Why All The PS3 Hate?

by Torrence Davis

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed this past couple of weeks, it’s the increased amount of disdain for Sony’s Playstation 3. It’s almost as if the whole industry has something against Sony for winning the last two generations. First Time Magazine, then Alleyinsider and now Kotaku. There’s a name for this and it’s called media sabotage.

Who would have thought that after the NPD results were posted that sites like Kotaku would start kicking Sony while their down? Sony isn’t down though. They’re performing well considering the cost of the system. Of course many wouldn’t know this if they took some time to read some of the headlines on N4FB(News 4 Fanboys), Alleyinsider or Time Magazine. Since when is Time magazine experts on video games? Isn’t that our territory? Time Magazine made a huge mistake in a story they wrote about Home last week. They quoted the PS3 as having sold only 200,000 units in the US.

Starting today, owners of the pricey PlayStation 3 — there are nearly 17 million of them worldwide, a scant 200,000 of whom live in the U.S. — can download the software for free via Sony’s PlayStation Network

How is it that such a respected magazine as Time, fucks up so hard on the numbers? I was happy to see that gamezine.co.uk put them in their place and got them to correct the mistake not once, but twice.

Now let’s take a look at Alleyinsider. Eric Krangel posted an article stating that Sony’s PS3 is a sinking ship based on their November performance. Sony sold 378,000 PS3’s in November this year and sold 466,000 in November last year. Because of this, their numbers are technically lower than last year, but how is selling 378,000 consoles a bad thing? Eric said some pretty harsh things that are sure to put off mom and pop from buying the console this Christmas. Let’s look at some of the crap they were spewing:

So why is the PS3 flopping so badly?

1. It’s the most expensive console on the market, $150 - $200 more than its rivals. Even if you believe the video game industry is “recession-proof” (it isn’t), a tanking economy makes consumers more price-conscious.

This is a true statement but why did he say the PS3 was flopping? If you want to know what it’s like when a console flops, take a gander at the Atari Jaguar. That was a flop…but still a fun system. Not only did Sony move a ton of consoles in November, but they also moved that same number in Blu-Ray players thanks to the PS3.

2. The PS3’s big bonus is its ability to double as a Blu-Ray player. Too bad no one seems to care about hi-def DVDs. The differences between Blu-Ray and DVD are hard to see on a TV less than 50″.

So let’s correct his statement here. First of all, people DO care about high definition. Do you think people are buying HD televisions because they don’t care? Of course not. They want HDtv. Most of them may not understand Blu-Ray or HD-DVD for that matter, but once they see it, I’m sure they’ll invest more money into it in the future. It’s not as popular as DVD at the moment and I think that in the future DVD will always be there, but co-existing with Blu-Ray. As far as not seeing a difference between Blu-Ray and DVD on tv’s less than 50″, he’s wrong on that too. I would have to say that 42″ is the cutoff where there is a blur between Blu-Ray and DVD. It may even be less than that. The smaller the screen, the harder it is to make out the details. On those tv’s larger than 42″, Blu-Ray looks marvelous.

3. The PS3 just doesn’t have any must-have titles exclusive to the console. “LittleBigPlanet” has generated decent buzz but isn’t a game-changer, and neither is Sony’s new virtual world “Home.”

Ok here is where the author really must have been beat by the idiot stick. How in the fuck can you say that the PS3 doesn’t have any must-have titles exclusive to the console?!!? Metal Gear Solid 4, Heavenly Sword, Uncharted and Resistance 2 are all MUST HAVE TITLES. LBP has generated more than a buzz. It’s becoming a cult sensation. Does this guy have an internet connection? As far as Home goes, it’s a beta, leave it alone until it’s a finished product.

Speaking of Home, that has been the center of a lot of negative attention from the press. Why oh why are we slandering a product that is in beta form? Get on Home, use it and put it away until it’s updated again. I think it’s funny that you have to wait for an alley to free up so you can take a turn at bowling. Isn’t that what it’s like in real life though?

Last on my hit list is Kotaku. They posted an article about the poor performance of Little Big Planet and Valkyria Chronicles. Little Big Planet has passed the 1 million mark. How is that a poor performance? Valkyria Chronicles still needs more time. I’m sure fans of Japanese strategy games will pick it up accordingly. Kotaku has had a Sony chip on their shoulder ever since Dave Karraker blacklisted them for posting info that was embargoed. Even though they got their A-list status back from Sony, they still continually post negative articles about the PS3. This is just one of many. Deep down this article is a call to PS3 owners to start buying more games, but it’s execution is poor and wreaks of more media sabotage.

Sony is doing a fine job of handling the PS3. Unlike the PS1 and PS2 before it, this time there are other consoles competing against PS3. Sony isn’t left alone to dominate the industry like it did before. Back when the PS1 was popular, what other console was there to buy? The same goes for the PS2. Not only did it come at a time when DVD acceptance was on the rise, but it also came into it’s own after the death of the Dreamcast. If you wanted a system with a vast library of games(and GTA3), you had to buy a PS2. Now customers have a choice and because of that choice, we have a divided market. People are still expecting the PS3 to just rise up and sell 100 million. As long as Microsoft and Nintendo keep selling consoles, it will never happen. What we have here is what I call a perfect gaming generation. People of all walks of life and many different demographics have a choice. That is never a bad thing. So make your choice and enjoy your console no matter what brand it is.

As for Time magazine and Alleyinsider, let the game journalists handle the game journalism. You’ve done a piss poor job at it. Please stick to politics and finance. Kotaku, you don’t even need the traffic. Please post more responsibly.

from: http://www.thebitbag.com/2008/12/16/why-all-the-ps3-hate/

At last a gaming journalist agrees with me. I wouldn't expect our resident sony informant, Gebx, to post this one so I had to do it

why all those "Why All The PS3 Hate?" threads?

Oh boo hoo, Nintendo has been through all this, and they deserved it. Now it's Sony's turn.

Sigh. A wall of text written by an unknown blogger who obviously is a Sony fanboy.

 lol, he sounds like CrazzyMan.

How's a sony fanboy just calling for people to enjoy whatever console they have?

I'm not too familiar with the site. Someone linked the article from the afterdawn forums. Apparently the guy who wrote this has posted his fair share of sony hate too but he too thinks it's getting ridiculous this christmas (from the linker who's a regular follower of that website).

Give the author some credit, he knows more about gaming than CNN  and TIME

Have you played heavenly sword? Short game=/=bad game

Typical fanboys derailing the thread, Props Pristine for the find

Bingo. That article made my head hurt, and I wish I wouldn't have read it.

You know why all the PS3 hate?

Because the freakin' thing costs 400 dollars in a recession and we can't all afford one.

It's over-priced, I dont' care if it sucks your foot and fixes you a sandwich.

The reason it's overpriced, is because Sony used it as a tie in to hock its new media format, and continues forcing gamers to pay the price.

Sony deserves the hate, and imo, they deserve the poor sales as well. Start treating consumers well, and change with our needs, not your own, Sony. If you do something dumb that costs us time and money(RRoD, BR) then fix it for free. Don't just keep on pwning us with it, ffs.

The fact that this console is still 460 dollars after tax is insane, and someone deserves to pay for this horrible error.