News Sony and Microsoft up the ante

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/05/17/sony_microsoft_up_ante/

 

hmmmm
Doesnt really tell us much about this homebrew scheme of theirs

 

Sony knows there screwed if thats the best they can come up with for Peter Moore's comments on the Wii and the 360. They really should not talk about value, because getting two great consoles is a great value, versus one that is only expensive because Sony wants blu-ray to succeed.

 

So they're supporting homebrew. That's fine and sounds good, but how long will it be until someone makes a bricker. With current homebrew, the people doing it know not to trust everything. The average user won't know what a bricker is until their PS3 stops working.

 

All I can say is that the NeoGeo rocked! Oh yeah, sony will have to price competively as I'm sure most consumers won't be interested in the blue-ray drive or the other fancy things, but its game titles that sony bring to the table. That's the only reason I bought a PS2

 

the neogeo was the closest to a arcade machine in the home available, but it was still priced way out of the market much like the PS3 is reported to be. look at the past consoles that have been expensive and failed, even i didnt think of them so thanks for the reminder
sony have been using linux kits since the PS1 though so its hardly anything new and tbh its still a very niche area that only a very minute area of the market will get any interest in or excited about.
i also agree with the point about value, but i guess theyre hinting at the support of HD video and stuff like that which to be fair will cost alot, but to have it built inot the console without choice is going to be a huge mistake for them imo, as people will go elsewhere if all they want to do is play games without selling a kidney

 

Heheh - I swapped my "Jaguar" system with a guy for his "Neo Geo" system. That was back in the day of using the "rec.arts.videogame..." ng for selling stuff before eBay That was the *best* swap I ever did! NeoGeo was a damn fine system for what it was.

Back on topic -- I do hope Sony succeed in their mission to "sell" the PS3 idea and pricing scheme - I think (my opinion) it's really a subversion to get the blu-ray out into the market and into a mainstream fashion that ties people into a desired medium - i.e., games leading to movies. A lot riding on that if it's true. I hope it works as I have high hopes for the PS3...

 

What I quite enjoy is all of the free advertising that the Wii is getting. Both Sony and Microsoft are almost recommending that you buy their console AND a Wii........Nintendo must be laughing!!

 

the thing is though with sony, theyre trying to incorporate a whole new medium and entertainment system into peoples homes, which i suppose is a good thing in some aspects as it will make bluray and HD dvd a little more mainstream and push things forward. in my mind though, sony have learnt very little from their previous outing they had with the PSX that was meant to revolutionise the home entertainment sector and provide a all in one solution, much like the ps3 is trying to be. only problem is that the PSX failed miserably and was far too expensive then, i think it was in the region of $800-$1000. it never made it to europe, it had a very brief period of exposure in the US but mainly marketted in japan

 

Still...homebrew support is good! Means the console will actually get some life from would-be programmers like myself, PS3 extensions anyone? The geek in me is *a bit* excited.

Chemo: Saying that though, the ps3 is trying to push forward technologies. The PSX didn't have anything to push forward. I bet alot of families in the UK will actually buy HD tv's and blu-ray movies (further pushing blu-ray/HD here) with their PS3's. It might be an expensive package but considering how "cheap" the ps3 is as a blu-ray drive...*might as well buy it*...playing games is just a fringe benefit.

 

Sony allowing homebrew... ill believe it when i see it.

Still wont make me buy their craptastic copy everyone else console

 

I think they're using their "we support homebrew" card so they'll have more leway when it comes to someone cracking it. In the past the excuse was we want linux on it, so now they can have it, just not to play pirated games.. but no-one was gonna do that any way so it's all good.

I'm interested as to whether they charge for it, as linux is suposed to be free and what not. If it is I'll seriously think about getting one because for the price, your getting a lot of technology.

 

the PSX did mate, it had tv tuners on it and recordable hard drives installed too, i think it could also burn discs too iirc (open to correction on that point though) and this was when that technology was new and they were pushing to get the hard drive recorders into peoples homes, and it allowed for streaming and hosting of movie files with atrac mp3's too, so it did have a few things to get on with but it just didnt get adopted by people.

@nix, take a look here mate, this was for the ps2
http://playstation2-linux.com/projects/haven/

they did charge for the kit for the ps2, but that was for the keyboard and other bits apparently rather than actually paying for linux

 

Fair enough mate - but the people have changed since then.

 

Call me a wimp but i'm not parting with £300-400 without knowing the technology i've bought is going to be used at least for the next 5-10 years. I just dont think i can justify taking the risk with such a large amount of money on a console and format that could fail.

I usually support the side that has least annoyed me the last few years however its kind of a hard choice between sony and microsoft. On one-hand you have a drm loving, ATRAC pos. and on the other you have a microsoft product. Only time will tell who wins this one i think.

 

I second that! I've seen far too many marketing promises from outfits to believe the words of an overpaid corporate type.

Also... design wise, does everyone else think the 'cutout' for the drive is moronic? Can't they at least put a rounded 'cover' on it to make it all look like one big curved front-bezel section? (Argh, to illistrate this without firing up Sketchup...)

 

saturn came out at the same time as PS1, PS1 had CD player, it won the round.
dreamcast had better grafics and beter gaming value than the PS2, it even had internet conection of the box, a keybord, revolotionary game pads,....etc, PS2 won, why? PS2 had a DVD player, dreamcast did not.

my uncle got one when it came out, one year after he did not have any games for it, he was simply using it to view DVDs.

regular joes will buy PS3 because it has blueray.

if wii does not have a simple DVD player it will die, even if it is revolutionary, and uber cool and bether than anything in the market.

xbox will also loose if it does not put its HD-DVD inside the box, istead of a dongle that will ocupy another of the few USBs avaylable and will have the USB2 speed.

and every PS fanboy will want and buy one even if they have to sell their arms.

PS:
another thing, does anyone share the same, PS3 looks nice but not cool, as cool as i would like it to bee.

 

i don think the ps2 did so well purly on the fact it could play dvd's, ive never used mine for a dvd player if im honest. the reason the ps2 did so well was because it was built on PS1 franchises and it had a familiar controller and feel to the games.
the wii wont die if its not got a dvd player, the gamecube did fairly well, the only reason that started to fail was because it was too hard/time consuming to convert from other platforms.
microsoft have taken th best path forward though by leaving up to the individual to some degree by coming up with the addon's for the console. i kind of see your point with the usb port being used but MS must have thought of that, or maybe theyll come up with a usb hub for more expansion, like a multitap or something
this is purely my opinion, but i dont think that bluray or Hddvd will be in the majority of homes for another few years yet.

 

As i have said so many times.
If users are gien access to the Linux sofware to eather us or install a Linux OS for the purpose of using the PS3 as an actual PC then i'd have no problem paying the asked price (bigger hard drive)

 

You've got an interesting point there. Unlike MS, Sony doesn't really care if you use a PS3 as a PC, as long as you buy it. The whole Linux on an X-Box thing pissed off MS because Linux generally pisses off MS. Potentially the ability to hack it into a decent computer could be a selling point to a small number of competent geeks.

Do I think Sony is that smart? No.

First off, they are relying on the licensing ageemnets to turn a profit on this overpriced beast. They may talk about allowing homemade games, but the reality is that if you don't shell out a pile of money for their games, they lose.

No, it's based on price. It doesn't matter if it's the greatest value in the world if you can't afford it.