It would be kind of nice if they allowed the games but had a parental control option and required the game format to include its rating so that a parent could lock down a console to not play these games.
This exists in each of the current systems (Wii, PS3, 360) and is enforced for both retail games and downloadable content. They also as a matter of policy will only allow games that are rated by the ESRB (or whatever the local equivalent is) on their system.
The exact scenario you described exists with the exception of allowing AO games to run. If they allowed AO as an option, then this would be a non-issus.
When a game is 10hours play time and 45 hours of movies it isn't a game anymore.
Apparently this interactive movie is what many people are looking forward to. Considering the 2 biggest "exclusives" (and I use the term loosely, given all back and forth statements in the press) of the PS3 (FFXIII, and MGS4) both fall under that category.
"Under heavy pressure from whom? Xbox Live subscriptions are up, beating projections (I think Moore said they crossed the 7 million subscriber mark at E3). The only people I've seen who care about the price of Live are those coming from an environment without a cohesive online story (Sony fanboys, mostly)."
Xbox Live is certainly a supperior offering to anything found on the Playstation or Wii consoles, but I think the numbers have beed fudged a little bit. Because there are two different Xbox Live service levels, one of which is free, it makes me wonder exactly how many of these subscriptions are paid for and how many are silver members.
The Live subscriptions reported includes both silver & gold. I think it's safe to assume that most (50% + 1 person) of that 7 million is the silver (Free) version, and not every one of them owns a console.
I (for example) have 4 accounts on my X-box 360. 1 is mine (and I pay for the gold service) and the other 3 are accounts for some friends who don't own an X-box, but stop over and game from time to time (and yes they are Silver members, not local accounts for the online leader boards). So I wonder how many of the subscriptions out there are in a similar fashion.
I have Metroid Prime, and I love the game, but I got to one part where it was really far between save points, and no matter how many times I tried, I couldn't make it past all the enemies, even by reading walk-throughs and stuff. It became very frustrating very fast when I would play for about half an hour, only to die and have to start all over at the last save point.
Exactly. A poor save system can really break a game. You should NEVER have to search for a save point after defeating a "Boss". I think MP (or MP2) could be vastly improved if they release them on the Wii with the new controls and a decent checkpoint system.
Jeeze dude... if you dont like it, your mouse has a scroll button. Use it.
This is no better or worse than another article on Internet Radio, security holes, or a new mother board. One geeks garbage is another geeks treasure, no?
Exactly. Even thought it isn't the spectacle it once was, what would a reasonable person expect during E3 week?
As referenced by the updated article, this claim by the SCE Europe president has been refuted by the SCE America PR. Sony announced this as a 'price cut', not a 'clearance'. It would be an obviously stupid move of them to force the consumer back up to the $599 price, it will not happen.
Did you miss this part?
Nevertheless, Kaz Hirai himself says the one SKU strategy is the plan. He told Scandinavian website VGTV, "[We do not] have a 2 SKU strategy in the US, we learned very quickly customers respond better to having one SKU than two. We dropped the price on the 60GB model, as you know that model is no longer in production, once it's no longer on store shelves it will just be the $600 SKU."
Yes, I ordered a PS3 from Amazon. But if they'd had the Wii in stock, I'd definitely have ordered it instead.
I could see an easy trade off between the 360, and PS3 and they both deliver in a fashion that one could substitute one for the other. The Wii however is a different animal. Is the Wii and PS3 really interchangeable in your view? or do you plan on getting both?
It's an overclocked GameCube with a new controller. Face it. All of the demo units up until WERE game cubes. They did their job well; they convinced millions of people that the Wii is a "Next Generation Console" and sold it for huge profits.
The Wii is an "Overclocked Gamecube" only if you consider a Pentium 4 an Over Clocked Pentium 3 (which it isn't). In fact an X-box 360 could be called an Overclocked Gamecube by the same logic. It is after all running on a PowerPC processer with an ATI GPU... The 360 would have more in common (technically) with the Gamecube than the original X-Box.
