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.
First of all, not everything that is a law is fair and just. If its an entirely legitimate law, then I say the law and the lawsuit are bullshit. There's nothing "grey" about importing that wasn't made up by huge powerful companies and forced into law.
Second, Lik-Sang's entire business is importing. If they're sued over importing, what exactly do they have left to fall back on? Its a no brainer that they would close up shop.
Third, they didn't show up for the legal preceedings because it was blindingly obvious that there was no way they would be able to defend against it, when they're being sued in practically every EU country.
Nintendo suing Lik-Sang doesn't make it right either.
In short, yes, it was bullshit. I'm not giving Sony a free pass because their PR team tries to spin it as a fair and just ruling.
We're not talking about demand, we're talking about price. Consoles sitting on shelves means demand roughly equals supply. Scarcity means that demand exceeds supply. Supply matching demand (consoles sitting on shelves) means that the price is greater than or equal to the optimal price. Try to keep up, moron.
Yes, thats what I remember. I don't ever recall Sony themselves calling it a supercomputer. I believe what happened was, there was some rumors about laws to ban exports to certain countries because people thought they would be used to fire missiles or some such nonsense.
Vaan and Panelo barely even talked in the game, other than short scenes with them goofing around with Larsa. You literally could have removed them from the game's plot with no trouble. Ashe was the main character, not Vaan. They had a couple things in there that hinted at Vaan actually being important, but they ditched them later in the plot.
I also didn't like how espers were worthless. I spent a lot of time building up, doing hunts, and trying to get espers. Finally, I just felt like it was worthless. I already had the best weapon in the game (Zodiac Spear), espers were worthless, and none of these quests were giving me anything usefull.
They could have condensed the game into 15 hours if they wanted to.
It does have a bearing because if you can find them on shelves, then clearly supply >= demand. If demand outstrips supply, then you have shortages where people are unable to find them, like with the Wii. It doesn't matter for our purposes if they're sitting there for a week or for a day. Since we can find them at any time, that means that supply >= demand, which means that, best case scenario, the Playstation 3 is exactly the price it should be. Worst-case scenario is that it needs to be cheaper.
Of course, this is simply using the 'ol econ 101 supply-demand curves, which don't account for things like fixed costs, manufacturing costs, etc. But for a Slashdot discussion it suffices.
Wasn't he being called a huge XBox fanboy just a little bit back? He was regularly accused of only posting anti-Sony pro-MS/pro-Nintendo stuff. Has he turned sides, or is he just calling them like he sees them?
My point is that I don't remember Sony ever saying that the PS2 was a supercomputer. I remember a lot of other people saying that, and a lot of it was ridiculous. They did quote the 55 million polys, but I don't recall them ever saying you can make a game with it. Yes, it was slimy in my opinion. And I was pretty sore about it because I was a big Dreamcast fan. It wasn't technically lying because I don't think they ever claimed you could make a full game with 55 million polys, just push that number out, but it was lying in my book, because Sony knew exactly what people would believe when they said that. I blame the consumers for being so gullible to believe it, and not being able to critically asses exactly what they were claiming.
No its not. PS3s are widely available on store shelves, so clearly supply at least meets demand. What this mean is that $600 is probably a good estimate of the value current consumers place on the system. If there were any inaccuracies, it would be that the system is too expensive, since obviously supply >= demand at this point (and lower demand = lower supply).
It really could push that many polys.... if the polys were untransformed, untextured polys, and you devoted 100% of the system to just pushing polys. I remember having Gamestop employees quoting figures of something like 50 million polys for me, and marvelling that people were falling for such obvious marketing crap. Same with the "more bits is better!!!" rage in the SNES days.
As far as overpromising, its not that they did that so much as massage the numbers. What they said was technically accurate. Like the 50 million poly figure. Sure it was accurate.... if you had polys with basically no processing, no sound running, no game logic running, etc.
A single PS2 didn't have supercomputer level of floating point performance. After all, a supercomputer built the same time as the PS2 could outperform my PC built 2 years ago, which definately outperforms the PS2. But there was at least one cluster project that used the Linux kit. I'm not sure what the exact performance of that was.
The claim of PS2 being a "supercomputer" was more about architecture, if I understand it correctly. In that it had some features of supercomputers, although not scaled to the same power. I believe the actual supercomputer claim, however, came from some wierd rumor that the US government was going to ban export of the system because they could be used as a supercomputer by terrorist nations. I don't think it came from Sony.
So basically, what I'm getting at is that Sony didn't really lie, iirc. They were simply creative with their figures. Which, in all honesty, isn't that rare of a thing in this industry.
I can't read the article, so I put this to Slashdotters who can: could this be another bad writeup? I mean, the government could be referring to wiretaps that occurred with valid due-process. I'm not sure about due-process in Sweden, but I'm assuming they have something analogous to warrants there. Or is it good-old US-style warrant-less wiretapping?
