If you're a loyal Wired reader like some of us here at Joystiq, then you would have noticed a great article in this month's edition on the PlayStation 3 and its role as savior for Sony. The article is online and we suggest you read it because it's a very objectively written piece on the PS3 and its place in Sony's past, present, and future. This graph near the end of the story sums it up best:
In 30 years, Sony has transformed itself from a consistently profitable consumer electronics company with annual sales of $1.6 billion to a dangerously wobbly consumer electronics-entertainment-financial services behemoth 40 times that size. Sony Electronics needs to embrace the networked world, obviously, but does it really need to be allied with a Hollywood film studio and a consumer-wary global music label in a global campaign against Microsoft? Probably not. It just needs to make cool products for the century we live in.
The article delves into Sony's risky and controversial decisions and how some of those risks have both failed and succeeded. If you're looking for a non-fanboy, purely objective look on what the PS3 means to Sony and the gaming community, then do yourself a favor and check this out.
[Thanks, Richard Mitchell]
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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Just like the article says, Sony has become enamored of imposing it's own electronics standards on others rather than just making great products.
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Microsoft (in the PC World)
Sony (video game world)
Yankees (in baseball)
The true fans of the company and their products stand by the company when it takes risks to provide its customers with a superior product. I'll wait until the product comes out and all its features are outlined before casting judgment. As of right now, we don't know a lot of things surrounding the full feature set of the system. Therefore, it's impossible to just look at the hardware and make a judgment about the package without seeing and playing the games and included applications.
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I can't afford the PS3,
So I wait for the Nintendo Wii,
Might even get a three-sixty.
All the Zelda versions I've played and beaten,
When I play, it's days before I've eaten,
Goombas and Koopas, Mushrooms and Flowers,
Haunting my dreams wishing I had those powers.
Nintendo has been always for me,
In a few months I will have a Wii,
Still can't afford the PS3,
Blu-ray discs just aren't for me.
PC games had me hook for years,
Now the games bring my box to tears,
Console or upgrade are my choices,
"What to do?" heard from many voices.
Still can't afford the PS3,
Selling drugs isn't for me,
Just so I can buy the PS3,
Jail time and morals prevent me.
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Well, skr1lls still thinks it isn't ok. Nor will BMWM3P, nor clint nor daryl.
Fact remains that Sony operates in the red outside of the gaming division. If the PS3 isn't deeply in the black they'll need to start spinning divisions off and firing employees.
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Check the last financial statements again buddy
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You started off kind of poorly, as I can't fathom why anyone would be a true fan of one company in this day and age, but you finished well.
It's impossible to tell if the PS3 will be a good machine or not. Too many things up in the air.
Lots of people say no gaming machine is worth $600, and I respect that. But when the price drops to $400 in 18 months I'd imagine they'd hop on the ship.
Lots of people say anything Sony makes is worth any price. I don't get these people.
Lots of people say Sony will always suck. I don't get that, either. I didn't much like the PS or PS2, but companies are constantly evolving (hence no reason for too much loyalty.) The PS3 is a different beast, judge it as such.
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Doesn't matter. They lost significant money due to PS3 investment. They intend to make it all back, and much more, over the next few years.
So don't check the last financial statements, they're the exception. Check the last five years of financial statements to see the pattern.
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However, in retrospect... the Beta offered more storage space and a sharper image in comparison to VHS. Thankfully I don't see Sony taking this same route with their new Blu-ray but are still forcing consumers into taking their technology. People don't normally react well with force.
Offering a Blu-ray player at $1,000 and a PS3 at $600 is a dirty way of forcing people to buy the system... even if the PS3 Blu-ray technology is shitty in comparison to an actual specific player.
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If the last five years are a indicator of the future, the Playstation brand will be successful and the consumer electronics division will continue to make inroads in the LCD television sector. They've invested a lot of money in the PS3 and Blu Ray. Over the course of the next few years we'll see if these investments pay off. However, as the recent financial statements show, they have successfully restructured their operations to take advantage of any increase in the top line, resulting in increased cash flow. They've gotten their costs in line and now they just need to drive sales. The PS3 and Blu Ray investment has the potential to do just that.
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The system offered up 1000+ games to anyone who wanted to buy, rent, or borrow for their system. However, anyone in their basement could create a game for the PS1 or PS2. The system dealt with quantity of games over the importance of quality games. Granted, some companies made stunning games... like Square and Konami... but this is mere 2 companies out of the dozens upon dozens.
The PS3 is a high performance machine, which requires more resources and revenue to design and develop for. No more basement games for the PS3 since the expectations are high, among other things. I foresee the market share for PS3 (and Sony) as dropping. I still see the market share for the PS2 as being steady or increasing, as basement boys continue to shovel out crap games.
