over the next five years."
Yes, it is obvious to me, though apparently not to you: wherever the games are. Where are the games going to appear? This is also obvious: on whatever consoles are most common. Whether that's more frequently the 360 or the Wii depends on how things shake out this Xmas, but at this point the PS3 is simply too far behind to have much hope of making a comeback.
I don't even think the 360 has a chance now. If the Wii can sell more consoles in 9 months than the 360 can sell in a year and a half, the 360's toast. The Wii, not the 360, is getting the large market of Japanese developers -- who are disproportionately relevant to American sales, even though the Japanese market is smaller.
The 360, I think, can reasonably hope for a comfortable and clearly successful second place. I don't think it can hope to come out on top this year; the only reason it has any chance of even staying reasonably close is that Nintendo simply can't possibly meet demand until sometime in 2008.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
You know what sickens me about people like you? You aren't a gamer. Oh sure, you may spend hours in front of a screen pressing buttons like the rest of us, but your mentality makes you something of a 4 year old throwing a temper tantrum about nothing.
Stop being so "loyal" to one company. I mean, first off the company you chose to be loyal to shut down Lik-Sang...I may love their consoles, but that move alone made me despise Sony through and through. Secondly, the "stupid" Wii and "crappy" 360 have some fantastic games for them that you can't play anywhere else.
In fact, you might not know this, but when you buy systems from different console manufacturers, you actually have access to *gasp* MORE GAMES. Go figure, eh?
So do us all a favour, stop being a fucking idiot, and play as many different games you can on as many different systems you can. Who knows, you may suprise yourself and transform from a "rabid fanboy" to an actual "gamer".
Living With a Nerd
I was referring more to the people who own consoles from ONLY one brand because it is "better" than the rest and the rest "suck".
Most of these people are mentally 14 years old, if not physically. That kind of mentality is immature and stupid.
i expect to see a new low-end model hit the shelves in the next couple of months. i'm guessing a $450 20gb model. it doesn't make sense to slash the 60gb prices and just discontinue it. they had to sell them off, and who would dole out $500 when they know a cheaper model is just around the corner. as whack as sony seems, i think they just may know what they are doing. with the hd wars leaning in favor of blu-ray, i think the ps3 is gonna start to make a huge comeback in the console war
FOXTROT UNIFORM CHARLIE KILO
Also as a reminder for those sitting on the fence, I believe this will be the last model with hardware support for PS/PS2 titles. The 80GB and on have software emulation.
What about the "all gaming systems/companies suck" mentality?
I find it saves quite a bit of money by not buying any of them.
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys" P. J. O'Rourke
And time, too. But then you have to do something else with all that time you have laying around, and that can be a PITA, or worse, boring.
I'll stick with buying games I like.
Brand loyalty isn't so bad, I think you are lashing against the Rabbid Fanboyism though which is (I agree) quite dumb. Brand Loyalty however could get people to cross platforms and "blur the lines" of Fanboy-hood.
Let's say you really like Final Fantasy... Which system should you buy? Some would say the PS2 and others the DS.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
The thing is, and I don't think I stated it clearly, I'm one of those "fanboys" that buys Nintendo no-matter-what and hates Sega/Sony/MS/et al. You'll notice that I tried emulation before actually buying a PSX... And it took something as thorougly awesome as Guitar Hero (actualy, GH2!) to get me to buy a PS2... No Xboxen for me yet. Besides, the middle-school-level pissing matches are almost as fun as the games.
My SNES can beat your Genesis any day because it can display 32767 colors and the Genesissy can only display 512! My N64 can destroy your Playstation because it has z-buffering and anti-aliasing and tri-linear mipmap interpolation and the Praystation only has grainy crap! My Gamecube is better than your PS2... because it is! My Wii ownz your Xbox360 because the ladies love playing with my Wii!
I almost punched a kid in high school over one of these arguments (SNES vs. Genesis, back then). Good times... Fortunately, I'm 27 now, completely secure in my fanboyism, and don't have much time to get into immature arguments anymore.
Look, I can understand having a favourite or whatever...but as a gamer, you really are doing yourself a major disservice by limiting yourself to Nintendo-only products...
