Are We Once Again Revisiting The 2007 Anti-Sony Campaign?

People are always saying the PS3 had a terrible launch yet when i tried to buy one the first week there was literally none anywhere.

Its sad to see racism against the competitors and its there, don't care what anyone says. When i see games that are doing what other games are doing (changing and re-inventing itself) and getting 9's and 10's but a japanese dev does the same and OMFG this isn't how it used to be this is terrible here's your -10/10, its clear somethings wrong.

I played and beat dishonored in about 5 hours, pure stealth too. Im a fan of stealthy games so i was pretty hyped for it. Im actually done with it already. People say RE6 has identity confusion whats with the bioshock/skyrim/thief hybrid? Im probably going to get hate for this but at the same time its sad seeing my fellow gamers be so hostile towards japanese games and praise american games. Dishonored is a definite must buy...for 40$.

So i guess the point im trying to make is, there's alot of racism when it comes to games nowadays. Not by ben mind you, but i've read plenty of reviews that makes it clear that they hate anything japanese. And i was not trying to insult Dishonored because it is pretty awesome, but it was just the most recent example i could think of.

3 up, 10 down

Wow, 5 hours? Really? It must be a great game and all, but for 5 hours I would never buy it. I'll get it down the road.

0 up, 0 down

I'll wait for a Discount on Dishonored.

1 up, 0 down

If he actually beat the game in 5 hours then he breezed through the main objectives and missed the point of the whole thing.

8 up, 2 down

World, I know you wanted Dishonored so badly, how's it holding up? I haven't seen any reviews for it and I don't wish to. I do however, want to get a general idea on how the game is.

5 hours seems short to me considering I have easily put a minimum of 15 hours in Resident Evil 6 and I've only finished two campaigns.

1 up, 0 down

It's holding up very well, most outlets are giving it 9+ scores and I agree with them. Other games give you the illusion of freedom and approach options, Dishonored delivers it.

1 up, 0 down

You couldn't find a PS3 anywhere on launch because Sony didn't even ship enough to cover pre-orders. They only managed to cover half the pre-orders in the first few weeks, I think.

Popularity was definitely not the reason you couldn't get one.

9 up, 1 down

Racism. Lol! Yea, suddenly all of us who grew up loving Japanese games became racists this gen.

Dumb....Japanese games get flack because many of the developers have lost their way. Not because people suddenly hate Japanese people.

And aren't you the one who said you would give RE6 a 10/10 then proceeded to criticize it?

I'll take World's word for it over yours about Dishonored.

11 up, 3 down

im with world, dishonored is a very good game. far exceeded what i thought it would be.

7 up, 2 down

I've been playing about 3 hours a day since it released, still not done.

5 up, 0 down

If you beat it in five hours stealth that might be a record according to steam. Why don't you do it again and post a speed run video?

Otherwise to anyone taking his opinion on the game seriously, if you beat it in 5 hours your rushing it. I think the devs said the game should take you around 20 hours and that was coming from one of the Q and A people. Now that might have been marketing but most people say its about a 10 hour game if your just going through it guns blazing.

But there is so much replay value here, and stuff to collect I dont know how you could be done with it after just five hours. Unless your the beat a game as fast as possible move on type of gamer.

4 up, 0 down

If u beat it in 5 hours, I think u wasted your money.

3 up, 1 down

It's the cool thing to do...

Nobody mentions how terrible Kinect is either. Then again I don't hear much about it in general. It's like the whole MS brand is untouchable. No matter what. I keep seeing X360 commercials (and I've said this before) for third party games (because of the complete lack of first party games) and at the end it always says "better with Kinect". Yet during the whole commercial Kinect isn't even previewed, there's always a controller in people's hands.

Now I really don't care about all this, I'm not a fanboy, but I just don understand how a company and system, can produce shotty hardware, have little first party support, charge for things that are not necessary (here's looking at live - I guess the consumers are paying for all the ads, oh an cross game chat of course), release a motion control setup that is merely useless and quite honestly performs like dookie, minus That dance game. And nobody cares... It's crazy!

Oh well!

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Eaxactly!!!! U jus said everything I wanted to say about M$ and X360 for ages.

You know when the contrasts are so stark accross the competition and no one says anything, it jus become a tad fishy... just a tad.

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Most of the games I've seen being touted as "better with kinect" still require a controller, hence, they're using controllers in the commercials.

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Sirloin-

You kind of proved my point. Don't tell the consumers it's "better with Kinect" and then proceed to *not* show the game working with the peripheral...

It's obvious the controller is better.

All I'm saying is they are obviously advertising Kinect with third party games but fail to do anything to prove it's actually "better with Kinect".


