Ben

Sony's E3 Conference Thread

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I think what saddens me most is how much it will dominate on the market. I mean, before, I figured everyone had a chance. The 360 and the PS3 were, essentially, equals, and the Wii was the loveable sidekick to compliment whichever one you chose to buy. Now the PS3 has the processing power and the controller.

EDIT: Then again, with a price like that....

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I think what saddens me most is how much it will dominate on the market. I mean, before, I figured everyone had a chance. The 360 and the PS3 were, essentially, equals, and the Wii was the loveable sidekick to compliment whichever one you chose to buy. Now the PS3 has the processing power and the controller.

EDIT: Then again, with a price like that....

It's not quite the same though. The ps3 controller can only sense tilting, and it looks like most games won't use it anyway.

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Holy shit, Sony are much more pathetic than I though. Good job predicting the Nintendo rip-off, whoever it was who did that beforehand.

Also, turns out the controller doesn't even have rumble technology. They say that it would interfere with the motion sensing... Of course that's not the truth, but it's even a terrible lie, since the implementation of the motion sensor is a weak knock-off in the first place.

Great job reporting all this Ben. Do you have plans to do this with all the big conferences or is that open season to anyone who wants to do it?

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Cool coverage man. I don't think any of us need to go to LA for quality editorializing.

Also Sony's 11th-hour, mustn't-let-Nintendo-rape-us add-on is really :hah:-worthy. :hah: I say! :hah:!

:pwned::eathat::tdown: :ponycrap: :broken::hat1::miyamoto::fries::oldman::hah:

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Maybe Nintendo's big announcement is that they're suing Sony? That'd be neat...

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Big announcement: Wii felates, mentally and physically. Sony just sort of licks a little to appear friendly. Microsoft is already asleep.

I have no idea what I meant to say with that, but whatever it is I said frightens me. I better not submit this reply.

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How can Nintendo possibly resist the urge to be smug after this?

Wait, I think Miyamoto will just convert the emotion into astounding bliss and general bounciness. HOT YEAH!

And you know what? I think the pricetag of both the 360 and especially the PS3 will absolutely scare the casual gamers away. And since that is the new market that will decide who will dominate the coming generations, I'd say Nintendo has all the planets aligned. Come on, 500 Dollars for a 'gimped' version?

Also, I'm waiting for all the Sony apologists to come and say that the added sensors and shit are not a total ripoff, but instead [whatever bullshit they come up with]. It's really, really quite obvious that they wouldn't have done this if Nintendo hadn't scared them shitless with it. Sony does hardware and third-partying well, but innovation just isn't in their dictionary.

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I haven't seen the footage yet but oh man, this controller is a gift to Nintendo. It only helps to validate their approach, and it doesn't much benefit Sony as a tilt sensor is fairly limited in its functionality.

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And you know what? I think the pricetag of both the 360 and especially the PS3 will absolutely scare the casual gamers away.

Given how closely I follow this shit, I wouldn't consider myself casual, and that price has me plenty scared. Fuck that, man. If I end up getting a PS3, there's no way in hell I'm gonna pay more than $250 for it. (CANADIAN DOLLARS) However long I gotta wait for it to fall to that doesn't matter. Probably get it used too, just so Sony doesn't get any extra cash off of me.

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Same old crappy DualShock. This time without vibration!

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Great job reporting all this Ben. Do you have plans to do this with all the big conferences or is that open season to anyone who wants to do it?

Good question. To be honest I'm not sure. The text updates were a last minute decision as I'd heard people having trouble hearing/seeing the streams, while my connection seemed fine - so i thought i'd just report for all those people. Covering the Nintendo conference personally will be a bit more difficult as i'll still be at work, but i think Spaff might have something planned... Failing that, then sure, it's open to anyone who feels like doing it ;)

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I haven't seen the footage yet but oh man, this controller is a gift to Nintendo. It only helps to validate their approach, and it doesn't much benefit Sony as a tilt sensor is fairly limited in its functionality.

I agree. The interesting thing is that this move may really hurt the 360, since it's the only one without motion now. So rather than trying to compete against Nintendo, maybe Sony did it to win against Microsoft--since that was always the real war for them anyway.

