An older article that I somehow missed... regarding Sony's response to the upgrade Microsoft is providing over Xbox Live to increase the output resolution of the Xbox 360 from 720p to 1080p.

Sony Responds to Microsoft's HD Bid (via IGN)

To quote Sony from the article:

It's unfortunate that Microsoft's external HD-DVD drive will not enhance the experience at all for the gamer. Sony realizes that to truly take gaming into the next generation requires a larger data format for both games and movies. PS3 uses the Blu-ray format for gaming, giving developers 50 GB of high-definition storage on a single disc, while Microsoft's 9 GB DVD gaming format is an obstacle for storing HD content. Furthermore, Microsoft's announced HD games patch is really just a compatibility feature -- upscaling lower-resolution content does not make it Full HD (1080p), something that PS3 can do out of the box.

Yes, it is unfortunate that Microsoft didn't tack an extra $200 onto the 360 and force people to buy something not required to experience FUN games. The only thing a 50 GB disc will do is promote lazy programmers. Come on... 50 GB for a game? Sure, I can see that becoming an asset in a few year, but seriously... we have only just started using DVDs for games! (Well, for PCs, at least. I guess they're been using DVDs for consoles for 5 years now.) The fact is, the general consensus is that games do NOT need 50 GB of space and, if they do, someone's being a little too lax on the compression. Big discs do NOT equal big games... as in, the time it takes to finish the game. People have been saying this for a LONG TIME. This is just Sony tooting their Blu-Ray horn.

That last bit about the game patch being just a compatibility feature? A lie. Maybe they spoke too soon before hearing all the details, or maybe they're just being complete morons. The "patch" to play games in HD allows the 360 to output at true 1080p, upscaling games that are NOT 1080p, and playing 1080p games without changing anything. Sorry, Sony, but this is exactly what the PS3 does.

As they say, trying to make yourself look good by smearing the competition is a sign of weakness. It tells people that you have nothing special to contribute, so you try to make their accompishments look not so great in an effort to make your achievements shine. (Isn't that right, Apple? I'm-a-PC-I'm-a-Mac, hoho. I change the channels on those commercials. Their precious little Macs can't carry the weight on their own, so they have to resort to smearing PCs. Riiight.)

Wow, wow, wow... where do I even begin? Consider this another entry in Sony Says, but, man, I don't know where to start! Sony just needs to NOT talk in public and shut up. They're just... I have never seen any company so bent on self-destruction!

Let me just start at the beginning. I Digg every anti-Sony article that comes around, not just because I agree with it, but because I want to keep track of it. I even Digg pro-Sony news, so I can find them easily after a few weeks. Let me go through all the articles I've found this week:

Gran Turismo HD: The $1000 Game (Digg)

Like the article says, there's buying Horse Armor for 2 bucks in Oblivion, and then there's Gran Turismo HD. In a nutshell, since I have so much to cover: Gran Turismo is a racing game. So far, there are 4 games, I believe, with a 5th coming out "soon". Gran Turismo HD is a remake of Gran Turismo 4 into 1080p. It's being sold in two versions. There's Gran Turismo HD Premium, which includes 30 cars and two race tracks, with 30 more cars and two more tracks available at a later date. Then there's Gran Turismo HD Classic, which... prepare yourself!

Gran Turismo HD Classic comes with NO cars and NO tracks. You are essentially buying a menu system! There will be 750 cars you can buy online for 50 cents to a dollar. There will be 50 tracks you can buy online for $1.50 to $4.50. If you want to buy a complete Gran Turismo HD set, it will cost you far more than the gaming console itself! Does ANYONE see the sense in this? Selling individual cars for a game that won't work without them? Now, see, I think if the Premium game came with all the cars and tracks, then it might be something worth doing! If you don't WANT all the cars, for some reason, then get the Classic for really cheap and buy the few you want. But the way they're doing it, is that you're going to want/have to buy cars for BOTH versions!

This isn't like buying completely and totally optional armor for your horse, this is making you buy the horses online. Heck, it's making you buy GAME FUNCTIONALITY online. It's a RACING game! Okay, enough time on this... next!

