My point on the biased issue is not that he was lying or making things up, just that he is not unbiased like those (including Hastings himself) claiming he has no dog in the fight. Knowing he has a bias weighted towards Sony means he could be expected to overstate the PS3’s strengths and downplay, or in this case simply ignore, its weaknesses. Re-reading his comments I would say that is what he is doing. Everything he mentioned is a definite plus for the PS3 but how much of an advantage are they?
3 quick examples, Blu-ray, it’s a plus that it comes with the PS3 but how many people want or can take advantage of it? Not many, and assuming Blu-ray wins the format war by the time people do care there will be much cheaper and better Blu-ray players on the market. Same with HDMI, it’s a plus but so few can or know to take advantage of it that it that it isn’t that major. Cell is more powerful than the others but unless the PS3 has the install base to make spending the extra money to take advantage of it worthwhile the devs won’t and gamers won’t benefit.
As for weaknesses he ignores the biggest of them all, price. This includes both the $600-900 consumer price and the at least double dev costs. This is not a minor problem, as Sony attempting to hide the prive prior to E3 06 and the stunned silence when it was announced attest. Sony also admitted it with the statement that people should be willing to work extra to get the money for a PS3. Sorry Sony and Sony fanboys, most people are not willing to work extra for a video game system, especially not when other options are available. The dev cost primarily matter since it requires the PS3 to have an even larger install base than usual to justify the cost.
What it boils down to is that the PS3 is in a race against time. If Blu-ray can gain widespread acceptance, if HDTV penetration grows rapidly, if the main competition fades, if people decide to devote an unprecedented share of income to video games, if Home, LBP, and free internet take the gaming masses by storm, if devs take the time to fully utilize the Cell and 50GB discs, then the PS3 would be able to gain #1. However, all but the last one won’t be happening for 1-3 years much less in the near term. The last one is also the most critical to growing the install base. If the install base doesn’t start growing soon, which shows no signs of happening at the moment, then the rest won’t matter.
People aren’t going to wake up in 3 years and say hey let’s go get an expensive Blu-ray player with Home and LBP to play on our new HDTV. Devs are already showing that the higher costs to them are a deal breaker so until people decide to start buying the PS3 the games will not follow further inhibiting sales (FFXIII & MGS4, assuming they remain exclusives, pale in comparison to the PS2 or the expected PS3’s list). Hastings didn’t address this most important of relationships, as well as would be expected given his bias on the issue. Lastly, when you’re reduced to betting that your competition will fail you’re in a bad spot no longer in control of your destiny.
