Sony is at it again! Take a look at that article. You don't have to read it... Just take a peek at the three pictures. Do you notice anything... Familiar? About this controller set that is being heralded as "innovative"? That's right. It's a mouse. A mouse for the PS3. Innovative means something new that changes the way you do something. This isn't innovative, this is a lousy attempt to get PC players to feel the PS3 is best to play first person shooters on now. (Face it, nothing beats keyboard/mouse for FPS.)

Okay, so the mouse isn't innovative, clearly. But what's that other controller? The black nunchuk. Oops, sorry, it's not a nunchuk, is it. It's an overclocked Wii Nunchuk. Just... Look at it. Joystick, a bazillion buttons. Bet it's not motion sensitive, though. So is the nunchuk half the part that's innovative? I mean, really, if the mouse isn't innovative, but you call this set innovative, then it must be the nunchuk. Which, I might add, Nintendo designed something similar FIRST, and everyone's laughing at the controller set that will become old and boring in 6 months.

So, okay. Judging by Sony fanboy rants, the nunchuk isn't innovative, either, since they're laughing at Nintendo's nunchuk (THAT CAME FIRST). So what does that leave? Hmm...

That's right, folks. The mouse pad. The mouse pad is innovative. See that little arm rest in the first picture? The mouse pad clearly sports a convenient cradle for the nunchuk. I've never seen anything like it before in my life! It could very well change the face of console gaming as we know it. Because... Uhm... You could... Like... Put stuff on there... Within easy reach of your other hand?

Ah, who is anybody kidding? This is a rehash of existing controller sets that Sony copied. It's not innovative in the least bit. Is it useful? Sure! I mean, if I bought a PS3 (like when hell has snow), I'd get this. It WOULD make FPS games easier to play... Maybe. It would take a lot of time getting used to. But it could be useful! But innovative? Come on, Sony... Innovative in your own little world, maybe. But you just copied everyone else... Again.

I couldn't help but completely disregard everything the post said when I read this:

I'm still not sold on how a "traditional video game" (which Okami almost certainly is if the brush is not considered) feels using the Wii and that ninja instrument.

Okami makes a huge deal out of "the brush", Mister. Stripping out the Celestial Brush and calling it a "traditional video game" is like stripping the puzzles out of Riven and calling it a "pretty slide show". Okami has traditional elements, yes. In fact, it's very much like Zelda, much to the chagrin of hardcore Nintendo fanatics. Personally, I don't care. Okami is awesome, as is Zelda. And yes, it would be a regular ol' adventure action game without the Celestial Brush, but it DOES have the Celestial Brush so it's NOT a "traditional video game".

Then again, he does say this before the traditional bit:

While Okami would almost certainly be a great candidate for the Wii treatment (if only because the celestial brush would work great with the Wii remote)...

So it could be that he just doesn't think REAL traditional games would work very well on the Wii, as he goes on to say that he couldn't help but think that Twilight Princess would be more fun on the Gamecube with a traditional controller. Well, duh. Remember that Twilight Princess was INTENDED for the Gamecube, and then the Wii Remote controls were tacked on later in development. While I personally think that this choice was a make or break decision for me (I can't aim worth squat with joysticks... It's much easier to aim the bow by pointing where you want it to go), I've heard lots of people say they like the Gamecube version better. That's fine, but now you're going so far as to predict that all Wii games are going to have tacked-on controls based on the fact that Twilight Princess had tacked-on controls.

The bottom line is that we really haven't seen a REAL Wii game, yet, with the exception of Wii Sports. It's so cliche, but since everyone tries to defend the Playstation 3 and everything under the sun with "wait until it has some good games" or "wait until this" or "wait until that until you judge", I'm going to say: Why don't we wait until there are some REAL, ORIGINAL Wii games before we wonder if developers are going to do a good job and/or even want to develop for the Wii.

How many times do we have to tell you that everyone was afraid of the thing when it was released, but now, almost six months later, with Wiis still impossibly difficult to find, developers have been shocked out of their fear and are scrambling to release games for the fastest selling console. (With the exception of Sega, I guess... They seem to doubt the creativity of their own developers, it seems.) All the games so far have either been first-party Nintendo games, or lame ports of old games adapted to the new control system.