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The more I think of it, the more stupid it seems, I mean, sure I'm mad as Hell at Sony for ripping off Nintendo, but...

They just added tilting? I don't see that being too usefull in games, and specially in a controller that need to be held with both hands...

Unless they create a Yoshi Universal Gravitation rip-off, the only things they can do (that I can think of) is games where you tilt the world, or games where you tilt the character (imagine a shooter where you can tilt the character to see what around the corner)...

Actually, I think Sony has made a big mistake, they added something that not only has made lots of gamers furious at them, and might even get them sued (didn't Nitnendo patent this), but they only half did it, and apparently they may have got it wrong?

Since they isn't going to be a new Katamari, and frankly the games from makers of Ico and SOTC and just getting more shiney and more shallow, I think I can survive without a PS3.... Specially since it's gonna cost a freaking fortune!

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I've just seen the show itself, and seeing the footage of the sensor with Warhawk did make it seem pretty novel to play. However, the ethics behind it are excruciating, and the whole show felt so plastic and staged.

'Don't you just love surprises?' Oh sod off.

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The tilt thing is going to be really cool in a couple of games but in the grand scheme of things it's not going to help Sony. In fact it only helps Nintendo.

The tilt thing is tacked on. It apparently won't be universally supported in all the games. Plus the controller still looks exactly like a PS2 dualshock so it's going to be hard to communicate its additional functionality to the mainstream.

The thing that will sell the Wii is the unique shape of the controller and the fact that you can slash it as a sword, use it as a tennis racket, and so on. You can't slash a DualShock like a sword. Nintendo's controller remains an incredibly strong unique selling point.

Taking into account the price tag, the contrast becomes even starker.

After Sony's underwhelming conference I would say:

- Nintendo's position is strengthened

- Microsoft's position is unchanged as their online/multiplayer spearhead appears unthreatened by Sony

Some might say that Microsoft is now in a poor position as they're the only ones without a motion sensitive controller, but that is not the correct analysis. Sony is currently the weakest of the three, particularly if Microsoft demonstrates many new Live features and Arcade games today.

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The Xbox 360 certainly got a boost for me today, seeing as how there's now no possibility that I'll get a PS3. I'm guessing the same goes for a lot of other people who have been holding out, wanting to know price and further details on Sony's offering. With a price as high as that for the PS3, many will simply go for the "cheap but powerful" console, the 360. That's what I'm guessing anyway. A strong show from Microsoft would absolutely give them a further boost though.

I agree with you about Nintendo's position however.

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I am just wondering what will happen to Sony if this thing doesn't take off.

They have a lot riding on the PS3, basically the future of the entire company!

At this moment it seems entirely possible that the PS3 will bomb.

On the other hand I don't think that the 360 has really gained any traction

in the market as there is still not nearly enough interesting titles 6 months into

the product-lifecycle. The one thing Sony still has is lots of commitment from

important developers which will help them stay ahead in the foreseeable future.

But if this thing with the controller is any indication of how Sony is going about

this new generation (and especially the online portion of the console), I am less

then enthused. I just can't believe how clueless they are. At least make the new

controller "feel" next gen like the finish of the 360 controllers! If they have the

same bad fit as the old ones (my poor tortured hands) I would feel cheated beyond belief.

Also the ergonomics of a symmetric setup isn't really all that great!

I don't think there is any point in arguing with Nintendo's excellent position at this point.

They are doing everything right and as an old SNES fanboy "I am as happy as a little boy".

I don't quite see microsoft taking over the old PS2 ground. A lot of people out there

probably don't even know that there are aother systems apart from Playstation!

I am talking about the massmarket that will probably make its decision based on marketing and

"stand-out" titles. But all of that could be changing since video games are constantly moving more towards

the massmarket.

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I've just seen the show itself, and seeing the footage of the sensor with Warhawk did make it seem pretty novel to play. However, the ethics behind it are excruciating, and the whole show felt so plastic and staged.

Oh so different. Try holding onto something with two hands and then pretending to use a tilt control. Your wrists lock on several axies, and it just gets damn annoying.

