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.
Good job on Black Friday, Microsoft.
Hey Microsoft, I read your press releases on how you outsold the PS3 3:1. Meaning … X-Box sold three X-Boxes for every PS3 sold. That is quite the great feat – especially within 12 hours. But, before I really pat Microsoft on the back, I think it’s only fair to kind of pick away at what really might have happened. And I’m not talking about the rumors that Microsoft is lying about their actual sales …
I’m just going to guess that the majority of their sales on Black Friday was the X-Box Arcade. It’s a super-cheap console … even cheaper than the Wii … at $199. Not a bad deal, right? Well, it kind of losses it’s appeal after you find out that it doesn’t come with a hard drive but a 256MB memory card. So at least you can store your games. Well, then you find out that the mandatory X-Box Live Experience install eats up about … 200MB, severely crippling your space for saving games. If you have about five games, I’d argue that it’s about time to invest in either another hard drive for $100 to install or get another small memory card. Additionally, copying your music, pictures and videos to your X-Box hard drive isn’t as easy as plug-and-play. At least for music, you have to rip it from a CD instead of hooking up a storage device and just copying it over.
Meanwhile, the PS3 owner who shelled out $400 for their console is met with a 80GB hard drive that you can easily copy information to. Plus, the PSN offers a free service as well as a video store – albeit, it’s not as advanced as Microsoft’s Netflix deal. X-Box users would have to pay about $300 to get what the PS3 offers right off the bat.
So I’m saying that while Microsoft is throwing dirt in the face of PS3 by saying they outsold them by 3 to 1 – which is impressive – Microsoft probably made those sales off a cheap version of the console which really restricts the owner until they either come to terms with what very little they have or they pay more money and upgrade.
And, it’s pretty ballsy for the company to taunt their accomplishments when they themselves got outsold 2:1 by a system that’s weaker than the X-Box and more expensive, which of course is the Nintendo Wii. And this is where my aggression comes from.
I hate it when people and companies brag about things that they shouldn’t. After Microsoft threw out their boast, Nintendo could have easily said, “Hey, we outsold all these next-generation, high definition, comes-with-a-hard-drive consoles big time. We outsold Microsoft 2:1 and we obliterated the PS3 in sales.”
It’s just like when Sony said regarding the Wii, “Peh, have fun with the sucky system. The graphics are terrible, there’s no hard drive and we’re going to kick their asses … although they’ve dominated the market for the past year.” Just like Sony still brags that they’ll be the big console winner of this generation. Well, instead of saying what you’re going to do, why not just do it?
Unless you’re on top of the market, you shouldn’t try to kick dirt in the faces of your opponents. PS3′s not the king of the mountain, and neither is X-Box … the king right now is Nintendo – no matter how much it frustrates people. So it’s pretty silly for X-Box to brag about their accomplishments over the PS3 when Nintendo did the same thing to Microsoft.
Here’s why big holiday releases fail
I think this holiday season is a great example about how every week there is something that is coming out that we potentially want to buy. On the front of the PS3, which has all my attention, I’ve held interest in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Fracture, Mirror’s Edge, Little Big Planet, Rock Band 2, Dead Space, Resistance 2, Quantum of Solace, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Street Fighter 4, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Bionic Commando, Bioshock and Resident Evil 5 are just some games that seem to be on the horizon or have recently released. That’s 13 games in the past two months … that’s more than one game a week that I’ve held interest in. (working on a November to December timeline, of course)
Granted, some of those have fallen off the radar and there are some that I’m waiting until I get home to play but that is a lot of games to look forward to in such a small amount of time and more importantly, a lot of money.
And that, overall, is why big holiday releases fail. Obviously, the reason why after the jump.
First Impressions: Resistance 2
Well, this is possibly the last time I’l say this – outside of Mirror’s Edge – but this is a game I’ve been looking forward to playing for quite some time. And because of my recent thoughts about resubscribing to WoW and getting tired of what is a fun, yet repetitive week of Rock Band, I decided to try getting a different game in hopes that it’ll calm down my urge to play World of Warcraft.
And I’m glad to say that it did.
Review: Super Street Fighter II …
… Turbo High-definition Remix. What a long name that is. Why couldn’t they just call it Super Street Fighter 2 Remixed? It’s one of the few times where even the acronym of the name is too long. Anyways, this is a game I have been looking forward to since I heard about it – I sure do say that alot don’t I?
Anyways, for me it was going to be a great trip to the past … back when I was about 11 or 12 and I opened up my Super Nintendo with Street Fighter 2 and Home Alone as well. And how the game had eaten up hours of my time and had given me ideas on how to make little tournaments with my friends before the game had actual tournaments. Now, this game had new music, updated graphics and it had online play, so this was going to be a steal at $15!
Well, I guess you can kind of say that …
Am I a World of Warcraft addict?
SO! World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has been out for about three weeks now. I haven’t bought it yet – still don’t plan on it despite me saying to some friends that I may be back in January. And so far, I’ve been good. Although, during the Thanksgiving weekend I find myself with a lot of time on my hands. Normally, I’m busy all day but now I can lounge. And when that happens, my mind drifts to World of Warcraft. Last night I found myself reminiscing about it like a normal person reminisces about their first love or some crap like that. Makes me start to wonder if I’m a World of Warcraft addict. So, I’ll pinpoint some known facts about my history with World of Warcraft.
Trophy System may offer actual rewards?
What could the future of PPS3 trophies hold? From ARS Technica:
Sony’s catch-up strategy with the trophy system had a slow start, but developers are quickly adopting what has long been one of the main differentiating features of the Xbox 360. The latest rumor? Sony may hand out rewards for players who collect the trophies in the form of content and access to games.
CVG is reporting that the latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine has word on this new trophy rewards system. “We’ve heard that SCEA is mulling over some sort of Trophy reward system,” the staff OPM wrote. “We doubt it’ll be cash (or the equivalent), but we suspect it might be exclusive access to early betas and the like.”
One of the most common complaints about the gamerscore system on the Xbox 360 is that the points are useless; they don’t actually do anything. If Sony was the first to act on this front, it would be a quick win for the company that seemed to otherwise be catching up on the concept. It’s a neat idea, but we’ll have to wait and see how—or even if—it’s implemented. (ARS Technica)
I’m not entire sure what to think of this. One one hand, I like the idea of getting rewards for getting these achievements, but on the other hand I can’t help but think this will subliminally force people into buying games that use trophies.
