It should be obvious to everyone that the lack of adorative gamers and hedonism inspiring booth babes at this E3 has upset our grand master. Pray that we can appease him before Christmas, or his dark will shall bring upon us the great plagues of scratched discs, bricked consoles, unresponsive controllers, and memory card wipes!
I guess we looked at "annoying as intercourse to read" differently.
My interpretation: Annoying, like intercourse, to read.
Your interpretation: Annoying as reading intercourse.
My experience with that particular grammatical structure is what lead me to my interpretation. Normally, maybe I'm insane, I've seen it used to implicate that the latter action is as adjective as the former action/object. e.g So-and-so is annoying as hell to live with.
I realize the system is hardcore system, and for that reason the average interest in various features will be different. However, I thought I'd clarify a few things.
1. Live - While online play is increasingly important, the majority of console gamers still don't care. For gamers who don't care about online play, this is a non-issue.
2. Thus far, none of the cross platform games have shown significant differences between the 360 and the PS3. If content is being sacrificed currently, it's being sacrificed on both. This might change down the road, but for the time being that's how it is.
3. The problem with the PS3 is that its "potential" isn't obvious now. The Wii's potential (still unfulfiled) is highly visible, and the 360 isn't the one that has to prove it will eventually be better. Until the PS3's potential is accomplished, it's going to be a tough sell.
I might eventually buy a PS3, and possibly for the games that are constantly touted for it. However, I'm not likely to buy one until those games come out. Right now, the PS3 would just sit beneath my TV collecting dust.
I know you're happy about that Amazon best seller list, but it is not adaquate refutation of the original point. It's not some magic key that can be used to destroy anything bad said about Sony or the PS3. Stop using it like it is.
Is it good news? Sure. Does it mean that Sony execs aren't screwing up their PR? Not at all.
We won't get into the reason why one might never intend on buying a PS3, but some of these people probably don't care.
If you want to buy one, you can get the better one for cheap! What is everybody so upset about? This is such a non-issue.
This here is actually the issue itself. $500 is not 'cheap'. As a minimum bar for entry it is too high for many people. Certainly, what is $500 now is a better value than what was $500 a month ago, but that doesn't factor in for people who (for whatever reason) can't shell out that kind of money on a game console.
What has people upset is that the term "price drop" is traditionally tied to lowering the bar of entry. Sony has not only managed to maintain the bar of entry, but potentially is increasing it when the 60gb PS3s finally sell out. Even if the 80gb PS3 drops in price (depending on how soon this happens, there might be some upset there as well), the bar of entry still remains $500.
Except that places such as Ars-Technica would catch on immediately, announce the change, and bring the wrath of the technically inclined on Sony. No one wants to hear that they paid for something that was crippled intentionally.
I'm willing to go with a $499 80gb model at Christmas. I'm mostly reacting against people who claim that very shortly after the 60gb model is sold out the 80gb model will drop in price. I don't see it as a good PR move, and I'm willing to give Sony enough credit that they wouldn't do something that would easily tick off everyone who had just run out and bought 60gb models.
Sure, Sony might just be sealing their lips until it won't hurt the firesale on 60gb models, but until it actually happens I think we shouldn't assume it will.
I'm not sure of a better way to engender the ill-will of gamers than to announce a price drop in this fashion. If they wait until the holiday season, it wouldn't be so bad. But for them to charge $600 for less than a month and then, when August 1st hits, drop it $100 after convincing people to buy the 60gb version at that price... that would easily tick off a lot of people.
I understand that if Sony plans on acting in either fashion, it doesn't make sense for them to say so. However, I don't believe that we can say one way or the other what's going to happen. It is not guaranteed that once the last 60gb PS3 is sold the 80gb will fall in price, nor is it guaranteed that it won't.
The point remains, there's still a significant price difference between analogous drives favoring the 60gb as cheaper, one that isn't likely to completely reverse in 18 days.
If you have an official announcement from Sony stating the 80gb PS3 will drop to $499 once the 60gb is gone, please share it. As it stands, the summary states that once the 60gb PS3 is gone (purportedly by August 1st) there will only be the $600 80gb model. That's what I'm going by until Sony announces something else.
We already know that there have been dramatic cost cuts in BluRay drive components - the diodes being the major savings having come down from some 100 dollars to around 10 as of a few months ago.