No, I loved Wind Waker's graphics. I just hated the game. The sailing aspect really killed it for me. I'd love to see a Wind Waker style Zelda game where travelling to dungeons didn't involve having to go through a huge song and dance (almost literally) just to turn around, and where you didn't have to choose between actually moving and fighting the enemies.
"Molyneux has done more than his fair share of overpromising," is a bit of an understatement. The man deserves a lifetime achievement award for overpromising and underdelivering. All of those features sound great, but they aren't anything that an RPG fan couldn't come up with in a heavy brainstorming session. The mark of a truly great game designer is the ability to make those pie-in-the-sky ideas a reality. And while Molyneux ends up making fun games, he's totally unable to realize the kinds of ideas he gives out in press conferences.
You say its hard not to take him seriously... I find it hard to take him seriously.
I got mine at a Toys R' Us, because I heard they were getting some in. I got there 30 minutes early, and they still had roughly 15 left by the time I had left. There were only a handful of people behind me, so I guess after the first wave left there must have been 10 or so left. Still quite a ways away from being widely available, but the demand is starting to approach supply levels. Given another two or so months, I'd expect to be able to find them on shelves.
In the meantime, if you really want one, find a bunch of stores in the area and make a habit of calling and figuring out when they get them in. Stores less frequented by gamers or the masses are better. Toys R' Us, Sams Club, etc.
I'm not seeing anything that indicates that the absense of Nintendo's message would cause another industry crash. I know people like to mourn the death of innovation here, but from my point of view the industry has just matured to the point where innovation comes in smaller steps or one-off games. There's plenty of innovation to be had, and Nintendo is just a part of that. Theres a lot of crap, but there's always been a lot of crap. Even back in the NES/SNES days.
Thats quite a leap... dissaproval of a Miyamoto speech + disgust at percieved Nintendo bias on Slashdot = Sony fanboy. Despite the caustic tone he takes in when criticizing the Nintendo worship, I've seen nothing that indicates he's a Sony fanboy.
Did they ever have one? Back in the pre-Wii days, I heard a lot of speculation on Wii being indy-friendly due to the low dev-kit cost, but I don't recall anything concerning an actual program. A quick Google search doesn't seem to turn up much.
Slashdot Mirror
He probably meant that its how long it would take their orbit to degrade to the point of re-entry.
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.
First of all, not everything that is a law is fair and just. If its an entirely legitimate law, then I say the law and the lawsuit are bullshit. There's nothing "grey" about importing that wasn't made up by huge powerful companies and forced into law.
Second, Lik-Sang's entire business is importing. If they're sued over importing, what exactly do they have left to fall back on? Its a no brainer that they would close up shop.
Third, they didn't show up for the legal preceedings because it was blindingly obvious that there was no way they would be able to defend against it, when they're being sued in practically every EU country.
Nintendo suing Lik-Sang doesn't make it right either.
In short, yes, it was bullshit. I'm not giving Sony a free pass because their PR team tries to spin it as a fair and just ruling.
We're not talking about demand, we're talking about price. Consoles sitting on shelves means demand roughly equals supply. Scarcity means that demand exceeds supply. Supply matching demand (consoles sitting on shelves) means that the price is greater than or equal to the optimal price. Try to keep up, moron.
Yes, thats what I remember. I don't ever recall Sony themselves calling it a supercomputer. I believe what happened was, there was some rumors about laws to ban exports to certain countries because people thought they would be used to fire missiles or some such nonsense.
The vitriol mainly revolves around the way Sony has been acting. Of course the price doesn't help either.
Vaan and Panelo barely even talked in the game, other than short scenes with them goofing around with Larsa. You literally could have removed them from the game's plot with no trouble. Ashe was the main character, not Vaan. They had a couple things in there that hinted at Vaan actually being important, but they ditched them later in the plot.
I also didn't like how espers were worthless. I spent a lot of time building up, doing hunts, and trying to get espers. Finally, I just felt like it was worthless. I already had the best weapon in the game (Zodiac Spear), espers were worthless, and none of these quests were giving me anything usefull.
They could have condensed the game into 15 hours if they wanted to.
It does have a bearing because if you can find them on shelves, then clearly supply >= demand. If demand outstrips supply, then you have shortages where people are unable to find them, like with the Wii. It doesn't matter for our purposes if they're sitting there for a week or for a day. Since we can find them at any time, that means that supply >= demand, which means that, best case scenario, the Playstation 3 is exactly the price it should be. Worst-case scenario is that it needs to be cheaper.
Of course, this is simply using the 'ol econ 101 supply-demand curves, which don't account for things like fixed costs, manufacturing costs, etc. But for a Slashdot discussion it suffices.
Just curious, if your company had a morose outlook on the product, then why spend so much time supporting it?
Lik-Sang was sued because they sold PSPs in Europe, not mod-chips. The lawsuits (plural) absolutely were bullshit.
Wasn't he being called a huge XBox fanboy just a little bit back? He was regularly accused of only posting anti-Sony pro-MS/pro-Nintendo stuff. Has he turned sides, or is he just calling them like he sees them?