$499 is about $20 more than I paid for my Xbox 360 Elite (120GB hard drive, HDMI). I was surprised how much the PS2 was being pushed at the store where I bought my Xbox. They had numerous PS3s available and only a few Xbox 360s and Wiis. Sony's definitely lost the gaming crown. If they want a chance of regaining it, they need to drop the prices even more.
True, however MS has the luxury of offering a $299 and a $399 SKU as an option. If you want to play any 360 game the point of Entry is $299 + the game. It's also $25 for a memory card (on Amazon), and you can play Gears of War or Guitar Hero II, Dead Rising, etc... just fine with that set up. If you want more capability (like the DLC) you can buy the HDD or the Pro bundle.
I'm not saying the $499 option is bad as an OPTION for the PS3 (or 360), but when that is the cheapest solution and it will be discontinued making the $599 version the lowest point of entry you are seriously backing yourself out of the market.
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.
If Sony says that the difference between the 60 gig and 20 gig version was $100 then in your example the 20 gig could be $399. I agree with this but I'll go one further. Since I never valued the Wifi, card readers, or extra hard drive space I would be more prone to buy "teh gimped" one anyway... How about we cut the price some more with other features I may or not want/need?
To get it out of the way; Blu-Ray stays as does the Cell processor. At this point pulling it out gets you nowhere and would break backwords compatibility so they are off the table.
How about we remove the 2 things included in the 20 gig that most people threw out anyway? The 20 gig hard drive and the Composite cables. I would still make the "A HDD of 20+ gigs" a requirement for the system, as it is user replaceable but don't include the original HDD to get thrown out. The composite cables will only save a few cents, but there is no point in including it so don't.
To avoid any "Retail confusion" from grandparents or something that don't understand the system will not work out of the box (until a HDD is added) sell it exclusively through the PlayStation online store. You can have 5 check boxes that confirm "Yes I understand I have to buy and install my own HDD with no assistance from Sony for this to work." before you can place the order. That also cuts out the distributors and retail partner's cut of the selling price.
Still don't think that's worth $100? Pull the PS2 chip. They were going to do it anyway, but from a consumer standpoint the emulation isn't as good as hardware support, but we acknowledge that upfront and accept it because it saves us money.
One other thing that could help drive costs down. FIRE THEIR MARKETING TEAM! Seriously. The "This is living" campaign in Europe probably hurt the PS3 more than anything MS, or Nintendo could have done and the American campaign wasn't much better.
If Sony made these few changes they would be a real contender this round, and I suspect that "Direct from Sony" SKU would be the best selling SKU from the point of its inception.
Seriously. I was encouraged when crazy Ken got the You can do no further harm "promotion", then later the boot but GODDAMN. Do the current Sony execs own a bunch of Nintendo stock?
A $499 version can be purchased at Gamespot for $399 with a trade in of a PS2. This makes it the same price as 360 PRO AND it has the PS2 slimline chip built in. If you owned a PS2 you probably had a few games for it. This was a VALUE ADDED proposition for the PS3.
Then they had the get 5 BluRay disks promotion, which is another VALUE ADD tactic.
Now they are going to stick with the $599 price, drop the 'cheaper alternative' again and pull out the PS2 chip?
Somebody else needs to take the reigns or Sony will remain a distant 3rd this gen.
Care to offer any examples? I've played quite a few games and have yet to have one install anything on the HD. Now if you go online and get the updates it puts it on the HD, but not right out of the box. Caching is not the same as installing.
When Penny arcade discussed Spider-man 3 "Tyco" states He [Gabe] brought it home, went through the long install again on his own PS3, and then wept under its cruel lash.
This was the first I had heard of any installs to the hard drive (beyond DLC or patches), so I went to Gamestop and checked the boxes, and Resistance for example "Requires 3 gigs of Hard Disk space" to play. I saw a number of boxes with similar requirements. Is that all caching that gets overwritten when you pop in a new game? Is Spidey 3 the exception?
