The blog makes it sound like only show attendees may be able to apply for this. I don't see how they could offer it to the general public unless Toshiba was prepared to lose hundreds of millions in a last gasp bid to win the format war.
This is. Sony has not said, by any stretch of the imagination, that they intend on lowering the price of the 80gb model. They may do so, but we have no guarantee.
No, they haven't said it and it's easy to see why. If Sony came out and said an 80Gb unbundled modelwas appearing in a few weeks, would you go out and buy the 60Gb one on sale? No of course not.
I think it's fairly likely that once 60Gb goes that 80Gb will step right in to replace it. Maybe not the very day the 60Gb disappears from the shelves but soon. Sony are not going to end up back up at $600 for Christmas. They'll definitely have an unbundled console for $499 (or maybe less) and a bundle. They'll try to sweeten the bundle enough to get those who can afford it to buy it. You can imagine the sorts of things they could throw in a bundle to justify the $100 extra - rumble or an extra controller, a game, a blu ray disc, free PSN store credit, bluetooth headset, an HDMI cable and so on.
Nah, I think Sony are genuinely going to stick with the $499 price point. It's just they're not going to piss on sales of the 60Gb console by announcing what will replace it. Doing an "Osborne" on themselves wouldn't be too smart. I expect once the 60Gb consoles are gone you'll see an unbundled console on sale. They may sweeten the bundled version by including a rumble controller, or HDMI or some other trinkets to encourage people to pay more but I think it's fairly likely that $499 is here to stay.
what a great way to destroy all the good will they created by the price cut! But then again they say it's better to have loved and lost... or something like that.
Think about if for a second. Sony have a new 80Gb model and they have remaining stock of the 60Gb. Of course they're going to shift the 60Gb models first. That does not mean that when they've done with those consoles that the price goes straight back up. Instead an unbundled 80Gb console will step in at the same price to replace it. This should be obvious especially when Christmas is 5 months and counting. Whether Sony come out and say it or not is irrelevant - it's clearly going to happen. They probably aren't saying it because they have those 60Gb models to get rid of first.
Do people SERIOUSLY think Sony is going to hike the price up by $100 again? Of course they're not. They'll clear the 60Gb models out and then probably produce an unbundled version of the 80Gb model at the same price in time for Christmas.
Why am I not surprised that a bunch of slashdot nerds are on the defensive just because a project manager points out a couple of common project problems?
Defensive or just tired of seeing yet another medicine show promising to cure all ills with their wonder tonic?
Because he's a gaming legend, responsible for Civilization, Pirates & Railroad Tycoon amongst other things. I have no idea of his actual day to involvement in games that carry his name, but that's why it's there.
It certainly means a hell of a lot more about the quality of a game than Tom Clancy or (shudder) American McGee.
The SIXAXIS is compatible with your old games. Rumble or not it works just fine, which is not surprising as the controllers have a virtually identical layout. The PS3 does have a annoying habit asking you to push the Home button on the controller after you start a PS2 game but otherwise it just works. There are also adapters if you really want to use an old controller. I assume that if a rumble controller appears it will also support rumble in PS2 titles as well.
How can a game be a rip-off if it's created by the same people?
Go and read the background behind RedOctane and Harmonix. Lots of politics and contractual stuff going on but the upshot is that RedOctane produced the guitar peripheral and Harmonix wrote the software for it. Clearly the rights to the name and software were owned by RedOctane since Activision acquired them and now own the Guitar Hero brand. Harmonix have no rights to the brand at all, the software or to the controller. So they've have gone and produced a look-a-like copy of their own game with their own controllers. Whether they wrote the original software or not, the new title is clearly a rip-off.
One could add that even Guitar Hero is a rip-off because it wasn't the first guitar game at all. GuitarFreaks appeared in arcades way before.
The press already get a pile of perks. If they weren't at E3 they'd be still get their jollies to see "exclusive" looks at games, invites to other shows, invites launch parties at the Playboy mansion, goody bags full of merchandise and so on. That's not going to disappear even if E3 did.