I mean, do whatever you want, not my place to tell you what to do...I'm just saying, you are missing out on a LOT by not going past Nintendo.
Living With a Nerd
The wii and the 360 are apples and oranges. The 360 and the ps3 are oranges and oranges. Lots of people own both a Wii and one of the other two systems, but you'll find very few who have a 360 and a PS3, because theres a lot of redundancy there. The wii, however is unique enough to be worth owning for anyone who can possibly afford to have two consoles. And by the same token, it's worth having a 360 in addition to the Wii if you're at all interested in "gamer" games. Just because nintendo has managed to break out of the industry's rut and appeal to the non-gamer crowd doesn't mean that there isn't still plenty of money to be made in the tried-and-true rut. The rut, after all, is where the every system other up until now has made plenty of money. There are an awful lot of outstanding games that are available on the 360 and/or PS3 that aren't going to be available on the Wii. Assassin's Creed and Bio Shock come to mind. As innovative and fresh as the Wii is, there are a lot of games that appeal to a lot of people that the Wii isn't really suited for. There's still a market for traditional (and more powerful) consoles. That's what Sony and Microsoft are fighting over, and Sony is unquestionably losing.
>>I'm sorry, but games drive console sales, not brand names.
I just bought a PS3. Not because there's a title I want to play on it (there's not), but because Sony offered a $150 discount to anyone who signs up for the Sony Style credit card (which will be promptly cancelled when the refund comes in) at the same time, and because they offered $100 of blue-ray movies for free. If you pick up the 60GB at 100$ or the 80GB with a 50$ game for free (Motorstorm), you're looking at a total 'cost' of $250-$300. Which was finally the right ballpark for me to buy a PS3. You can google for the offer.
I wanted to see what FF12 and some of the other PS2 games looked at in higher resolution (the 1.8 patch for the PS3 enabled this, which was a big selling point to me), and wanted a blue-ray player. Everything else (like all the Media Center and WebTVish crap) was just extras on top. I'll probably pick up Little Big Planet when it comes out.
I dunno. I went PS3 in the PS360 debate, simply because the hardware's more impressive, I want to play with Linux on Cell, and I don't really want to send my box in three times a year for repairs. ... Of course, I may be atypical.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
When those comments were made at E3 Live was still a closed system. MS announced their Xbox Live Silver Program which allows 3rd party companies to maintain, manage and update from their own servers rather than from MS. When asked if that would allow a company like Epic to allow PC to 360 maps and level editors it was stated that that was indeed one of the reasons for the new service.
I've read these reports over the last couple of days. I have been waiting and delaying the idea of getting a PS3 because lack of compelling games and my own lack of HDTV to play it on. With this news, I was beginning to worry about spending the cash now to pick up a 60GB unit with the included Emotion Engine (EE) hardware support for true backwards compatibility. I have a lot of PS1 and PS2 games I want to make sure work properly.
Then it occurred to me... I already have a machine which works with my regular old TV set and plays all my PS1 and PS2 games perfectly: my PS2. And if I want a wireless control with missing rumble action... well, I already have a 3rd party wireless controller with that (lack of) feature.
Realizing that Sony has a good chance of coming in a distant third for this generation's console race and that software studios are focusing on Xbox360 and Wii (with those systems' easier development tools) there really is no point to bothering with PS3. All the 'good' games are coming out on Xbox360 anyway. The stomach pangs of losing out on the hardware EE support simply went away with the realization that PS3 is already finished in the market. I'll simply keep my PS2 for awhile longer at no additional cost.
{ - Generic Guy - }
Halo 3 comes out on Sept. 25th and historically when a huge, potentially system-selling games come out competitors do something to combat the hype. My guess is that Sony will either drop the price, make some kind of software bundle or do both.
Exactly my point as well! It's not about the games being out, its about the excitement in anticipation of their release!
I actually switched camps when the Dreamcast went belly up. I followed Sonic to the Gamecube and found a new home. MS doesn't have any good E rated game (except maybe Viva Piñata, but even that's coming to the DS). Sony is trying to be Microsoft. With all of the reasons I bought my non-Nintendo systems coming to the Wii/DS, why should I buy anything else? Plus I can play all of my Genesis games thanks to the Wii having blast processing. (or at least emulating the hy-- feature).