Sony's Tokyo Game Show Keynote Speech was a "trainwreck" (Digg)

Title pretty much says it all. So much to go into, so you should read the articles yourself. Suffice it to say that Sony talked forever about nothing, and people were getting bored (now, a regular gamer might've gotten bored of this news, too, but these are all game developers and people who should have gotten something out of this speech) and were playing their NINTENDO DSes during the keynote! How much better can that get? Sony talked long and hard about absolutely nothing. Whispers among the attendees was that it was worse... WORSE!... than E3.

Sony doing all they can to sink the PS3 (Digg)

More of a blog rumor than anything else, when it comes to the point where there will be less copies of games in circulation than there will be CONSOLES. Less games than consoles? Can you even begin to IMAGINE what that would be like? 500,000 consoles. 100,000 copies of each game. There will be people without the games they wanted their PS3s for. But, hey! Sony did tell us that people would buy the PS3 regardless of the games! Remember that? I sure do! I didn't actually expect them to TRY IT!! But, like I said, it's a blog rumor with no sources quoted, so take it with a grain of salt. I haven't seen any complimentary articles. But, seriously? It wouldn't be something beyond Sony to do.

Fans say the PS3 lacks a "wow!" factor (Digg)

Everyone! Meet the Nintendo Wii. True 3D-space motion sensing technology. New, better, intuitive games that promise a world of fun for a price that won't make you go into shock. Free online multiplayer experience. Current status with the fans: Very wow!!

Meet the Microsoft Xbox 360. Bigger, better, stronger, smarter Xbox with a redesigned online multiplayer experience. High definition graphics that blow your socks off. Cheap for what you get, and what you get is a very solid console with an ever growing population of nice games. Current status with the fans: "Plain" wow!!

Enter the PlayStation 3. Bigger, better, stronger, smarter PlayStation 2, with a redesigned...... uhm. Controller. That they copied from Nintendo when, after they made fun of it, they noticed fans loved it. Er, anyway! High definition graphics that blow your socks off. INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE for what you get, yet they would have you think it's cheap for a Blu-Ray player. Very problem-ridden console during development with an ever dwindling population of games. Current status with the fans: Very NOT COOL!

Sony is a bunch of idiots (Digg)

Sony, meet the Nintendo DS. DS? Meet Sony. The official sales numbers prove the Nintendo DS has done everything Nintendo needed and wanted it to do, reaching out to new and old gamers alike, having something for everyone, even people who have never played games before! They have expanded the gaming market like never before and are seriously pumping out the units with no slack in sight. Over 22 million units sold.

Sony, on the other hand, insists the complete opposite. They insist the PSP is outselling the DS, and that Nintendo is, infact, LOSING market share. They go on to say that the Playstation will eventually do what Nintendo "isn't" doing right now. Talk about your massive dellusional LIES. This just simply isn't true. It's shocking and... just... man.

Sega denies PS3 Sega backwards compatibility (Digg)

I guess Sony spoke too soon here! It seem that they promised, in their keynote speech, that the PS3 can and does read old 16-bit Sega CD games. Interesting. That could be a neat feature. Well, too bad Sega says that's not exactly true, and is still currently under just being considered. Wow. Oh, Sony, what a tangled web we weave...

So that's the latest dirt on Sony.

Even still, people claim that there will be regular street going fans who are totally oblivous to the fact that Sony is going nuclear and there will still be enough people to buy all the PS3s. Well, that's possible, but you realize that all this stuff we're hearing is the same thing that game developers are hearing, right? Sure, there are some companies who are bound to make games JUST for the PlayStation, but there are many, many, MANY developers who think Sony is too expensive, too hard to code for, and not worth the time and money.

So, hey. Yes, maybe the regular person on the street still thinks the PlayStation name is the best thing since bread and butter, but what happens when there won't be any games for it? What happens when the games they DO have are already available on the CHEAPER Xbox?

Smart people will NOT buy a PS3. Dumb people will buy a PS3, but will be sorely disappointed with the lack of games available. (Heck, they'll be sorely disappointed with the lack of CONSOLES available!) That's my prediction. Just when you think Sony can't sink lower... they do... and they sap credibility each and every time. Sony is losing, people! I have no ghastly idea why anyone would want to buy one, I'm sorry.