Please let me know as I don't wish to be spreading FUD if I misunderstood.
I've been seeing this comment all over/. lately. While that may be the case, developers know that they can cache to the hard drive which more than makes up for any lack of read speed, which isn't always the case on other consoles...
This is also why many PS3 games require multi-gig installs. Personally, I'm not a fan of that approach.
No, I'm in exactly the same boat as you. I read on a different post that someone was about to play Wii Tennis for 4 HOURS! 4 games is about my limit before I'm done with that snoozefest.
Add 3 more people and Beer. Yup. I can see playing WiiSports Tennis for 4 hours. If you're playing solo, and don't find it challenging play some more as the computer AI ramps up the difficulty pretty well.
Exactly. I think people would call Suda51 "batshit crazy" after playing Killer7, and at the same time call him a "legendary game designer". I know I did.
Good point. The terms aren't (necessarily) mutually exclusive, or derogatory.
I wonder what effect this will have on the sales of GH3. I love GH2, and have two controllers, but would hesitate to buy the next one if only a few months later I could get a game that would allow more friends to join in and probably be twice as fun. Especially, as the cost of adding the drums and mic will not be trivial.
There's a reason GH III is shipping before Rock Band... It HAS to. If I were Activision I would be pissed. They bought the GH franchise for something like 200 million dollars, and already the people who sold it to them have a "GH Killer". They need to get GHIII out faster than October, and load up with DLC (include some for Free too) to help lock people into that franchise.
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.
How can it be a rip off if it's developed by the same people (Harmonix) and they still have the original code? Activision bought the "Guitar Hero Franchise" but not the source code. Neversoft had program GH III from the ground up.
I suspect RockBand will Feel more like prior Guitar Heroes just based on that.
Thanks, I was looking for pics. Yeah doesn't look too much thinner to me either, but every little bit helps I guess. The tv-out is... well it probably won't get much use, but its definitely a neat addition.
Actually I think it's a great idea, however the link in the parent article does say how they do it. The linked Article says:
"It will also come with the ability to output high-quality video by pressing the display button. This means that movies, games, photos, and all other PSP applications can be output to a TV screen."
So does this mean there are TV out ports (or a proprietary connector) to the PSP that connects to a TV VIA Composite, component, S-Video... or does it stream content to a PS3 and play on the screen?
Don't get me wrong - I'm still excited about the Zelda's and Metroid's of the world. But a lot of Nintendo's franchises on the DS felt very phoned in (and most of them were outsourced) and it seems like they're so focused on the casual segment that they're not really coming up with new ideas for the traditional gamer.
Which ones? New Super Mario Bros was great. Mario Kart DS was the best so far, Zelda PH, looks crazy good already... Metroid Prime was good as an FPS (even if it was a deviation from the Metroid formula of Exploration, and isolation)... The only real disapointment I had was Starfox: Command, and EVEN That could have been vastly improved just by offering traditional controls, vs the touch screen controls that "Kinda work... most of the time"...
Which games / franchises are you referring to specifically? Just curious.
This signals that Miyamoto has moved from "legendary game designer" to "batshit crazy." I'm sorry, but Nintendo is going to get hammered for this move.
Remember what you (may have) thought about the Wii controller when it was announced. WiiFit is very much in line with the Wii philosophy, and shows promise. I suspect this will be a million seller in 3 months or less.
Nobody's expecting Nintendo to cut the price of the Wii to $200. Why should Microsoft cut the price of the 360 just because Sony did so with the PS3?
Wait... Sony dropped the price of the PS3? At launch you could get one for $499 or $599, now on Amazon I see them listed for $499 and $599... Did they introduce a new SKU for $449 or $399 and I'm not seeing it?
Actually this is more like the rosy-eyed glasses you wear when you think of an ex-girlfriend until you remember the time she decapitated your pet goldfish, rolled your car off a cliff, then announced that she was pregnant.
Slashdot Mirror
This exists in each of the current systems (Wii, PS3, 360) and is enforced for both retail games and downloadable content. They also as a matter of policy will only allow games that are rated by the ESRB (or whatever the local equivalent is) on their system.