Why? You know it doesn't act any different from linux on a x86, or linux on a ppc.
I'm a gamer and I have a degree in computer science and a job working for Bechtel. In fact, gaming is the reason I obtained a degree in C.S. I think the biggest issue I have, however, is that you're criticizing gamers in a gamer's forum. Sad that you sink so low for attention.
In fairness to the fanbois, they really did think that the PS2 was the HW king last gen; some of them still do. So in their minds history is just going to repeat itself.
Bechtel... Wow. People call Sony evil... That's a whole different league there.
It does if you install the Cell SDK.
Okay... what?
HW... Homework? Heavy Wieners? Hillbilly Wraiths?
Wait, what was the PS2 the king of, last generation?
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Just a comment...
FF8 didn't need emulation. It had a PC version that worked great (except for some minor synthesizer differences). I can still remember... it was one of the first RPGs I ever played (I didn't start gaming until I was in college). Now FF9 required emulation... and emulate it did, perfectly.
I didn't buy a PS2 until I wanted to play FFX... and boy what a lame excuse for buying a console THAT was! Oh well, about 20 titles later, it was worth it.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Um, it's good that lik-sang was shut down. Microsoft and Nintendo sued them too, you know. Because that company existed largely to help people copy games... which meant lower paid game programmers and less games out there.
You seem to think you are a "gamer" as though that's some sort of honor. I love games too, and if you really enjoy this artform, you would want people who are willing to harm it for a quick buck to be stopped.
Sony is annoying sometimes. That rootkit was bad (but they paid for it and it's over) and their marketing is arrogant and embarrassingly bad. You seem to think people can't be loyal to a company that provided them with great games and consoles (the two most popular ever, by a huge factor). Those hundreds of millions may not represent gamers to you, but that just makes you crazy.
Your crazed hatred of Sony makes you some kind of nut. Their produt isn't that compelling. Just don't buy it then, no need to be so aggressively threatened by it!
And fuck lik-sang.
Seriously. This smells so badly of Sony marketing that I think it needs looking into.
I could be totally wrong. But a brand-new account that reads like astro-turf. This is exactly the type of embarrassing PR technique Sony is quickly becoming known for.
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
The PS@ was the king of hardware. Yep, I said it. It had the best hardware design. It was easy to make a shitload of those fuckers efficiently, so the price plummeted.
PS2 is the king of all video game systems of all generations. No NES or SNES can approach it. Only the Gameboy and the PSone are in the same ballpark. It brought more people into gaming than any other system, and it did it with games (and shit competition from Nintendo and Microsoft). It was cheap enough for just about any bored young man. Sony knows how to make a bunch of cheap hardware, and I have little doubt that their playbook calls for a cheap PS4 for the masses and they understand all the whines about how bloated and expensive the PS3 is. This round is about the billions of dollars they (think they can) earn from blueray.
PS2 was the king of game variety. The wii will suffer with PS2 ports for its entire lifecycle (but the wii rocks anyway).
The parent was explaining that make "fanbois" bought into the emotion engine hype and that Saddam export story and thought the PS2 was some kind of supercomputer bargain. I was shocked when it turned out that the Cell was actually genuinely impressive after so many fell for the exact same line for the EE. And yeah, it is hard for me to believe that the Gamecube was more powerful than the PS2, though it objectively was (but it's hard to believe that the Wii is more powerful than the PS2, if you just look at a few good games on each system).
to be fair, most of those PS2 owners are just going to stick to their PS2s.
Or if they are poor, they might get a wii (some will anyway, though the wii doesn't have the games to really be compared with the PS2 yet).
But the PS2 is the best system for people with a normal TV and a budget. It's going to be the twenty year system.
Living With a Nerd
Brand loyalty is awesome. Sure, Chevy makes an ok car right now, but I buy Honda because they have never let me down.
Lots of people liked what Sony gave them for the past many years. If they want to reward that satisfaction, that seems pretty sound.
Sony will have to get the games, of course, but barring that, they will be tougher to beat than many believe. They have gone far upmarket from PS2, so that will cost them a ton of people (but I don't see most of those going to the XBOX, but rather staying with the PS2 for a long time).
