Being a strong beliver in both Linux, video games and the power of the homebrew scene, I liked Sony’s statement yesterday about actively incouriging hackers around the world to program for their upcoming Linux based monster machine. Yay!
Of course we won’t have access to all the same libraries and tools that registrered developers will, but still; it’s a great step in the right direction from the active blocking of home made content on their PSP system.
Maybe the pricetag of €600 won’t be to harsh, after all, if we get a full fledged BlueRay-player with the best OS in the world as well as the ability to play some games on it now and then (in between the Wii-sessions)…
I totally agree! The homebrew-community has made the XBOX a fantastic machine, and is the only strong argument for owning a xbox rather than a PS2. I love my xbox but see no point in the 360 at all, as the trade-off is better graphics for a far less powerful media machine. The fact that Microsoft didn’t realise how important this part of the console was when making the 360 is a shame. But that Sony did is great news in my book. It certainly makes it easier for me to choose my next console…
As for the Wii, I’m still not convinced that it is anything but a gimmick. The controller sure looks fun, but whether it gets old after a weekend or not is hard to tell. And just as importantly, I simply can’t stand games with cute characters collecting fruit!
I first thought I should comment on this, then decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Luckily, my feelings for sony was just posted at slashdot. Specifically, I agree a lot with the first post.
Basically;
- I don’t believe that Sony will do anything open (based on previous behaviour)
- and much less do I believe that they will treat the community with the respect they deserve
- Also; I want to boycot Sony because of their attitude to customers
Oh, no. That comment made me want to answer. Now I’ll be hammering on the keyboard instead of going to the grocery shop. Damn.
The slashdot post was just yet another whiner. For some reason they are everywhere, seldom make any sense and strangely enough seem to utterly fail to grasp that the whole point of making a product is to make money off of it.
The fact that SONY, like every other company on the planet tries every trick they know of to maximize profits from their products goes without saying. If SONY allows the community to make homebrew applications for the PS3, they do this because they believe it will sell more PS3s.
A discussion on whether this move will be a success or not is of course interesting. And one on which gaming console seems the best likewise. But when it falls to “I don’t like SONY because my minidisc was expensive” it just gets silly. In that case, why did he buy it?
Excactly what is problematic with Sonys attitude towards customers? My personal experiences have been getting quality products that work as advertised. What more should I expect from them? I’m not trying to “get” [mag] here or anything like that, just to say that the slashdot post seemed to me to be rather retarded. I’m sure [mag] has a good point, but I didn’t get it first time around.
But when it falls to “I don’t like SONY because my minidisc was expensive” it just gets silly. In that case, why did he buy it?
I think you have misunderstood this argument, and therefore missed the point. He accepted the high price initially, because he expected mini discs and mini disc players to drop in price, and he expected an activity around mini discs that would add value to his investment.
Now these are high expectations, but they are perfectly reasonable. Consider the value of a CD bought in the 1980’s. You might expect that this old CD is destroyed by now, but if the owner has been clever, he has copied this CD onto CD-Rs and/or computers. Carryable CD players — almost unimaginable in the 80’s — are already replaced by smaller, better carryable MP3 players, available for the price of a CD in grocery shops. A completely ordinary computer can be your (MP3/OGG) jukebox at home. All of this gives the old CD additional value and a longer life.
Nothing similar has happened to MDs, entirely because of Sony’s hostile politics.
Excactly what is problematic with Sonys attitude towards customers? My personal experiences have been getting quality products that work as advertised. What more should I expect from them?
You should expect more! As far as I can recall, Sony was the first company to invent a flash based carryable music player. However;
- It was not useable as a USB-drive
- It did not play MP3s, but rather Sony’s proprietary DRM-infested format
- You would need to install Sony’s proprietary software on your computer in order to convert and send songs to your player
- You could not copy music from the player onto your computer
These are all random limitations, unwanted by the customers. Hence, Sony is merely a small actor in the mp3-player market! (SonyEricsson, otoh, is making progress) This is good ol’e stimulus-response behaviour. Also, in this case, the product probably behaved as advertised.
Unfortunately, Sony has misbehaved even worse. For details, look up the “Sony root kit scandal”, or similar, on Google. Also, Blu-Ray comes with a very agressive DRM scheme. Blu-Ray players will play back at dramatically reduced quality, unless the screen comes from the right vendor.
The point is; Sony is trying to sell me MP3-players that aren’t MP3-players, CDs that aren’t CDs, Blu-Ray players that aren’t proper video players and so on.
If you don’t want to support vendor lock-in, don’t buy Blu-Ray. If you don’t want to buy Blu-Ray, don’t buy PS3.
Don’t ask me who is the good guy
Ah. Yes, I see your point now.
The way I see it, such a large elecronics company is bound to have both good and lousy products. I buy their products when they seems like the best choices and simply don’t buy whatever I percieve as crap. Thus, no Sony mp3-player or copy-protected CDs for me.
That being said, I can see why some people would feel so strongly about for instance DRM that they decide to boycot a company.
But in my case, the PS3 boils down to that I think fondly about both the previous playstations, and feel confident that the next one will be excellent as well. Whether the company making my next console is Microsoft, Sony or whoever else is of very little importance. (I would probably not want a PS3 if it was made by Nintendo, though, as that would probably mean that my FPS games would involve playing a cute animal shooting evil fruit-monsters.)
Abhoth, not wanting a Nintendo for that reason is utter nonsense.
Hehe.
I know there are exceptions, of course. But it is not utter nonsense, just extremely overstated. Nintendo games in general do have a niche of their own. They manage to be different when very few others are. But I like the games and the style they try being an alternative to. So I can’t help feel like Nintendo tries to target the gamers that isn’t me.
I don’t like Super Mario (I even couldn’t stand Gianna Sisters) and I don’t get why Zelda is any fun. I enjoy Mortal Kombat, Quake and Battlefield, and would prefer Wipeout over Mario Kart. So even though there probably are quite a lot of games I WOULD like on Nintendo consoles, I consider it more likely that I will find my favourites on other platforms.
And no, I’m not particularly fond of dogs, either.