Deus-

MS has made a lot of friends in the industry. But I don't think any of their business practices should warrant a free pass.

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Last edited by bigrailer19 on 10/15/2012 7:17:17 PM

2 up, 0 down

What point did I prove? I was just pointing out why they were playing with the controller; I wasn't trying to argue with you about it. The games that they were playing use Kinect for voice commands which they do show them using. The Madden commercial with Paul Rudd and whoever it was he was with comes to mind. The guy's playing the game, Paul Rudd walks in and yells "Spike!" and the QB proceeds to spike the ball, much to the chagrin of his friend. That's showing the Kinect functionality that those games use.

0 up, 0 down

You proved it again... Apparently voice command makes the game better?

I know you wernt trying to argue, you pointed out the obvious which is my point. That even though they are saying "better with Kinect" it's obviously not.

0 up, 1 down

Am I saying the voice commands make it better? You made a statement about them touting Kinect while still using controllers. I explained why they were using controllers.

And, to be fair, saying the voice commands don't make the games obviously better is rather subjective. To some, they don't. To some, they do. Personally, I think it's a pretty decent idea and I've used them (a little) in Skyrim and (quite a bit in) ME3 but I see them more as fun little diversions (so put me in the "I don't" camp). Others probably love them while some hate them.

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Last edited by SirLoin of Beef on 10/16/2012 6:17:43 AM

2 up, 0 down

Oh I don't think the Sony hate is going anywhere. It's all over the place for Vita. The nice thing about the end of a console cycle is that most of the fanboy rage has died down, but it always picks up again. When you're at the top it's only a matter of time before everybody turns on you.

I just hope Sony learned its lesson with the bungled PS3 launch and has things well in hand this time. We know it will have the superior hardware and software so that's all that really matters.

4 up, 0 down

You can't stay on top forever. Everything that goes up must come down.

2 up, 1 down

I just enjoy what I have.

And for the haters? I say "f*** 'em" and then continue enjoying my stuff. :P

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Last edited by Doppel on 10/14/2012 11:51:51 PM

7 up, 0 down

Indeed. I've never understood why so many people rage about video game consoles, especially ones they don't own.

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Without a doubt the hatred for Sony and its products that started in 2007 is still alive today.

Take Gran Turismo 5 for example.

Only a few websites treated the game fairly in their review and forums such as GTPlanet continue to be a home for negativity.

The positive aspect for GT5 is that it continues to sell roughy 20,000 copies per week. This very fact defies the critics and somewhat shows that the Anti-Sony and Anti-GT5 crowd are a minority at best.

As the poster above me stated, the Sony fans will continue to enjoy their stuff, whether it be GT5 or some other Sony exclusive while the haters will come to the internet and wage their war.

Me? Sony has given me more than my moneys worth and has my business indefinitely.

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Last edited by maxpontiac on 10/15/2012 1:29:42 AM

6 up, 2 down

Unless I am on the internet I hardly ever see hate for the ps3, far from it. If someone has an xbox and I ask them why they don't upgrade to the ps3, then they all give me the same speech about how they know that the graphics are not as good and it doesn't have as many exclusives and it doesn't have blu-ray and that you have to pay to play online... so on so forth, But they bought it because they had two friends back home who had xbox's and they wanted to be able to play online with them.

I have literally heard that speech 10 times, and they always look sad when they give it.

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Last edited by BTNwarrior on 10/15/2012 2:37:09 AM

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i hear it all the time. someone else they want to play with has xbox so that is what they play on. its where all my friends are so thats where i am. lame ass excuse.

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"Unless I am on the internet I hardly ever see hate for the ps3..."

Uh...I'm only talking about the Internet.

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my 24 years of living i realised, everybody got a mouth & when noise come out it dont mean they know what they talking about. if folks removed online gaming from each console & pc then choose which device serves the best performance with content..... PS3 would showcase the rest not doing what it can. i play VG so i dont descredit no device that offers that entertainment but when a device delivers in every field u look for, u cant deny the truth.

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The hatewagon that has sprung up against Sony in the past few months is obscene. I mean, I remember 2007 as I started surfing forums pretty much as soon as I got the PS3 and instantly started to doubt the high acclaim of it given by the friend that persuaded me to join gaming. Since then, I've realised that that all is crap.

As is the latest explosion. I've seen so many trending articles proclaiming that Sony needs to pull out of the console race and just die, but I haven't read a single one. I'm not going to treat such negative bias with my clicks. The same would go for Microsoft. Both competitors have proven themselves deserving of being in the race, so why try to peer pressure one or the other out, especially when both have considerable promise.

And can I take this opportunity to see that I desperately want to try Forza Horizon? From everything that I've read and seen on it, I want to see GT take an open-world approach as a supplement to their core. Just sexy.