The exact scenario you described exists with the exception of allowing AO games to run. If they allowed AO as an option, then this would be a non-issus.
Apparently this interactive movie is what many people are looking forward to. Considering the 2 biggest "exclusives" (and I use the term loosely, given all back and forth statements in the press) of the PS3 (FFXIII, and MGS4) both fall under that category.
The Live subscriptions reported includes both silver & gold. I think it's safe to assume that most (50% + 1 person) of that 7 million is the silver (Free) version, and not every one of them owns a console.
I (for example) have 4 accounts on my X-box 360. 1 is mine (and I pay for the gold service) and the other 3 are accounts for some friends who don't own an X-box, but stop over and game from time to time (and yes they are Silver members, not local accounts for the online leader boards). So I wonder how many of the subscriptions out there are in a similar fashion.
Exactly. A poor save system can really break a game. You should NEVER have to search for a save point after defeating a "Boss". I think MP (or MP2) could be vastly improved if they release them on the Wii with the new controls and a decent checkpoint system.
Exactly. Even thought it isn't the spectacle it once was, what would a reasonable person expect during E3 week?
Did you miss this part?
Nevertheless, Kaz Hirai himself says the one SKU strategy is the plan. He told Scandinavian website VGTV, "[We do not] have a 2 SKU strategy in the US, we learned very quickly customers respond better to having one SKU than two. We dropped the price on the 60GB model, as you know that model is no longer in production, once it's no longer on store shelves it will just be the $600 SKU."
I could see an easy trade off between the 360, and PS3 and they both deliver in a fashion that one could substitute one for the other. The Wii however is a different animal. Is the Wii and PS3 really interchangeable in your view? or do you plan on getting both?
The Wii is an "Overclocked Gamecube" only if you consider a Pentium 4 an Over Clocked Pentium 3 (which it isn't). In fact an X-box 360 could be called an Overclocked Gamecube by the same logic. It is after all running on a PowerPC processer with an ATI GPU... The 360 would have more in common (technically) with the Gamecube than the original X-Box.
True, however MS has the luxury of offering a $299 and a $399 SKU as an option. If you want to play any 360 game the point of Entry is $299 + the game. It's also $25 for a memory card (on Amazon), and you can play Gears of War or Guitar Hero II, Dead Rising, etc... just fine with that set up. If you want more capability (like the DLC) you can buy the HDD or the Pro bundle.
I'm not saying the $499 option is bad as an OPTION for the PS3 (or 360), but when that is the cheapest solution and it will be discontinued making the $599 version the lowest point of entry you are seriously backing yourself out of the market.
If Sony says that the difference between the 60 gig and 20 gig version was $100 then in your example the 20 gig could be $399. I agree with this but I'll go one further. Since I never valued the Wifi, card readers, or extra hard drive space I would be more prone to buy "teh gimped" one anyway... How about we cut the price some more with other features I may or not want/need?
To get it out of the way; Blu-Ray stays as does the Cell processor. At this point pulling it out gets you nowhere and would break backwords compatibility so they are off the table.
How about we remove the 2 things included in the 20 gig that most people threw out anyway? The 20 gig hard drive and the Composite cables. I would still make the "A HDD of 20+ gigs" a requirement for the system, as it is user replaceable but don't include the original HDD to get thrown out. The composite cables will only save a few cents, but there is no point in including it so don't.
To avoid any "Retail confusion" from grandparents or something that don't understand the system will not work out of the box (until a HDD is added) sell it exclusively through the PlayStation online store. You can have 5 check boxes that confirm "Yes I understand I have to buy and install my own HDD with no assistance from Sony for this to work." before you can place the order. That also cuts out the distributors and retail partner's cut of the selling price.
Still don't think that's worth $100? Pull the PS2 chip. They were going to do it anyway, but from a consumer standpoint the emulation isn't as good as hardware support, but we acknowledge that upfront and accept it because it saves us money.