I'd like to read more about this, can you fire a few links my way? I'm looking forward to blue laser pointers that don't cost an arm and a leg.
I know you're excited that the PS3 has been topping Amazon.com's bestselling list for video games. It is something to be happy about, but think about the context.
1. At #4 is the Wii, which as of this comment Amazon doesn't have stocked save for random people selling their own. 2. This is one online store amoung many others physical and virtual. Individual store sales vary, even on a day to day basis within the same store.
Like I said, it's a milestone, but it isn't as damning for Sony's competitors as an NPD report would be.
The current 60 gig PS3 is now out of production and is now $499 as anyone can see
Right, but that's not the issue.
There will be a 80 gig model that is introduced next month that will have partial software emulation - right now European PS3s with EE emulation are at ~90 percent PS2 compatibility. As the remaining stock of 60 gigs get sold the 80 gig will come down to the same price as the current 60 gig model.
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.
As most people know, harddrives don't really drop in price they just get larger capacity for the same price and eventually the low end drives start to become more expensive. That is happening with the 60 gig laptop drives and Sony is moving on to the cheaper in bulk 80 gig drives. So costs will be about the same for the larger harddrive. The removal of the EE hardware and the usual manufacturing cost cutting, including 65nm later this year, will mean the 80 gig PS3 model will be actually cheaper to manufacture than the current 60 gig models.
So by the time you can't get a 60 gig anymore 80 gigs will have moved down in price to $499.
Let us assume for the moment that you're right, 60gb laptop drives are increasing in price to the point where soon they will be more expensive than 80gb laptop drives. Here's a look at current prices.
So, the prices are somewhat close, ranging from $5-$15 difference with the 80gb drives consistantly more expensive. This gives some credence to the theory that soon the 60gb drives will be more expensive as they cease to be manufactured.
However, the following was in the article summary:
In America, yes... what the US are offering from the 1st of August is a USD $599 version with one game.
There are a whopping 18 days left before the 1st of August. I find it hard to believe by any stretch of the imagination that in so short a time... A) The price difference between 60gb and 80gb drives will be significantly in favor of the latter. B) The 65nm proccesses coming "later this year" will arrive and have an effect. C) Sony will actually think to pass the benefits onto the gamer rather than themselves.
If the price of the 80gb model drops, it's more likely because they'll unbundle the game. Sony could pleasently surprise us, but I'm not counting on it.
In effect, the bar of entry is now $100 more than it was before the "price cut".
Sony is making the same mistake they made when the PS3 first launched, they're trying to cram too much into the system. Your average customer is not someone who wants $600 package deals, however value-worthy they are. They had the opportunity to have a system, the 20gb version, as low as $400. Maybe its "gimp", but that would certainly give the Sony crowd something to fire back about system costs.
The PS3 seems destined to remain the luxury system this generation, with every car analogy applicable. At $600, the system is not going to achieve the same userbase as either of its competitors. It'll do well in its own right, but that's all.
PS3: Impressive. I'm glad to see they're able to showcase a lot of high class games as well as a number that are reaching out to a broader crowd. Things may take off for this system yet, though I doubt its possible for it to gain enough momentum to dominate this generation. It would at least break previous precidents if it did.
PSP: Unimpressive. I feel like Sony is trying to copy the DS Lite without understanding why the DS Lite did well. The DS Phat's key dimensional problem was its depth. There were a number of pockets incapable of holding one, and to boot it was relatively heavy. The DS Lite improved on all of these, while looking simultaneously much sleeker. The new PSP is hard to distinguish from its predecessor, which was sleek to begin with. I'll be very surprised is this causes any long-term changes in PSP sales.
THE PS3 HAS VIRTUALLY THE EXACT SAME LIBRARY OF GAMES AS THE PS2.
So why buy a PS3 when I can buy a cheaper PS2? I mean, it's the exact same library of games right?
More seriously, give the PS3 some credit. Not even hardcore gamers want the exact same games they had last generation. Sony showed off some new games that weren't ever in any incarnation on the PS2. Also, realize that even if the PS3's library is analogous to the past the libraries of its competitors aren't.
It's a mistake to think that what worked yesterday is going to work today. There's a reason why animals like the Panda are endangered and Raccoons flourish. If you don't adapt and broaden horizens you go extinct.
