Having not ever been an owner of a PS3 or PSP, I wasn’t aware of the bias that retailers are showing towards the PlayStation 3 console.
One of the guys that I work with is a huge PlayStation fan. Not a fanboy, mind you, but a normal person who happens to like the PS3 over the 360.
I’ve heard him talk about it before, but I’ve always passed it off as simple bad customer service or people just being overly hyped about a 360 game over the PlayStation ones, but after “Emergence Day 2″, I was shocked and appalled at the level of anti-PS3 sentiment he had to deal with.
It all started with him telling me that every time he went to his local game store, a small “mom and pop” type store where he has shopped for quite a while, they constantly bugged him to show up to the midnight release of Gears of War 2. On every visit, it seemed, he had to remind the shop owner that he did not have a 360 and had no intention of buying one.
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The red rings of death issue simply refuses to go away for Microsoft, and no matter how much it reduces the cost and extends the warranty one simple question remains: will the Xbox 360 ever be fit for purpose?
I guess that the headline should have read 'Will my Xbox 360 survive past Christmas?' given that I intend to use my own experience of Xbox 360 ownership to highlight that, no matter how hard Microsoft tries to convince the public differently, it just cannot seem to fix the hardware problems users of the Xbox 360 face.
Are you sitting comfortably? Great, then I will begin. My story starts almost exactly a year ago in October 2007, with a badgered father giving in to the requests of his son to buy an Xbox 360.
After doing some research, the newly released Xbox 360 Elite seemed to be the perfect choice as it was meant to have fixed the dreaded red rings of death problem. It was also black, and I like black gadgets when it comes to audio-visua... More »
Earlier today we reported on speculation that PS4 could be based on Cell Architecture.
As a follow-up, camineet of NeoGAF points out the following via PC.Watch.Impress.co.jp:
Goto Hiroshige has received PSX4 spec info from Japanese developer sources who received preliminary spec from SCEI for developer feedback (whom Goto refuses to name due to NDA).
- SCEI has sent rough PSX4 spec to 3rd party developers for feed back. Based on the description, PSX4 is a Wii-tized PSX3, no more than 2X as powerful.
- SCEI wants to beat Xbox 3 to launch. 2011 is the deadline, or sooner.
- SCEI pulled all its engineers from IBM Texas, and there is no new CELL architecture being developed. PSX4 will use same CELL architecture with improvements.
- SCEI will dump XDR and use s... More »
Sony has refused to comment on rumors that they will charge people to play online shooter 'MAG' (Massive Action Game).
Apparently Sony mailed out a survey asking gamers if they would be willing to pay a monthly or yearly fee to play the game. Many have been angered by the rumors, but some say they wouldn't mind paying for a lag free experience.
Sony revealed MAG at this years E3 and it will support up to 256 players in eight player squads. Sony have said that there is nothing out in the market today that is like it and that a game such as this would not be possible on other consoles.
To quote: Currently there is no evidence to prove the validity of the report, which a Sony rep pointed out to us when contacted this morning. We also got the obligatory: "We don't comment on rumor and speculation", too.
Update: Everyone has their own "optimal" configuration based on what they think is important, superfluous, or just plain irrelevant, so bear that in mind -- I'd never dogmatize about which configuration is "best," because that's something only each one of you can determine.
And of course a chart like this doesn't say a thing about the subjective value of exclusives like a Halo or a Metal Gear Solid 4, as well as whose online or interface schemas deliver more bang for your buck. Some people would gladly pay more or less for access to a given franchise, or to work within the strictures of one platform's architecture versus another's.
Blurry snaps of sales flyers are fanning speculation that come September 7, Microsoft will drop the price of all three Xbox 360 models by at least fifty bucks a piece. From top to bottom, the Xbox 360 family currently ranges from $450 to $280 in variants ranging from a high-end "Elite" model with a 120GB hard drive down to a... More »
After several days of internal consideration Microsoft executives have said that they will not be producing a Blu ray Xbox 360. Instead the Company is working on a brand new gaming and entertainment solution that will replace the current Xbox 360.
The device will go head to head with a new home console from Sony that is both a gaming console and content management system. It is not expected to be launched untill late in 2009 or early 2010. Key to the new Microsoft offering according to a development engineer is IP content which Microsoft believes is the future for both gaming and home entertainment.
During the past 12 months and at the recent CES Expo in Las Vegas, both Sony and Microsoft have met with global telecommunication companies to discuss home gateways and the delivery of IP content into the home and their new gaming and entertainment consoles.
In Australia senior Telstra executives have said that the future is not Blu ray but Blu ray qua... More »
Reader Kevin's XBOX 360 suffered the usual Red Ring of Death, so he sent it in to be repaired. He got back a different XBOX 360 with a different serial number. That would be no big deal, except Kevin has purchased a bunch of content through XBOX Live... content that is no longer fully functional due to Microsoft's broken DRM.
Here's a quick summary:
November 2007: Kevin's XBOX 360 is replaced, causing his content to lose full functionality. He calls Microsoft.
Microsoft keeps Kevin on the phone for an hour trying different methods of restoring functionality to his content. Nothing works. They say they will call him back in two weeks.
They do not call him back, so he calls them. Microsoft makes him repeat the steps he tried the first time he called. They tell him they will call him back in two weeks.
This cycle repeats twice more before Kevin gets a call from Frank at XBOX escalations. It's now the second week of January.... More »
Yeah, that's right: why don't they enter the competition? Is the bid for Yahoo too expensive and they're out of money now?
In the recent period Microsoft went from the acquisition-spree that characterized the burst of the "dot-com bubble" era to a more pragmatic approach to business. And by pragmatic I mean " building products in house".
Just think of this classical example. In 2000, Microsoft had two options in order to enter the increasingly profitable gaming market: one was to buy the ailing Nintendo, which at that time was valued at "only" $13 billion (compare that to the $70.89 billion today) and the other was to build its own console. Guess what: top representatives from Redmond thought that Nintendo was too expensive, so they went on with crafting the Xbox, which debuted in 2001.
Fast forward four years later and Microsoft unveils the second generation of Xbox, dubbed Xbox 360, after reporting a whooping $4 billion loss at the Xbox divisio... More »
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