Sorry, I realised I was wrong after I typed that since I thought it came out in October. I couldn't be arsed deleting my post though and I humbly ask for forgiveness for my inaccuracy and laziness.
I still stand by my end point though. The PSP is selling well but apart from a few blockbusters like CC:FF7 it doesnt seem to sell any games unlike the DS. Mind you it could be down to people like me - I've owned a PSP since the European launch over two years ago but I've only ever bought 6 games for it.
There haven't been any PSP titles in the Japanese all console chart top 20 since the launch of the PSP slim/lite. Last weeks sales, for example, has the highest PSP game at no 25! http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm
It looks as if these sales are more likely down to people trading in their old fatter PSPs for the new slimeline model rather than sales to new customers.
A quote from Sue Clark from the BBFC in TFA: "Stephen, unfortunately I cannot list the changes we suggested as this is a matter between us and the distributor and if they are not happy to give you chapter and verse I'm afraid I can't either."
Sounds as if they have told the developer since Take two interactive owns Rockstar and distributes/publishes all their products. The only reason the BBFC can't tell anyone else is because Rockstar/Take two don't want them to.
Don't tell someone to RTFA unless you've read it yourself, you muppet!
I'm fairly sure you'd have to hook up one of these two boxes to a PS3 to allow it to record HD programmes. So why would you bother getting an add-on for the PS3 just to record TV when you get a cheaper DVR (than the original PS3) with a higher storage capacity just for subscribing to the service?
The only pro I can see is going to watch TV on your PSP whilst sitting on the toilet. But since DVRs can pause live TV long enough for any toilet break, isn't that also redundant?
The HD-DVD add-on includes a free remote control and HD-DVD movie (King Kong I think) which sweetens the deal slightly. I have to admit I won't be buying it since I think it's bloody stupid to choose one of two competing media formats before there's a clear winner.
A Halo RTS is good news for Microsoft because it's being developed by Ensemble (who made Age of Empires) so it promises to be actually good and sell well due to the popularity of Halo.
I just want to point out that, even with the ambiguous press release, I can't find any definite mention of Bioshock coming to the PS3 at all, let alone "whole months" after it's released on the 360. You also missed out Splinter Cell 5 (conviction or whatever) which will be quite a good exclusive for MS, especially given how well the last three games have sold.
Sony won't be bothered by X06 mainly because their minds will be on making the PS3 launch a success, but I don't think that many people were expecting X06 to be such a strong showing for the 360.
You make the problem sound a bit worse than it really is. I hate to point out the obvious but you can always shop online or buy second hand. All the 360 titles on play.com (including new releases) are around £40 or cheaper http://play.com/Games/Xbox360/NAVSUB/5-/RegionHome .html, which is still quite expensive compared to PS2/cube/Xbox prices but at least 20% cheaper than the 360 game RRP. If you look in the second hand section of Game or Gamestation you can usually find 360 titles for even cheaper than that.
Personally I agree with you that £50 is too much for a game and it'll be interesting to see if the price stays the same. I'm hoping for some kind of pricing war between Sony and MS, which would be good for us, but I'm a bit doubtful that that will happen.
A possible reaon for the larger allocation of PS3s for the US is so they can fight the 360 over the Christmas period and cut down its lead. The 360 doesn't sell well in Japan so they've allocated less PS3s for less competition.
I'd be interested to hear what the Japanese gaming press and public have to say about this. I reckon it could alienate and annoy some Japanese gamers just as this news has probably annoyed some Europeans (like me). At least when it arrives in Europe, they may have ironed out some of the systems kinks.
I personally don't see a terrible amount of innovation behind the PS3. Sure it uses a new high density media format and can play games in slightly higher resolution than the competition, but haven't most consoles been able to boast this? All consoles have used higher capacity media and higher resolutions than their predecessors; what I'm saying is that these upgrades aren't innovative, they're merely par for the course.
The 360 and the PC share common development tools (the XNA tools IIRC) and since the 360 has multiple cores and Microsoft is trying to get people to develop for Vista and the 360, surely the 360 is also going to drive multicore gaming?