Finally: Oh, I pop my browser into N4G and, once again, there's an article in the hottest news bar proclaiming that Sony is losing ground going into the holidays. How surprising *rolls eyes* Why do people click that tripe?

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Last edited by Lawless SXE on 10/15/2012 3:38:04 AM

2 up, 1 down

So silly. If it made logical sense for anybody to get out of the gaming market it would be Microsoft.

3 up, 1 down

its kinda hard not to hate the company who cant do anything right.
from the botched ps3 launch, to the botched vita launch, to the PSN woes they have had, to the ridiculous and pathetic lawsuits, to the ridiculous and pathetic TOS.
$ony has copped a lot of flack this gen, and rightfully so!
not to mention the disgusting way they treated father ken, the father of the company, and lets be frank $ony would of failed spectacularly and epicly with the ps1 if it was not for his forward advanced thinking!
father ken is THE only reason why playstation succeeded against all odds, stuck it to the man, showed ninty they can be fought with.
and they treated him like this.
so yea $ony has copped allot of flack this gen, but thats only because they deserve it!

3 up, 19 down

But you own Sony's products don't you? You're only talking when Sony doesn't get a dime from you.

1 up, 0 down

"it's hard not to hate the company who cant do anything right."

What company can do everything right?

1 up, 0 down

i think someone needs to pick up a dictionary and learn the difference between anything and everything.

2 up, 6 down

While you should probably look up "manic".

8 up, 0 down

OK, I really don't like to do this, but point by point rebuttal for you, you foolish little small minded git.

"its kinda hard not to hate the company who cant do anything right."

BluRay. Walkman (which kind of broke the whole portable music player concept into the mainstream as well), Trinitron, OLED TV (Sony was FIRST with this), PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 (tell me how selling around about 70 million units is a failure), PSP (selling over 75 million into a saturated market dominated by a single competitor), Innumerable 1st party exclusive games, Sony's Movie Studios, 3D TV, HD TV (largely popular thanks to BluRay and PS3), etc... I could keep going, but I think the point is made.

"from the botched ps3 launch, "

Yeah, because everyone launches into a tidal wave of irrational hatred with a product that sells 33% below cost and still gets criticized for it...The launch was not botched unless you buy into the hate ridden press of the time.

"to the botched vita launch,"

How was this botched? They had a great launch library, PSP compatibility, extremely capable hardware selling at a fraction of the price any other device maker is selling such hardware at. Vita itself is an extremely solid product and as you can witness from this site's own survey, existing owners of Vita are really very, very happy. Once again this launch was botched if you believe the tidal wave of hate in the English speaking tech media, but other than that it went pretty well thank you.

"to the PSN woes they have had,"

How is being attacked by criminals Sony's fault? Are they not supposed to do everything they can to protect us (as they did), even to the point of taking major fiscal and PR losses in doing so? Seems like you've bought very heavily into that Sony hate yourself.

"to the ridiculous and pathetic lawsuits,"

Ridiculous and pathetic? Let's see. You make a product that costs more than you sell it for. The business model is to do that and make back the money lost on the hardware selling licensed software. Along comes someone and breaks the security that protects your royalties by preventing the use of pirated games. Do you a) defend your platform and partners by aggressively going after the offenders? or b) roll over and act like it didn't happen and pray that you can still make back your investment?

"to the ridiculous and pathetic TOS."

Show me any, and I mean *any* Terms of Service or Terms and conditions of use or sale for any, and I mean any, closed or proprietary network service and device, that is not as carefully worded as Sony's. Go on, you can't because there are none. Sony is no better or worse than any other operator of a private network that defends the security of their network by defending the security of the devices and services on it. That is the point of the TOS, and the only pathetic and ridiculous thing here is your original post.

"$ony has copped a lot of flack this gen, and rightfully so!"

Completely and utterly untrue, as demonstrated above. Your bias is showing you little troll, crawl back under your rock and stay there, give everyone at PSXExtreme a rest from your inane ramblings.

"not to mention the disgusting way they treated father ken,"

That would be the guy responsible for the PS3 that you think was such a terrible product right? That guy that was really close to retirement in any event and who still consults for Sony on PlayStation products, right? The one that was getting roasted in the media because of the PS3 pricing and his reported public statements (that were the result of horrible and out of context translations). Yeah, they really treated him horribly - not.

" the father of the company"

The Father of Sony? No, the fathers of Sony would be Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, not Ken Kutaragi, although Kutaragi-san made huge contributions to Sony. Kutaragi-san is rightly known as the father of Playstation, since Playstation was originally his baby. However just as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and so Ken moved on from PlayStation. He was chief executive of the SCE group and Chairman of SCEI in 2006, and retains the title of Honorary Chairman through June 2011 and remains at Sony as their senior technology advisor. Considering the public abuse of Kutaragi-san, it's unsurprising that these moves would happen, but he remains with Sony. So much for being mistreated.