Some games will offer some alternatives ways of doing the tilt stuff and most game developers won't take advantage of the tilt at all, unless sony really whines at them. And rumble pack owners will be wanting their vibrations back. In the end, its half assed implementation - which will make people think of the fully realised implementation being used by.....

..Wii owners, who will be waving their single handed control around like a wand or a light sabre, and throwing stuff..and all sorts of crazy things.

Sony are certainly playing defence. Their controllers are practically the same because Sony are worried if they changed the feel of them, it would reduce the switching costs for ps2 users migrating elsewhere, particularly to wii. Gyro is also defensive: I doubt the gyro would intercept anyone eyeing up a wiimote - but you can see the cognitive justification of a Ps2 owner going "I don't need a nintendo, my ps3 has a gyro". Sony are playing defence, but with such a market lead, why not.

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I wouldn't be talking about the death of Sony quite yet, but the points are all valid. I still haven't seen the vids, but the tilt has a very limited kind of appeal. You can do your Yoshi Topsy Turvy and your WarioWare Twisted, but then what? Peeking around corners in FPSs is something that's already done, and with two sets of shoulder buttons you've already got some buttons that are designed to be dedicated to the fucking manouver. Tilting really wouldn't add much to that scenario. There are some specific puzzles to throw around, but that's as far as it'll go. This will be the gimmick that everyone thought the Wii was going to be, (especially when only a few games will support it) and Sony is totally oblivious. Unless they have some incredible ace up their sleeve, I can easily see them dropping to second this generation. Third is possible, but a long shot.

It's so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that the 360 is actually CHEAPER than the PS3. When the premium (read: only one worth having) was priced at $500, I nearly shat myself. Now that's the price of Sony's shit pack? What the hell are they thinking? I always kind of assumed that this generation I'd be going Ninty first and Sony if I had enough cash a couple years later. Now I may need to think about replacing Sony with MS, if only because that way I can still afford food. Kuturagi is either a fucking idiot or far too surrounded by yes-men, it's as simple as that.

EDIT: It's really unfortunate because the PS2 has been the source of a lot of quirky fun for me. Katamari, Gitaroo, Mister Mosquito, Rez, and many others have never ceased to delight. Now this kind of fun is out of my price bracket. Bastard Sony.

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The thing about Sony's domination is that it's based on a cyclical argument. Why is the PS2 the best console to own this generation? The games. Thus begins the cycle.

The games are created by developers. The developers develop for the PS2 because it has the largest userbase. Why does it have the largest userbase? Because developers create games for it, attracting customers that form the large potential consumer group for the future. If one of these things don't take off right away, Sony has no business. If there aren't any games they can't sell the console and if there aren't any consumers there isn't anyone there to buy the games.

What Sony has done now damages the cycle slightly, allowing for Nintendo and Microsoft to snatch customers up. Sony wouldn't control the mass market if the cycle was sufficiently broken, which is something steps like this leads to.

I've never typed cycle that many times before.

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It's so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that the 360 is actually CHEAPER than the PS3. When the premium (read: only one worth having) was priced at $500, I nearly shat myself. Now that's the price of Sony's shit pack? What the hell are they thinking?

You mean Canadian? Here (US) the premium 360 is $400, whereas the crappy PS3 is $500. So the crappy version is $100 MORE than the good 360. It's exactly what I thought would happen. There seemed to be a small chance they'd match the 360, but I would have been really surprised to see it under $500. I'm definitely not getting one anytime soon.

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According to the information in the first post the PS3 controller understands tilt, pitch and roll as well as movement in all three dimensions.

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When it comes to consoles I've only owned the PS2, which I had to sell. Now I'm definitely getting Wii, and I'm also thinking of buying a PS2 again, just cause there are so many great games on it that I still haven't played: Katamari, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus etc. Xbox (360) still doesn't have many interesting exclusive games as far as I'm concerned so I'll probably just keep upgrading my PC instead unless that changes.

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Unless Sony's just using this a jumping board to a more usable motion sensor design. It's a more casual approach to revolutionising control, and it'll catch a lot of people. Sure we can lean round corners already, but it's about making the lttle things more accessible. Still, nowhere near Wii functionality - but that's what you get with a last minute bolt-on addition, right?

And isn't DualShock somewhat a contradiction in terms now?

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