Last November I predicted that Nintendo's Wii is what I think will win the next war.
I however gave allot of credit to Sony. I did not expect them to suck so badly.
When PSM (an American Playstation only independent magazine) starts to show screen shots of Nintendo games in articles and running features about the "worst launch in history", and when EGM comes up with a cover with a PS3 thrown with tomatoes, and when "wired" pick Wii clearly over the PS3, then my friend I can tell you Sony is going down.
Sony is going so down its not even funny. This will be a case study in future college textbooks.
Nintendo, was as foxy as I anticipated, it is to be expected of a company that lived so long and endured so many videogame generation, more than anybody. However, despite Nintendo's intelligence, That's not the reason why Sony is losing. Sony is losing because of their own sheer stupidity!
Sony DID become arrogant, like Nintendo was just as I predicted. That led to some horrific blunders. like:
1- Unit Shortages:
The PS2 was released in 2000 and had a huge success and instant shortages. So, why on Earth did Sony, after 7 years, with all that experience and market GROWTH, how can they expect to release the next gen PS3 with FEWER quantity than last time? That caused riots, stupidly high ebay prices and several shootings and robberies. Yeah, buy a system, fear for your life. Great selling point.
2- High Price:
I'm sorry, I've been gaming since before primary school. On an old Toshiba home PC with two colours on it (white & light blue only). The concept was always to "sell a cheap console". Why? because everyone will buy it and there you go: instant user base. Why do you think magazines are so cheap to subscribe to? yes, building user base (good for advertising revenue you see). Selling a console at a high price (a price never achieved in the history of consoles I might add) will certainly mean a smaller user base, which won't be to attractive to third party developers.
3- Stealing & lying too:
Sony came up with a lame ass boomerang controller that just screams "I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT VIDEOGAMES", did they not learn anything from PS1 & PS2? Anything at all? Along came Nintendo and tought the world again some new tricks with their Wiimote. What does Sony do? I think someone yelled:"lets go back to the Dual Shock 2 design. Hell no, we don't have time to R&D a new shape, just use the old shape with bluetooth. I WANT MOTION SENSING AT ALL COSTS YOU HEA.. Sixaxis? OK. Just sign them. HURRY!"
So we get the current PS3 joypad, the "Sixaxis". Not as sophisticated as the Wiimote by far, but at least it does have it.
Then someone removes the vibrating function, "say what?" everyone asks then Sony responds "It will mess up the motionsensing capabilities and we'd rather put in a new input method rather than a feedback method".
A lie that PSM themselves uncovered (imagine, a PS3 magazine doing that to the PS3) where they showed an old PS2 controller with motion sensing AND vibration for the PS2 with absolutely no problems. Great, your thieves and liers too. So, why removing the vibration? it must be:
4- Cheap skate tactics 1 - still joypad:
No motor in the joypad means its cheaper (for them to make, not for people to buy). This greedy concept extends to:
5- Cheap skate tactics 2 -HD Not-Ready:
in the spirit of greed & cockyness, Sony claimed HD capabilities. But... You won't be able to bask in the glory of your new HD TV just yet because: Sony won't give you HD cables. You have to go buy them yourselves. that way it will cost YOU extra, not them. Just like selling a car without tires. It doesn't stop there...
6- Cheap skate tactics 3 - Not Fully Compatible 1:
While the PS3 is being touted as fully PS2 backwards compatible, there is no where on the machine to stick in your memory card. Why? Because in the same said spirit, you have to BUY an adaptor for that. Not only is it ugly, they are charging you $15 for something that could cost $2-3 to manufacture built in.
7- Not fully compatible 2:
The PS3 rendered PS2 games actually WORSE than they are! God, I remember the comparisons between PS1 & PS2 and how 2 made everything just better (world peace must be near now!). In the interest of fairness, this issue has been resolved in system update 1.5
8- Not fully compatible 3 - Destroyer of legends:
It seems that it corrupts data saves for PS2. Careful now.
9- Stupid, Stupid PR:
Who's their PR agency? Seriously? They suck! All these press releases makes me think that they do not believe they are talking to smart people. When the people asked about the lack of vibration they told them it couldn't be done. And we know it WAS done. That is sad. The the president of SCEA comes out and dares anyone to find a PS3 on the shelves promising those who do with $1200.
Ladies and gentlemen, if this person managed to be president, we all have hope to become one, one day.
First of all, when you have a system which had severe, and I mean severe shortages at launch, you cannot "brag" about how successful it is by daring people to find one! Was he on something at the time?
So, penny arcade took him up on that offer successfully proving that the PS3 is freely available (making prez a liar or completely clueless) and holding him up on his dare. (click the image on the right for a bigger picture)
10- You can't rule by division:
A console means an affordable standard to play games on. PCs aren't "standard" because each one is different, that's why pc games look and feel and sometimes play different. That's why there are some games you can't buy because it's not compatible or its too demanding.
A console gets rid of a~ll the headache. except if its a PS3, mind. different versions will eventually mean different spec. Specially if Sony's plans to be able to upgrade playstation 3 to new hardware comes to life. This will cut them off the casual gamer market instantly, as "casuals" will not bother to verify "specs".
So, what do you think? I can't believe that PSM ran an article about the "Worst launch in History" Sony is losing their own preachers.
That's not the only thing their losing, they are slowly losing third party developers. They are looking at castle Mario now, Solid Snake is guest starring in Nintendo's Wii Smash brothers while Square Enix are releasing a Final Fantasy XII spinoff on the Nintendo DS. In the business world, these companies are saying to Nintendo: "Hello. *shake hands* how are you? Were still friends right? cool!". Third parties are paving an emergency exit road so they can easily jump ship if things turn sour.
The charts are not in Sony's favour at all. It's not a problem of hardware or games. This is mostly just very bad management, something unfamiliar with a Japanese company. They should seriously do something before too late.
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