Don't get me wrong, I'm going to buy a PS3 sometime after launch (when the price is right and some decent non-launch games are out) but I still don't see much innovation in the PS3.
What TV do you have that upscales DVDs to nearly HD quality? I've found plenty of DVD players that do that but no TVs. I'm not flaming you, I'm just wondering what Godlike TV you must own.
I thought the gameplay wasn't too bad especially when you compare it to other survival horror games of the time, eg Resi: Code Veronica. My favourite element of ED gameplay was the limb targetting - I loved lobbing off a zombies head and laughing as he flailed wildly to try and get me, usually hurting his fellow zombies in the process. Ah... that never got old.
Cheers I might try and hunt down a copy of that game (read "I'll illegally download it").
If you're interested in dark reimaginings of classic tales you might want to take a look at Todd McFarlane's Oz series of figures http://www.spawn.com/toys/series.aspx?series=184.
Dorothy is a gothic nymphette and toto's a morbidly obese hellhound.... pretty weird.
I admit that I got confused on the blu-ray player thing but I haven't seen any real evidence from you to suggest that the PS3 won't be sold at a loss. I just don't see how Sony could sell a stand-alone player (which performs a third of the PS3's intended functions; the other two being a media hub and playing games) for double the price of the PS3, early-adopter gouging or no.
Also your agument isn't too watertight either. Even though the PS2 and PS1 weren't sold at a loss does not guarantee that the PS3 won't be. To paraphrase a mathematician: "two points don't make a trend, they only make a line". Also the slashdot article is about increased prices of games, did it occur to you that maybe the increased royalties would compensate Sony on any loss they made on the console (like they did in your article on the PS2) as well as increased development costs?
Maybe Sony will sell the PS3 at a profit and I'll be quite curious to see how they managed to pull that off. I just want you to entertain the possibility that maybe they won't sell at a profit.
The PS3 has an added Cell processor, nVidia GPU, RAM, wireless card, etc and sells for $500-600. So either Sony are going to make an obscene amount of profit on the stand-alone player or they're going to lose some money on the PS3. My bet is probably a bit of both.
Sony do expect to lose around 100 billion yen on the PS3 (around $871.6 million). Obviously they expect to cut down on cost after the first couple of years, through chip shrinkage, etc, but they will take a hit on the system for at least the first year.
Although the PS1 may have dropped from $300 to $50 in five years and the launch of a follow-up console, the PS2 has only fallen from $300 to $150-$130 in a slightly longer period also with the launch of a follow-up console looming.
I really doubt that the PS3 will drop in price significantly until a few years after launch even if it bombs (which is unlikely).
Since this topic is about the UK pricing of the PS3, I'd like to point out that the cheapest British HD 27" set I could find online costs 600 quid or $1,128:
The low end PS3 (with no HDMI) may not display all blu-ray DVDs in HD. Once movie studios enable copy control on blu-ray discs, they will only display in HD from an HDMI port.
Sony have stated that they won't enable it because obviously they want the format to take off and for everyone to enjoy the full HD quality of blu-ray discs. It's also debatable who exactly is going to pirate films like resident evil if they haven't already done so. Sony Pictures blu-ray DVDs will play in HD but no other studio has commented on this yet: http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/11/technology/e3_kaz/ index.htm?section=money_latest
If you buy a PS3 at $499, then you get games and sony blu-ray DVDs in HD, but not necessarily other movie studio DVDs.
Considering that the MPAA and most studios take such a hard stance against piracy, I reckon they might just enable the copy control on their DVDs. Who exactly wants to buy a blu-ray player that'll only play Sony Pictures DVDs in HD?
If you have a look, the poster posted his comment at 3:12am (GMT) and the updated part you referred to was added by Zonk at 3:57am (GMT) which was 45 mins afterwards.
The line/link you refer to wasn't there when the poster posted his comments, so your comment is a bit stupid since the poster was right at the time.
I agree with you about the UK sales chart. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only gamer in the UK who doesn't own a need for speed or FIFA game.There is some hope however, for example, Shadow of the Colossus was once top of the charts,http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index .php?story=8235. It was only for a week but it still shows that even mighty EA can be defeated once in a while.
I feel I should step in and fight to defend the honour of my fellow Englishman.