Then there's this little gem:

If I had to choose, I'd rather that Clover have the extra processing power offered by the PS3 and 360 than the magic wand novelty of the Wii.

Totally despite the fact that Okami was built for only the SECOND Playstation console. Not the new, upcoming third? Despite the fact that Okami was built on the weakest console of its generation? You would rather Clover harnass the stagnant uncreative, but sheer power of the PS3 and 360 rather than the entirely brand new "novelty" of the Wii Remote? That just doesn't sound like Clover to me. I have to say that I would be disappointed with Seeds if they didn't follow the footsteps of Clover Studios. Clover seemed to excel and making creative, odd, but fun games. The Wii would be a perfect platform for them to unleash their full creative potential. Power is so uncreative minds can go 'ooh' and 'aah' at the pretty high-definition graphics and sound. (I'm not saying there aren't come pretty neat games on the 360, now, but I will say that most of the games are just spectacles of light and sound and not much else.)

Did people already forget this 1UP interview with Inaba, Clover's president? He says that they didn't know about the Wii at all until after they began making Okami. He doesn't actually say that they would have, beyond a doubt, that they would have made a Wii version of Okami, but he does say they would have definitely thought about it. Remember, this was before the Wii was actually released, so he brings up some doubts about people wanting to hold the controller for that long, and how Okami was incredibly finely tuned to the PS2. (The Wii, however, is easily more powerful than the PS2, especially since the Gamecube was even a smidgen more powerful than the PS2.) But now, it's become abundantly clear that people can use the Wii Remote just as easily and as long as any other controller. I'm happy with the way Okami turned out, but I still think that Inaba's fears of the Wii controller are just the sad paranoia that the industry has to new things.

Finally, the blost post ends with this:

Its slowly becoming my view that the Wii will only excel at novelty products and 1st party Nintendo games. Not too terribly different from the GameCube when you think about it.

Then your view is clouded, just like everyone at Digg. There have been NO good third party games for the Wii because the developers were TOO AFRAID to make release games. Now that the Wii has just about as many units out there as the Xbox 360, with a sell-out spree with no signs of ending, the greedy publishers are jumping on the bandwagon and have finally begun to make REAL Wii games. Not ported games. Now that the Wii is super successful, developers and publishers aren't afraid to take a chance. You can't make a game in 2 months, people. You'll start seeing new Wii-specific games at the end of this year, and many more coming in the following years.

Give it time, and stop writing off the Wii so quickly. It hasn't had a chance, just like your precious PS3. It's inevitable, especially with the third-party failure of the Gamecube. Everyone was scared to make Wii games because Nintendo's last console was so poor for them. Everyone was all geared up for the next whopper console from Sony, but look what happened there? They misplaced their predictions of what was going to be successful and it's taking them a long time to shift focus. The Wii will get games!

BE PATIENT.

Anyway, a few days ago, news started circulating that Sony was complaining about retailers exporting their game devices against Sony's wishes. How they can do that, nobody's quite sure. Fanboys are saying "it's their product, they can do what they want", but what Sony's essentially trying to do here is prevent people from, say, Europe... buying their stuff from Japan. The majority opinion is that Sony enjoys jacking up the price of their stuff in Europe for nobody knows what reason, and that when companies export from Japan to Europe, then Sony's not getting that extra money from the jacked up price. Importing is good for Europe, but bad for Sony, so Sony wants to stop exports/imports. Dumb.

Well... Sony got their wish. Their target was an awesome little online gaming store that went by the name of Lik Sang, based in Hong Kong, that carried quite literally anything you could ever want for your modern gaming needs. Adapters you've never heard of... modification chips... consoles... games... whatever you can name, they had it, and that's seriously no lie. Unfortunately, Sony noticed that European customers were buying PlayStations from Lik Sang for a variety of reasons. The major reason being that whatever they were buying simply wasn't availible in Europe yet, and they were being fans of Sony and didn't want to wait! That's good, right?