That guy who always buys nintendo because he has always loved what they gave him can be called "rapid fanoy" I guess, but he's happy and you are mad enough to schreech "fucking moron", so it seems he comes out the winner in this situation (switch any console or product and this applies).
I understand why you're pissed. It's amazing how angry people are about products they don't own. But it's cool to like companies like Sony (and samsung and apple and the like). Those companies take huge risks with billions of dollars hoping that their stuff will be so cool it takes off. The result is a cool world. Personally, I really like Sony type companies for that attitude.
I know that there was a slashdot story that left out the vast majority of sales to give people the impression that the XBOX 360 is still outselling the PS3, but it's not. It's actually selling about half as many.
When you don't include qualifiers, you are implicitly saying "in the entire world" and Sony is dramatically improving their run at second place. But you are right that Sony is too far upmarket to "Win" anything but billions upon billions of dollars. The worst and best thing about the PS3 is that it is tied to bluray. It will certainly break even on its own (you'd have to be a total nut not to grant this is obvious). With bluray, it's going to make a ton of money.
I don't understand your tone. You say things like "its embarrassing" as though PS3 owner's souls are tied to this machine somehow. It's already got a small number of good games and it's got some interesting capabilities. My daughter uses it as her personal computer. Why should I care if the XBOX is more successful (if I didn't own one myself)? $600 for a toy I use often for five years is a great deal! It's over? Maybe for some Sony exec who made a ridiculous promise of domination, but that's just not important to normal people.
Remember also, the PS3 has the farthest to fall in price. What happens in three or four years? Many people really do see the PS3 as a luxury item, and if it were $350 in a few years, that thing would sell fine. Would the next XBOX be able to steal the thunder? I expect they will be serving different markets.
Good morning Sony marketing departement, already awake from your office slumber?
Jepp funny thing is that most of the PS2 buyers were late adapters, or replacement consoles.
Lets face it the PS2 might have sold 110 mio but in reality the number of owners worldwide is more along the lines of 40 mio due to lots of ps2s having broken over time and being rebought. Most of them definitely wont move to the PS3 for the forseeable future, due to its price some of them might move to the Wii and some to the XBox.
I am not a sony hater, I have a psp but this marketing troll definitely has a blurred vision of reality.
I have to wonder why you'd bother reading a story in the games section. I also wonder as to your feeling when you posted that. Was there a hint of smug self-satisfaction going on? Did you feel like a superior geek?
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
I don't know how much money you make, but you seem to be mistaking fanboyism for something I like to call "a budget". Not everyone can afford to spend $599 on a PS3, $499 on a 360, and $300 on a Wii. That's $1400 freaking dollars - I can feed and house my family for almost two months on that. Not to mention the cost getting games for each of those systems. A few years ago when I was a student I would be lucky to even buy *ONE* of these systems, considering the $299 Wii price is my food for 3 months. No, most people can only afford one game system. So, whichever one you chose (if you can get any at all), you're stuck with it, for at least 2-3 years.
Heh... "Blast Processing" wasn't hype, nor was it a feature. It was just Sega's fancy marketing-drivel name for double buffering. Everything up to that point on consoles had just used ultra-fast vblank blitters and DMA. Sonic would get all kinds of nasty image tearing and artifacts if they did that, so they "invented" double buffering for that game. Then marketing spun it (as marketing is wont to do) and it became a bullet point for the fanboys to argue over.
I had Connectix Virtual Game Station for the Mac (OS 9, not X!). They finally updated the emulation core for it to work with FF8, but it took them a while, and I had bought the real PSX by the time that patch was released. Then they discontinued CVGS.
Don't bother. It's pretty obvious at this point that Sony has planted people like 'G Fab' to try to improve the Sony image. Good luck with that though. I, like many other people, have decided to permanently avoid them.
"This round is about the billions of dollars they (think they can) earn from blueray."
So they're essentially abusing their customers with an unreasonable price to prop up their media branch. That seems like a great reason to give them $600.
"it is hard for me to believe that the Gamecube was more powerful than the PS2, though it objectively was (but it's hard to believe that the Wii is more powerful than the PS2, if you just look at a few good games on each system)."
