I figured out why oldschool gamers dislike Sony

[happydolphin]

I'm definitely an old-school gamer who kept up with the times as much as I could.

I don't hate Sony, but I dislike them for this reason. When they entered the market, they had very little to offer that appealed to me (Battle Arena Toshiden, Crash Bandicoot). The fact that a company like that was able to get 100% 3rd party backing and get prominence against the company that undeniably made the best games at the time completely baffled me and bothered me.

Later, they offered Gran Turismo. To be honest, I wasn't into simulators, not even car simulators all that much, I was into fantasy and sci-fi mostly. This direction Sony was taking towards simulators and sports games was horrifying to me, all the while hogging all my favorite games on their platform whilst I owned an N64.

Well, ultimately I had to buy FFVII and VIII on my PC, and ended up folding to get FFIX on the PSX.

That's why I dislike them

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Fast-forwared a gen later, with the PS2. Their launch lineup was abysmal. Fantawhat? But they did have EA Big's SSX at the time, and needless to say, that blew my mind.

As the console progressed, Sony released more games I found interesting, like Dark Cloud, Ico and later Shadow of the Colossus. Now they were starting to appeal to me. And though at first I wasn't so into Ratchet and Clank, I began to see its value and actually ended up finding a liking to it.

Fast-forward one last time to the 7th gen.

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Though at first the 600$ pricepoint was retarded and I wanted them to regret it, I later came to see how much they offered gamers on their platforms. I was very happy about Uncharted, even God of War impressed me (though I am not a fan of it due to the violence). Sony's first party offerings started to interest me.

Then you have Sony's influence on the gaming space towards a more Hollywoodesque feel. Games like L.A.Noire are being made, we will soon see more of The Last of Us, and the big Team Ico game The Last Guardian is still in the making.

Also, they learned lessons from their competitors to come up with LBP, a very unique game with character.

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One last fast-forward. The Vita is a beauty, nuff said.

With all of that, I've come to greatly appreciate their contributions to the game industry, despite the bad they also brought with them (copy-catting, moneyhatting, loss-leading and over-emphasis on realism).