Does Sony Listen To The Gamers?
This isn't a rhetorical question; we're just interested to see what people think. Everyone always complains that big, mega-global corporations never listen to John Q. Taxpayer, but gamers have always been quite vocal in their requests and complaints (thank the Internet for that). The question is, do you believe Sony listens to their targeted audience?
Well, we could look at the evidence. First off, many are demanding a price cut for the PlayStation 3 and Sony has yet to deliver, but in this case, it simply may not be a feasible option. As much as they may want to drop the price of the system, they just went through a major corporate shuffle, they lost $3 billion last year, and they only recently managed to lower the manufacturing cost on the PS3 to about $445/machine. This means they're still losing money on every PS3 sold, but a $45 loss is far more agreeable in this recession than a $145 loss, which would occur if the price of the system fell to $299. We're only theorizing, here, but it seems logical, right? In this case, it may not be a matter of Sony "listening" to the fans, as the entire situation may be dictated by numbers and nothing else.
But outside of that- recent examples have included fan demand for the return of rumble, which Sony responded to with the Dual Shock 3. Then there's the demand for a better Network, and over the past few years, we've seen immense growth and expansion on the PSN (ranging from the Store to online gaming). The latter may have happened, anyway, but it was a common complaint amongst Sony fans, so it may stand to reason that Sony heard the outcry. On the other hand, we sense there is still a large group of gamers that demand backwards compatibility in the PS3 and Sony really isn't interested in entertaining the thought. Or at least, they show no visible interest, and it could be difficult to ascertain the size of the group that values b/c. As for customer service, we can and will say that beyond any shadow of a doubt, our experiences have always been excellent. Microsoft's customer service, on the other hand, is typically a nightmare.
Many will complain that Sony lost a ton of third-party exclusives going into this generation, and that likely remains a valid point. They didn't really listen to the loyalists who stuck by Sony through the PS1 and PS2 years, only to find their favorite franchises had made their way to other platforms. But much like the price drop issue, this may be more of a numbers issue. When the PS3 first launched, the user base was tiny, the system was expensive, developers were confused (as they always are early on with PlayStation hardware), and Microsoft had a ton of cash. It couldn't have been too difficult to purchase timed exclusives when the publishers examined the situation. The only thing is, Sony's policy of never buying exclusives does tend to clash with Microsoft's willing desire to do exactly that. Some Sony fans say they should step up and compete for exclusives. Look at the possibility that Mass Effect 2 won't be on the PS3...
These are just a few thoughts to chew on, but in your experience, would you say that Sony stays in touch with its fans? Or are they more removed than they should be? It's an interesting question, really.
3/17/2009 Ben Dutka
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Comments (64 posts)
Alienange
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 @ 10:41:30 PM
Reply
WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 @ 10:53:37 PM
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Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 3/17/2009 10:54:13 PM
Tatsujin
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 @ 10:56:25 PM
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Jed
Thursday, March 19, 2009 @ 10:33:15 PM
Scarecrow
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 @ 11:11:04 PM
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They do listen.
In fact MLB 2009 is a PRIME example of that.
Many of its fans wanted time of day, and now it's there. They really listen to their fans. The commercial for it shows it.
But yeah overall SCEA listens the most. SCEE? Hmmm probably, SCEJ? Maybe.
Tricky question since SCE has 4 branches. SCEA is my fave, they really seem to care 'bout what matters, quality and kicking ass. SCEE has become a big powerhouse though.
Dooby_Scooby
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 2:45:15 AM
Plus in the UK, If your launch ps3 died they were taking it back on the same day they took the broken ps3 they would drop through a brand new 60gig ps3. No down time and a brand new ps3 (This happened to my bro his bluray drive packed up, mine is still going strong launch ps3). SCEE cannot be faulted. Also stuff like PlayTV that we have here..
It will be great when we get the film service in the UK as well.
Random_Steve
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 12:47:53 PM
Tatsujin
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 7:19:54 PM
BigTonesAUS
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 @ 11:42:51 PM
JasperLoons
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 @ 11:49:32 PM
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As much as they want to please their audience (and of course they do because it means more money for them), they are still a corporation that has to crunch the numbers. When Henry Ford tried to look out for the consumers instead of his shareholders, the Supreme Court screwed him.
I can't stand it when gamers talk as if Sony is a horrible company simply because they wont grant them every request they make, as if that is the only factor they take into consideration.
Sol
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 12:06:33 AM
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crapreviews
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 12:08:31 AM
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Also, i think Sony is slow to finally make things happen that they feel the majority of the fans want.
DIsmael85
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 12:22:35 AM
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Scarecrow
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 2:32:29 AM
Proud to have gotten my ps3 in early 2007
Sweetest thing ever, it was a great boy with a great few games and great online.