As it's already been pointed out, the phrase in England is "being in the red" http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/202000.html, obviously they both have the same origins but "red ink" is definitely not a common phrase in the UK.
You also link to an article from the Economist, an English magazine, yet the article appears to be written from Washington, DC. Perhaps the article was written by an American reporter for the Economist? or perhaps it was an English reporter who picked up phrase whilst in the States? My point is that it doesn't prove that the term "red ink" is used extensively over here.
I don't think Xbox live arcade will be the most important thing for the next-gen consoles but it must be important for Sony and Nintendo to go down similar routes.
The PS3 and the revolution will both have some kind of xbox love arcade functionality to them, be it the downloadable nintendo back catalogue or the PS2 game streaming thing.
If anything I think the Nintendo back catalogue could be a very important feature for the revolution, Nintendo has some sweet games under its belt and I'd love to be able to play all the NES/SNES/N64 classics (legally) on the same console.
I also don't think GRAW, CoD2 and next week Oblivion count as an "UTTER" lack of good software.
Slashdot Mirror
I still stand by my end point though. The PSP is selling well but apart from a few blockbusters like CC:FF7 it doesnt seem to sell any games unlike the DS. Mind you it could be down to people like me - I've owned a PSP since the European launch over two years ago but I've only ever bought 6 games for it.
It looks as if these sales are more likely down to people trading in their old fatter PSPs for the new slimeline model rather than sales to new customers.
Sounds as if they have told the developer since Take two interactive owns Rockstar and distributes/publishes all their products. The only reason the BBFC can't tell anyone else is because Rockstar/Take two don't want them to.
Don't tell someone to RTFA unless you've read it yourself, you muppet!
I'm fairly sure you'd have to hook up one of these two boxes to a PS3 to allow it to record HD programmes. So why would you bother getting an add-on for the PS3 just to record TV when you get a cheaper DVR (than the original PS3) with a higher storage capacity just for subscribing to the service?
The only pro I can see is going to watch TV on your PSP whilst sitting on the toilet. But since DVRs can pause live TV long enough for any toilet break, isn't that also redundant?
A Halo RTS is good news for Microsoft because it's being developed by Ensemble (who made Age of Empires) so it promises to be actually good and sell well due to the popularity of Halo.
I just want to point out that, even with the ambiguous press release, I can't find any definite mention of Bioshock coming to the PS3 at all, let alone "whole months" after it's released on the 360. You also missed out Splinter Cell 5 (conviction or whatever) which will be quite a good exclusive for MS, especially given how well the last three games have sold.
Sony won't be bothered by X06 mainly because their minds will be on making the PS3 launch a success, but I don't think that many people were expecting X06 to be such a strong showing for the 360.
Personally I agree with you that £50 is too much for a game and it'll be interesting to see if the price stays the same. I'm hoping for some kind of pricing war between Sony and MS, which would be good for us, but I'm a bit doubtful that that will happen.
I'd be interested to hear what the Japanese gaming press and public have to say about this. I reckon it could alienate and annoy some Japanese gamers just as this news has probably annoyed some Europeans (like me). At least when it arrives in Europe, they may have ironed out some of the systems kinks.
The 360 and the PC share common development tools (the XNA tools IIRC) and since the 360 has multiple cores and Microsoft is trying to get people to develop for Vista and the 360, surely the 360 is also going to drive multicore gaming?
Don't get me wrong, I'm going to buy a PS3 sometime after launch (when the price is right and some decent non-launch games are out) but I still don't see much innovation in the PS3.
What TV do you have that upscales DVDs to nearly HD quality? I've found plenty of DVD players that do that but no TVs. I'm not flaming you, I'm just wondering what Godlike TV you must own.
I thought the gameplay wasn't too bad especially when you compare it to other survival horror games of the time, eg Resi: Code Veronica. My favourite element of ED gameplay was the limb targetting - I loved lobbing off a zombies head and laughing as he flailed wildly to try and get me, usually hurting his fellow zombies in the process. Ah... that never got old.
If you're interested in dark reimaginings of classic tales you might want to take a look at Todd McFarlane's Oz series of figures http://www.spawn.com/toys/series.aspx?series=184. Dorothy is a gothic nymphette and toto's a morbidly obese hellhound.... pretty weird.
