Tired of Sony

Sony @ E3 #1: Failing to Impress

Here’s a change of pace: an independent E3 2010 attendee reviews Sony’s press conference and offerings:

The Sony media briefing was not that interesting. There weren’t many surprises and it dragged on. As a friend mentioned, the Nintendo conference flew by in an instant, but Sony’s got boring and seemed to run on like a Best Director-winner full of Oscar hubris.

Photo by Stephen C. Webster

Oh PlayStation Move … I’d mock you if a photo weren’t mockery enough. This contraption is ugly and expensive: $49 for the Move wand with the glowing ball (some games require two), another $29 for the analog attachment (some games require this as well), then you’ve got to buy a PlayStation Eye, which is another $40.

When Sony announced the price for PlayStation Move was just $49, everyone at the briefing collectively gasped. When they announced their scheme to nickel and dime everyone even remotely interested in trying one of their flagrant Wii ripoffs, the room reverberated with groans.

I went to the booth and tried it out, right after spending some quality time on Zelda. There is no question: Sony has more processing muscle and boasts that Move is “more precise” than Wii’s remote, but I couldn’t tell the difference or see how Move is even preferable. This is especially true when one considers, you’re looking at over $240 just so you and a buddy can fight with pseudo-realistic graphics, when it’s not as intuitive as Wii Sports boxing.

Add two of the $29 analogue remotes, required for most games where the player moves in 3D space, plus the $39-59 for a game and you’re well past the price of a PS3. You’ve essentially bought a new console.

All the price hoops consumers have to jump though to enjoy Move with their friends makes me wonder if Sony is hedging its bets on this product.

I ran through some archery, worked up a sweat on their street brawling game and played with a virtual pet. While the graphics were beyond Wii’s range, the motion controls were not and all of Sony’s working concepts have been done and done better by Nintendo. Move is little more than a ripoff, and a seriously clunky one at that. It has a greater chance of success than Microsoft’s Kinect (ugh), but they’re effectively splitting the market by not including it with all future PlayStation 3 units. This is no small upgrade like the Wii Motion Plus.

Sony’s 3D presentation during the briefing and on the show floor failed to impress me. I own a 3D-capable PC and a pair of active shutter glasses for gaming, so this is tech that I’m quite familiar with as a consumer. Sony’s 3D comes up short on depth of field, where an impressive range is very important.

During the briefing, they showed off Killzone 3 in 3D. While the company hopes it will be a “benchmark” for their 3D experience, I’m just hoping they can show depth a little further out than the gun’s barrel. For all their hype about “innovation,” making me wear a pair of polarized 3D glasses at the presser and active shutter glasses to play Gran Turismo 5 was a little disappointing. And seriously, Killzone looked like another generic shooter. Adding “jetpacks” does not make me want to spend $60.

I spoke to a Sony rep about how their stereoscopic 3D will work and was told that PlayStation 3 will display 3D on any 3D-compliant display: meaning, 120HZ monitor owners (like me) are in luck. It’s supposed to work with any 3D shutter glasses as well, but when I inquired specifically about NVidia’s 3D Vision glasses (which I paid $200 for), he couldn’t say if they’re supported or not.

The Sony rep also did not know if the user will be able to adjust the 3D effect, which seemed to be stuck on minimum. Sure, the small depth of field looks cool at first, but not so much if you’ve ever played Need for Speed: Shift or Burnout Paradise on a proper 3D Vision gaming PC. There, users have the option of a scroll wheel that turns image separation up or down. “Maybe that’s in the firmware?” the Sony rep pondered. “I don’t know.”

Still, to game in 3D on PlayStation 3, consumers are looking at a significant investment of time and money: first on research to find a good 3D display, then on figuring out which active shutter glasses to buy. Better (or worse?) yet, one pair of shutter glasses means only one person can appreciate the effect. Add a few more pairs and you’re over $1,000, at least.

It’s just not worth that price.

