Sony Says...again!
While on a break from cleaning my room, and waiting for lunch to finish, I've decided to gather up a few more of Sony's remarkable blunders during the past week. I wonder how much farther they can sink before they actually hit bottom.
First off, here's an example of how analyists are starting to take all of Sony's stupidities into account and are starting to think twice about the old predictions that PS3 would be the best console this generation, followed by the Xbox 360, and finally, the Wii. After predicting myself that the Wii would blow away the opposition (because real gamers like change), the "official" reports are finally agreeing.
From IGN, a translated article from a Japanese magazine is circulating the internet. It claims to have run a poll of sorts with all the developers in Japan, asking them what they think about the Playstation 3. One of the questions, naturally, was the price. What does Japan think? A whopping 90% of the developers in Sony's home country say the PS3 is far too expensive. (Article quotes someone saying it's higher than his rent!) 56% say that having two systems was a bad idea, 55% say the PS3 will not sell with the current software lineup. 32% were let down by E3, while 48% were unchanged. A whole 3% were encouraged by the E3 announcements. 62% say the PS3 will not sell Sony's goal of 6 million units by March. Your main developers are looking pretty distraught, Sony.
In another article, Sony CEO Howard Stringer admits that the PS3 price is a giant gamble for Sony (as if nobody's been saying that from the beginning), but then, naturally goes on to attempt to justify the massive price tag by saying it's future-proof (I reported that earlier) and that it has Blu-Ray. Guess what, Sony? Nobody cares!
Oh, look! Everyone's favorite publisher, Ubisoft, has entered the fray saying that the PS3 price must drop in 2007. Wow. I guess it's official folks! The PS3 is going to drop in price in 2007. Ubisoft said so. (As if consoles don't drop in price after a year, anyway.) What? Me not like Ubi? How'd you guess...
Once again, Sony takes a page out of Nintendo's playbook and gives their equipment a very bizarre name. Their new, "revolutionary", five-year-old controller style is now named... PooS. The two Os are actually an infinity sign, but how are you going to say it? P-infinity-Ess? People all over the internet are saying they accidentally added an O to the name, but, uhm... I won't go there! But, needless to say, it's rediculous. Not sure what they were trying here, but it sure seems like an attempt at free publicity. (Even if it's not, people are quick to assume it is... that just goes to show Sony's image.)
I've learned by a comment on Digg that Sony had to borrow the equivalent of about 700 million dollars to help aid the cost of production on the PS3. This is amazing... If the PS3 fails, Sony's going to be in seriously serious trouble.
I'll close with a slight positive for Nintendo. We have a picture of the AC adapter for the Wii now. In this day and age, with the gargantuan Xbox 360 power brick, and the massive PS3, you have to watch sizes. The Wii is roughly the dimensions of two full-size DVD books stacked face-to-face. It's really small. Anyway, the AC adapter is external, and seems to be what was used for the Gamecube. Small for you, cheap for them... which translates directly to savings for you!
Also, Sports Illustrated for Kids has printed a release date for the Wii. No word from Nintendo, but it's interesting, nevertheless! The projected date is November 6th. Not quite a month earlier than the PS3, scheduled for late November.
That is all for now!