Robert MacKie

Gotta love the american legal system. You can create a company that exists only to patent obvious technological leaps, then sue the bejesus out of other companies that are ACTUALLY building and creating things.

58% of the existing HD-DVD players on the market are PS3s? Sweet mother of ghandi. That must mean...that almost NO ONE wants a rediculously expensive proprietary movie player!

SHOCKING!

I'd be VERY interested in seeing how many units out of that million have actually sold...but I doubt they'll post those numbers. It would probably cause their stock prices to implode.

Warner FTW. This format war chugs monkey wang. Hopefully this will help settle it.

I can't tell if you guys are being sarcastic or stupid. I'd know for sure if Vlad posted this, but I'm just left guessing here.

While I'll concede the point that MAYBE 'renting' a game 20 MS points at a time would be popular for some people...people, who, for example, cannot be bothered to try the demos of all these games... my biggest problem with this 'article' is that flawed ARGUMENT. Vlad seems to be of the mind that in removing the 'tension' factor that comes from slamming quarters into a plastic box while swigging RC Cola and listening to an all Wham! mix-tape, these arcade classics have somehow been let down. I disagree, my primary reason being most early arcade games were little more than interactive CRACK, designed to seperate teenagers from as many quarters as possible.

Someone check on Mr. Cole. I think the underside of his head has been hit for massive damage.

Oh, looky. The retard rodeo is back in town. First the "People should buy the PS3 over the Wii because Sony loses money on each console, therefore it's a better value" article, now this.

Honestly, man. Maybe for Scrooge McDuck, with his vault of gold coins, having a 'gameplay mechanism' like shoving quarters into MS points sounds like a great idea. For me, with my 8 dollar an hour job, not so much.

I can seriously feel myself getting stupider every time I read one of these articles.

You are arguing that these games were MEANT to be played with the pay-to-play mechanism, that paying for the game up-front somehow cheapens the experience. I suggest that you turn around and give all the extra money you feel you should be spending on these games to, say, me. I could use it to buy a radiator.

Think back, Cole. You fed quarters into the arcade machines to play games, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

I'm sure publishers would LOVE to adopt this tactic. God knows they are trying. But it won't work. WHY? Because contrary to popular belief, most people arn't freaking idiots, and wouldn't want to pay 20 MS points per life. Or anything per life. You want to buy a game, veg out on the couch, and maybe call your friends over and tell them you have Contra.

The quarter gobbling aspect of Gauntlet was NEVER a 'gameplay mechanism'. It was a payment scheme. And, frankly, Gauntlet was one of the most expensive games you could play at the time. Does the game lose something in the translation from arcade to XBLA? Sure. But arguing that because the payment scheme is different now screws some fundamental aspect of the game up is like arguing that if you didn't kill the cow yourself, the beef doesn't taste as good. Is it true? Maybe. But I don't feel like hunting a wild cow to find out.

No, #30, you'd have a whole different set of people complaining about how joystiq hates nintendo. :)

I, for one, am sick of people claiming joystiq, or any other news site, has an anti sony bias.

First, I DEFY you to find more 'objective' video game journalism. Most of the magazines are run by, or at the very least heavily influenced by the big 3. Sites like Joystiq enjoy a healthy amount of freedom. They don't have to worry about Sony pulling ad space if they make fun of kaz hirai.
Second, for those of you who rush to defend the PS3, I think you've overlooked a spot in your attempts to bulwark the position of your corporate masters: THE WHOLE GOD DAMN INTERNET.

You think the JS staff fantasizes about the next bit of anti-sony news, waiting with baited breath for the next little tidbit to post on the site? No. The fact is, there's been a LOT of bad Sony news lately. Don't shoot the messenger.

I really don't understand how you mouth-breathers feel you need to come to the rescue of a multi-national corporation. One that couldn't care less about you if you arn't buying their products. A company that has, since the PSP, put out CRAP after CRAP. The occasional redeeming title is no excuse for TWO over priced platforms, both of which try to shove a proprietary media format down your throat. Get over it.

Sony doesn't NEED your help (unless you can put together a nice "All i want for X-mas is a PSP rap". They'll pay you!)

This hardly counts as 'official' confirmation, but I recently went into my local game stop while doing my christmas shopping. This was perhaps a week before the big day, the 18th, I think.

Anyway, I see a sticker on the PS3 demo unit that says "We Have It!". Naturally, I scoffed at the lack of attention they had paid to the unit. I asked if they had any Wii's in, and got this reply:
Nope, but we've got the PS3.
Me: What? You're kidding me.
GS: Nope, we've got 4 in the back. Got em in a few days ago.

And this isn't some middle of nowhere game stop, this is a really busy location. While I'm sure the eventually DID 'sell out' of the PS3, the units arn't moving as fast as you might think. Certainly, not like the Wii, at least from my own experiences. I've been exercizing a lazy kind of attempt to get a Wii since they came out. This basically involves asking if stores have any, and NOT waiting in any lines or getting out of bed before noon.

I haven't seen any Wii's for sale, but on several occasions, I've had the opportunity to buy a PS3. I probably would have for ebay purposes if my bank account was ever above $400.

I remember seeing a news article about something the eggheads at MIT had come up with, a way to print LCD screens for about a buck per square inch. I don't need to tell you, that's cheap as hell. The article said the tech would hit the market in about a year or so...this was about two years ago.

Now, far be it for me to critisize the long development time of cutting edge technology, but, still, I have been saying to myself "Man these LCD things are expensive. Weren't the supposed to be getting cheaper?" for about a year now.

I wouldn't be suprised if there was judicious price fixing in this arena. The mark up on high end televisions in insane.