I don't for a moment think that any of the potential presidential candidates and their future administrations will not be rife with corruption and political mumbo jumbo. However, the constant news of abuses of power and position to make hideously bad decisions has me regretting the past 7 years thoroughly.
We need Mr. T for president, or at least Secretary of Defense.
On an interesting note, one of the major reasons I haven't done much time with either my Wii, 360 or PS2 is because of WoW, and not because of Raids.
I figured out that I grew very accustomed to playing video games with an audience. In college I had my roommate around all the time to play with or around. Now that I've graduated and have my own bachelor pad, I simply can't sit down and play games for inordinate amounts of time without someone else present in one capacity or another.
To some extent, WoW allows me to simulate my college days. Whether it's text only or vent, the social aspect is what has me playing more than anything else. Ironically, I brought my old college pals into the fold, bringing everything full circle.
I didn't finish Trauma Center because of that stupid star. The detection on that wasn't very intuitive and made it frustrating when I screwed up at a crucial moment. Had I been in a real emergency room, I'd have been dragged out waving my hands in the air wildly as my patients died cursing the air blue about a star.
Some of us find the abstract concept of "outside" very fascinating. Maybe one day we can design experiments to yield observable results that might prove the existance of "outside". Until then, we can only speculate as to its nature.
I'm not going to jump on the Killzone bashing band-wagon, but I am going to jump on the "lets be like Halo" bashing bandwagon.
To my knowledge, Halo was the first FPS that featured auto-regen of a vital life attribute (in Halo's case, shields). This added a lot of depth to both single and multi-player aspects as there was a reason to take cover beyond delaying the inevitable a few seconds longer. It was a unique feature and new to the genre.
Next thing that I new, half the other shooters out there had similar mechanics. That would be fine, if it made any sense within the game itself. However, these games had no justifiable reason for it. A WW2 historic battle, I'm shot and all I have to do is take some cover and I'm all better? Or in Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, there wasn't a good reason there either. Unless FPS protagonists all stole DNA from Wolverine, I find throwing that feature around hard to swallow.
Is Halo the be all and end all of FPSs? No, it's not. However, I have to give Bungie props because they are one of a select few development houses that are actually pushing the genre forward. The advances aren't monumental, but they are important. Beyond the original Halo's achievements, Halo 2 sported the best Dual Wielding in an FPS I'd seen up to that point.
I'm still waiting for the FPS that revolutionizes the genre, it could use a good shake-up.
Slashdot Mirror
It should be obvious to everyone that the lack of adorative gamers and hedonism inspiring booth babes at this E3 has upset our grand master. Pray that we can appease him before Christmas, or his dark will shall bring upon us the great plagues of scratched discs, bricked consoles, unresponsive controllers, and memory card wipes!
I guess we looked at "annoying as intercourse to read" differently.
My interpretation: Annoying, like intercourse, to read.
Your interpretation: Annoying as reading intercourse.
My experience with that particular grammatical structure is what lead me to my interpretation. Normally, maybe I'm insane, I've seen it used to implicate that the latter action is as adjective as the former action/object. e.g So-and-so is annoying as hell to live with.
I realize the system is hardcore system, and for that reason the average interest in various features will be different. However, I thought I'd clarify a few things.
1. Live - While online play is increasingly important, the majority of console gamers still don't care. For gamers who don't care about online play, this is a non-issue.
2. Thus far, none of the cross platform games have shown significant differences between the 360 and the PS3. If content is being sacrificed currently, it's being sacrificed on both. This might change down the road, but for the time being that's how it is.
3. The problem with the PS3 is that its "potential" isn't obvious now. The Wii's potential (still unfulfiled) is highly visible, and the 360 isn't the one that has to prove it will eventually be better. Until the PS3's potential is accomplished, it's going to be a tough sell.
I might eventually buy a PS3, and possibly for the games that are constantly touted for it. However, I'm not likely to buy one until those games come out. Right now, the PS3 would just sit beneath my TV collecting dust.
I know you're happy about that Amazon best seller list, but it is not adaquate refutation of the original point. It's not some magic key that can be used to destroy anything bad said about Sony or the PS3. Stop using it like it is.
Is it good news? Sure. Does it mean that Sony execs aren't screwing up their PR? Not at all.
Probably none of these.
We won't get into the reason why one might never intend on buying a PS3, but some of these people probably don't care.
