Make no mistake, on November 17th I'll be plunking down $600 for one of these monstrosities, but that's because I'm a technology addict. I'm not going to be recommending this purchase to any of my friends.
Sony's arrogance has reached unbelievable proportions.
They attempt to hawk UMD movies which often cost more than the same movie on DVD and are less useful as they have lower resolution and can only be played on a PSP. Despite the fact that most retailers won't even carry the poor-selling movies, they still declare the format a success.
They are poised to do the same thing with Blu-Ray as with UMD. The only reason we have a Blu-Ray format is because Sony refused to defer to the judgment of the larger consortium of manufacturers and studios who chose HD-DVD instead.
They have set an obscene price point for the PS3, and have attempted to justify it by comparing PS3 to a meal at a fine resturant vs the competition which is fast.
They seem to have designed the shape of the PS3 solely for the purpose of making it difficult to put things on top of it. It's basically a PS2 with a curved top.
Sony's arrogance has been legendary since the phenominal success it started enjoying about mid-way through the first Playstation's life cycle. And I can't say I blame them. They jumped into a market as a relative newcommer and gradually overcame the encumbents. Other than the poorly supported N64 and mismanaged Saturn, the Playstation also had to contend with rookie systems 3DO, CD-I, Jaguar and (Japan Only) PC-FX. When that generation started everyone wondered whether Nintendo or Sega would reign supreme, but when the dust settled the Playstation was clearly the winner. Possibly the least powerful of the contending systems, Sony owed its success to a juggernaut marketing campaign, low production costs leading to stronger thrid party support and a slue of must-have exclusive titles. There wasn't anything remarkable about the Playstation it was just managed very well.
Building on this success Sony proclaimed itself the master-race of console gaming. In what was clearly intended sabotage Sony chose to release Playstation 2 specs and release information the week before the Dreamcast's launch. Their intention was, of course, to dangle the imminent PS2 in front of next-gen happy gamers. It is practically unheard of in the game industry to make announcements like that in September. Most announcements of that nature are reserved for trade shows such as TGS, or E3.
As promised, the PS2 was released in 2000 and quickly sold out due mostly to hype - the launch lineup was pathetic. Most gamers bought it with the promise of upgraded sequels like Tekken 4, Gran Turismo 2000, and Metal Gear Solid 2. When actual release date came Tekken 4 was the only one to make an appearence. Metal Gear Solid 2 took an excruciating two years to be released and was a massive disappointment to most fans. Gran Turismo 2000 never actually materialized, though arguably the game originally shown as GT2000 could be considered the prototype for Gran Turismo 3 released in 2004 - four years after the PS2 launch. Perhaps one of the biggest selling points of the PS2 was its backwards compatibility with old Playstation games and the fact that it doubled as a DVD player. At the time DVD players ranged from around $200-$600. The backward compatibility gave gamers something to do with their new toy, and the DVD playback sold quite a few units by itself.
PS2 crushed the floundering Dreamcast. Dreamcast couldn't play DVDs or Saturn games, and was dogged by the bad retailer relations caused by the untimely demise of Saturn. And from about a week after launch, a steady stream of mediocre PS2 games began their march onto store shelves. Sony's lax quality control ensured that they could pump more boxes of crap to retailers than anybody else. Although 95% of the games released for the PS2 are not worth the electricity that it takes to run them, Sony proudly points to their enormous library of games and says "we have something for everyone".
The year head start that Sony enjoyed allowed them to stonewall the Gamecube and newcomer XBOX and prevent either from threatening their staggering market share. Again, Sony held its competition at bay with far inferior hardware by a relentless advertising campaign and a willingness to publish any crappy piece of software that doesn't lock the console up.
I think they've finally stepped over the line with this latest string of arrogance, and I hope they get wiped out.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Transformers The Movie teaser trailer
www.transformerslive.com has become www.transformersmovie.com and they have posted a new teaser trailer dubbed an "exclusive announcement".
It has been roughly a year since the movie was officially announced, and it looks like production is well on schedule. Some cast announcements have been made and it looks like they've respectfully reworked the Transformers logo, making some cosmetic changes over the original 1985 logo, but leaving it mostly intact. That gives me hope that this movie will be based more heavily on the original Transformers characters rather than one of the dozen other series' that have followed in its steps.
Some things are almost a given - there practically has to be an Optimus Prime and a Megatron - very few Transformers series' have existed without at least some version of those two.
