Phil Harrison is basically the head of software at Sony. He has no control of what any of the hardware guys do.

Well, apparently it was changed for the 40GB "What's a PS2?" PS3.  But at least that's only crippled for previous-gen games.   

erikers said: phil said: So, these guys either get criticized for the point of the PS3, or when they finally react to complaints about the price point of the PS3, they look desperate? Interesting. They've been criticized for removing backwards compatability after saying how important it was, criticized for saying rumble is last gen then adding it and adding additional SKU's on the market after saying Microsoft was stupid for doing it first. At the very least they are hypocrites and it's hardly a stretch to say they are desperate when they are getting outsold by every other console on the market. If you aren't desperate when you are in last place you deserve to fail hard. The only interesting thing is your inability to comprehend this.

 

Also interesting is your and just about everyone else's inclination to turn listening to the customer base into a desperate or evil move.  Where was your whining when, for example, Microsoft put HDMI in all their consoles after telling the market that they didn't need HDMI?  Probably cheering them on.  Did you decry their 3 year warranty for RRoD as a desperate move to cover up crappy hardware, or do you think it was a good thing for them to do this?

If you want to bash Sony for responding positively to the demands of the market, go ahead, but let's try and keep it consistent.  Your inability to comprehend this is the most interesting of all.

Soriku said: It's definitely not smart. They lose more money + whatever they churn out always fails.

 yo Soriku how about you stop making comments like that ok? You're being incredibly obnoxious. 

and if Sony was to stand by everything they have said then failure would have been definite. Sony has realized they have made a lot of mistakes and the market is demanding a lot of these changes. And I also don't take personal opinions from these guys as official statements from the company.

Final-Fan said: FJ-Warez said: Still, 5 PS3 versions in 11 months??? They are just adjusting their strategy, but at the current speed they sound desperate, so I really don't know if is a smart move or not. As opposed to the 360 -- Core, Premium, Elite, Arcade or whatever the hell the new one is, and does the Halo version count? The difference is that in the PS3 the core functionality is unchanged -- wireless or no wireless, card reader or no card reader, every PS3 has exactly the same functionality from a game developer's perspective. (Not that I am one, but I'm pretty confident here -- if anyone with professional knowledge can correct me, please do.) Conversely, the 360 has two significantly different faces to offer developers -- hard drive versus no hard drive. It certainly hasn't crippled games -- which have done fine with no HDD on all former consoles other than, ironically, the first Xbox -- but it's hard to deny that some games might have benefited from being able to make some of that "extra" content put onto Premium owners' systems mandatory. And of course XBLA and all downloadables are pretty well out of reach to any fool who didn't get the "Core = crippled" memo. Still, I do think that the entire concept of multiple-SKU consoles has been a grade-A clusterf*@&. Nintendo offers one single model, maybe in different colors but THE SAME EXACT HARDWARE. That's the way it should be done. On the other hand, it's stupid to jump all over Sony because the new standard bulk-rate HDD is bigger than the one from six months ago. (20 -> 40, 60 -> 80 --> 160) We should be glad they're not raping us for storage like MS was/is, and besides it's swappable anyway.

 I'd argue the only major difference in the 360 models is the Hard drive and HDMI port which is in all of the new ones now.

Every 360 can use the wireless controlls but the core model doesn't come with one. The arcade is basically a core with a fancy name a wireless control and memory card(256MB why not just add the 512's they already make?)

Aside from the HDMI's being left out of earlier models there's mostly no changes to the consoles themselves.

The PS3 is roughly on the same ground as most of the changes being only noted by people who truely know what they're looking at. Hardware B.C. software B.C. No B.C. I'd actually argue changing the B.C. from something to nothing being MORE of a hinderence than throwing an HDMI on there only because I'm certain there will be young kids going "I can play all my PS2 games on this and it makes them high def mommy!" and they get the 40GB version only to find out, no... no it doesn't. 

The EE could come back next year when the chip die size will drop down to 45nm or whenever that happens, bc the cost of putting that chip in would presumably be less than now. Software BC might come back as well as Sony probably just decided not to put a software-based BC system in b/c it would eat up too much memory. Memory is going to be less expensive when Sony gets 45nm chips for the PS3, so perhaps this will bring it back. Personally, I don't agree with Sony's decision to save $10 by keeping this out, but I'm just a consumer. Nobody listens to me :(

Then again, the EE might not come back at all b/c Sony is looking to possibly add components to the PS3, such as a digital tuner necessary for the Tivo-digital video recording stuff that it wants to start doing next year and there just might not be room for the EE, but we'll have to see.

lol.....the OP post was hilarious. But leo-j is right its the idiots of SCEE that made that decision. Phil Harrison worries about SCEA and so does Kaz Hirai.

Final-Fan said: FJ-Warez said: Still, 5 PS3 versions in 11 months??? They are just adjusting their strategy, but at the current speed they sound desperate, so I really don't know if is a smart move or not. As opposed to the 360 -- Core, Premium, Elite, Arcade or whatever the hell the new one is, and does the Halo version count? The difference is that in the PS3 the core functionality is unchanged

I was talking about the PS3, why do you involve the 360??? but ok let me say this:

How long has the PS3 been out since launch???

How long has the 360 been out since launch???

The 360 has 4 versions, Core (Stupid MS), Premium, Elite, and the HardCore Halo fan version...

4 Versions in almost 2 years... (I'm not talking about functionality ok???)



The PS3 use to had 5 versions, 60GB, 20GB, 80GB, Started Pack, and the new and shinning 40GB...

5 Versions in less than a year, 4 in the first 8 months... as I say...


"They are just adjusting their strategy, but at the current speed they sound desperate, so I really don't know if is a smart move or not. "

TWRoO said: that depends on what you describe as a failure, had the PS3 remained worldwide with the same two initial SKUs i don't think it would be tracking close to the 360, or above the GC (despite the best time of the GCs sales life coming from the first year)

 Actually, the PS3 isn't above the Gamecube. The worldwide comparison charts don't include others for PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox. However, you can view the America, Japan, and Total Other comparison charts with launches aligned and see that the PS3 is selling more slowly than the Gamecube did in America and Japan and even with what the Gamecube did in Total Other. It does look like the PS3 would be even with the Gamecube if it had launched in all markets at the same time like the Gamecube did.

 Admittedly both the PS3 and 360 do have hope of improving their sales through price cuts, something the Gamecube never managed to do, but neither one of them has really made good progress so far.