"and lets be frank $ony would of failed spectacularly and epicly with the ps1 if it was not for his forward advanced thinking!"

Would they? Would there have been a PS1 without Ken Kutaragi? Is this evebn worth speculating about since it was 20 years ago, and requires some kind of alternate timeline full of assumption and speculation to be compared to reality. Sounds like you're just wanting to raise the specter of failure again.

"father ken is THE only reason why playstation succeeded against all odds, stuck it to the man, showed ninty they can be fought with.
and they treated him like this."

Like what? He's still with Sony and is still at the top of their Technical tree. He no longer has active management control, but after the public flogging by the media, I doubt he'd want to continue that role in any case.

"so yea $ony has copped allot of flack this gen, but thats only because they deserve it!"

Not really, as I've demonstrated, they really, really do not deserve that 'flack' or hatred. As usual, you fail.

18 up, 1 down

Ive always wondered why you dont have a name title, I think I know why now:

Unsuccessful troll is unsuccessful.

4 up, 0 down

One correction to my own post. Ken Kutaragi was not "really" close to retirement. It'd be more correct to say that he was close to retirement, and certainly more accurate to say that his day to day involvement in the PlayStation business was vastly diminished by 2006. His movements subsequent to the PS3 launch have been upward and away from the media eye. People can color that as they will. Personally, I think it was a good move considering how horrible the media was being to him in those 2006/2007/2008 years.

There's a Eurogamer article about Ken Kutaragi that makes several accusations based on rumors, supposition, some insider comments and the author's own research. Some of these include Kutaragi disguising the true cost of the PS3 R&D effort from the rest of the board, and having done likewise over PS2. There's also the suggestion that Kutaragi-san went off the rails in regards to the game console/video game business as a whole causing problems with the rest of the executives, shareholders and Japanese media.

I don't know the truth of all of that, but I do know that Kutaragi-san was roasted often and became a favored chew toy for the media and the hate campaign against Sony - which was hardly respectful of the father of PlayStation. His pronouncements about working hard for a PS3 and such like were like red rags to a bull, and "Krazy Ken" became the focal point of a lot of the hate. His movement up and away from the reigns of the actual business and away from the media made sense both for him personally and Sony as a business.

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Last edited by Highlander on 10/15/2012 11:53:42 AM

5 up, 0 down

Highlander wins. Flawless victory.

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Mr Underline. U r in need of professional help dude. I am mildly impressed by at least your apparent confidence in sucking your "facts" out of your @$$ !!
If u come here to keep being contradictory, why not join and blend in with another Sony-bashing site? Or do u need the constant "attention" of being contradictory?

@Doppel: If only you could add "Fatality" to that! ;-))

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Last edited by Dukemz_UK on 10/15/2012 4:07:24 PM

2 up, 0 down

just ignore, stop wasting your time replying, don't u guys get this s*** in your head already. Seriously guys, just a thumbs down and move along.

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dude, the ps3 was without oh so many "standard" features on release its not funny!
trophies, for instance, ok not a big deal but point being allot of things that people expect as a guaranteed standard were absent.
i couldent care less how much $ony was loosing on each system, point is they were charging 1000 AUD for a system that was A, as above stated missing standard features, and B had poor quality and poor quantities to support it.
not to mention almost every multiplat game was released months after the 360 version, rainbow six vegas and the darkness spring to mind i ended up borrowing a friends 360 because i really wanted to play the darkness and the ps3 version kept getting delayed.

as for the vita as i already said above, stupid restrictions and features again like ps3 which are considered standard are again non existent.
its funny every time $ony brings out a new product they say yea ok we screwed up last time, we should of done this, this and this better we promise next time we will.
than they release their next product, make the same mistakes, and make the same false promises again.
ps3 released to poor quality games, low amount of games, ludicrous price, and botched multiplats.
$ony waves the white flag and says yea sorry we screwed up will change that next time.
so next time comes with the PSP go, a ridiculous price, and half of the PSPs biggest games, like kingdom hearts were not available for download, so not available on the go.
sound familiar?
so $ony says yea sorry we did it again, ok, next time it wont happen we promise.
than $ony releases the move, and again its overpriced, and again it has no games for it, and again the games are of very poor quality.
again, oh ok we stuffed up, no, seriously, pinky swear next time we wont make the same mistake.
vita comes out, and.........
im sorry, but as i said $ony has copped allot of flack this gen.
and its because of their sheer arrogance and uncertainty on what their fans want.
to say there priorities are all screwed up would be understatement of the century!