I mean, Lik Sang even has proof that Sony CEOs bought Sony products from them because they were simply too hard to find for themselves. When Sony can't find Sony products anywhere but Lik Sang, you know you've got yourself a perfect job. That's good, right?

Wrong. Sony didn't like that. Sony got angry. You don't want to deal with an angry Sony. An angry Sony is like an angry 5 year old. They don't listen to reason, but they'll pitch a fit and scream and holler and go insane until they get their way. Unfortunately, Sony has enough money to fund their little whiney endeavors. So what did Sony do? They sued Lik Sang. Several times. From different countries. It doesn't matter if Lik Sang could win. They just simply couldn't afford to fight in so many courts at once... so they went out of business.

You realize that Sony just successfully attacked a retailer for exporting Sony products, even though that's perfectly legal? A retailer that Sony BOSSES bought from because the products were so hard to find! (Which, incidentally, is entirely Sony's fault by delaying releases for no given reason.) Well, see, they did have a "reason" for suing Lik Sang. They claim it was because their products weren't rated safe to use with European electricity. Lik Sang tried to point out that they were selling the things with official Sony AC adapters rated for worldwide voltage, but nobody listened.

So Lik Sang, the best online videogame store, period, is now completely out of business. They're refunding everyone orders and preorders and terminating all existing transactions. Why? Because Sony wants to extort you for MORE MONEY.

Where are the fanboys now?

EDIT: Well, I guess they DID actually go to court, but the verdict is still the same.

You know, I keep saying that one of Sony's quotes keeps "taking the cake", but, once again, I think this is the ultimate in Sony Says. You see, Sony says that the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii are too expensive. (According to Joystiq reporting on an interview with Michael Ephraim, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia.)

In Australia, prices are a bit higher... or so they seem. You know... that whole economy exchange thing? Import fees, local taxes, etc. In this case, the Wii is about 400 AUD, which translates to about 297.70 USD. It's $249.99 here in the United States. That's about 50 more dollars in Australia for a variety of reasons. Rest assured that Nintendo is probably making the same amount off Australia's consoles, and that the jacking in price has something to do with where you decided to live.

The Xbox 360 will cost about 600 AUD, which translates to about 446.52 USD. The Premium package is $399.99 here in the United States. Once again, it's about 50 more dollars in Australia for a variety of reasons, and Microsoft probably doesn't make any more money off of Australia than they do here.

Now, see? Sony thinks those two are expensive, but they didn't comment on the price of the PlayStation 3. I wonder why? Well, let's take a peek. In Australia, the PS3 will cost a whopping 1000 AUD, which is about 744.21 USD. The high-end PS3 will cost 599 USD here in the States. That makes Australia's systems almost $150 more they are is here! I'm not sure what subjects the PS3 to more taxes and fees than the 360 and the Wii, but I would think that it would only be about $50 more than the other consoles, wouldn't you agree?

...and Sony has the guts to say the competition is too expensive. TOO EXPENSIVE!

In this issue, we're going to cover what Kaz Hirai says about why they're not including rumble technology with their "innovative and original" motion sensitive controller (that they copied from Nintendo). First, though, a little backstory!

Once upon a time, there was a company named Immersion. They have a patent on a particular type of rumble technology. Microsoft and Sony used this technology without licensing and Immersion sued them in this wonderful country where people can get away with suing for anything. Microsoft settled in court and agreed to pay for the technology they were using and they are currently using it in the Xbox 360 today. Sony, on the other hand, did NOT settle (and is apparently still an active court case) and decided not to license the technology and they stripped it from the new PlayStation 3.

At E3 2006, they covered this a tiny bit. Just in passing, after introducing their new "motion sensitive" controller that is "innovative and original and will change the face of gaming as we know it", they dropped a little tidbit that it will not have rumble technology because it interferes with the motion detection. Which, I might add, we all instantly saw as a complete lie because Nintendo's Wii controller is motion sensitive with rumble technology. A technology they invented themselves, since Immersion has not sued them.

See, people are claiming that Immersion is a jerk for suing over something so trivial as a shaking controller. However, the fact that they have NOT sued Nintendo over their rumble technology tells me that they're not suing over ALL rumble packs... they're just chasing down the companies who're using the ones they made. Maybe the Wii licensed the technology from Immersion right off the bat, but, if they had, I think we would have heard about that by now.