This here is actually the issue itself. $500 is not 'cheap'. As a minimum bar for entry it is too high for many people. Certainly, what is $500 now is a better value than what was $500 a month ago, but that doesn't factor in for people who (for whatever reason) can't shell out that kind of money on a game console.
What has people upset is that the term "price drop" is traditionally tied to lowering the bar of entry. Sony has not only managed to maintain the bar of entry, but potentially is increasing it when the 60gb PS3s finally sell out. Even if the 80gb PS3 drops in price (depending on how soon this happens, there might be some upset there as well), the bar of entry still remains $500.
That's the jist of what's going on.
Except that places such as Ars-Technica would catch on immediately, announce the change, and bring the wrath of the technically inclined on Sony. No one wants to hear that they paid for something that was crippled intentionally.
Since when has intercourse been annoying?
I'm willing to go with a $499 80gb model at Christmas. I'm mostly reacting against people who claim that very shortly after the 60gb model is sold out the 80gb model will drop in price. I don't see it as a good PR move, and I'm willing to give Sony enough credit that they wouldn't do something that would easily tick off everyone who had just run out and bought 60gb models.
Sure, Sony might just be sealing their lips until it won't hurt the firesale on 60gb models, but until it actually happens I think we shouldn't assume it will.
I'm not sure of a better way to engender the ill-will of gamers than to announce a price drop in this fashion. If they wait until the holiday season, it wouldn't be so bad. But for them to charge $600 for less than a month and then, when August 1st hits, drop it $100 after convincing people to buy the 60gb version at that price... that would easily tick off a lot of people.
I understand that if Sony plans on acting in either fashion, it doesn't make sense for them to say so. However, I don't believe that we can say one way or the other what's going to happen. It is not guaranteed that once the last 60gb PS3 is sold the 80gb will fall in price, nor is it guaranteed that it won't.
My mistake, here are SATA prices.
Hitachi - 60gb: $73.99
Hitachi - 80gb: $79.99
Fujitsu - 60gb: $49.99
Fujitsu - 80gb: $58.99
The point remains, there's still a significant price difference between analogous drives favoring the 60gb as cheaper, one that isn't likely to completely reverse in 18 days.
If you have an official announcement from Sony stating the 80gb PS3 will drop to $499 once the 60gb is gone, please share it. As it stands, the summary states that once the 60gb PS3 is gone (purportedly by August 1st) there will only be the $600 80gb model. That's what I'm going by until Sony announces something else.
Probably the most sound idea I've read thus far.
This also goes for prognosticating further price drops. It would be really nice, but without an official announcement we just don't know.
I'd like to read more about this, can you fire a few links my way? I'm looking forward to blue laser pointers that don't cost an arm and a leg.
I know you're excited that the PS3 has been topping Amazon.com's bestselling list for video games. It is something to be happy about, but think about the context.
1. At #4 is the Wii, which as of this comment Amazon doesn't have stocked save for random people selling their own.
2. This is one online store amoung many others physical and virtual. Individual store sales vary, even on a day to day basis within the same store.
Like I said, it's a milestone, but it isn't as damning for Sony's competitors as an NPD report would be.
Right, but that's not the issue.
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.
Let us assume for the moment that you're right, 60gb laptop drives are increasing in price to the point where soon they will be more expensive than 80gb laptop drives. Here's a look at current prices.
Via Newegg:
Western Digital - 60g: $47.99
Western Digital - 80g: $59.99
Hitachi - 60g: $49.99
Hitachi - 80g: $54.99
Seagate - 60g: $49.99
Seagate - 80g: $59.99
So, the prices are somewhat close, ranging from $5-$15 difference with the 80gb drives consistantly more expensive. This gives some credence to the theory that soon the 60gb drives will be more expensive as they cease to be manufactured.
However, the following was in the article summary:
There are a whopping 18 days left before the 1st of August. I find it hard to believe by any stretch of the imagination that in so short a time...
A) The price difference between 60gb and 80gb drives will be significantly in favor of the latter.
B) The 65nm proccesses coming "later this year" will arrive and have an effect.
C) Sony will actually think to pass the benefits onto the gamer rather than themselves.
If the price of the 80gb model drops, it's more likely because they'll unbundle the game. Sony could pleasently surprise us, but I'm not counting on it.
In effect, the bar of entry is now $100 more than it was before the "price cut".