2 up, 6 down

@Blankline

Nope. u r wrong. :)

2 up, 1 down

I remember going to the midnight launch of the PS3 to pick one up & it was just depressing. Me & a couple of other impatient stragglers got the systems purely because it was like a ghost town event. People were hanging about to see what suckers would cave in day one & purchase it (me) but noone was buying it, just play-testing it to see what the fuss was about.

I took it home with VF5 after parting over $1000AU for it & was left pretty disappointed (partly my fault for buying before thinking). There were pretty much no launch games that interested me other than VF5 & it took until at-least December that year (Uncharted Drakes Fortune) for the PS3 to actually blow me away. Back then in 07, people had every right to be disappointed with it; the online was a mess, there were no games & the visuals weren't anything noone had seen on 360 already or next-gen to justify that launch price.

Fast forward to 2012 & obviously all that has changed & the PS3 imo has easily the best line-up of exclusives than any other console on the market. The investment overtime more than paid off for me & the rush of exclusives will still be seeping well into next year. Hideo Kojima got it right about saying the PS3 is a marathon (something along them lines) his right, because years onward the exclusives are still coming & the visuals are still pushing beyond boundaries i personally thought we had already reached (Uncharted 3). The Last of Us & God of War Ascension say otherwise.

In fact, looking back I'm amazed just how many good exclusives there are for the system now, it's pretty mind-boggling. If the machine is still getting hate these days(I haven't read up on any of this lately) then I'm not sure why because those on the fence about purchasing one have plenty of reasons to go out & buy one now. The price is approachable & the games line-up is nothing less than a glutton of quality.

The whole console hating thing is embarrassing & utterly pathetic, it really is. I won't & never will take any part in such childish banter & neither should anyone else with a functioning brain. I miss the good ole days when people would just play & enjoy the games console they paid for instead of having these petty arguments online that are as irrelevant as most online handles.

My advice to any console hater is simple: Play your games, enjoy them & let everyone else do the same.

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Last edited by Kevin555 on 10/15/2012 4:32:52 AM

8 up, 0 down

From what I've gathered, the Vita is a highly desired item for gamers. The only thing holding people back from getting one is a lack of certain AAA games and maybe a $50 price drop.
I know a lot of people who don't buy consoles until the next hardware iteration or after the first price drop. Just look at 3DS sales after the price was dropped dramatically!

Once CoD, Assassin's Creed, PS All Stars Battle Royale, Sly, FF X HD and others start rolling out, we should hopefully see an increase in Vita sales. I think it will take an all new GTA, Treyarch or Infinity Ward developed CoD, MGS, Final Fantasy, God of War or Elder Scrolls to REALLY make the Vita surge ahead in sales.

As for the hate towards Sony...

It's a fad. Fads come and go. Soon Apple or Samsung will be the company to hate cos it will start resting on its laurels. Sony is in that campy right now cos something better has come out.

Sadly, from a business point of view, Sony has had to learn a harsh lesson. Sony thought that by revolutionising in terms of raw power and expensive tech, that people would flock to it no matter what!! And that casual and core gamers would still associate all gaming with the Playstation brand.

Then 360 came out early. Broken, but still early and cheap enough to steal some of the core gamers.

Then Wii came out with motion controls and stole the casual crowd.

Then the iPhone came out and dominated handheld casual gaming.

So where does that leave Sony?

Sony still has the highest number of exclusives, all high rating and critically acclaimed exclusives, but as Ben said, there were still so many faults and mistakes Sony made at the beginning of the PS3's life that cost it dearly.

To remove the hatred, Sony needs to focus on several things for the PS4:

- A smooth launch with at least 7 or 8 popular AAA games ready to go.

- Staggered release of games, so core gamers don't go months without anything good, then suddenly be flooded with AAA titles.

- Release it in September, restock by November for Christmas rush.

- If no backwards compatability with PS3 and PSN content, at least make it cheaper. $349 USD would be perfect for a new console at Christmas.

- Uncharted 4, God of War 4 or Quantic Dream's PS4 game within the first year of launch.

- Grab hold of 3rd party exclusives, Microsoft have proved this works!! 1 year timed exclusives for Metal Gear Solid, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Assassin's Creed, sequels for Dishonored, Remember Me and Watch Dogs, EVERYTHING!!

- Bundle a wired or bluetooth headset, 3D motion camera and Move 2.0 controller with every console, and make the Duel Shock 3 compatible with the PS4, so core gamers can still play it oldschool. These bundled motion controls and camera will be like the WiiU Tab and Kinect 2.0 bundles with their respective consoles.