So the way I see it, Sony is being an arrogant slimeball and saying "well, if we can't get it for free, then we're just not gonna use it! So there!" Typical, if you ask me. Then they invent all these dumb stories about why they left it out... and it's never been about Immersion... that is... until now.

GameDaily.biz reports that Kaz Hirai has finally come out and told us the "real" reason why they're not including rumble in their new controllers. You can read it yourself, but I'll just review what he said. He now says that "sure, we can fix the interference with the motion sensors, but we don't want to in order to keep the price of the console down". He claims that motion sensitivity is far more important than rumble (wait, didn't they laugh at Nintendo's motion sensing controller? didn't they call it a gimmick?). But apparently, we should all be cheering for Sony because they're trying to keep their console cheap. Right. This from the company charging $599 US dollars.

Ah, but there's more. Also from GameDaily.biz, Immersion sent off a response to Hirai's crazy claims. In a long response, he basically says that "Sony says they're not including rumble because they claim that fixing the interference issues will cost more money? Not only does our rumble not affect motion sensing enough to be an issue in the first place, but we've already devised some fixes that DO NOT INCREASE THE COST OF IMPLEMENTING RUMBLE."

It's worth noting that the comments on Slashdot are really tearing Immersion up over this "stupid patent" they have and how they're "manipulating the media to promote their selfish case". Uhm... okay, then. Let's just totally ignore that Sony released their press release first, and then Immersion RESPONDED almost 6 hours later. An Immersion media ploy? Give me a break... Sony is grasping at straws to avoid the real reason (that everyone knows anyway) they're not including the rumble technology is because they're too stubborn to say "okay, we're sorry for infringing on your patents... we'll license your technology or stop".

(Side note... you might say that I just contradicted myself. That Sony's not including rumble in the PS3, so why are they still in court? Well... you forget the PlayStation 2 controller. The "Dual Shock"? It's still being made with Immersion's rumble technology, and Sony's not doing a single thing about that. They're ignoring Immersion and still making money off what is technically stolen technology. But Sony never steals technology, do they? Oh, no... not Sony! So until Sony either licenses the technology (at least for the PS2) or stops production and/or disables all current Dual Shock rumble packs, Sony is going to be haunted by Immersion and the courts.)

The comments went on to show their amazing grasp on reality by stating that the Nintendo Wii's sensor bar (that goes above or below your TV) is for aligning the controller to adjust for rumble interference... WRONG!! See, people are still of the belief that the PlayStation 3 controller (officially dubbed "Sixaxis", as if it has twice the dimensions of our physical universe) is the very same thing as the Nintendo Wii controller. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

The Sixaxis is basically a tilt sensor. It'll sense you tilting the controller all over the place, like that guy who demonstrated Warhawk at E3 2006. Looked like he was going to dislocate his shoulders? Yeah, that one. The Wii controller has that, too. It can sense all that movement, PLUS, with the sensor bar, it can determine its location in 3D space. The Sixaxis can't do that. It can only register tilts... the Wii remote can figure out how high it is in relation to the sensor bar.

Totally different functions! It has nothing to do with the tilt sensor! Nintendo says some games might not use the sensor bar, which means that tilt function is not based on that! Nintendo has rumble technology working side-by-side with tilt functions not relying on a point of origin. Get your facts straight, and give Sony the crap they deserve!
So! To recap:

The reason Sony isn't including rumble technology in the PlayStation 3 controller is because, Kaz Hirai wants us to believe, that the process of fixing the (non-existant) issue of rumble interfering with motion sensitivity will cost money to implement and Sony is interested in keeping the price low for us.

Immersion responds, saying that even if there was a problem with rumble messing with the motion sensors, they had their engineers devise a couple of methods to fix this "problem" and that it will have no additional cost, and they go on to say that Sony has still not honored their patents by doing something about the production of the Dual Shock controllers.

What do you think? Do we believe that Sony has the best in mind for us? Do we believe that Immersion is a money-mongering company who's suing people left and right for building shaking bits of plastic? Some do...

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.)

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.