I never understood people's complaints 'bout online. It's always been fine and stable for me. The little features don't matter to me. All I want is to be able to play the game online. The other things are just bonuses which one can do without.
Anyway the console is worth every penny, strong, has never died, runs smoothly, and great exclusives.
DIsmael85
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 1:47:35 AM
pillz81
Friday, March 20, 2009 @ 2:49:39 PM
inkme101
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 12:59:16 AM
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Qubex
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 1:31:38 AM
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Generally I think Sony do listen, however they have never made it that clear where to direct your complaint requests too. I think the PS forums (on the official PlayStation website) would probably be a good start, but you never quite know who is reading and taking notes of the suggestions people post there. I wonder what internal processes they have to vet suggestions and ideas.
If I were managing this feedback and analysis methodology for Sony, I would create a special section of their site for the simple task of getting gamers and technologists to generate ideas... lots and lots of them; free of charge!. Sony could be leveraging alot of peoples' brains for nothing if there was a clear way to do it and a very clear of actually seeing if anything is being done about those ideas as a collective. I would consider attributing prizes, free hardware and games, to ideas that are used, the most effective ones that are market changing...
Again, Sony being a corporate, you feel the overpowering sense of control they have, however I always believe in the "market"; and the community should be encouraged to give as many ideas as they can, get rewarded for the ideas used; and they should also permit more development on the console for "bedroom programmers". I believe deeply that HOME for example should be a PS community incubator... they haven't opened up HOME quick enough...
There will be plenty of good ideas, from XMB GUI enhancements, to enhancements made to HOME and its menus, to new I.P. ideas etc...
Sony needs to open up and listen up... and give the community a clear path to submit ideas and track their progress through the system. It will be better to act on a "collective" idea that is consistant to one particular theme, such as the in-game music feature.
It would probably be easier to total up ideas around specific themes (like the in-game music feature), and then create a vote for that feature, and a number of others... every quarter a vote could be held, with the community voting on what ideas are the strongest... Sony can then pipeline these into the firmware development or instruct their studios to include features that make game playing more fun and flexible.
It would be nice to see the community really influencing Sony's development strategy.
Who agrees?
Q!
"i am home"
Last edited by Qubex on 3/18/2009 1:37:25 AM
Crudii
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 2:38:25 AM
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So yaa I think they are one company that do listen to gamers (the other being capcom) and reply quite often but sometimes gamers do get selfish and ask for too much. All the arguments that support why sony can't always listen to us are already mentioned above. Yes we lost exclusives and the so called loyal companies to the playstation left us but I do see quite an intelligent bunch of gamers here so I think we all would agree and understand when I speak on the behalf of the dev's and quote 'It's nothing personal, It's just business'.
good day!
Tim Speed24
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 7:23:44 AM
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Diggity Dan
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 7:46:06 AM
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Diggity Dan
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 7:58:29 AM
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Qubex
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 8:10:22 AM
Phoelix
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 8:17:32 AM
At the very least, I'm happy that Sony didn't cut any corners in making the PS3 a beastly machine. I'm not sure if anybody cried out "We want a machine that plays blu-ray discs, DVDs, stores photos, music, and videos, and a bunch of other stuff besides games," when the PS3 was in development, but we got it.
gumbi
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 8:43:49 AM
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Sony has dodged every question I've asked them, not once giving me a straight answer. All i get are long winded letters that basically say 'no comment'. I just want an answer, why can't i recover the data on my PS3 HDD when the console is what failed (fried mobo).
Sony wants to charge me $180 to send me a refurb with a formatted HDD. No way man, I'm more likely to sell it for parts and just quit. go back to PS2 until they get their sh** straight.
Gone
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 9:33:48 AM
Alienange
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 9:57:23 AM
Either way, it's a good reminder to back up my save games on a usb stick.
Last edited by Alienange on 3/18/2009 10:00:31 AM
karneli lll
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 11:12:40 AM
Arvis
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 11:26:13 AM
crawdaddy
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 12:16:40 PM
Dooby_Scooby
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 9:34:36 PM
Sony use an encrypted fat32 partition from what I have read. Basically all of the data on the ps3 section is encrypted. This is why you cant access your data.
Dont forget you can run linux on the ps3 its probably a safety measure to stop people being able to hack the ps3 that is one reason, the other is to also stop piracy if you can easily access the data on the partition why not download games dont install find the download and dump onto the net for any one else to grab ? I can understand why they have done it.
What you could try and do..
Use something like norton ghost or possibly dd on linux.
This will make an image of the disk that you can then dump onto another 60 gig drive. Or you could just get another 60 gig hdd plug that into the ps3 and submit that to them. When you get your new ps3 plug in the original 60 gig and see what happens.