Yes there are not as many games, yes it costs more - but for fucks sake it's a blu-ray player!
I think the PS3 is over its games hump. It took a long time coming but since about a month ago the schedule is pretty full and going to get more so.
People try and pooh pooh the Blu Ray angle but you're right. The PS3 is going to sell because it has a Blu Ray player, as well as being a pretty rounded media system. Once the PS3 gets downloadable movies too it will be a damned good system even if you never touched a game in your life.
Blu Ray is extremely important for games too. For Sony it means added copy protection. For gamers it means localized and region free gaming as well as more content.
Have you seen anything new lately? What's new about the 2 millionth first person shooter or the n-th RTS game? Or the "08" sequel of a sports game?
I disagree. There are plenty of amazing games. To take one example, LittleBigPlanet would be an amazing title to reveal at E3. An guaranteed game of show. Except of course it was revealed at the Sony GDC.
The same is true of most other titles. So what's the point of E3? Why should the press bother with all the expense and effort of covering an event that shows nothing new? Why should Microsoft, Sony & Nintendo spend a fortune when they have nothing interesting to say? Why should the public care when they are not even invited anymore? Yes there was some cool stuff and we'll probably see all sorts of hands-on videos soon enough but it seems like nobody has their heart in it any more.
These companies should save themselves a few million by just announcing their new shit through the normal marketing channels, TGS or their developer events.
I don't think Rock Band will change anything about the way people think about games. It's just a Guitar Hero ripoff which stretches the idea of accessories to cover other instruments. I'm sure it will find a lot of buyers, but it's not some revolutionary earthshaking paradigm or whatever. It's just another game that uses gimmick controllers to sell itself.
The sensor bar is a specific size and stays in one place.
The sensor bar does but the player doesn't. If I pause the game to go to the toilet I am not going to return and stand / sit in exactly the same position as when I left. If I get tired holding the zapper to my shoulder and put it down by my waist the accuracy is screwed. If I have to budge up the couch because someone else comes in the room the accuracy is screwed.
The Wii remote approximates where you are aiming from the sensor bar and the attitude of the remote (since there is no vertical bar). There is NO WAY that you can aim down the "barrel" and shoot where you are aiming. Even if you calibrated it perfectly and stood like a statue it is bound to be off by a bit. Aiming might be more accurate if there were horizontal and vertical strips on the TV but there aren't so the vertical aiming is likely to the thing that suffers most.
I think the reviews of this gadget will reflect this. People will believe you can aim down it like a gun which won't be true at all.
Aiming down the barrel won't work because the wii remote simply isn't accurate enough to do it. It might be more or less correct, but if you stand up or move, or if you hold the gun to your shoulder and sometimes hold it by your waste it will lose calibration. And even when calibrated it could still be off by a good margin depending on factors such as your distance from the set, position and so on. I bet games using the zapper still feature an onscreen crosshair.
It's meant to be 1/5th thinner or so which isn't much. I think more important is the weight reduction which means the new model is 2/3rds the weight of the old one. How they're chopping the weight I don't know, but probably by simplifying the UMD mechanism and possibly the battery as well. The Engadget screenshots suggest the slight bulge at the back that housed the battery has gone, meaning this may well be how they cut some of the weight & volume.
I was expecting something far more radical to be honest. It has some neat touches such as a video out, USB charging, and UMD caching, but it's more incremental than revolutionary.
No, it's just you. Virtually the entire focus of the presentation was on the PS3 and PSP. Sony were "grasping at straws" by showing off lots of games including some new ones, Home, a new PSP and plenty more besides.
Of the 3 presentations it was by far the most interesting.
The aiming might be close but iron sight perfect? No way. Even stepping to one side or shifting will screw it up, as would alternating holding it at your hip / shoulder.
If the conference is anything to go by, their strategy is to produce a continuous stream of add-ons. Gun "zappers", steering wheels, balance mats and so on. The wheel was just silly, the gun zapper wasn't much better since aiming down the barrel isn't going to work plus the awkward position of the nunchuk. I could see a mat that could weigh you and do other things having potential though.
