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Written by Barry Scott Will
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 10:43 |
I have a LOT of comments about Sony's event...
- Sony opens up with a montage of game footage; most of it intense and violent. Once again, we see they have pretty much conceded the family-friendly label to Nintendo.
- Jack Tretton seems surprised so many people showed up...Of course, this is the same guy who was surprised PS3s were easily found at retail as early as January 2007.
- Not a strong way to start a conference, bemoaning the effort it took to put on the show. Suck it up, man! Or are you trying to start the whole show by getting us to pity you?
- I'm sorry. Sack Boy in the same pantheon as Robert DeNiro does not compute. Would you like to send a report of this error to Microsoft?
- Who are these "many of you" who have written "2008 is the year of the PS3?" Are the only attendees employees of Sony?
- Here's the convergence theme again. Sony & MS are both beating this drum that assumes their consoles will replace the PC as the hub of the next generation media center. Sorry boys, no dice.
- You know, just because Henry Ford said something doesn't mean that: 1) it's good business; or, 2) you understand it. Ignoring what customers want is what has gotten Sony into so many pickles over the years.
- "As many of you have written..." again. This kind of bogus hype really irks me.
- The PS3 might be a "complete and future-proof" Blu-Ray player; but, there is as yet no confirmed rush by the mass market to buy Blu-Ray discs; and, stand-alone players are still cheaper than the PS3.
- There are "millions" of families looking to "move their content from their PC to their living room"? Who are these people? Most of the people I know barely know how to work their DVD player, much more rip DVDs to PC and stream them around the house.
- "But we're not here to talk about all-in-one functionality..." OK, so, why have you been talking about it for...let's see...TEN MINUTES?!
- More than 75 exclusive titles is more than any other platform...Hmmm...According to Wikipedia the PS3 has 88 released or announced exclusives in all regions. The Xbox 360 has 90 and the Wii has 146. When Tretton says "more than any other platform" he must mean like in golf, where the lowest number wins. (I didn't even mention the huge number of games only available for the PC. After all, it's not really a "platform" if Sony isn't competing in that space. Right?)
- "Third generation?" I guess video game generations didn't start until the PSOne. Hoo boy.
- OK, I'm not a big FPS fan; but, was that the most exciting bit of Resistance 2? I mean, really, all the player was doing was running an obstacle course so he could get grabbed by the monster and advance to the next cut scene. You think they could have found something with a bit more...I don't know...action.
- Resistance 2: "A STORY that's been broken by a superior foe." THE Freudian slip of E3.
- "Footage captured in-game." OK, they captured the pre-rendered cut scenes.
- I can't believe Sony is touting Little Big Planet's ability to create and play user-made levels like it's some great thing. This has been a staple of the PC game market for well over a decade.
- The LBP level to display the charts is seriously cool. Highlight of E3 so far.
- OK, I know the numbers are from NPD; but, when they make no sense, do you have to repeat them? We go from 6.6 billion thus far in 2008 (half the year) to 23 billion (almost 300% increase) by the end of the year?
- He said 5 Billion instead of 5 Million. (More Freudian slips...) Two things to take away from this: 1) The PS2 is outselling the PS3; there's no way this can be good news in the long run. 2) The sales of Sony's three main systems in North America for the first half of 2008 are about equal to sales of the Wii.
- Announcement of "Greatest Hits" bargain bin prices. I've said this before, and I'll say it again, talking up how your games hit the bargain bin faster than the other guy isn't a good thing.
- OK, the LEGO Batman PS2 bundle is a good idea.
- Lots of talk about PSN without actually showing anything...
- Why does Tretton keep wringing his hands?
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty looks good.
- They don't want to fill up their store with bad games just so they can say they have the most games...Well, not having the most exclusives didn't stop them claiming they did...
- Alright, after saying that about not just filling up their store, they show some awful-looking games.
- Oooooo...Look! You can watch PPV TV in a game! How revolutionary!
- Lots of talk about how PSN will--eventually--be as good as Xbox Live!
- Tretton's been on stage--almost completely solo--for 45 minutes now. Doesn't Sony have anyone else that can talk?
- I still don't understand why someone would pay $15 to download a movie, when one can spend a few dollars more and get the movie on disc plus loads of additional content (usually two discs worth).
- Yay! Movies downloaded from PSN can be played on my PSP! Oh, wait, I don't have a PSP...
- Takes an hour to download a two-hour standard-def movie. And they think people are going to download HIGH def content?
- Resistance: Retribution could be a system-seller for PSP. Nice applause for that one.
- Sony's PSP slate looks more interesting than Nintendo's DS lineup of more "evergreen" titles (A.K.A. stale games). Of course, about half the demonstrated titles are ports of big console games.
- "Life with Playstation." Yeah! That's it. That's the ticket. Just how I want to spend my life.
- DC Universe Online could be a system-seller. It's definitely the most exciting thing I've seen thus far.
- 80GB PS3 for $400 is quite...tempting...Still, all they did was double the hard drive capacity (which, based on hard drive prices, probably actually costs them less) for the same price.
- Big cheers for God of War III. Not interested in it; but, it could be a system-seller.
- Infamous looks very cool.
- MAG doesn't really interest me; and, is it too ambitious? The strain here isn't so much on the PS3 as it is on the network and the server infrastructure. As the climactic demo of the show, it was actually a little...flat.
Overall, there was too much Jack Tretton and a lot of out-of-context information and nothing really exciting. On the other hand, Sony actually did a better job of presenting their product than either Microsoft or Nintendo and the increase in hard drive capacity for the base PS3 will probably boost sales this Christmas. MS has a real fight on their hands if Sony actually comes through with the PSN updates; but, I don't think Nintendo has anything to worry about. (Which is probably why Nindy's press conference was so yawn-worthy.) |