One other thing that could help drive costs down. FIRE THEIR MARKETING TEAM! Seriously. The "This is living" campaign in Europe probably hurt the PS3 more than anything MS, or Nintendo could have done and the American campaign wasn't much better.
If Sony made these few changes they would be a real contender this round, and I suspect that "Direct from Sony" SKU would be the best selling SKU from the point of its inception.
A $499 version can be purchased at Gamespot for $399 with a trade in of a PS2. This makes it the same price as 360 PRO AND it has the PS2 slimline chip built in. If you owned a PS2 you probably had a few games for it. This was a VALUE ADDED proposition for the PS3.
Then they had the get 5 BluRay disks promotion, which is another VALUE ADD tactic.
Now they are going to stick with the $599 price, drop the 'cheaper alternative' again and pull out the PS2 chip?
Somebody else needs to take the reigns or Sony will remain a distant 3rd this gen.
When Penny arcade discussed Spider-man 3 "Tyco" states He [Gabe] brought it home, went through the long install again on his own PS3, and then wept under its cruel lash.
This was the first I had heard of any installs to the hard drive (beyond DLC or patches), so I went to Gamestop and checked the boxes, and Resistance for example "Requires 3 gigs of Hard Disk space" to play. I saw a number of boxes with similar requirements. Is that all caching that gets overwritten when you pop in a new game? Is Spidey 3 the exception?
Please let me know as I don't wish to be spreading FUD if I misunderstood.
This is also why many PS3 games require multi-gig installs. Personally, I'm not a fan of that approach.
Add 3 more people and Beer. Yup. I can see playing WiiSports Tennis for 4 hours. If you're playing solo, and don't find it challenging play some more as the computer AI ramps up the difficulty pretty well.
Good point. The terms aren't (necessarily) mutually exclusive, or derogatory.
There's a reason GH III is shipping before Rock Band... It HAS to. If I were Activision I would be pissed. They bought the GH franchise for something like 200 million dollars, and already the people who sold it to them have a "GH Killer". They need to get GHIII out faster than October, and load up with DLC (include some for Free too) to help lock people into that franchise.
How can it be a rip off if it's developed by the same people (Harmonix) and they still have the original code? Activision bought the "Guitar Hero Franchise" but not the source code. Neversoft had program GH III from the ground up.
I suspect RockBand will Feel more like prior Guitar Heroes just based on that.
Actually I think it's a great idea, however the link in the parent article does say how they do it. The linked Article says:
"It will also come with the ability to output high-quality video by pressing the display button. This means that movies, games, photos, and all other PSP applications can be output to a TV screen."
So does this mean there are TV out ports (or a proprietary connector) to the PSP that connects to a TV VIA Composite, component, S-Video... or does it stream content to a PS3 and play on the screen?
Everything I've seen has been FMV trailers, and though they DO look great... So did the FMV in Final Fantasy VII...
Which ones? New Super Mario Bros was great. Mario Kart DS was the best so far, Zelda PH, looks crazy good already... Metroid Prime was good as an FPS (even if it was a deviation from the Metroid formula of Exploration, and isolation)... The only real disapointment I had was Starfox: Command, and EVEN That could have been vastly improved just by offering traditional controls, vs the touch screen controls that "Kinda work... most of the time"...
Which games / franchises are you referring to specifically? Just curious.
Actually I was thinking more in the vein of 1080 avalanche, or a Surfing game... but a Tony Hawk could be pretty cool.
Remember what you (may have) thought about the Wii controller when it was announced. WiiFit is very much in line with the Wii philosophy, and shows promise. I suspect this will be a million seller in 3 months or less.
Wait... Sony dropped the price of the PS3? At launch you could get one for $499 or $599, now on Amazon I see them listed for $499 and $599... Did they introduce a new SKU for $449 or $399 and I'm not seeing it?
Ahhhhhhhh the good old days.... :-)
Interesting observation. The only way it could be the primary method is if Sony sold them through eBay as their primary / only outlet.