- MORE ADVERTISEMENTS!!!

- A unique gimmick from other tech that MS and Nintendo have never thought of using that suits gaming.


I just hope it isn't too late for Sony to turn things around. With the economic climate the way it is, Sony can't afford to lead with high end tech anymore. Cheaper but still graphically or performance superior tech is necessary for the next gen.

Sneak someone into MS, look at their final Durango model and boost the PS4 by 1GB of RAM to make all games superior. WIN!

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Last edited by Dancemachine55 on 10/15/2012 6:17:28 AM

5 up, 1 down

Sony cannot remove the hatred. The hatred is fostered by a heavy prejudice in favor of MS and against Sony that is embedded in the minds of journalists in the tech and gaming media, particularly the US/UK/English speaking tech/game media. Personally I believe that there is zero coincidence in this fact, nor the fact that much of the hate campaign was whipped up before the PS3 by MS/Toshiba in favor of HD-DVD and against BluRay which Sony was the most public backer of.

Though if truth be told, Sony was only one of something like two dozen in the BluRay group, while HD-DVD had Toshiba and by proxy Microsoft, and that was *it*. If you go back and review the tech and gaming media before 360 and PS3 launched, you can find an obvious campaign of hate in full swing over the future of HD video in the home.

Far be it for me to point out that at the time Microsoft was known to be doing three things. 1) funneling money to Toshiba to foster exclusive content deals for HD-DVD, 2) paying out to game publishers to secure console exclusivity for former Sony platform sellers, and 3) astroturfing the living crap out of the competition.

So, perhaps that hate campaign back in 2007 which was started years earlier became so much a part of the media's mind share that they default to it? I think it became so much a part of their reporting that to backtrack on the hate now would be to lose face and admit that they were wrong, which 99% of the 'journalists' and fanboys involved can never, ever do. There is next to nothing that Sony can do to stem that hatred, as is seen with the media bias over the Vita.

When Vita was announced, people knew that the memory cards would cost at least as much as the Memory Stick Pro Duo products and the expected price of Vita was high. When it was announced that Vita would come in at $250 (USD) for the wifi model, people were extremely happy and complimentary about that pricing. Then sticker shock over the memory cards was over played in the media. Really and truly overplayed. Is the memory more expensive that Memory Stick Pro Duo? Yes, but the difference is/was not so drastic as many would have you believe. If we're being really honest, anyone that is still stuck on the pricing issue of the memory cards really hasn't thought this through.

However, it matters not. Sony could drop the price of Vita by $50 and cut memory costs by 25% and the media would charge Sony with holding a fire sale of it's failed handheld. It simply does not matter what Sony does, they will get hated for it. They could donate billions to ending world hunger and childhood cancer and the media would describe it as Sony trying to buy good publicity to repair it's image. Sony could launch 3D HDTVs with OLED screens and no glasses at $1000 and the media would claim that this means that Sony could have dropped the price of their other HDTVs drastically long ago but didn't and they they are really holding out on price on the new ones.

It literally does not matter what Sony does, the media will skew it.

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Last edited by Highlander on 10/15/2012 11:24:00 AM

6 up, 1 down

An unfortunate truth Highlander.

I must admit, it is quite infuriating seeing my friends all flock to Halo 4 and completely disregard the PS3 and all its exclusives. Even when I simply show it to them, they simply get bored and want to play more online deathmatches on 360, of which I quickly become bored.

As for the media and journalistic bias, it looks like it is not going to change, at least for a long while.

Sony seem to have this negative aura surrounding the company name, which they may have brought on themselves with the PS3 launch. I'm kind of hoping that this negative attitude will soon dissipate once the PS4 is launched in the same style and success as the 360 or Wii.

As I said in my post earlier, Sony need to launch the PS4 around the 2nd half of the year, around September or October to catch Christmas sales.

They also need to bundle more social or gimmicky tech with the console as this seems to be the selling point of new consoles. Simply look at the Wii U and its Tab screen controller, or the Durango and Kinect 2.0. Sony MUST bundle a new and exciting piece of tech with the PS4 if it wants full market attention. Raw power and a new optical drive just doesn't cut it anymore, not with anyone outside of core gamer crowds.

And yes, the Vita Memory cards are pricey, and it is unfortunate that most people are turned away from this when Sony are actually using this proprietary tech to battle piracy.

There is the biggest problem!!

Piracy is starting to become embraced by some companies as a means to cater to the most selfish and entitled gamers ever known!! Everyone wants AAA games for $5 or free, but where does the money come from?

EA has adopted F2P in many of their games, but it is argued this diminishes the quality of the game. Sony may not want to bleed more money with this approach, but they may be forced to. The video game industry is in its greatest time of rapid change and it seems Sony is struggling to keep up. Why? Because Sony is holding onto old formulas that worked in the past, but not now.