There was precious little news in that conference. No indication of how multiplayer networking will be improved, no striking new games to talk about, just video montages of people raving about their Wii. The reveal of plastic steering wheel was its lowest point, reminding me of something you might get in a Happy Meal. The balancing pad looked as though it might have some fun uses though.
Why isn't Sony catering to people like me? I don't give a shit about the next gaming revolution, I want a centralized, versatile media center with stuff I can play with, listen to, watch, and hack.
The PS3 does that too. Either you can use the XMB to play / stream music & video or even run Linux if you like. Any Linux without any signed binary nonsense. You can already install Ubuntu, Yellow Dog Linux and Fedora Core. I'm surprised no one has produced a dist yet that jumps straight into MythTV for it.
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The blog makes it sound like only show attendees may be able to apply for this. I don't see how they could offer it to the general public unless Toshiba was prepared to lose hundreds of millions in a last gasp bid to win the format war.
No, they haven't said it and it's easy to see why. If Sony came out and said an 80Gb unbundled modelwas appearing in a few weeks, would you go out and buy the 60Gb one on sale? No of course not.
I think it's fairly likely that once 60Gb goes that 80Gb will step right in to replace it. Maybe not the very day the 60Gb disappears from the shelves but soon. Sony are not going to end up back up at $600 for Christmas. They'll definitely have an unbundled console for $499 (or maybe less) and a bundle. They'll try to sweeten the bundle enough to get those who can afford it to buy it. You can imagine the sorts of things they could throw in a bundle to justify the $100 extra - rumble or an extra controller, a game, a blu ray disc, free PSN store credit, bluetooth headset, an HDMI cable and so on.
Nah, I think Sony are genuinely going to stick with the $499 price point. It's just they're not going to piss on sales of the 60Gb console by announcing what will replace it. Doing an "Osborne" on themselves wouldn't be too smart. I expect once the 60Gb consoles are gone you'll see an unbundled console on sale. They may sweeten the bundled version by including a rumble controller, or HDMI or some other trinkets to encourage people to pay more but I think it's fairly likely that $499 is here to stay.
Think about if for a second. Sony have a new 80Gb model and they have remaining stock of the 60Gb. Of course they're going to shift the 60Gb models first. That does not mean that when they've done with those consoles that the price goes straight back up. Instead an unbundled 80Gb console will step in at the same price to replace it. This should be obvious especially when Christmas is 5 months and counting. Whether Sony come out and say it or not is irrelevant - it's clearly going to happen. They probably aren't saying it because they have those 60Gb models to get rid of first.
This story is simply someone spreading shit.
Defensive or just tired of seeing yet another medicine show promising to cure all ills with their wonder tonic?
It certainly means a hell of a lot more about the quality of a game than Tom Clancy or (shudder) American McGee.
The SIXAXIS is compatible with your old games. Rumble or not it works just fine, which is not surprising as the controllers have a virtually identical layout. The PS3 does have a annoying habit asking you to push the Home button on the controller after you start a PS2 game but otherwise it just works. There are also adapters if you really want to use an old controller. I assume that if a rumble controller appears it will also support rumble in PS2 titles as well.
Go and read the background behind RedOctane and Harmonix. Lots of politics and contractual stuff going on but the upshot is that RedOctane produced the guitar peripheral and Harmonix wrote the software for it. Clearly the rights to the name and software were owned by RedOctane since Activision acquired them and now own the Guitar Hero brand. Harmonix have no rights to the brand at all, the software or to the controller. So they've have gone and produced a look-a-like copy of their own game with their own controllers. Whether they wrote the original software or not, the new title is clearly a rip-off.
One could add that even Guitar Hero is a rip-off because it wasn't the first guitar game at all. GuitarFreaks appeared in arcades way before.
The press already get a pile of perks. If they weren't at E3 they'd be still get their jollies to see "exclusive" looks at games, invites to other shows, invites launch parties at the Playboy mansion, goody bags full of merchandise and so on. That's not going to disappear even if E3 did.
