Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

[Jarre]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

FFXII is out? Damn, need to get my mitss back onto a PS2...

Jarre, what part of London you in? Im here right now

I'm not try 140 miles north in the sleepy county of lincolnshire

[Jarre]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

/sigh. Oh well, finish off the games I have first. Interestingly, Play seems to have plenty of copies.

Play are based in Jersey remember, they seem to have missed it, but i have had mine on order with Amazon for 18months now!!!

i received a second email from them about 3 mintues ago. 1st march i will have it couried (spelling?) to me at no extra cost. (well i have been a customer for 8 years!!!)

Edit.. Ok so what happened to automerge?

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

I haven't touched a console in over four years now. The whole console gaming market became too stale and too expensive for me to be honest. I rarely buy any stand alone games for my PC and just focus on MMoGs anyway but tossing out $60-80 a time for a console game I would finish in a few days up to a week just isn't what I deem a smart way to spend my cash.

You can always wait for those outstanding titles to drop down to 20 bucks. I've probably gotten an equivalent amount of gaming-per-buck on Katamari Damacy and Shinobi as I have from FF XI (considering FF XI has a monthly upkeep).

[Jei]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

Just to help... discouraging you... from buying? My friend has had his PS3 since released. He only plays it less than 2-3 hours total since that day. It's just sitting in his bookshelf atm collecting dust. No interesting game to play was his comment.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

I think it's pretty subjective. 360 obviously has the most games out to play, but I personally play my PS3 far more than my Wii or 360. There are still piles among piles of great PS2 games I need to play and Resistance is a fantastic experience online. I'm also of course enjoying Tekken Dark Resurrection (big Tekken fan though ) and downloads like Gran Turismo HD and now fl0w.

I really think Wii is the console that needs games the most right now, and not just any games. Zelda was a bit of a disappointment for me, and WiiSports is fun in short spurts, but only with a group of friends. On the horizon are only games like Super Paper Mario which isn't out until April, and games like Mario Party 8, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. Brawl don't have dates anymore.

[Raydeus]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

Backwards compatibility is one of the main reasons to buy a PS3 right now, without it (or with a very gimped one) there's no much reason to buy one in a year or two.

Unless you are gonna go heavy on the 1080p/BD playing capabilities that is.

I guess Europe will have to wait and see the list of games that will be compatible before making that call.

[Vyuru]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

Heh, Telera pretty much said everything I was going to.

However, have you looked at importing? I understand that not all things can be imported with no problems, however I have a few for japan only things (I'm still not asking how I could get them if they were for japan only >.>) Plus I have a few japanese games, for instance I got the japanese version Harvest Moon Songs of Happyness (Or Magical Melodies, or Poems of something or other, whichever translation you prefer).

I would move to America, except for the screwed up justice system there....

While I haven't heard about that incident, I don't think our justice system is screwed up. Did she actually win her case or did she just file charges?

[Murphie]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

I haven't touched a console in over four years now. The whole console gaming market became too stale and too expensive for me to be honest. I rarely buy any stand alone games for my PC and just focus on MMoGs anyway but tossing out $60-80 a time for a console game I would finish in a few days up to a week just isn't what I deem a smart way to spend my cash.

Neat! Something we can agree on. Seriously. I long since figured out that my money goes a lot farther on MMOs. It's not that I dislike console games, and I do buy them from time to time, but personally (and I'm not advocating this for anyone else), I no longer feel like I'm wasting my money on consoles and console games that I don't even get a fraction of the enjoyment I get out of an MMO.

[Vyuru]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

I no longer feel like I'm wasting my money on consoles and console games that I don't even get a fraction of the enjoyment I get out of an MMO.

I dunno, I will say I really have fun with my LS mates, I just don't get alot of online time, so I tend to favor console games since I can do those alone. However I would much rather be getting my old LS static back together, or any number of things with my LS.

Kind of depends what you have time for I guess.

[Murphie]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

That's why I said I wasn't advocating it for anyone else. My parentheticals aren't just for show!

[Jarre]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

Heh, Telera pretty much said everything I was going to.
However, have you looked at importing? I understand that not all things can be imported with no problems, however I have a few for japan only things (I'm still not asking how I could get them if they were for japan only >.>) Plus I have a few japanese games, for instance I got the japanese version Harvest Moon Songs of Happyness (Or Magical Melodies, or Poems of something or other, whichever translation you prefer).
While I haven't heard about that incident, I don't think our justice system is screwed up. Did she actually win her case or did she just file charges?

She won, there was an article in a national rag (the Sun) on it.

[Vyuru]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

She won, there was an article in a national rag (the Sun) on it.

Wha? Ok, now that's messed up then, I'm gonna have to look into this because I can't believe that she'd win just based on the fact that he waved and said hi every morning.