With Apple, they showed that free apps and $5 games are an option, and a popular one at that. Microsoft proved that Westerners are stupid enough to flock to a new CoD or Halo on their system simply because Westerners like to shoot things with friends.

A stigma currently exists where Westerners no longer view Japan with great respect and admiration like with the PS1 and PS2, but as weird and lagging behind in terms of game design and tech. Westerners expect Hollywood style blockbusters from their video games, and Japan is too busy making art, or quirky fun games that have no appeal to Westerners looking for their next shooter fix. This just makes me sad.

All in all, it isn't Sony's fault for all this negative attention. It is a dumbing down or bias of society at large being pampered by cheap or free entertainment on competitive entertainment tech and driven by Hollywood-style franchises that go BOOM!

So what can Sony do?

1. Yield to the dumbing masses and create shooters, gun like controllers (triggers) and throw in cheap gimmicky tech with a cheap console that has short term popularity but no long term gain.

2. Continue to innovate and improve tech in ways the competition could never hope to achieve but risk catastrophic financial losses in the process.

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I love Sony and their Playstation brand. It completes my gaming needs. That is all I care about. It's great owning a PS3 and Vita and feeling like I am a part of something that is the best in the industry. I just hope Sony can keep up the high quality standards they have established. I was a Nintendo fanboy but was alienated big time with the Wii and made the switch to the PS3. I am thankful Nintendo dropped the ball and lost me because I am now enjoying the most satisfying gaming of my life.

It would be interesting to see what this console gens sales would be if the X360 was also made in Japan by someone other than Microsoft.

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Ive said this many times and Il say it again:

Ive looked at every possible reason for the hate and there can only be one explanation:

Jealousy.

Sony does the best job in an all around sense and the competitors and fans of the competitors just cant take it, so they need to feel better about themselves somehow.

Plain and simple.

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I didnt get my PS3 until they had the free Blu-Ray movies and price drop. Aug 07 I think it was.

I got my Vita back on Fathers day. Kinda disappointed in the lack of 3rd party support as this is great hardware.

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Third party support is lagging, which is odd considering that the only other option in the market is the 3DS which gets very few of the kinds of games that were slated for Vita. I suspect that the media hatred is hurting Vita sales in the US and lack of specific franchises is hurting in Japan. Things should improve as time passes though.

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It's a vicious cycle.

Vita doesnt get 3rd party support, less interest, less sales, less 3rd party support.

Lucky Sony has so many great internal studios to support itself. Hopefully that will turn things around. Tearaway looks amazing!!

Only problem is that Sony needs to focus on gritty Western shooters and action games if it wants to get Westerner's attention. CoD is proof enough that artistry and imagination is all but dead in the US, UK and Australia.

If CoD can't sell Vitas in America, nothing can.

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I know this article is about the internet, but the hate is still pretty bad offline.

I was in Walmart yesterday and thought I might as well check out the gaming isle just to look. I heard one of the employees explaining XBOX live and MS points to a couple who's kids wanted a 360. These people were not even interested in the PS3, but the salesman was spouting on and on about how much better XBL was, and about how the PSN got hacked and how "Tons of people got their credit cards stolen". "Microsoft really cares about their security so a gold account is totally worth it"

It made me sick. For the sake of the couple, (who just wanted a toy for their kids) I just bit my lip and walked away. I really wanted to turn around and ask the employee if he even had a PS3, but by the way he was talking I knew he didn't. He was just repeating the crap he'd heard on the internet.

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You should've told him off for his blatant hatred of the PS3!!!!!!

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I suppose he didn't bother to mention that the Xbox 360 earned a reputation as being one of the worst electronic products in the history of consumerism...?

No. Of course not.

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One of? I think the Ford Edsel is able to relax in the annuls of terrible consumer products.

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jed,

Nothing against you personally, but that was the perfect chance for you to step in and correct his ignorant statements.

And then I would've summoned their manager too so he or she would also be informed that Sony will never take a backseat to either, any mis-informed, or M$-paid astro-turfing employees!

Anyway, maybe you don't want to be seen or felt as the confrontational type, & that's OK.....
but boy-oh-boy, I would've jumped right in & set that register biscuit straight, quick, fast, & in a MF'ing hurry, just like I do in any GameStop/EB, or other big-box store where I hear M$ falsehoods over the PS3.

And every GS/EB in my area knows not to spew that M$ garbage when I'm in one of their stores, although my local store guys & gals are cool with the PS3 being above the M$.

BTW, I find it's usually only the GS/EB new-hires that tend to spout the M$ over Sony branded crap these days.