I heard the same things about Second Life. I'll believe that it is going to become "huge" when I see it.
My point is that I don't remember Sony ever saying that the PS2 was a supercomputer. I remember a lot of other people saying that, and a lot of it was ridiculous. They did quote the 55 million polys, but I don't recall them ever saying you can make a game with it. Yes, it was slimy in my opinion. And I was pretty sore about it because I was a big Dreamcast fan. It wasn't technically lying because I don't think they ever claimed you could make a full game with 55 million polys, just push that number out, but it was lying in my book, because Sony knew exactly what people would believe when they said that. I blame the consumers for being so gullible to believe it, and not being able to critically asses exactly what they were claiming.
They're probably referring to the keys being discovered.
No its not. PS3s are widely available on store shelves, so clearly supply at least meets demand. What this mean is that $600 is probably a good estimate of the value current consumers place on the system. If there were any inaccuracies, it would be that the system is too expensive, since obviously supply >= demand at this point (and lower demand = lower supply).
It really could push that many polys.... if the polys were untransformed, untextured polys, and you devoted 100% of the system to just pushing polys. I remember having Gamestop employees quoting figures of something like 50 million polys for me, and marvelling that people were falling for such obvious marketing crap. Same with the "more bits is better!!!" rage in the SNES days.
You're taking hyperbole too literally.
As far as overpromising, its not that they did that so much as massage the numbers. What they said was technically accurate. Like the 50 million poly figure. Sure it was accurate.... if you had polys with basically no processing, no sound running, no game logic running, etc.
A single PS2 didn't have supercomputer level of floating point performance. After all, a supercomputer built the same time as the PS2 could outperform my PC built 2 years ago, which definately outperforms the PS2. But there was at least one cluster project that used the Linux kit. I'm not sure what the exact performance of that was.
The claim of PS2 being a "supercomputer" was more about architecture, if I understand it correctly. In that it had some features of supercomputers, although not scaled to the same power. I believe the actual supercomputer claim, however, came from some wierd rumor that the US government was going to ban export of the system because they could be used as a supercomputer by terrorist nations. I don't think it came from Sony.
So basically, what I'm getting at is that Sony didn't really lie, iirc. They were simply creative with their figures. Which, in all honesty, isn't that rare of a thing in this industry.
Option four: Be just as outraged at the Swedish government's wiretapping.
There's no need for there to be a logical inconsistency.
I can't read the article, so I put this to Slashdotters who can: could this be another bad writeup? I mean, the government could be referring to wiretaps that occurred with valid due-process. I'm not sure about due-process in Sweden, but I'm assuming they have something analogous to warrants there. Or is it good-old US-style warrant-less wiretapping?
No, I loved Wind Waker's graphics. I just hated the game. The sailing aspect really killed it for me. I'd love to see a Wind Waker style Zelda game where travelling to dungeons didn't involve having to go through a huge song and dance (almost literally) just to turn around, and where you didn't have to choose between actually moving and fighting the enemies.
"Molyneux has done more than his fair share of overpromising," is a bit of an understatement. The man deserves a lifetime achievement award for overpromising and underdelivering. All of those features sound great, but they aren't anything that an RPG fan couldn't come up with in a heavy brainstorming session. The mark of a truly great game designer is the ability to make those pie-in-the-sky ideas a reality. And while Molyneux ends up making fun games, he's totally unable to realize the kinds of ideas he gives out in press conferences.
You say its hard not to take him seriously... I find it hard to take him seriously.
I got mine at a Toys R' Us, because I heard they were getting some in. I got there 30 minutes early, and they still had roughly 15 left by the time I had left. There were only a handful of people behind me, so I guess after the first wave left there must have been 10 or so left. Still quite a ways away from being widely available, but the demand is starting to approach supply levels. Given another two or so months, I'd expect to be able to find them on shelves.
In the meantime, if you really want one, find a bunch of stores in the area and make a habit of calling and figuring out when they get them in. Stores less frequented by gamers or the masses are better. Toys R' Us, Sams Club, etc.
I'm not seeing anything that indicates that the absense of Nintendo's message would cause another industry crash. I know people like to mourn the death of innovation here, but from my point of view the industry has just matured to the point where innovation comes in smaller steps or one-off games. There's plenty of innovation to be had, and Nintendo is just a part of that. Theres a lot of crap, but there's always been a lot of crap. Even back in the NES/SNES days.
Thats quite a leap... dissaproval of a Miyamoto speech + disgust at percieved Nintendo bias on Slashdot = Sony fanboy. Despite the caustic tone he takes in when criticizing the Nintendo worship, I've seen nothing that indicates he's a Sony fanboy.
Did they ever have one? Back in the pre-Wii days, I heard a lot of speculation on Wii being indy-friendly due to the low dev-kit cost, but I don't recall anything concerning an actual program. A quick Google search doesn't seem to turn up much.