I don’t know why this had to happen, but I feel screwed a little bit by Sony. I mean, seriously, what they’re doin is down right insulting. From what I saw at E3, sony execs seem to cherish this conception that whatever they throw out at us, we’ll swallow. I Had a PS2 solely throughout this generation and a PS1 in the prior. I was even quick to buy a PSP (a move I somewhat regret), but this is where I draw the line. As far as I’m concerned, the games sure do make a system great, but a $500-$600 (BEFORE TAX!!!) Price tag puts it across my common sense. I just cant justify myself at my age (23) spending that much money on a freaking videogame console. Sony doesn’t seem to be really what they want to do in the console market, they just seem to want to try and ride out the wave started by PS1/PS2. I mean as far as innovations, they pushed graphics, threw in a nice processor (A REAL nice processor more later). All the innovations on the console seems to be coming from SCEE (Eyetoy and such), and the rest is just creating comparable services based on existing hardwares seen in competitors products.
The insulting part are the systems highlights. The Cell Processor, and the Blue Ray format. Why? These are hands down why the system is carrying the hefty price tag. I don’t think HDMI outputs on a device cost a company $100 to make, so I don’t see the real reason in price point behind that combined with saving gigs on the HD. Especially not a home entertainment company who has been pushing their Grand Wega TV’s for yrs. Instead the reason they’re even in our systems is because they want their proprietary format and their Multicore Processor to become the new status quo. They don’t expect videogames to drive the company’s bottom line. Sony is a multi-faceted hardware manufacturer/entertainment company. They know that if they push Blue Ray in their PS3, and it sells, Format wars will cease and HD-DVD will have to concede. They’re simply riding the numbers of the fact that PS2 has 100million brand enthused customers who they need to keep on this new generation which will inadvertently make the Blue Ray market share, (counting PS3 sells comparable to PS2), enormous. That’s where they’ll make their money. When all the Hollywood studios have to pay them to use their format cus all our PS3’s read Blu ray but not HD-DVD.
Where does that leave us, the consumers? Screwed cus we have to pay at least $500 for a PS3 (likely $550 with tax) and that’s just to take it home to power up the PS2 games you already own. If you want a friend, or actual PS3 that’s another $50-$60(more?) out your pocket. Why should I pay so much money to play MGS4?! You know in the good ‘ol days the best games cost 25 cents. The processor I feel I can excuse, that thing rocks. I’m sure in a few yrs when developers get good at using whats in their the games will crush the competitions (MMO Games will be HUGE thanks to the space and processor) But I flat out refuse to spend that kinda money on a videogame system, I likely wont even THINK to get one til they get around the $300 range just cus they patronized and insulted me with this BS.
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