Sony New Year's Problems & Resolutions!

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It's official. 2007 is dead and gone. We are now in the New Year, and there are many questions left yet unanswered for 2008. Release dates are up in the air, new announcements are still under wraps, and all sorts of other surprises are left in store for us. Yet there is some baggage we carry from 2007 into 2008. That baggage needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later. In the spirit of the New Year, here are some resolutions for the "big three" console manufacturers that must be remedied before Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft begin work on their list of mistakes for 2008.

 

 

• Get Prepaid PSN cards into circulation as soon as possible – Believe it or not, a lot of people who use the console download services don't have access (or don't want access) to a credit card. Think of all the kids out there who would like to buy a prepaid card to download Wipeout or Toy Home without nagging their parents to log in with a credit card. Think about all the shopaholics who don't use credit cards because of their own fear of running up debt they can't pay. Microsoft and Nintendo had their prepaid point cards out at launch, yet Sony still drags their feet over a year in. Granted, Sony uses a cash based wallet system instead of point, but a prepaid card is a prepaid card. Stop stalling Sony; it's just putting off potential online shoppers.
• Offer a trade-up program for Dual Shock 3 controllers – The little war Sony and Immersion had over rumble technology dragged on way longer than it should have, but time has moved on and the PS3 is getting rumble. Wonderful, now what about the eight million console owners already stuck without the feature? They get to buy a new $50+ controller. That just sucks, plain and simple. It was wrong to launch the console without such a basic feature, but the feud with Immersion caused them to do just that. While it wouldn't be cost effective to offer a rebate program for the rumble-less controllers, Sony could at least offer a trade-up program where you ditch your old rumble free Sixaxis and trade it up towards the cost of a new Dual Shock 3.
• Support full Backwards Compatibility on the 40GB model through software emulation - Phil Harrison once spoke in an interview about how he saw the PlayStation brand as "a format that transcends many devices – PSOne, PS2, and now PS3". If that is true, then why has Sony broken a long standing tradition and stricken backwards compatibility from the cheaper 40GB model? The 80GB model moved away from the 60GB model's hardware-based backwards compatibility and switched to the less reliable software emulation solution, but 80% of the library does work on the machine even without the PS2's Emotion Engine. It's not perfect, but it still counts and could be built upon to create a cheap and easy solution that suits both Sony and their customers. People need backwards compatibility in their consoles for their potentially massive back catalog of titles because their old PS2 isn't going to last forever, just like the PS1 before it. Seeing as the 80Gb model uses a software solution, what is to stop Sony from adding this low-cost solution to the cheaper 40GB model via firmware update other than the desire to sell more PS2s at the upcoming $99 price point?
• Re-launch the PlayStation Store with HD movies, TV shows, and anything else – Microsoft is a software/hardware maker trying to make it as a part-time media conglomerate with their Xbox Live marketplace and its modest selection of television and movie content mostly tailored to guys in the 16-35 age brackets. Sony, on the other hand, is a long time media conglomerate ignoring one of the largest television and movie archives in the world. Considering their talk about trailblazing DLC into homes, and their established relationship with other production giants, you would think Sony would have made their move into the digital movie and TV marketplace long before Microsoft.
• Offer IPTV and TiVO functionality through a firmware update – Sony loves to plug the PS3 as the total, all-in-one media convergence box. Well, if Sony wants people to look at the PS3 as a total media package, they need to provide everything an HD enthusiast could ever need. That means Sony needs to offer downloadable IPTV features and Digital Video Recorder/TiVO functionality to the PS3. It's been talked about before, but nothing has yet materialized. Combined with the Blu-Ray drive and all the possible HD content Sony could also make available on the PlayStation Store, the PS3 could provide you with all the HD content you could ever need or want. And on the portable front, there's also talk about furthering the PS3's use as a media hub by offering "LocationFree" support for the PSP, meaning you could use your PSP as a portable TV/DVD monitor anywhere with a Wi-Fi hotspot with the PS3 serving as the base station. It might not be for everyone, but it would certainly be a nice perk for the high-end market Sony's machine initially appealed to before the price drops.

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