Reaction To Sony @ E3… Uh… Not Great
Lets round up some stuff:
Kotaku says Sony’s lost its edge, thanks to stealing the idea for the controller from Nintendo. Every big idea in the Playstation 3 either came from its competitors (controller, hard drive, online service) or is another episode of the “Sony Pushes A Format” show (Blu-Ray just another Memory Stick/MiniDisk/ATRAC3/Betamax attempt, rather than an attempt to improve a product) and smacks of desperation to come up with something new. Rather than presenting anything we haven’t seen before, the PS3 is just some of the same features of the other consoles, at twice the price.
The Guardian says 360 owners shouldn’t worry, since PS3 games don’t look any better than 360 games, no matter the price tag.
Did you notice the news that the PS3′s controller no longer vibrates? Yup, they added the tilt sensor, and junked the feedback. Probably has more to do with the lawsuit by the owners of the force feedback patent, since the controller is also unusually light.
Joystiq says the tilt sensor felt “tacked-on”, and the analog sticks poorly placed.
But the really big news? The $499 PS3 isn’t missing just 40 gigs of hard drive space. Also gone is the Memory Stick/SD/Compact Flash slot, which is going to make moving saved games around damn near impossible. Also missing is the wi-fi. Also missing is the HDMI output, which means future copy protected BluRay disks won’t work, at least in HD. Whoops. Read it all in Sony’s spec sheet PDF.
HDBeat calls it the “tard pack”.
Wired calls it “a crippled box”. And they note that you can upgrade from a Core Xbox 360 to a Premium by buying the missing hard drive, but it’s a lot harder to replace missing ports, i/o cards and internal hard drives.
As you can see by reading almost any news article, the story is spinning that the PS3 costs $599, with an option for a $499 crippled version. I’ll bet Sony was hoping the press would focus on the cheaper version as being “only” $100 more than the 360. They really don’t get the media, do they?
I’ll break it down, because here’s what it comes down to: You can buy an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii for the price of a Playstation 3. And regardless of anything you want to say about the 360, that is a much better deal.
PlayStation 3 is going to be great. Blu-ray isn’t Betamax as many say, it will truly be a format that people use. It has so many advantages over Microsoft and Nintendo. Over the Xbox 360, PS3 will have motion detection in the controllers, a 60 GB HD, blu-ray playing (those will cost 700+ when they come out), exclusivity in games, better processor, and the fan base. I can’t wait.
Comment by wom | May 10, 2006
Yeah, I cant either. Region free games are a big thing too. Its funny that all the things mentioned wont matter one bit when the PS3 hits the stores. Nathan, most people have already made up their minds on which one they’ll go with. Im guessing XBox owners have gone with 360 already, and the PS owners will stick the PS3 (look at Japan). There will be a few switchers between BOTH camps, but overall there is not going to be a “winner”. The market is so huge there is more than enough room for two big players. So stop worrying, XBox will be alive and well next year and so will Playstation.
Comment by Aaron | May 10, 2006