Josh

Or you could just back up your PS3 to an external, swap in the new drive, and then restore. Worked just fine for me and I didn't have to redownload anything

Are these slims they are buying? How are they going to rig them up for supercomputing, since sony removed the "Install Other OS" option in the slim? I'm very curious here...

if they really wanted to they could do an optional install. Valkyria Chronicles gives you the option to install if you want, so if they really wanted to, they could. That being said, I'm not really a fan of game installs, I'd rather they just optimized their code to reduce it down or eliminate load screens than eat up 5GB of my hard drive (and if you say just get a bigger HDD, I already have a 320 in there, I just would rather have space for movies, demos, and downloadable games than waste it on installing disc based games like on a PC)

From all my wonderful experience in school (Computer Engineer/Electrical Engineer at Michigan Tech) and working with firmware hacking/upgrading/downgrading on cell phones as an intern, I can say that only in extremely rare cases will a firmware update cause any non-recoverable issues. If there is a problem, the only thing that will be affected is the chip which holds the OS. It is possible that if you update and experience a low/high voltage unexpectedly, or if there have been an extreme number of writes performed, you could potentially damage the memory module and kill the unit. Now, this same voltage issue could cause damage to the bluray drive or any other number of components in the system, but I can say with near 100% certainty that no matter how many times you flash your system the process of updating the firmware can not kill the bluray drive hardware. Also, hard drive size will have no affect on the firmware update.

Now, it is possible for an error to occur during the firmware update that can cause the unit to appear to be non-functional, but like most hardware devices the PS3 has a hidden recovery menu which can be accessed when the system is powering up. If you think your system is broken due to a firmware update, I'd suggest you try recovering from that menu first.

On another note, bluray drives, like cd drives, like dvd drives, will eventually give out. Some last longer than others, many different factors play into it. Would you sue sony because your hard drive got the click of death and scratched itself to heck after a firmware update? That would be like suing microsoft because a capacitor blew up on your motherboard after you restarted following windows update.

So, in short

1.) Sony is not at fault
2.) Firmware updates will not break hardware
3.) Electronics have a limited lifetime and will eventually break, and many factors affect how long they will last (heat, usage, manufacturing defects, etc).

While the system spec may be the same, I believe sony's video store beat MS out the gate by almost a month

I think it was sometime in 2007 when I really started being an avid reader. Used to hit up the site from time to time before then, but I came across PS3 fanboy shortly after getting my PS3 and got hooked :)

This is a stupid move on activision's part. Maybe their software sales would be better if they put out better games instead of the same rehashed garbage over and over. If you hit up vgchartz and look at hardware from launch the 360 leads the PS3 by less than 14k consoles now (22,759,590 vs 22,745,720). All it would take to pass up Microsoft now is one more blockbuster release.

Perhaps this is also a sign that the xbox kiddies are more likely to buy the same game over and over than your typical PS3 owner...

Honestly though, I wouldn't miss activision one bit. I don't play the COD games, I gave up on GH, never played any of the Tony Hawk games, and the issues with Prototype just add another game to the list I no longer plan to purchase. I think the response here from me is just one big "meh".

I know if you look at maps Racoon city appears to be where Detroit Michigan is, but how about actually setting it in detroit michigan? The place already looks like one huge derelict site, it would make a great zombie game setting

Whats with the insane amount of flame going on, do the people who comment on this even think before they post? If you read the article, only columbia pictures is currently blocking anything, SPHE is still available. If you know anything about how Sony likes to run their company, every part is it's own subsidiary and negotiates independently of the larger company. So, it appears to me that columbia pictures needs to get their shit together and renegotiate their licensing with netflix. Nothing to do with sony other than they are the parent company. Thats like boycotting Viviendi because actiblizz delayed a WoW expansion...

I think he's onto something. Besides, in every console generation, as cost becomes less of an issue more people end up buying both systems. Each one has it's own strengths and weaknesses, and if sony could bring cost down a little more and hold some exclusives, I could see a large portion of the gaming industry eventually owning both consoles. I know many xbox owners are also ps2 owners, so I'm sure once you get past the fan boys, most would own both consoles if it was economically sound to do so at this time. And Yoshida is spot on, the success of either drives the costs down for everyone and creates a bigger playing field