Quote: "The Playstation 2 has a design released in the early stages of the year of 2001."
Playstation 2 was released in Q3-2000 :-\
Quote: "PS3 has lost quite a few exclusive titles. MGS4 will be out for the xbox360 and apparently the PC too, however on the ps3 apparently the cinematics are real time. But the screen shots I've seen of the actual in game screenshots on the ps3 are very poor, not at all what I was expecting from the earlier trailers.
I've also heard they are loosing the newest final fantasy game to the 360 and the PC, but I havent found any more articles that state this so I dunno if it's true. "
lots of rumours of titles moving to either multiplatform or away from Sony. only a few have been officially noted though.
Devil May Cry 4 for example, but MGS4 isn't confirmed.
Final Fantasy they did confirm to having a multiplatform one for both PS3 and 360, but they haven't commented on it being XIII .. they did however catagorically say that VsXIII would be PS3-only.
people are taking many comments from developers and twisting them to what they want, but fact unfortunately for Sony is unless they cut the price they'll never shift enough PS3s to dent Microsoft's market lead. Without enough units out there, not enough games will do well enough for developers to want to risk the 2-3year devtime for a single platform.
Sony have been loosing 3rd party developers left'n'right with the fact that they're charging for platform licensing just to get the SDK, and charging more for Developer Kits. This doesn't help when the Playstation 3 relies heavily on Debian Linux using OpenGL, and OpenAL for it's multimedia aspects. These are a pain to create large-scale games with on the x86 platform, but when you're throwing in an Single Core Processor that forces utilisation of the 7x ALU for everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) without OpenMP to atleast bare the main complexity of this sort of coding; and a fairly unfriendly Direct ASM system. Without the tools until very recently to help any of this development.. and those tools being extremely unstable currently.
Well it all adds up to an extremely unfriendly development platform. Hell the Unreal 3 engine was licensed for several top-end titles (including FF13) simply because they were having too many difficulties that were slowing up development time.
On the whole Sony launched too early because Microsoft forced an earlier launch than they were hoping for; but tbh they were completely unprepared for this HD-Generation. They should've been ready for a Late-2005 to Mid-2006 launch, to keep the 5year console gap alive. This was the main reason Microsoft pushed the Xbox 360 out so early, was to maintain this 5year gap. I know people complained about this, but seriously Sony had 6-nearly-7 years to develop the PS3. Why the hell should we cry over them not being prepared. They were suppose to be the big contenders, dominating the industry for almost a decade; this means they should know what gamers want by now.
They don't have a clue what gamers want, or developers. Trying to coast simply by name; which is failing. As they had proven back in 1996, the winning console isn't the most expensive; nor is it the most powerful. Why the hell they had it in their heads that the PS3 needed to be this damn "fantasitic" is beyond me.
The looks are horrible. The Technology is hemoraging them money. The Technology is killing their 3rd party developers ability to make those games that made them the "must have" platform. Their prices are forcing those they have to reconsider the platform itself. Add to this they're playing the "let's see how much of everyone else's technology we can fit under the bonnet" game.
Do they honestly believe people played on the Playstation or Playstation 2 because of the graphics? Do they believe that those same people want to be able to wave their silly controllers around to move or something, but feel detached because there is no more rumble? Do they beleive that people go on Xbox Live and pay for online games out-of-choice?
Yes, PSN needed to be improved; but Xbox Live didn't need to be copied. People would've been happy with a simple GameSpy Arcade style front to find games, and make sure the servers are fast. Worked for the PC for over a decade and everyone's happy. It just needed to be an integrated service for developers to use rather than creating their own, that encourages people to develop online play and makes it easier for those who want to get online.
They didn't need to beat Microsoft graphically, or with more cores. All they had to do was provide something that made it worthwhile upgrading from the PS2.
All in all, Microsoft can afford to play this top-trumps game. They can afford to release early, and they can afford price-cuts to make things more attractive. The fact that Microsoft released their console with an option to have a HDD and an option for a HD-Media Drive.. that was genius. Most like me are perfectly happy paying £5-10 less for a normal DVD as the quality of sound and picture is more than good enough (unless you have some ridiculous 40"+ HD-screen which seriously who has the space and money for those??). I personally have a 32" HDTV, and while sure games look better at HD.. I honestly can't tell the difference apart from slightly sharper images and slightly better HDR for the picture. The sound itself even with my good hearing is fairly un-noticable.
In all it makes sense to me to buy a cheaper console that plays my games and dvds; then add what i need later. Microsoft actually end up making more out of me doing it that way too, yet I will feel that I've spent less.
Sony have dropped the ball this generation, big time. Microsoft isn't someone to be under-estimated, and Sony thought "we've done this longer, we know what people want.. your xbox failed" ... it failed in Sony's eyes; but not in Microsofts'.
They took in what was good and bad about the console, they learnt from their developers and users. Delivering possibly the best damn console on the market, simply because it's not trying to be the best.
Nintendo as well never seemed like a threat to Sony, thinking "another GameCube.. big whoop"; but low'n'behold I don't think anyone could've predicted big-N were going to release something so crazy fun to play on. Alright so it's still a bit gimmic-y and after a while you'll play on it less'n'less, but still it's something that opened up a new market of players who won't get tired of it like those of us who are longer lasting gamers.
Sony realised mistakes in it's under-estimation in 2006 though, which was waay to late. They added lack-luster copies of what the others had in order to still trump them; but ultimately the SIXAXIS is something that is totally lame, not just compared to the Wiimote but doesn't really sit well with Sonys' normal gamers. I liked it's use in Motorstorm and the whole 6minutes of Heavenly Sword I've got to play, but realistically it falls short as a control method.
I'm probably not the only one who wants to say "WTF!" to the controller quality and those new damn "trigger" L2-R2 buttons. Sorry but they suck big time... and why the hell rubber!?! I now stick to the controller when using it for intense gaming sessions, which alright haven't really happened much but still it just feels like a monkey got ahold of a dual-shock and went to town. They still haven't revisited the issue that it's designed for bloody asian hands; I get cramp using those analog sticks too long, when the hell are they going to realise a) english speaking nations have people with non-children sized palms and b) that the analog sticks are not in the right place for people with opposible thumbs!!
As far as the console itself goes, I still hate the damn look. Honestly makes me want to chringe whenever someone sees it next to my TV. I have a nice jet-black with silver trim one, I hear there's a white one which would probably fit well with my TV; but still it's just too black and shiney... that's the bit I don't get WHY IS IT SHINEY! Makes me feel like it was created back in the 70s but they felt the world wasn't ready for this level of gaming.. then decided not to upgrade the looks. The XMB honestly is the most horrible UI i've had the pleasure of using in some time; and remember I've used Windows v1.0 before.
Oh and let's not forget the weight. My little cousin is about 3years old, he takes his PS2 everywhere... he tried to pick up my PS3 to take it upstairs like his mom told him, only the poor guy couldn't lift it. When my sister then tried she decided that I needed to help him with it. The damn machine is heavier than my freaking TV!! Which no isn't a TFT or Plasma it's a regular old CRT!
Alright well this is now a ridiculously long post, but frankly I started the rant and
really needed to finish it.