Are you an irrational fanboy or a paid plant? It has to be one or the other because no one can deny that the PS2 looks like crap compared to the gamecube or xbox. As with everything, there are exceptions. GoW, Ico, etc are all beautiful and quite entertaining. These are NOT the norm though. If you compared any multi platform game from the last generation, it was pretty obvious that the PS2 had the worst hardware.
I find that books do a great job at filling in that time. They tend to be cheaper than games, and a lot of them are contained at these large buildings called 'libraries' that will let you borrow them for free.
Also, since I have a PC anyway, PC gaming works.
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys" P. J. O'Rourke
Because I enjoy reading about technology, even if I'll never use it. I also like to keep up with office talk, and a lot of it is based on games.
Oh, all of that. Plus this joyful anticipation of people's response.
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys" P. J. O'Rourke
Ahhh, that's right. At the time, I had a PC (I'm back to Mac now), so I was in the clear. Eventually, I've heard that Mac PS1 and N64 emulation became better than PC emulation... though I haven't needed to try it out, now that I own a PS2 and Wii.
Anyway, yeah, that makes sense.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
I can sorta understand what you're saying. But I don't think it's "hardware" that you're talking about, so much as an overall strategy. And I agree, it was one of the best campaigns (marketing along with infrastructure and hardware development) in the history of gaming. But strictly in the hardware sense, it's really hard to make a case for the PS2s superiority.
If you want to talk about the cheapest hardware, the GCN was MUCH cheaper to manufacture (and the price reflected it). In power and graphical prowess, both the GCN and the XBox were superior in every way. Even the claim of having more polygons than the GCN has since been proven false... and don't even start on the subject of lighting and texture management.
Nintendo's biggest problem with the GCN was actually the N64. Consoles sales are often dictated, largely, by how popular the previous system was. The N64 made a lot of enemies, with Nintendo alienating 3rd parties left and right, and Sony offering an overall much better game plan. The GCN, however, was actually quite a good system, and I think that's reflected in how well the Wii is doing: GCN may have not sold many units, but it put Nintendo back on the map in terms of being a great gaming company that weren't out to asshole 3rd parties. I think you can owe a lot of the Wii's success to the reception of the GCN. Few people hate the GCN... it's a pretty well-liked system, even though it did sell very well.
The XBox simply brought over the PC gaming crowd, which was most of its fanbase. Microsoft was very successfull in doing this, and was able to practically tie Nintendo for 2nd place, worldwide, and set itself up for a strong 1st or 2nd place in the next generation.
In actuality, last gen was a great generation for all three companies, in different ways. For Sony, it made them a lot of money, and allowed them to release great titles that kept people buying their products. For Nintendo and Microsoft, it ensured their success in the next generation.
Too bad Sony so royally fucked up this gen, huh? We won't be seeing another PS2 for A LONG TIME. Oh well, it's probably better to have a more even race. Head-to-head competition often brings out the best in an industry.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Motorstorm = 60$. 80gig $41
41 + 60 = 101.
You save $1 buying the 80 gig, motorstorm bundle. Well, using your numbers.
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
Sony themselves make few things I would like to play. Microsoft themselves make basically nothing I would care to play. Nintendo makes quite a few things I enjoy playing. I don't much care for graphical superiority, I have a PC for that.
Now, which console should I buy? Well, at this point, Microsoft has few things that interest me on their offering, Sony has absolutely nothing that interests me on their offering, and Nintendo has a few things, a cheaper price, and the guaranteed promise of franchises I enjoy, some this year. Plus, perhaps Nintendo will win and the great mass of non-first party devs will make games for their platform.
Seems like an easy decision, doesn't it?
There remains, to this day, absolutely no reason to buy a PS3 as a gaming console... so I'd argue that those who buy / have bought it are the "fucking morons." Now, when the value proposition changes, I will probably pick one up.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
yeah, they are absolutely abusing their customers. The PS3 is basically like giving Sony a gift, and it's not a very cost effecgtive purchase.
Why do people ask these questions? are you being sarcastic? Perhaps you thought I love Sony or something. I do like Sony type companies, but they can just as well be apple or nintendo for all I care.
The PS2 is and will probably be for decandes the peak of success in this industry. Stating that banal fact does not a fanboy make.