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Do you have any idea how many technologies Sony, Microsoft, and other consumer electronic companies license? They are in the business of creating standards, some are failure while others are successful. Clearly, the ones that are successful produce enough revenue to justify investment in the failures.
I'm getting tired of people saying Sony is forcing them to do anything. They are utilizing a technology that they've produced like any company would do. If you don't want to take advantage of their technology you have two other options. They've taken the chance that their are enough people that want and are willing to pay for the benefit of a Blu Ray player in addition to a gaming console. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. However, if you think its too expensive then just wait until you can afford it or go to the other options.
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Anyways, it was an interesting read; especially the parts where Sony was founded on and fostered the lone gunman engineer who would think up his/her own next great product. Each engineer and each team maintained it's own little island of sorts, and that for the last 20 years Sony's tried to get all these little islands working as a whole company unit. Hasn't quite worked out that way yet.
The most interesting portion of the article was on page 3, and really highlights how SOny's past actions have already started hurting in the long run. The article mentions that Fox (and Microsoft even) chose HD-DVD over Blu/Ray because of the whole rootkit DRM fiasco, and that other studios have gone or are thinking of going dual format because of that. Since Sony is the big dog in controlling everything Blu-Ray, the concern makes since. Do you want your Blu-Ray player spying on you and your video game consoles, computers, and other entertainment gear? What if some part of the DRM included in Blu-Ray is cracked or has a hole in it? And it's exploited? (Yes, I know both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray use AACS, but Sony maintains control over the Blu-Ray AACS).
Personally, as I read more and more about Sony and the upcoming Playstation 3, I have to agree with the naysayers. The price of the console along with the untrustworthiness of the company leave me to believe that this is going to break Sony.
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lol...I think the Supreme Court would disagree
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Yes. But everything else, combined, is still in the red. So if the PS3 and the Blu Ray investments don't pan out you'll see Sony go into panic mode.
It's an enormous if, but that's the point of the article, my argument, and even yours despite your attempts to contradict me - Sony is not a profitable company without its games division. If the PS3 doesn't perform well enough to prop the company up it really needs Blu Ray to. If they both fail to be large hits then Sony will find itself in trouble.
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Was that a press release about a pending press release?
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I guess I was most surprised that the PS3 division will be $2billion in the hole by next spring (by selling the PS3 at a loss).
By the looks of it, Sony need PS3 and BluRay to be profitable... big odds to say the least.
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Sony is forcing its fanbase, which is extensive, to use their money to vote Blu Ray, even if they don't care, or if they prefer HDDVD. They're given a choice - not play the games they want, or pay for a Blu Ray player.
If the games actually need Blu Ray it's different. But the odds of that seem slim to none. With compression the way it is, with cut scenes being a thing of the past, there's next to no chance games will require the space Blu Ray affords. So Sony is making its clientele pay for something they don't need. It's akin to BMW making heated seats standard and charging all their customers an extra 10% for it. Sure, some will enjoy heated seats, but lots will be forced to pay for something they don't want, don't need, and will never use.
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Reality check. Sony isn't the only company that has tried to monitor the actions of its customers. Google, Microsoft, and the rest still do it. Sony did deal with that whole rootkit catastrophy and I'm sure they've learned their lesson. Also, the PSP is an example of how they'll deal with piracy on the PS3. They'll control actions through firmware updates that'll probably be automatic when the console connects to the network. I doubt that they'll have to worry about Blu Ray recorders for a few years and people probably won't have the patience to download 20GB games. The format itself deters piracy. I hope they embrace a homebrew community if piracy is held under control for the first few years.
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What? Who wants to pledge loyalty to a faceless corporation? Not me.
I can't think of one company I would stand behind and go "rah rah".
Face it corporations care about their investors, not their "fans". If they could make the investors happy by stripping the flesh from the bones of the fanboys and selling it as beef jerky they would.
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I think you're example is flawed because BMW and Mercedes do make some luxury features standard. Also, try and purchase a Benz without the premium package and you'll find that you will have a hard time finding one. Sony is pushing a new technology that isn't required for games as they exist today, but you don't need a Wiimote to play games, you didn't need the space when CDs replaced cartridges, or DVDs replaced CDs. Compression may solve the problem of storage space for todays games, but additional storage may open up the possibility of enhanced textures stored on the disc freeing up processor power for additional AI or whatever else developers come up with. My thing is that if the feature is included in all the systems, developers will find a way to take advantage of it to distinguish their game from the rest, just like some developers will find creative uses for controller.
