It seems the console maker who’s trailing in sales typically says how great competition is and how it’s great for the consumer. Sony’s not leading the console race, as of now, and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves stated in a recent interview:
The winner, he said, is the consumer. “That’s why we are not going to slag off Microsoft or Nintendo at all,” he said, “because again it’s rather like the trainer market: one year it’s Reebok, next year it’s Nike, and then suddenly it’s Adidas; it’s cyclical, but in the end everyone wins in five to ten years.”
Sony continues to speak towards their “10 year plan” and how they’re increasing momentum in the market. They’re not winning in sales but with a ten years to go, this is just the beginning. Had this statement come from Microsoft it would be a chance to worry, but Sony has proof to backup their statements.
The PlayStation 2 is going strong as a nine year-old and doesn’t seem to be letting up in game releases. Sony’s press conferences always cover the PlayStation 2 in their talks with the PSP and PlayStation 3 for three big reasons: it’s worth bragging about, it distracts from lower PS3 sales and it separates them from the competition.
Where is the GameCube or classic Xbox in Nintendo and Microsoft’s press conferences and number crunch reports? The fact is, the companies have given up on both products retiring them as “last generation” (translation: poor sales). What better reason to buy a PlayStation 3 than knowing the company is in the game for the long haul?
It might be bit cheaper to buy an Xbox 360 but who’s to say Microsoft isn’t going to announce their next generation console tomorrow and kill off the Xbox 360? Obviously, Microsoft will deny those claims but there will always be doubt without a proven track record.
On the other hand, Microsoft hasn’t seen the success in the classic Xbox and Nintendo hasn’t seen nearly the fervor over the GameCube as compared to their current generation consoles. So, that begs the question, why would they halt all that for new console announcements?
Until they’ve had more time in the market, we cannot be 100% certain what Nintendo and Microsoft are going to do when it comes to next-generation announcements while Sony’s been very clear in each press conference. As Kaz Hirai said to Eurogamer earlier:
“We certainly don’t do the consumer the disservice of basically saying that the consoles have gone by the wayside because we have a new one. Right now, a prime example? PS2 is nine years into it. Where’s the Xbox? Where’s the GameCube?”
If one console maker is looking for a way to stand out and explain their slow sales figures, Sony’s got the PS2 and its long history in their back pocket.
Now, if we could only get those game designers to continue to take it seriously and not put all their eggs into the PS3 basket.
@PS3 Hacking Begins in Earnest, and Sony “Looking Into” It:
Well, Sony is in a lose – lose situation: they change the key, and existing apps become worthless, or leave it, and existing apps can be pirated at will.
As for the complexity of the hack, well, it’s enough to build ONE image for a given game, and that will be multiplied like hell.
Jonah is right however. With the right key, there will be no way to distinguish between pirated and legit games, not by using the key that is.
One way that could be done, would be to do some sort of a CRC/hash on the Blue-Ray disk, then send it over PSN to Sony HQ, and compare it with the CRC of the original one; I expect differences: because of the way the key will be ‘injected’ in the hacked executables, they will have a different CRC than the original, despite being injected with the same root key.
Still, what was left from the image of “console = DRM box” is slowly vanishing. Good news for PC users, since producers will ditch the console exclusive deal and start making stuff for the PC as well.
@Mac App Store Cracked:
Ha ha ha :)) this is incredible … 2011 starts to look like the year of the hackers.
One reason why Steam it is hard to crack is because it keeps full records of what you bought/received as a gift on their servers. So they always know if you really own the software or not.
@Kinect hacks:
Derrick has a point there, hacks or no hacks, MSFT wins. And yes, MSFT is good at building frameworks/APIs. And again, yes, official support of Kinect on PC will end up in huge sales of the device, and maybe, a shitload of games for it.
@Interplay Calls Bethesda’s Legal Claims Absurd:
What can I say … these are the pains of selling IPs …
@Lord of the Rings Online Triples Profit:
Well, profit = intake – costs. Since they’re tripling the profits, it means that (1) they have a profit and that (2) they’re now making more money.
That sounds like a good decision for me.
@Question of the week:
Hmm … the only console I had was a NES clone. Compared to the other clones, it had the Sega style D-pad, with the C button doubling the A one. The layout of the D-pad I find it to be very nice, and that’s the feature of choice. Another feature was on another NES clone: it’s D-pads had earphone jacks …
@PS3 Hacking Begins in Earnest, and Sony “Looking Into” It:
Well, Sony is in a lose – lose situation: they change the key, and existing apps become worthless, or leave it, and existing apps can be pirated at will.
