Sony now loses $50 on every PS3 sold

No matter how you look at it – the PlayStation 3 is a beast of a machine. In my opinion, it easily offers more than both the Wii and the X-Box … but then again, the PS3 is meant to be a hybrid of a video game system, a central media hub and a BluRay player. When you look into all the features that the PS3 has, it was no shock to find out that the PS3 cost $800+ to make. Well, that’s not the case anymore. The production cost of the PS3 has almost been chopped in half … now only costing $445 per console. Which means that Sony is now only losing $45 per console.

Rejoice gamer fans … now the price of the PS3 will go down. Surely, Sony lost tons of money before … why not lower the cost of the system and make a gamble in hopes to get more PS3’s sold and have more games purchased.

Well, I wouldn’t expect that anytime soon.

Yahoo! is stupid, even without Jerry Yang

 

Yahoo! came out with the best and worst technologies for 2008 – and boy do they list some pretty dumb things. I won’t list everything on their list – but they say that the best is Rock Band 2 … and the worst is BluRay. I … just can’t really buy that.

First off … Rock Band 2 is not new technology … it’s very old technology. Sure, they came out with the drumset a year ago … but the guitar technology is about four to five years old. Clearly, this doesn’t make sense then, that it’s the best technology of 2008. Of course, then they comment that it’s the best game of the year. Well, it’s not technology … it’s a game … on a CD … software that’s years old.

Then they announce BluRay is the worst technology of the year. It’s very funny that in an economy that is so bad that automakers shut down entirely until the beginning of the new year and that demand for gas has dropped so much that it’s the lowest it’s been in years that people won’t buy the higher priced technology. That doesn’t mean it’s bad … it just means it’s too expensive.

They argue that they won’t pay $25 for a Blu Ray disc for Step Brothers. I did a search on Amazon, and here were the offers that they had on their Web site:

• Step Brothers, Single Disc Unrated for $17.00
• Step Brothers, Two-Disc Unrated for $23.00
• Step Brothers, BluRay + BD-Live for $25.00

Oops … looks like that the writers just didn’t do enough research. Sure, they may cost $25 at Wal-Mart … but if you look online you may find that you can get some good deals on Blu Ray discs. Infact, I bought a season of a television show that’s on Blu Ray and I got it for 50% off. Actually, when I was last at Wal-Mart I say many BluRay movies selling for $20. I would say – easily – that the prices are coming down, and pretty fast. I think that’s a sign that BluRay is becoming more common and that companies are finally lowering prices to what they should be.

The second argument is that the players are slow. And I can’t say they’re wrong … but what I will say is that the PS3 is a very fast BluRay player compared to the other one I had. It runs just as fast as standard DVD player. I’m really not sure if players made today are still slow or not but if the PS3 can run at a decent speed there’s really no reason why the others can’t.

So I dub this article as BS. To say that Rock Band 2 is the best technology … when it’s technology that actually came out a year ago and that BluRay sales are too expensive … when my experience and a simple trip to Amazon shot that down shows that this is merely an opinion article and not a legit research article.

What do holiday sales tell us?

The holiday season has come and gone. All of the big games are out. We’ve heard news about how X-Box 360, Nintendo Wii and the PS3 benefitted from the games that came out this year. And again – all the big games that came out … well, on my last post regarding holiday sales I noted that at least one or two games with big hype came out a week.

I also commented on how the cluster of big games in a small timeframe would hurt sales … and it looked like I was right. The new franchises that came out flopped and the sequels were met with great sales. Games like Little Big Planet and Mirror’s Edge fell off the radar, while sequels topped sales. And I’ll also mention a certain MMORPG that released another expansion that became the fastest selling PC game ever. (Mmm, that screenshot makes me want to play it … )

So what does that tell us? That tells us that people are not willing to give new games a try. Instead, they want to stick with what they know will be fun. I don’t need to test-drive Wrath of the Lich King in order for me to like it … I know that if I’d buy it, I’d like it. But at the same time, people put big bets on games like Fallout 3 just because of the name. If you look around, and even look at a comment made on my review – the game does not live up to the previous games.

It seems as if new franchises have the same fight that people just out of college have. They have to PROVE themselves against an industry of experts.

VOIP, not withot its downfalls.

VOIP – also known as Voice Over Internet Protocol – is a pretty neat feature. I was introduced to it first in World of Warcraft. It was great – because all the strategy was now discussed through your headset instead of typing it out. It was also a great way to easily handle situations that you’d otherwise have to type out which would be a hinderance. It was so widely used and required for most guilds that Blizzard themselves implimented a voice chat feature.

It’s also neat with video games because you can talk to the person you’re gaming with. I talk to quite a bit of people through Rock Band just to make sure everyone is good with doing a 7-song setlist or letting them know that I’m looking for expert players only. In Resistance 2, it’d be a great way to collaborate with your team. I do not doubt for a second that VOIP also helps your team out when doing a team multiplayer. It’s much more easier to verbalise your issues rather than type them out – and that’s if it’s a computer game. With consoles, your only options is really to use a bluetooth headset.

But, like all great things, there are downfalls.

Rock Band Multiplayer is weird

I love Rock Band – I think it’s a great game. I love Rock Band online multiplayer even more. It’s really cool when you have a “full band’ working on getting the highest score. Unfortunately,it has some setbacks which if they fixed would make it that much more enjoyable.

The first point that I should bring up is the fact that if you substitute in a band, you get very little credit for your character. Substituing in a band is when you join someone elses band to help them get the highest score. The problem with this is that - outside of the money you receive – you get no other benefits. Only the “hosts” band will get the credit, scores and the fans. And when you leave, then you’re gone. Never to be seen again. There is no recollection of your character’s contribution to that band’s journey to success. And when you think of it that way, why exactly would you substitute in a band when you can just put your band online and get band members?

The second is that when you do have a full band – you’re scored by the lowest difficulty. For example, I did a seven-song setlist with a full band. I’m the only one on expert, two are on hard mode and one is on medium. Well, when the gig is done – that set has you marked down as clearing it on medium. And at the very end, the number of fans I got was the cap for medium – which was abut 350,000 fans. Had everyone been on expert, my band would have gotten about 3,000,000 fans.

The third reason ties in with the second reason – there’s no filter. You can’t filter your search so that only those who choose expert mode will play. There’s an easy way for the game to detect the user’s preferred difficulty because on your band select screen it sums up your difficulty chosen and the stars you’ve gotten – so my band (The Vagabonds) would have it’s difficulty set to Expert with five stars. Instead, you’re left guessing until you actually start your gig.

I think this could all be easily patched via an update. Probably not that big of a deal either. But the fact is, these reasons generally make me stray from playing unless I want to sub in another band for money. Because – at no offense to others who play on a lower difficulty – doing that with my band lowers my band difficulty summary and then I generally have to work solo to bring that back up.

Patch it up, Harmonix – do it. I have faith in you.