I think the PS3 is over its games hump. It took a long time coming but since about a month ago the schedule is pretty full and going to get more so.
People try and pooh pooh the Blu Ray angle but you're right. The PS3 is going to sell because it has a Blu Ray player, as well as being a pretty rounded media system. Once the PS3 gets downloadable movies too it will be a damned good system even if you never touched a game in your life.
Blu Ray is extremely important for games too. For Sony it means added copy protection. For gamers it means localized and region free gaming as well as more content.
I disagree. There are plenty of amazing games. To take one example, LittleBigPlanet would be an amazing title to reveal at E3. An guaranteed game of show. Except of course it was revealed at the Sony GDC.
The same is true of most other titles. So what's the point of E3? Why should the press bother with all the expense and effort of covering an event that shows nothing new? Why should Microsoft, Sony & Nintendo spend a fortune when they have nothing interesting to say? Why should the public care when they are not even invited anymore? Yes there was some cool stuff and we'll probably see all sorts of hands-on videos soon enough but it seems like nobody has their heart in it any more.
These companies should save themselves a few million by just announcing their new shit through the normal marketing channels, TGS or their developer events.
I don't think Rock Band will change anything about the way people think about games. It's just a Guitar Hero ripoff which stretches the idea of accessories to cover other instruments. I'm sure it will find a lot of buyers, but it's not some revolutionary earthshaking paradigm or whatever. It's just another game that uses gimmick controllers to sell itself.
The sensor bar does but the player doesn't. If I pause the game to go to the toilet I am not going to return and stand / sit in exactly the same position as when I left. If I get tired holding the zapper to my shoulder and put it down by my waist the accuracy is screwed. If I have to budge up the couch because someone else comes in the room the accuracy is screwed.
The Wii remote approximates where you are aiming from the sensor bar and the attitude of the remote (since there is no vertical bar). There is NO WAY that you can aim down the "barrel" and shoot where you are aiming. Even if you calibrated it perfectly and stood like a statue it is bound to be off by a bit. Aiming might be more accurate if there were horizontal and vertical strips on the TV but there aren't so the vertical aiming is likely to the thing that suffers most.
I think the reviews of this gadget will reflect this. People will believe you can aim down it like a gun which won't be true at all.
Aiming down the barrel won't work because the wii remote simply isn't accurate enough to do it. It might be more or less correct, but if you stand up or move, or if you hold the gun to your shoulder and sometimes hold it by your waste it will lose calibration. And even when calibrated it could still be off by a good margin depending on factors such as your distance from the set, position and so on. I bet games using the zapper still feature an onscreen crosshair.
I was expecting something far more radical to be honest. It has some neat touches such as a video out, USB charging, and UMD caching, but it's more incremental than revolutionary.
Of the 3 presentations it was by far the most interesting.
Well Harrison did demo that Echo Chrome thing which looks similar in concept - rotating Escher-esque views around to cover holes and so on.
The aiming might be close but iron sight perfect? No way. Even stepping to one side or shifting will screw it up, as would alternating holding it at your hip / shoulder.
Was Zonk around two years ago?
If the conference is anything to go by, their strategy is to produce a continuous stream of add-ons. Gun "zappers", steering wheels, balance mats and so on. The wheel was just silly, the gun zapper wasn't much better since aiming down the barrel isn't going to work plus the awkward position of the nunchuk. I could see a mat that could weigh you and do other things having potential though.
There was precious little news in that conference. No indication of how multiplayer networking will be improved, no striking new games to talk about, just video montages of people raving about their Wii. The reveal of plastic steering wheel was its lowest point, reminding me of something you might get in a Happy Meal. The balancing pad looked as though it might have some fun uses though.
The PS3 does that too. Either you can use the XMB to play / stream music & video or even run Linux if you like. Any Linux without any signed binary nonsense. You can already install Ubuntu, Yellow Dog Linux and Fedora Core. I'm surprised no one has produced a dist yet that jumps straight into MythTV for it.
What are you talking about? Even if future PS3s consolidate hardware, it does not break their ability to play existing PS3 titles.