I havent tried this. The encryption could well be linked to a specific system id and the key is derived from either a chip or a specific identifier within the bios which is unique to each ps3 or the key is assembled on your username. I dont know if any one has tested this out. I would bet there is some hardware lock in each ps3 probably has a unique id (key) stored somewhere which is linked to the drive that becomes the key to unlock the data on the drive.
The encryption may be dependent on your username / password. Which would mean just plugging your old drive into a new ps3 would be fine..
Do you have any friends near you that have a ps3 ? might be worth trying to plug your hdd into their ps3 and seeing what happens, its an interesting test.
I am surprised they charge you in the US, they have been replacing with brand new ones here in the UK. Are you sure they will send you a refurb ? Here when they pick up the dead one they replace it with a new one there and then and for free :/.. I only know 1 person that has had it fail on them (the bluray drive packed up )
PSXMAX:
You wont lose any of your games that you have paid for. It is all stored under your PSN account so when you log back in you can re-download everything that you have bought no issues there.
Crawdaddy:
The failure rate of the ps3 has so far been about the expected amount of any electronic components. Its failure rate is actually very good considering its complexity.
Odd Child
Thursday, March 19, 2009 @ 11:42:41 AM
gumbi
Thursday, March 19, 2009 @ 12:20:25 PM
vdopey, thanks for the comments/advice. But The PS3 uses a hardware signature to ensure you only use an HDD that was formatted on that specific console. I thought of ghosting the image, but if another PS3 wont read this one, why would it read a copy of it?
The Sony rep i talked to when i called said that it's highly unlikely they would fix mine and send it back, she said they'd send a refurb as soon as they received notice that i had sent my busted one in. So they're not even considering repairing it for me.
Oh well, I've learned my lesson. Don't buy first gen anymore, and always backup your sh**.
Last edited by gumbi on 3/19/2009 12:29:58 PM
Dooby_Scooby
Thursday, March 19, 2009 @ 9:55:39 PM
I'm sorry dude, but thanks for the info. I know for definite now the encryption is dependent on the hardware, which is a shame..
If you could find out where the encryption key is stored, you would be able to transfer it onto another ps3 and get the drive to work, but only Sony would know how to do it ? I want a dev kit, because that sort of sh** could be worked out...
pillz81
Friday, March 20, 2009 @ 3:07:22 PM
karneli lll
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 11:18:42 AM
Diggity Dan
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 9:57:00 AM
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You keep all your content from the PS Store, although you'll have to call Cust Service to get back movies you've bought. I jusy had my ps3 stolen and bought a repalcement last night. All my stuff was there at the PS Store history, pretty nice.
Gone
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 10:05:11 AM
karneli lll
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 11:04:14 AM
slugga_status
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 10:04:02 AM
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Think of those 360 owners who've bought 2-4 360's. MS has that good warranty b/c they have a defective system. I mean think about it..would you rather pay 180 for a new ps3 or would you rather buy a new ps3 or multiple 360's?
You may want to look up more info about your HDD b/c you can recover all those files and put them on a new HDD
Diggity Dan
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 10:15:27 AM
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Thanks, we're getting a security system tomorrow :)
My understanding is that Sony Cust Serv wont get involved with tracking the console if it's stolen. Kind of annoying, but I can also understand why they'd have that policy.
PS3_Wizard
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 10:35:44 AM
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Diggity Dan
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 12:00:19 PM
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My last PS3 (stolen) was super-duper quiet, unless it got hot in which case the fan would kick on for awhile. I just got a replacement last night, and i noticed whenever the HDD is being used (d/l'ing content in particular) there's this very faint but noticeable noise that I didnt get in my last PS3. It sounds *exactly* like a gyger-counter (whatever that instrument is that measures radiation). Do you guys get this too? Is that normal operation? Sorry, thanks
Alienange
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 12:23:24 PM
Gone
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 12:36:35 PM
WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 6:58:45 PM
Odd Child
Thursday, March 19, 2009 @ 11:45:08 AM
Diggity Dan
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 @ 10:47:11 PM
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Nynja
Thursday, March 19, 2009 @ 12:38:50 PM
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Gamers wanted In-Game XMB. We got it. Asked for upgraded Flash support in the Internet Browser. Got it. We asked for rumble back. It came. People wanted in-game music support. Although not a global option, it's there. We asked for more games. Guess what, we got that too. It may take a while to get what we want, but have to admit that Sony is actually delivering on most promises this time round.
Kudos for Sony. Doing great, don't stop. Keep them coming.
Jed
Thursday, March 19, 2009 @ 10:34:56 PM
PaiNT_kinG
Sunday, March 22, 2009 @ 2:48:19 AM
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ThugNificent101
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Tuesday, March 17, 2009 @ 10:39:39 PM
To me it seems like the PS3 itself is in a beta phase. They seem to be listening to what the consumer wants, regardless of how it seems...
Last edited by ThugNificent101 on 3/17/2009 10:43:48 PM