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.
No comments:
Post a Comment