Sony is making the same mistake they made when the PS3 first launched, they're trying to cram too much into the system. Your average customer is not someone who wants $600 package deals, however value-worthy they are. They had the opportunity to have a system, the 20gb version, as low as $400. Maybe its "gimp", but that would certainly give the Sony crowd something to fire back about system costs.
The PS3 seems destined to remain the luxury system this generation, with every car analogy applicable. At $600, the system is not going to achieve the same userbase as either of its competitors. It'll do well in its own right, but that's all.
Oh I'm sure it's "in-engine" footage. The Important Question (TM): What is running the engine?
Sony impressed me and also failed to impress me.
PS3: Impressive. I'm glad to see they're able to showcase a lot of high class games as well as a number that are reaching out to a broader crowd. Things may take off for this system yet, though I doubt its possible for it to gain enough momentum to dominate this generation. It would at least break previous precidents if it did.
PSP: Unimpressive. I feel like Sony is trying to copy the DS Lite without understanding why the DS Lite did well. The DS Phat's key dimensional problem was its depth. There were a number of pockets incapable of holding one, and to boot it was relatively heavy. The DS Lite improved on all of these, while looking simultaneously much sleeker. The new PSP is hard to distinguish from its predecessor, which was sleek to begin with. I'll be very surprised is this causes any long-term changes in PSP sales.
So why buy a PS3 when I can buy a cheaper PS2? I mean, it's the exact same library of games right?
More seriously, give the PS3 some credit. Not even hardcore gamers want the exact same games they had last generation. Sony showed off some new games that weren't ever in any incarnation on the PS2. Also, realize that even if the PS3's library is analogous to the past the libraries of its competitors aren't.
It's a mistake to think that what worked yesterday is going to work today. There's a reason why animals like the Panda are endangered and Raccoons flourish. If you don't adapt and broaden horizens you go extinct.
I'm not sure 2008 can come quickly enough.
I don't for a moment think that any of the potential presidential candidates and their future administrations will not be rife with corruption and political mumbo jumbo. However, the constant news of abuses of power and position to make hideously bad decisions has me regretting the past 7 years thoroughly.
We need Mr. T for president, or at least Secretary of Defense.
On an interesting note, one of the major reasons I haven't done much time with either my Wii, 360 or PS2 is because of WoW, and not because of Raids.
I figured out that I grew very accustomed to playing video games with an audience. In college I had my roommate around all the time to play with or around. Now that I've graduated and have my own bachelor pad, I simply can't sit down and play games for inordinate amounts of time without someone else present in one capacity or another.
To some extent, WoW allows me to simulate my college days. Whether it's text only or vent, the social aspect is what has me playing more than anything else. Ironically, I brought my old college pals into the fold, bringing everything full circle.
I didn't finish Trauma Center because of that stupid star. The detection on that wasn't very intuitive and made it frustrating when I screwed up at a crucial moment. Had I been in a real emergency room, I'd have been dragged out waving my hands in the air wildly as my patients died cursing the air blue about a star.
Some of us find the abstract concept of "outside" very fascinating. Maybe one day we can design experiments to yield observable results that might prove the existance of "outside". Until then, we can only speculate as to its nature.
I'm not going to jump on the Killzone bashing band-wagon, but I am going to jump on the "lets be like Halo" bashing bandwagon.
To my knowledge, Halo was the first FPS that featured auto-regen of a vital life attribute (in Halo's case, shields). This added a lot of depth to both single and multi-player aspects as there was a reason to take cover beyond delaying the inevitable a few seconds longer. It was a unique feature and new to the genre.
Next thing that I new, half the other shooters out there had similar mechanics. That would be fine, if it made any sense within the game itself. However, these games had no justifiable reason for it. A WW2 historic battle, I'm shot and all I have to do is take some cover and I'm all better? Or in Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, there wasn't a good reason there either. Unless FPS protagonists all stole DNA from Wolverine, I find throwing that feature around hard to swallow.
Is Halo the be all and end all of FPSs? No, it's not. However, I have to give Bungie props because they are one of a select few development houses that are actually pushing the genre forward. The advances aren't monumental, but they are important. Beyond the original Halo's achievements, Halo 2 sported the best Dual Wielding in an FPS I'd seen up to that point.
I'm still waiting for the FPS that revolutionizes the genre, it could use a good shake-up.
Good luck getting the TV home, we just impounded your car.