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USB, digital camera chips, intel processors on computers, what's the graphics chip and processor of the PSP?, etc....
In order to remain successful, companies have to evolve over time. IBM has a lot of successful businesses even if they are no longer known as a personal computer company. They could no longer compete effectively so they exited the business. That's the way it works. Apple used to be a computer company, but now they're more of a consumer electronics company.
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LOL
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You can't exactly do that when games are on a Blu Ray disc. Even if they movie format isn't a success, the format will remain in the PS3.
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Yes, they mentioned the PS3 quite often, but that is NOT focus of the article. Wired was commenting on Sony's phillosophy as a company. NOT exclusively of their handling of PS3. That is just a symptom of the problem.
That problem is...
Sony doesn't make products with the consumer in mind. They make products with their competitor in mind.
MS does the same thing.
You can see this happening to ATI Vs. nVidia too....or AMD vs. Intel.
But unlike CPUs and GPUs...Games are supposed to be fun with fun in mind. CPUs and GPUs and OSs are merely a means to an end so they can get away with it more. Furthermore, making end consumer entertainment devices with the competition in mind just gets you format wars (Betamax, Mem stick, UMD, Bluray, etc).
Wired is maintaining that putting your competition before your demographic just isn't working for Sony.
It's as simple as that.
IMO.....Wired is correct. And MS better take note as well.
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Mine is not faceless. It has a fat, rotund, italian plumber face.
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Again, Nintendo shows its marketing genius. All of the "no more button mashing!" and "just wave the wand!" and "everyone says wow!" stuff that Wired coughs up. Too bad hip marketing slogans don't translate into good games. Unless slapping Mario's face all over everything is the same as good games (I mean really - would there be a single person in the world who would give half a damn about "Mario Strikers" if it was exactly the same except non-Mario characters? If Mario's face really improves a game so much, I've got a great solution: just put a picture of Mario above your TV set, and whenever you want to add that Mario flair, just glance up at him. Then every game can be Mario! Mario May Cry 3! Mario's Halo! Barbie's Fashion Show, with Mario as a guest judge! Mario Warioware! Final Mario Fantasy! This idea can't fail).
Hmm. My diatribe was much longer than my main point. Sorry, I blame my job. And God.
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Sony might...
1. Lower the price like sega, go out of business and try to sell their existing consoles that are on the shelves.
2. Try to incorporate a different media format as an option with the PS3 and make games that are on both formats.
Something must be holding Sony back if they have not began production yet.
Some reasons why...
1. They are thinking twice about the blueray format and might go back on it.
2. Cell Processor may be acting up.
Hell, you never know, sony might hold tight for another year or so to make design improvments and bring something thats a little less risky.
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But Blu Ray could be an option, too.
Furthermore, comparing Blu Ray to an input device or CDs is fundamentally flawed. Blu Ray is only useful if it is needed. And the odds of it being needed are slim to none.
For one, compression does not take CPU cycles away from AI. Decompression is done during loading, so all it's doing is saving a few seconds while a level loads.
For another, moving to CDs was not only cheaper but opened up vast new capabilities, as we jumped from tiny cartridge spaces to huge CD-ROM spaces. Blue Ray really doesn't offer a large jump over DVDs, it's quite small, actually.
Comparing what Microsoft is doing with the 360 to what Sony is doing with the PS3/Blu Ray isn't quite right, either.
Microsoft is building a game system hoping you like it and invite other Microsoft products into your living room.
Sony is building a game system and forcing you to bring another Sony product into the living room. Why? Well, unless games turn out to require Blu Ray (which I really doubt will happen this generation, if Oblivion could fit onto a DVD just about anything can), Sony is screwing the customer at the benefit of Sony. Sony doesn't want you to have Blu Ray for gaming, Sony knows damn well that games are extremely unlikely to need that much space in the foreseeable future.
Sony wants gamers to pay for Blu Ray so Sony can say to media companies that there's a huge installed Blu Ray base and therefore media should be shipped on Blu Ray, not HDDVD.
It's only useful if games need it.
And the odds of games needing it are extremely, extremely small. Textures and sound take up the most space, but even still they don't fill a DVD.
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Put your fanboyism aside for once, and look at the situation. You are the same people who hate Microsoft because they try to control things, and yet you also want a large corporation to take the movie and games industry by the throat, and hang gamers and movie-goers updside down, shaking them until all their money is gone.
Blue-Ray is a terrible, terrible idea. Sony does not have the strength or innovation to create formats for all media to be on... they create these failed mecahnisms to make money, and not to make our media better or easier to use.
If the PS3 does fail, it will be solely because of Blue-Ray, and the wrench it threw into plans for PS3.