[Icemage]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

I read a few things from this:

(1) Sony has commercialized their 65nm Cell processor and is already putting it into their new units. While this means that the Emotion PS2 and PS1 hardware is probably gone from the EU PS3 design, it also means it's costing Sony less per unit, and also means that a price drop is much more likely to be in the cards this year, since that single change probably takes about $100US off the production cost of the PS3. There is no other explanation for commentary about backward compatibility. Sony is obviously shifting focus in the PS3 to full software emulation (which is smart on their part).

(2) EU PS3s will run more quietly and cooler, with less power consumption than the JP and NA counterparts. Not that the NA PS3 is loud, but lower heat output is certainly good IMO.

(3) With the above changes, I suspect that once the initial rush blows over in EU/Australia, Sony will stand pat on pricing for a short while (a couple months? who knows...) and then cut prices to bring in the mass market like they've been meaning to do since the beginning.

Let's face it. $600US (and more in EU and Aus) is really pricy for a console. Yes, the PS3 is amazingly flexible and powerful. However, we all know that it's too much for most people. Sony certainly knows this; all that bluster about people wanting it at any price is no doubt just marketing spin to convince people to buy it at the initial price to make sure they minimize their initial losses until they could design down the cost to make it more friendly for the mass market.

If you think I am wrong, refer back to this post in nine months near Christmas.


Icemage

[Nazo]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

Sony is obviously shifting focus in the PS3 to full software emulation (which is smart on their part).

If you think I am wrong, refer back to this post in nine months near Christmas.
Icemage

Perhaps it would be a smart move if the emulation were finished but it's obvious from their announcement that it's a long way from that. They haven't even had the decency to give us an idea of just how bad it will be merely stating 'a limited number' (and you know if it were near 50% that quote would be 'a substantial number or something similar). Please don't insult me by selling me a broken product and trying to paint it as being a benefit, it won't wash.
Pulling a major feature which was promised to us and everyone else got one month before launch isn't smart it's downright idiocy. Sony laughed at MS for their dual pricing and broken BC and have now done exactly the same thing. At least MS were upfront about it.

In nine months 'screwed over Europe' could be one item on a very long list in an article entitiled 'what went wrong for PS3' as PS3 languishes in a poor 3rd place; right now Sony is rocking and you'd have to be pretty blinkered not to see it. Their product is over-priced compared with the competition and right now has absolutely no compelling software to sell it, just a couple of decent exclusives and a bunch of ports that look better on rival systems, and as a result they are getting trounced in sales both home and abroad.
You'd think given the situation they're in they'd want to get this one launch right, but no, they risk alienating their customers even further by removing features at the last minute (after pre-orders at the major stores had already been taken, funny that). Meanwhile Sony execs continue to spout their BS about how rosy everything is in Sonyland making themselves look even more arrogant and patronising. I've never seen so much bad press for a company as Sony has gotten over PS3 and not just from those with a vested interest but from neutrals too. We're not idiots and if they don't stop treating us as such they're gonna find themselves in big trouble.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: Sony shafts Europe on PS3 (again)

I agree with Icemage about software emulation being smart (a full $27 is cut off the cost of each PS3 unit by removing the PS2 chipset from the PS3), however I don't think now is the time for Sony to do it in such force. However, we knew Sony was doing this from day one (at the exact time Sony announced that they'd be including the Emotion Engine in the PS3, they said they would eventually remove it and switch to software emulation, which the CELL and RSX are far more than capable of doing), so I think everyone should have expected a bumpy road during the transition.

Granted, we don't know the whole of the situation. Like most things, chances are the media's just blowing this out of proportion and the perfection rate of the PS3's software-based backwards-compatility is as high as 80%, which I think is an acceptable rate to make the method public with. It could be below that, and if it is, then I think Sony's making a mistake by making the change just yet, and that they should wait a little longer (which it's obviously too late for).

I also think their announcement of this issue is a little uncourteous. They easily could have done so before European preorders were well under way, and they could have done so with more consideration. This is probably Sony's worst-handled PR mess since the beginning of the PS3's life, but I think we do need to give them a little more credit until we know the exact details about the change. We already know Sony can handle software emulation; the PSP's software-based PSone emulator is 100% perfect so far (no one has had any problems whatsoever with any game they've tried, and well over a few hundred games have probably been downloaded and emulated on PSP using Sony's official emulator), so I have faith in that if it's not near-perfect at EU launch, the PS3's software emulator will, in due time, be as close to the 98%-ish perfection rate of the current hardware-based BC.

I certainly agree that Sony's somewhat in the wrong in the way they're handling this, but I really do think the media is once again blowing a minor problem way out of proportion. Our backwards compatibility wasn't perfect at our launch (seriously flawed until last month, to be exact), so I do think there are some people who are taking this a bit too seriously. Granted, EU fans do have it rough enough already, so they have every right to complain to some extent.