johng Blog

I consider myself platform agnostic when it comes to games. By that I mean I buy the consoles that are going to deliver the games I want to play and the services I wish to use. I don’t hold any allegiance to either Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft and in fact I owned a Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox in the previous generation because quite simply, I wanted to play games on all those systems at some point in their life cycle. And of course as many of you know I am an avid PC gamer.

Looking back to November 2000 when the PS2 launched I had many of the same feelings I do now with the Playstation 3’s arrival only mere hours away. Back then the Dreamcast was the system to beat. It was a fun, innovative console with a great selection of games and solid sales. And so it was a real let down when Sony showed up late to party with no modem and only two controller ports. People often forget Phantasy Star Online, ChuChu Rocket and Quake 3 were being played over the internet on a console long before Xbox Live was fired up for the first time. Of course we all know what happened to Dreamcast, it was a brief sparkle in time that died out so quickly and cruelly that it’s hard to believe it ever happened.

The same is true today as it was back then - Sony are cashing in on name and brand alone. I couldn’t fathom the PS2 missing all those features that their competitors had, it just seemed arrogant, as if Sony were saying “This is the Playstation, there is only Playstation, you must buy it.”

Arrogance (Ar”ro*gance) (#), n.
[F., fr. L. arrogantia, fr. arrogans. See Arrogant.]

The act or habit of arrogating, or making undue claims in an overbearing manner; that species of pride which consists in exorbitant claims of rank, dignity, estimation, or power, or which exalts the worth or importance of the person to an undue degree; proud contempt of others; lordliness; haughtiness; self-assumption; presumption. “I hate not you for her proud arrogance.” Shak.

That is what Sony became after the success of PS1. The comments from Ken Kutaragi the ‘genius’ behind Playstation show they fully expect and assume that their customers will continue to keep buying into what they produce no matter what the price or how devoid of innovation it is. Kutaragi (via Games Radar),

“We want for consumers to think to themselves, ‘I will work more hours to buy one.’ We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else. … The PS3 will instil discipline in our children and adults alike. Everyone will know discipline.”

It recently came to light that Kutaragi was very distant from the rest of Sony, even during the system’s development refusing to meet with the division that would go on to manufacture the components for the PS3. This of course led to the over priced and delayed monstrosity that we see today.

It becomes very evident what a quandary Sony has been in by just focusing on one area - the controller. What started life as a boomerang mutated into a wireless dual shock when they realised they couldn’t go too far off the beaten path. Then at E3 2006 with news of a law suit with Immersion looming and noticing the disruptive effect the Wii-mote was having the ‘SIXAXIS’ was born. In dropping the rumble from the controller Sony went on to claim not only that rumble was a last-gen-feature but they couldn’t technically provide it with motion control simultaneously (while Nintendo were doing just that). Alas Sony and Immersion solved the very real and much lied about reason for the lack of rumble and now all SIXAXIS pads look set to become obsolete in the not too distant future.

The integrated online service, a dream for many years, was finally realised with the release of the Xbox 360. One unified persistent identity across all games, cross game invites, voice chat, matchmaking, downloadable content and achievements. The first console to fully take advantage of broadband. Sony chose to ignore this. If I am playing Resistance and want to hook up with a friend who is currently racing in Motorstorm there is no way to invite them, let alone see what game they are playing or even know they are online. All this even though both players sit behind identical systems connected to fast internet connections. You would think with all those cores available in the much hyped cell processor that a small fraction of one of them could be allocated to vital tasks such as this. The persistent background dashboard also gives 360 owners the ability to use custom soundtracks, download in the background and access all the information a good online service provides. Features such as custom soundtracks need to be specifically hard coded into Playstation 3 games as nothing has been provided by Sony.

Regardless of all this essentially it all boils down to the games. What can Sony and third parties deliver on PS3 that no other system has? Well it would seem the end of third party exclusives is officially apon with just this week Capcom announcing that the former PS3 exclusive Devil May Cry 4 was going multi-platform. This falls into line with GTA IV, Virtua Fighter 5 and others. The last stalwarts of Playstation, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy still stand but how long will it be before Konami and Square Enix cave in? They need to make money after all. So this generation it will actually come down to first party games. Nintendo do extremely well with their first party franchises (much to the dismay of third parties) and Microsoft have set up what looks to be the best first party line up I have ever seen in 2007 (Halo 3, Mass Effect, Forza 2, PGR4, etc). Aside from the increasingly stagnant and delayed Gran Turismo 5, Ratchet and Clank and God of War 3 in the long term what do Sony have? I am awaiting more announcements.

So I say to those of you who go out in the next few days, weeks and months in search of a PS3 to consider the alternatives. For less money you can get a system with more games, better services and a strong outlook in the future. Of course you could go out to Virgin and pick one up for ¬£420 on release day. Then go and pick up Fifa when it comes out. Twiddle your thumbs until GT5 hits. Or you could join the millions of others who care about this industry, innovation, it’s future and not being taken for fools and look at the competition. Playstation is not gaming. Gaming has been around long before and will be around at lot long after. Consider this as you queue up on Friday.