My wishlist for this movie:
It has been roughly a year since the movie was officially announced, and it looks like production is well on schedule. Some cast announcements have been made and it looks like they've respectfully reworked the Transformers logo, making some cosmetic changes over the original 1985 logo, but leaving it mostly intact. That gives me hope that this movie will be based more heavily on the original Transformers characters rather than one of the dozen other series' that have followed in its steps.
Some things are almost a given - there practically has to be an Optimus Prime and a Megatron - very few Transformers series' have existed without at least some version of those two.
My wishlist for this movie:
- Peter Cullen and Frank Welker doing the voices again.
- Bumblebee
- Soundwave as a stereo
It's probably too much to ask, but I can always hope.
Racoons, Poison Ivy and the Fourth
My Fourth of July weekend was probably the most eventful one I've ever had and I didn't even get to see any fireworks (other than on television).
My Fourth of July weekend actually started a week and a half ago when I spent the night stalking a racoon that has been eating my father-in-law's chickens. I had the little varmant in my sights but I couldn't make a positive ID and didn't want to shoot one of their cats by mistake. I didn't take the shot and I've been kicking myself ever since. I went home and showered immediately, and even so I still came away with about four spots of poison ivy. No big deal really, just a minor annoyance.
Flash forward a week. I decided to go back for a second round of stalking the racoon. I spent a few fruitless hours in the dark waiting for him to show up, but this time I wisely didn't go into the tall grass or brush so there was no way I could have come in contact with more poison ivy. Or so I thought...
My wife picks strange things to be a conservationist about, and washing clothes is one of them. She practically refuses to wash clothing that I have worn for less than a full day, and often less than two full days. If there isn't any visible dirt and there are no offending odors, it goes right back into circulation. That way the clothes wear out more slowly, we don't spend as much soap and water on them, and she has to spend less time doing laundry. And if I'm doing something dirty like working on my cars or stalking racoons, it doesn't matter how dirty they are.
At the time, I was blissfully unaware of the true nature of the poision ivy plant. You see the poison in a poison ivy plant is not the needles themselves, rather an oil that the plant produces and distributes via its needles. This oil stays potent for a very very long time. Wash it off with a good soap before it has a chance to be fully absorbed by your skin, and you may never even feel its effects. But put on a pair of pants that have had the oil on them for the better part of a week getting worked in and through and well....you can probably guess where this is going.
I waited until the next morning to shower and by then it was too late. A day later I had poison ivy in places that I will not mention because the fact that I will not mention them tells you exactly where they are.
It was so bad that I have been unable to wear proper clothes for days, I have not had a good night's sleep in four days and I missed out on seeing fireworks because I would have had to wear said clothes and would not be able to apply calomine lotion in a timely fashion.
I suppose the racoon has won this round, but the war is far from over...
My Fourth of July weekend actually started a week and a half ago when I spent the night stalking a racoon that has been eating my father-in-law's chickens. I had the little varmant in my sights but I couldn't make a positive ID and didn't want to shoot one of their cats by mistake. I didn't take the shot and I've been kicking myself ever since. I went home and showered immediately, and even so I still came away with about four spots of poison ivy. No big deal really, just a minor annoyance.
Flash forward a week. I decided to go back for a second round of stalking the racoon. I spent a few fruitless hours in the dark waiting for him to show up, but this time I wisely didn't go into the tall grass or brush so there was no way I could have come in contact with more poison ivy. Or so I thought...
My wife picks strange things to be a conservationist about, and washing clothes is one of them. She practically refuses to wash clothing that I have worn for less than a full day, and often less than two full days. If there isn't any visible dirt and there are no offending odors, it goes right back into circulation. That way the clothes wear out more slowly, we don't spend as much soap and water on them, and she has to spend less time doing laundry. And if I'm doing something dirty like working on my cars or stalking racoons, it doesn't matter how dirty they are.
At the time, I was blissfully unaware of the true nature of the poision ivy plant. You see the poison in a poison ivy plant is not the needles themselves, rather an oil that the plant produces and distributes via its needles. This oil stays potent for a very very long time. Wash it off with a good soap before it has a chance to be fully absorbed by your skin, and you may never even feel its effects. But put on a pair of pants that have had the oil on them for the better part of a week getting worked in and through and well....you can probably guess where this is going.
I waited until the next morning to shower and by then it was too late. A day later I had poison ivy in places that I will not mention because the fact that I will not mention them tells you exactly where they are.
It was so bad that I have been unable to wear proper clothes for days, I have not had a good night's sleep in four days and I missed out on seeing fireworks because I would have had to wear said clothes and would not be able to apply calomine lotion in a timely fashion.
I suppose the racoon has won this round, but the war is far from over...
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