Console Wars VI

[Nikolai]

What is this one?

To quote another poster: Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit.

[Alinestra Covelia]

One Ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.

My brother tried to get "...and in the darkness bind them..." engraved on his fiancée's wedding band on the inside.

Unfortunately for him, she found out about it before hand and called up the engraver and told them not to do it.

He also wanted to make a change to the minister's speech. He wanted the minister to say something about being "gathered here today, to witness [the bride] heading past the altar, down the ramp, and out the door".

She found out about that too and nixed that as well.

[Nikolai]

Sad, Asher, sad.

[DrSpike]

Well I don't think it's stupid to worry about RROD if you have one of the older machines, because estimates of the proportion affected are all pretty high, even in the context of consumer electronics where naturally problems do occur over time.

This 'new' problem I've never heard of, and since I browse a few xbox forums it can't be that prevalent.

[snoopy369]

I wonder if people will start releasing demos on the 'net that can be burnt to a DVD and put in your PS3? (Is that even possible?)

In any event, it's a fairly simple mathematical calculation. .16/GB, average demo what, under a GB? So, say .16 per demo download. What fraction turn into sales? 1/10th? 1/20th?
1/20th, 5% demo downloads turn into sales, mean you are paying $3.20 per sale for the demo. (I'm assuming those 5% are not sales otherwise- ie, in addition to the normal retail sales that you'd get anyway). I wonder how that compares to normal marketing costs for a game. It's on the order of what i'd assume normally (maybe $10 for a $60 flagship-level game), I suppose.

Of course, it's free on the X360, at the expense of the other costs... wonder (as well) what the incremental costs are there. How many people choose to play the PS3 version of a game because it's free to play online, versus X360. It's probably not close to the level that it would be if the PS3 were a more competitive platform; any 'real gamer' will have to go Gold on X360 to play their exclusives and/or the games that run well on X360 and not on the PS3. Not enough players are going to go PS3 primarily and X360 secondarily...

[snoopy369]

Wonder how long until that's cracked

But yes, this sounds rather odd on Sony's part. I understand the need for revenue, and perhaps they just assume that they'll get the revenue this way; but it's not very forward-looking.

Now, if they were to, say, only apply this to mega publishers who probably don't really care about that magnitude of cost (they can just bank it against marketing cost), then perhaps it would be less of an issue; EA probably isn't going to decide not to put Madden on PS3 with a demo, after all. But the mid-range and low-range publishers will be thinking about it.

On the other hand, it might have an interesting effect: encouraging demos to be released well ahead of the actual game (>60 days ahead, more like 90-120 days). That way you get a much smaller number of demos downloaded during the 60 day cost window, and once it's near release or released, a ton more downloads (for free). Could be an interesting unintended consequence...

[El_Cid]

Yeah i read about that on gama - dumb move imho. I can't see any win in it at all, apart from maybe a small initial revenue stream, which i would imagine gets smaller over time as publishers/devs just think "screw this, PS3 is hard enough to work on anyway". Dont really know what they are playing at? maybe the shock of going from untouchable 1st place to effectively last place in this gen has just made them all a little crazy over at sony HQ?

[El_Cid]

PS2 still relevant

http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22992

21% of all games sold last quarter worldwide. That's pretty big. I'm just gutted they finaly did a price cut(i had been watching for one since this gen had taken hold), but not until 6 months after i got mine(for around £100 including controllers+games). oh well. Still it means this is a very cheap entry level for people wanting some great console games, and with continued support from sony there may be some life left in the system

[Nikolai]

PS2 got a price cut yesterday, and they say they did it because they wanted to compete with Wii.

[Alinestra Covelia]

I'm giving serious thought to buying a PS2 now. I never owned a PS1 and as I recall there was 100% reverse compatibility between PS2 and PS1. There were a decent number of very high quality games on both, too.

[DrSpike]

I don't see why you'd bother to be honest. Between your PC, Wii and 360 I'm not sure what more a PS2 will offer.

[El_Cid]

well for the price of a top AAA game for current gen(well an expensive one) you get access to many games not seen on other platforms, or cheaper versions of the same game(thinking Guitar Hero series, as good on PS2 as any other platform as it's not a graphics based game). Mostly lots of epic JRPG's which you don't get on other platforms. Mech strategy games as well, lots of tbs battle games, lots of great stuff you don't have on this gen in fact.

For me just going through the backlog of titles is going to keep me busy for the next 12months plus easily, and quality of game is not a problem(say like on too many of the Wii games) as the library is huge and varied(which the 360 doesn't have especialy...but that is getting better).

A cheap very decent console with great titles, even if older ones. what's not to like?

[DrSpike]

Strategy is better on the PC, so you're left with jRPGs (and that only counts if the growing 360 offerings aren't enough). If someone wants to buy an old system for the sake of that then fine, but most real gamers who like jRPGs that much will have played the PS2 classics three years ago or more.

There are very few old games up to the standard of the 360 trio of Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey and Star Ocean, which I don't believe Ali (or you for that matter) has played.

[El_Cid]

but so cheap - the cost of a new game plus a beer or two? has to be good for gaming

But yeah in these times of money crisis i guess if you have many other consoles you could make do without.

Or if you need a console, but dont want to stretch for a 360(about as expensive as the others when you include all the on-line/controllers/decent system etc stuff)/Wii or PS3, then it's a good option.

Game supply would be my biggest concern as many stores have limited supply of mostly not great PS2 titles - you have to go on-line to find the best titles, and as my search for Katarami has shown me, rare second hand PS2 games can cost more than the release price! so you have to be paitent.

[Asher]

There are terrific PSX emulators on the PC, also.