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Acutally, Resistance: Fall Of Man is using 22 gigabytes on the Blu-Ray disc already.
From: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1539078/20060821/index.jhtml?headlines=true
"Schneider offered some distinguishing stats (which he called MTV News on Tuesday to further clarify). The game, he said, currently takes up 22 Gigabytes of memory on a Blu-Ray disc, the new disc format supported by the PS3 that is one-half of a VHS-vs.-Betamax format war erupting between tech companies throughout the year. While the music and vocals in "Resistance" take up only about 1 Gigabyte of disc space, graphics, level data and programming code occupy most of the remaining 21.
"We're going to fit more on a Blu-Ray disc than you could on an HD DVD," he said, referring to the competing format, which in its most basic discs can't hold more than 15 GB. More numbers: 40-player online matches at launch; 60 levels of player progression while playing online; two-player offline co-op. Phillips promised better, deeper support than any Xbox Live launch title."
So, to say that games won't be using all of the capacity that Blu-Ray offers is absolutely incorrect. There are ALREADY games that are using it, and will be more in the future.
Robotron: "What? Who wants to pledge loyalty to a faceless corporation?"
Any fanboy of any console. Not just Sony, but also Nintendo and Microsoft.
"Face it corporations care about their investors, not their "fans". If they could make the investors happy by stripping the flesh from the bones of the fanboys and selling it as beef jerky they would."
That's true, but try telling anyone on this site that Nintendo feels the same way about their fans.
Todd: "Am I to assume that the PS3 will be fully backwards compatible in playing DVDs as normal? Will every company be forced into making games strictly for the Blu-ray format?"
Yes, it is backwards compatible with DVD. No, I don't think companies are forced to use Blu Ray for making PS3 games. I think it's just another choice that's there, like how some PS2 games come on CD format as opposed to DVD.
Man, I really think the lot of you are misinformed on the PS3 and hate it just because of the price, the publicity, and the fact that Sony is number 1.
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There's little demand for it. DVDs look sharp on HDTVs, nowhere near HD discs, but sharper than what most people are used to.
So there's no consumer demand for a new product, especially one that offers only higher definition (and prices.) But DVD sales have fallen greatly, since consumers have purchased vast libraries already and most older movies have already been launched and sold to potential buyers. The market has dried up a bit.
So media companies decided a new medium would spur new sales. Get people to pay for the same product... again.
It's a good theory, but the consumer is liable to reject it. Honestly, DVD is good enough for most people, they're already heavily invested in discs, and players can be had for under $50. There's little reason to jump the bandwagon to a new medium at the moment. Down the road, when HDTVs have higher penetration and people are used to HD broadcasts? Sure. But we're 6 years away from that, at least. Meaning it will come during the era of the PS4 and Xbox 720.
For the moment people are happy with DVDs. The media is cheap,. The technology is cheap. And it's everywhere. Hell, portable players can be had for under $100.
It doesn't matter which side wins, they're both facing an uphill battle. The world won't really be ready for them for several years. And do you know what will be waiting when we are ready? On one hand will be discs 100 times larger (as opposed to Blu Ray which is about 7 times larger than DVD.) On the other hand will be an infrastructure than can support direct downloads.
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People who think that the PS3 will completely flop probably have another thing coming. If PS3 helps make BluRay the next media format, Sony will make so much money it is unbelieveable. If PS3 holds its own but BluRay fails for movies, they will come out fine. If PS3 fails completely...?
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Not really because as I said, Resistance is using darn near all of the space on the BD-ROM! Plus, it would just make things more confusing if companies do dual releases on DVD and Blu-Ray. So, it's just easier for the consumer if it's standard, because there will be no confusion later on.
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Don't forget, companies like Konami and Square Enix and other developers are backing the PS3. MGS4 and FF13 alone will just sell the system.
I don't think Sony is going to fail, the PS3 will probably sell double or even triple of what the 360 has sold. I doubt much will change in the "next-gen", maybe just more support for the Nintendo and the Wii, but between Microsoft and Sony, I don't really see much change.
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Speaking artistically, sometimes limitations are a good thing. They make one choose the most important stuff, to optimize, etc. Bloat and feature creep is often very bad.
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You're believing Sony's word?
Talk to game developers, they'll tell you there's no way that's the truth. That quote has been discussed to death in most places.
While it might be true that they're taking up that much space, they're using no compression, at all. None. Which is wasteful and sloppy. Not to mention unnecessary.
PC games fit onto DVDs just fine.
PC games are generally larger than console games.
PC games feature textures much larger than 1080p.
If PC games can fit on DVD then console games can fit onto DVD.
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