As for the complexity of the hack, well, it’s enough to build ONE image for a given game, and that will be multiplied like hell.
Jonah is right however. With the right key, there will be no way to distinguish between pirated and legit games, not by using the key that is.
One way that could be done, would be to do some sort of a CRC/hash on the Blue-Ray disk, then send it over PSN to Sony HQ, and compare it with the CRC of the original one; I expect differences: because of the way the key will be ‘injected’ in the hacked executables, they will have a different CRC than the original, despite being injected with the same root key.
Still, what was left from the image of “console = DRM box” is slowly vanishing. Good news for PC users, since producers will ditch the console exclusive deal and start making stuff for the PC as well.
@Mac App Store Cracked:
Ha ha ha :)) this is incredible … 2011 starts to look like the year of the hackers.
One reason why Steam it is hard to crack is because it keeps full records of what you bought/received as a gift on their servers. So they always know if you really own the software or not.
@Kinect hacks:
Derrick has a point there, hacks or no hacks, MSFT wins. And yes, MSFT is good at building frameworks/APIs. And again, yes, official support of Kinect on PC will end up in huge sales of the device, and maybe, a shitload of games for it.
@Interplay Calls Bethesda’s Legal Claims Absurd:
What can I say … these are the pains of selling IPs …
@Lord of the Rings Online Triples Profit:
Well, profit = intake – costs. Since they’re tripling the profits, it means that (1) they have a profit and that (2) they’re now making more money.
That sounds like a good decision for me.
@Question of the week:
Hmm … the only console I had was a NES clone. Compared to the other clones, it had the Sega style D-pad, with the C button doubling the A one. The layout of the D-pad I find it to be very nice, and that’s the feature of choice. Another feature was on another NES clone: it’s D-pads had earphone jacks …
First of all, I thought you would be interested in this link from Destructoid :
http://tinyurl.com/4n7wmmz
And http://aol.it/hLvgJx from Joystiq.
As a 1st gen PS3 owner, I am personally wishing that the court order throws that gimp in prison for releasing the codes. Yes Sony made an error, but putting it out there to allow others to crack the hardware is superlame. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that if you bought the hardware, it is yours to ruin the warranty by taking it apart (for the old style mods chips), but hacking into the main program is on a different level. This is one thing that won’t go away, and no doubt will get worse. GRRRRRRR.
As for the features, I have found some of the PS3’s extra features quite useful. I like being able to use the Blu-Ray player, but would quite happily have coped with a DVD player if they left in old hardware. Another feature I like from PS3 is the TV functionality. In UK you get 3 on-demand catch up services from main terrestrial channels (One of which you can also get on the Wii), and X360 having one for the satellite channels. We don’t have Netflix over here, but we now have Lovefilm, which is the closest we will get.
As for features that are pointless, I felt that the CD-player in the Sega Saturn / PS1 were useless. Why would you use your tv, and another bit of hardware, just to listen to something you could hear in better quality on your stereo?
@ 3DS – I found that I couldn’t play on my DS Lite for more than a couple of hours without feeling nauseous and cross-eyed, but I would expect to not need to plug it back in again straight afterwards.
First of all, I thought you would be interested in this link from Destructoid :
http://tinyurl.com/4n7wmmz
And http://aol.it/hLvgJx from Joystiq.
As a 1st gen PS3 owner, I am personally wishing that the court order throws that gimp in prison for releasing the codes. Yes Sony made an error, but putting it out there to allow others to crack the hardware is superlame. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that if you bought the hardware, it is yours to ruin the warranty by taking it apart (for the old style mods chips), but hacking into the main program is on a different level. This is one thing that won’t go away, and no doubt will get worse. GRRRRRRR.
As for the features, I have found some of the PS3’s extra features quite useful. I like being able to use the Blu-Ray player, but would quite happily have coped with a DVD player if they left in old hardware. Another feature I like from PS3 is the TV functionality. In UK you get 3 on-demand catch up services from main terrestrial channels (One of which you can also get on the Wii), and X360 having one for the satellite channels. We don’t have Netflix over here, but we now have Lovefilm, which is the closest we will get.
As for features that are pointless, I felt that the CD-player in the Sega Saturn / PS1 were useless. Why would you use your tv, and another bit of hardware, just to listen to something you could hear in better quality on your stereo?
@ 3DS – I found that I couldn’t play on my DS Lite for more than a couple of hours without feeling nauseous and cross-eyed, but I would expect to not need to plug it back in again straight afterwards.