Source @ Brave New Hooks - True/Slant

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Sony goes for public sympathy: ‘PSPgo was a test’

Sosdd. Same ol’ sh*t, different day. This is Sony - the company that backpedals and covers up when they screw the pooch; the company that promises big and advertises heavily for things that don’t and WON’T meet expectation; the company that consistently lies to you the consumer - baits you, switches on you, lies to you again and yet there you are. Isn’t it about time to stop buying Sony altogether? Nope - it was that time 5 years ago. Get with the picture!

Today, just another brick in the wall. Sony announced that it’s PSPGo was “just an experiment” for digital downloads. That’s all. Pay no attention to the fact that it didn’t sell and only hardcore blinded fanboys bought one: it was just a market test to see how the public would react to it. A public test… after all the studies/polls/numbers that led to it’s inception LED TO IT’S INCEPTION.

Sony says it released the PSPgo as an experiment to gauge the reception for a digital-only handheld console.

Speaking with MCV, SCEE president Andrew House was asked if Sony considers the PSPgo a sales success, to which he replied: “It was introduced in a mature lifecycle to learn more about what the consumer wanted and we’ve definitely learnt a lot.

Translation: the PSP was selling like crap so we tried to make it more interesting BY REMOVING FEATURES.

“Is that measured by success in sales? I don’t think it is,” he added.

Translation: Sony fail.

“One of the reasons we launched PSPgo was to understand where that consumer behaviour was going. We were getting signals from consumers that this was the kind of device that they wanted. But we need to recognise that consumers like their packaged media library,” said House.

In other words, don’t ever rely on Sony to tell you that they know what the consumer wants. They didn’t want a toaster, they didn’t want slow loading blu ray, they DO want GT5 (4 years and counting Sony) and they DO want companies that do what they say and don’t overpromise in order to keep fan base.

We don’t think PSPgo has served as a fair test of the demand for a download-only console, because it being download-only isn’t what makes it an unattractive purchase for most. It’s that PSP has been around for years and people have amassed huge UMD collections which they can play or re-download for free on the Go.

Nah. You never really supported it. It was fair - but you just pulled it out of your ass and hoped for the best. 1. Remove UMD slot. 2. Increase memory 3. Redesign 4. ?? 5. Profit!

And the digital versions of new PSP releases are far too often days behind the physical UMD disc release - that is if there’s a digital release at all. For all its disadvantages, PSPgo costs just £50 short of a PS3, and considerably more than previous PSP models, which contain all the same features including the ability to play digitally downloaded and UMD games. That’s why people aren’t buying it.

I.e. we can’t get our physical and digital departments to communicate, much like our upper management. Also we don’t understand competitive pricepoints.

Sony, you still suck. We remain tired of your BS, though we understand that “you meant to do that” and also that your wife is Morgan Fairchild.

source @ ComputerAndVideoGames.com

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Red Dead Redemption 360 vs. PS3

I have probably skipped over a half-dozen or so of similar reports for other games…. it just gets old fast and it’s not really news anymore!

This is non-scientific, but after playing an hour of both games, and switching back and forth between the two systems on our display, it’s clear that the 360 version has quite the graphical advantage. It’s sharper, with much less aliasing. The faces of the characters were clearer in the opening section. Gameplay sections likewise looked better, with smoother graphics across the board. The PlayStation 3 version looked impressive, but there was a noticeable jump in quality while playing on the 360.

Keep in mind that the game doesn’t look bad on the PS3—not by any stretch—but based on our time with the game and direct comparisons, the 360 version looks better.

source @ arstechnica

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GT5 Release June/July 2010? Not Likely.

Not surprisingly, GT5 is not out. What? You didn’t know ?!?! Well it looks like they’re throwing around a June/July window for something GTV related…. probably another video demo showcasing how “amazing” it will look when it comes out on the PS4 in late 21xx.