You make some good points in your posts however I feel you could have still made those points without being so arrogant and condescending.
Also your agument isn't too watertight either. Even though the PS2 and PS1 weren't sold at a loss does not guarantee that the PS3 won't be. To paraphrase a mathematician: "two points don't make a trend, they only make a line". Also the slashdot article is about increased prices of games, did it occur to you that maybe the increased royalties would compensate Sony on any loss they made on the console (like they did in your article on the PS2) as well as increased development costs?
Maybe Sony will sell the PS3 at a profit and I'll be quite curious to see how they managed to pull that off. I just want you to entertain the possibility that maybe they won't sell at a profit.
The PS3 has an added Cell processor, nVidia GPU, RAM, wireless card, etc and sells for $500-600. So either Sony are going to make an obscene amount of profit on the stand-alone player or they're going to lose some money on the PS3. My bet is probably a bit of both.
Yeah I thought people would read "shrinkage" as "reduction in size", I didn't realise it meant something else in the industry. Sorry.
Sony do expect to lose around 100 billion yen on the PS3 (around $871.6 million). Obviously they expect to cut down on cost after the first couple of years, through chip shrinkage, etc, but they will take a hit on the system for at least the first year.
Famitsu readers seem to disagree with you: http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/26/japan-famitsu-op inion-poll-favors-nintendos-wii/
I really doubt that the PS3 will drop in price significantly until a few years after launch even if it bombs (which is unlikely).
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5 361971/Trail/C%24cip%3D36693.Sound%2Band%2Bvision% 3EC%24cip%3D36785.Televisions%3EC%24Screen+Size+(i nches)%3D27.27.htm
That's in a sale and "HD ready" which means its only 720p IIRC. HDTVs may be cheap as chips in the US but over here they cost a bit more.
The low end PS3 (with no HDMI) may not display all blu-ray DVDs in HD. Once movie studios enable copy control on blu-ray discs, they will only display in HD from an HDMI port.
/ index.htm?section=money_latest
Sony have stated that they won't enable it because obviously they want the format to take off and for everyone to enjoy the full HD quality of blu-ray discs. It's also debatable who exactly is going to pirate films like resident evil if they haven't already done so. Sony Pictures blu-ray DVDs will play in HD but no other studio has commented on this yet:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/11/technology/e3_kaz
If you buy a PS3 at $499, then you get games and sony blu-ray DVDs in HD, but not necessarily other movie studio DVDs.
Considering that the MPAA and most studios take such a hard stance against piracy, I reckon they might just enable the copy control on their DVDs. Who exactly wants to buy a blu-ray player that'll only play Sony Pictures DVDs in HD?
The line/link you refer to wasn't there when the poster posted his comments, so your comment is a bit stupid since the poster was right at the time.
It's only £13-15 (dunno what that is in dollars) and gives you 25 hours of play time from a full charge.
It just means there's one less little thing to be worried about.
I agree with you about the UK sales chart. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only gamer in the UK who doesn't own a need for speed or FIFA game.There is some hope however, for example, Shadow of the Colossus was once top of the charts,http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index .php?story=8235. It was only for a week but it still shows that even mighty EA can be defeated once in a while.
As it's already been pointed out, the phrase in England is "being in the red" http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/202000.html, obviously they both have the same origins but "red ink" is definitely not a common phrase in the UK.
You also link to an article from the Economist, an English magazine, yet the article appears to be written from Washington, DC. Perhaps the article was written by an American reporter for the Economist? or perhaps it was an English reporter who picked up phrase whilst in the States? My point is that it doesn't prove that the term "red ink" is used extensively over here.
The PS3 and the revolution will both have some kind of xbox love arcade functionality to them, be it the downloadable nintendo back catalogue or the PS2 game streaming thing. If anything I think the Nintendo back catalogue could be a very important feature for the revolution, Nintendo has some sweet games under its belt and I'd love to be able to play all the NES/SNES/N64 classics (legally) on the same console.
I also don't think GRAW, CoD2 and next week Oblivion count as an "UTTER" lack of good software.