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Last edited by BikerSaint on 10/16/2012 3:48:54 AM

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I felt around 06-07 a lot of the anti-Sony stuff was Sony's own doing. However, as with anything else, as time goes on people need to move beyond silly things. Sony has changed a lot since the beginning of the PS3 days and the PS3 is EASILY the best value on the market right now as far as home consoles and the Vita is the best handheld system ever designed, yet people still continue to trash Sony. MS definitely controls the brains of the mindless masses, at least in North America, and it's sad.

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"Nintendo has taken some flak for the Wii U, but it's tough to find any articles questioning Microsoft or the Xbox 360 (especially in this country), and neither platform is under such heavy scrutiny anywhere near as often - or as much - as Sony"

I agree that there isn't much negative stuff written about the 360. But not about the Wii U. The Wii U on the Internet has had quite a heavy dose of negative press by way of very notable analysts such as Michael Pachter who has made a name for himself by uttering the famous line: "Nintendo is doomed" and constantly bashing the Wii U.

The point Pachter has made to defend such bashing, is that the Wii U will simply not match the original Wii's success. Which is similar to the expectations analysts had over the PS3 being as successful as the PS2. I read a few articles saying similar things a few months back. Predicting doom for the console.

And on forums like NeoGaf, the Wii U gets a ton of flak due to not being as powerful as they imagine the Xbox 720 or the PS4 is going to be.

And lets not forget that the Wii U had lots of negative press after Nintendo's underwhelming E3 presentations in 2011 and 2012. Complaining that the company didn't make it clear if they were selling a handheld or a console. Or that 3rd party support was lacking.

So the pressure is on Nintendo alright. Coming from their success with the Wii. However, I don't really ever see ANY negative press towards the 360 or MS. And nobody is really questioning the 720. Nobody predicting doom for it.

With the PS4, the negative stuff isn't so much about the console itself, but about the fact that Sony will need to match whatever MS does with the 720 in terms of being a technological beast. And some wonder if Sony will be able to sell it for a profit and for a price that is consumer friendly. MS has deep pockets and they can go into the red without problems - as they have done in the past. So they could sell their 720 at a competitive and affordable price.

The fact that Sony has had recent economical troubles makes people wonder if they could survive the Vita going under (or supporting it through hard times) and at the same time, trying to launch a new console and produce games for it as well.

That's about it when it comes to 'negative' press or comments on the internet. But I don't think any of that has gone mainstream yet. Most consumers have no idea about all of that, and I don't think Sony's image has been damaged. Their brand is still very strong.

I do think that Sony needs to try and beak MS hold on this market (American). They need to secure some exclusives for next gen. And have them stay that way. I mean it would be quite a blow for Xbox fans if they no longer could play some popular franchises on their console. Basically, a repeat of what happened to Nintendo fans with the N64. And after they realized that they wouldn't get to play many games on their console. By the time the PS2 came out, many Nintendo fans jumped ship and joined Sony. Not wanting to go through that experience ever again.

Its too early to tell how things will go, though.

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The Internet, when it comes to video game news, has been a joke this generation. My time posting at 1up was proof positive in this case. While every American/British site that is "allegedly" neutral sucks off Microsoft in various degrees, nobody did it worse than 1up. For them to ban people simply for calling them out on their BS shows how little integrity these people have. I doubt 1up gets any money from MS nowadays as the site is broken and primitive; any money is probably given to IGN.

The best thing to do is ignore the lies, the horrible journalism and the rampant fanboyism and just enjoy the great software on the PS3. As far as I'm concerned, MS had better realize that the fervor for their next console won't be so great as they think it will be. While the editors and "journalists" will sing their praises, their fanbase of video gamers who have repeatedly been "burned" by their own doing (i.e. cheating, piracy, being a jerk online) might want to jump to Sony next generation.

Every passing year, the Internet becomes less and less of a place for information and truth and more and more of a place where weak-minded and ignorant individuals discuss their absolutely incorrect opinions (the Xbots) while people who can cash in on their feeble minds (the video game "journalists") and laugh their way to some fame. Nobody pays any mind or bothers to listen to somebody like Ben or Highlander for the truth or reason. Not just when it comes to video games, but for pro wrestling, T.V., movies, politics, December 21, 2012 or celebrity worship. Everybody thinks they're right, regardless.

Oh, well.

I have to add that the comments section after IGN reviews are frightening to read. Just butt-kissing from dumb 15 year-old boys. For writing the absolutely drizzling **** of a review. No wonder people make a living out of confidence tricks.

I will trust Sony over Microsoft any day of the week.

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Last edited by n/a on 10/16/2012 1:19:50 PM

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