Well, this isn’t something official – we’ve not been on the phone with Sony since – ooh - last week and there’s still no official release date for the game. Disclaimer over – let’s get down to the goodies.

Sony’s been demoing their new 3D tech for months now, and the various versions of Polyphony’s upcoming racing sim have seen the light of day all over the world. The latest? Holland, where TheSixthAxis reader Radboud got his hands on with the incredible looking game, in 3D, and was told by the guy doing the demo that “June/July” was the intended release date. Radboud assured us he double and triple checked.

June/July. Nice.

Sony’s been reluctant to put forward a locked down, official release date for the game since it was announced, but perhaps, just perhaps, they’re saving something rather special for E3 this year. Regardless, although the rep showing off the game was apparently sure of the Summer window, we do have to repeat that this isn’t coming from Sony HQ and thus absolutely isn’t official. Still, nice to dream, right? Where’s my wheel?

Update: The June/July window, if indeed it is true, is probably referring to a 3D demo of the game for 3D TVs.

source @ TheSixthAxis

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DO NOT Turn Your Fat PS3’s On

Naturally Sony’s not saying why - but they definitely have screwed SOMETHING up with the fat end of the PSN.

So that PlayStation Network problem that hit late last night is apparently a serious disaster now. Sony is now saying that you shouldn’t use “fat” PS3 models at all, since a clock-related bug might cause some data loss.

source @ SlipperyBrick.com

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Sony again repostpones launch of Gran Turismo 5

Surprise surprise! Sony can’t get it’s FLAGSHIP games to work 3+ years later. And yes, I said WORK. It’s not a publishing issue, it’s not a “we want to add xxx car to the roster” issue, it’s not even a “how can we microtransaction end users to death” issue. They can’t seem to make it work with their own machine. Awesome.

TOKYO Jan 13 Reuters - Sony Corp 6758.T said it will postpone the launch of the latest version of its blockbuster racing game series “Gran Turismo” citing production-related matters in a potential blow to its videogame operations. “Gran Turismo 5″ designed for Sony s PlayStation 3 PS3 game console was due to be launched in March the final month of the current financial year. A new launch date has not been set.

source @ Reuters

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Gizmodo’s Decade’s Worst Gadgets #11: Sony Qualia-017

Sony Qualia-017 MiniDisc Player

Say you’re Sony. What do you do when the iPod has been beating your ass for three years and your weird little proprietary disc format is swiftly losing the hearts and minds of the American digital music enthusiast? You introduce a $1900 solid brass MiniDisc player, that’s what! I guess it’s better than hitting consumers over the head repeatedly with a soiled diaper, but not by much.

source @ gizmodo

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Gizmodo’s Decade’s Worst Gadgets #4: Sony Clié PEG-NZ90

Sony Clié PEG-NZ90

The Clié was a “Personal Entertainment Organizer,” which is a fancy way of saying that it was a multimedia PDA. An $800 multimedia PDA. What’s the point of being the most advanced Palm OS PDA at a time when no one really wanted PDAs? Its death in 2005 was a harbinger of the demise of the personal digital assistant age.

source @ gizmodo

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Gizmodo’s Decade’s Worst Gadgets #25: Sony’s Mouse/Phone Thing

#25

Sony VN-CX1A Mouse/VoIP Phone
Just because you can shove two functions into one device doesn’t mean you should. In fact, you generally shouldn’t! It’s also a little screwy that this was marketed to business people, since they’re the ones most likely to need to talk and use their computer at the same time.

source @ gizmodo

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Gizmodo’s Decade’s Worst Gadgets #17: Sony’s UMD

#17

Universal Media Disc
I understand Sony wanting to give the PSP its own special proprietary data format, I really do. But did they really expect me to buy movies on UMD? Limited storage meant that bonus footage had to largely be stripped from UMD releases, and exclusive PSP compatibility meant no one developed content for UMD anyway. Even Sony’s giving up on the technology, opting instead for flash memory in the PSPGo.

Source @ gizmodo

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