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NYTimes: PS3 is $299, GT5 'best seller,' and Xbox uses Cell chip

by Alexander Sliwinski on Nov 30th 2007 6:45PM

Talk about all the news that's fit to copyedit. The New York Times has a hat-trick of errors in a recent technology piece discussing video game options. They manage to make it through the Wii spot on -- but then the real fun comes.

First the Old Gray Lady says Gran Turismo 5 is "a hyper-realistic, high-speed journey, [and] is one of the best sellers for [the] Sony console." One little problem, the game isn't out yet. Next up they say the PlayStation 3 is $299, which would be awesome and perhaps the Times has some incredibly privileged info about Sony's holiday strategy, but we're pretty sure the system is going to be starting at $399 for a while. Oh, but they're not done yet. Did you realize the PS3 and Xbox 360 are both powered by the Cell processor? This is being reported by the venerable New York-freakin'-Times, so it must be true, right?

[Thanks, Murph]

Source

Tags: copyedit, error, new-york-times, nyt, PS3, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (76)

*sigh*
I'm going to get back to work as a fact checker here at the NY Times now...
*hangs head in shame*

=D

"Dan Strack, a trader for a Wall Street bank, has three Xbox 360s and uses them for more than Halo 3, which he nonetheless calls the “latest and greatest game that people are walking on water over.”

His Xbox 360 will also log into his home computer and grab photos or movies, a feature he uses when “Grandma and Grandpa come over and are hanging around the living room.”

Lol what does he need 3 360s for? I smell an epic case of RRODs. Though I guess it's not really epic, but rather normal to have 2 360s fail on you.

what?

go crawl back in your sony hole

That's funny, considering how I own a 360 and a Wii, but no Sony consoles. A 360 has already died on me, and I am on my 2nd one right now. And most of the people I know who have a 360 have had a number of problems with them. Let's be honest with ourselves here, the 360 hardware is a pos when it comes to reliability.

Forza Motorsport 2 in a multi-screen configuration, akin to a Matrox TripleHeadToGo system.

It's the little stories that can really bite you in the buttocks when you're copyediting. Fluff pieces end up with more crap in them because they just don't seem as pressing or risky versus copyediting some piece of hard/breaking news.

I just emailed this to one of my old professors. He used to copyedit at the Times and always gets a kick/grimace out of tracking down errors that make it into the paper.

Please feel free to let them know how much of a clown he really is:

The Times welcomes comments and suggestions, or complaints about errors that warrant correction. Messages on news coverage can be e-mailed to nytnews@nytimes.com or left toll-free at 1-888-NYT-NEWS (1-888-698-6397). Comments on editorials may be e-mailed to letters@nytimes.com or faxed to (212) 556-3622.

Readers dissatisfied with a response or concerned about the paper's journalistic integrity may reach the public editor at public@nytimes.com or (212) 556-7652.

This is what I wrote in my email

Can you tell me where to buy the following referred to in the article (Some Essential Hardware (Even Away From the Street))

X360 with the Cell processor
$299 Ps3
Gran Turismo 5

Thank you in advance

It is actually a report from the future, that is for next Christmas...

Like Scar people... BE PREPARED!

In other news, the NY Times reported today that all of the US troops in Iraq have been withdrawn, gay marriage has been legalized in all 50 states, cancer has been cured, and AIDS wiped out, all in the span of 24 hours. All of these articles have been taken as fact due to the reputation of the NY Times, which is especially exemplified by a little-known and -read article that stated that the PS3 is available for a buck under Spartan as well as the fact that Sony and Microsoft decided to use the same processor instead of being all proprietary and going with different processors.

Oh, and if you don't believe the all-American NY Times, you're a Communist. [/sarcsam]

All thanks to the xbox doing f@h

$299? Probably just a typo.

and the other two?
lack of fact checking?
making things up?
half reading your sources?

That's one journalist which deserved to be fired.

Believe it or not, this is nothing compared to the other stories the NYT has completely gotten wrong, fabricated, or stolen. The paper has gone down considerably in circulation and their esteem by a lot of people have been ruined. This is just another example and most people probably won't even realize it, but of course gamers do. Don't go reading the NYT for news or anything intelligent really, it just promotes an agenda and is no longer really journalism. Oh, and people are NOT better off reading it, being misinformed is worse than being uninformed since you can at least become informed correctly if you are uninformed.

Best... Title... ever...

I thought newspapers had editors... Guess not...

We should somehow hold the writer liable to buy us all PS3s for $299 :D

The NY Times is a horrible paper. I get it for free at my school and it's still not worth reading, even at that price (except Tuesdays when they have the Science Times).

They have made big errors on important issues in the past (Politics/National News/Financial). The journalists like to take risks, it helped in the past when they reported about the Titanic being damaged at sea (which is really what put the paper on the map in the first place), but now the journalists have taken those liberties and ran with them, making their articles sound more like editorials.

The NY Times is completely outclassed by other sources who are able to remain objective on all issues and keep their information straight (e.g. The Economist, The Wall Street Journal).

I remember Snopes running an article about how many times the NYT printed urban legends. They've done a ton of them multiple times.

Xbox wishes it used the Cell chip...

The ps3 and xbox 360 both use similar versions of processors. The ps3 has 1 with 7 -8 sub processors while the 360 has 3 of the larger main cpu's. They both have the same chip maker which is why they are similar. The differennce though is in how the information is processed.

HAHAHAHAH! Pwnt. Nubs.

Wow, what morons. If the story was about anything but gaming, I'm sure they'd have done more research. Like Rodney Dangerfield, we get no respect, I tells ya.
---
http://real-free-playstation-3.blogspot.com/

Not for nothing, but last weekend you could get a 40GB PS3 from BJs for $299. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other specials like that.

Of course, I hate the NYT so I haven't read the article -- I could be misinterpreting their context.

Just another example of the top notch journalism from the NYTimes.

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NYTimes: PS3 is $299, GT5 'best seller,' and Xbox uses Cell chip

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Posted: Nov 30th 2007 8:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 30th 2007 8:08PM PixelPerfect said

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