Friday March 23rd finally saw Sony throw their fancy next generation hats into the ring with the release of the Playstation 3 – some four months after the obviously more important US and Japanese territories. This is not the first time that Europe has been let down by Sony and, well, let’s face it, it’s not going to be the last time either.
To see in this momentous date in the history of videogames, Sony pulled off a bit of a PR stunt up in London whereby it dished out free £2,000 HDTV’s to 100 or so lucky punters at Virgin Megastore in London. To avoid lawsuits from chavved up teenagers flattened by the sheer weight of all the gadgety goodness, they also all got a free taxi ride home. My initial thought was obviously, “bugger it, why did I have to go and break my time machine?” However, I then felt sorry for all the people not being lucky enough to live around the corner from the London Superstore who just had to settle for a measly Playstation 3 console. That’s potentially some seriously miffed customers Sony!
Still, it’s on the streets now, at the princely sum of £425 of your English pounds (without any free games, an extra controller, etc). By all accounts, almost a week later, it’s still freely available in practically any shop you would care to walk into (although don’t blame me if the shop assistant in ‘Cat-Astrophe’ the pet shop gives you a funny look if you try to get one there).
On a forum I frequent, and certainly since the release of the Xbox 360, I’ve been fairly critical about Sony in the run-up to this release and I still think that £425 is pricing a fair few out of the market, for most of us that don’t really want a Blu-Ray player, thanks very much. Most of the launch games are already available on another console and Resistance: Fall of Man, Sony’s shiny white beacon of a launch game has suffered from average reviews. The online side is light years behind Xbox Live (although the recently announced Sony Home looks interesting). I firmly believe that software will make or break this console and Sony will need some fairly decent tricks up its tweed-jacketed sleeves throughout the rest of the year.
Titles such as Singstar, with a fairly hefty catalogue of downloadable content and the forthcoming ‘Little Big Planet,’ recently featured in Edge Magazine show there is certainly potential and that Sony still knows its market and realises that innovation (and not just graphical updates of its big PS2 sellers – hello Killzone) must come with every jump to a new platform to ensure the market does stagnate. After all, Sony isn’t the new kid on the block anymore.
Regardless of this partly negative blog post, the closer the launch has gotten, the gadget freak in me can’t help but want one. The technology cabinet, divided into four under my spectacularly non-HDTV has a spare space and I think, no, I’m pretty darn sure it’s been calling out to me to fill it.
Now, where’s my screwdriver and wrench, I’ve got a time machine to fix!
To see in this momentous date in the history of videogames, Sony pulled off a bit of a PR stunt up in London whereby it dished out free £2,000 HDTV’s to 100 or so lucky punters at Virgin Megastore in London. To avoid lawsuits from chavved up teenagers flattened by the sheer weight of all the gadgety goodness, they also all got a free taxi ride home. My initial thought was obviously, “bugger it, why did I have to go and break my time machine?” However, I then felt sorry for all the people not being lucky enough to live around the corner from the London Superstore who just had to settle for a measly Playstation 3 console. That’s potentially some seriously miffed customers Sony!
Still, it’s on the streets now, at the princely sum of £425 of your English pounds (without any free games, an extra controller, etc). By all accounts, almost a week later, it’s still freely available in practically any shop you would care to walk into (although don’t blame me if the shop assistant in ‘Cat-Astrophe’ the pet shop gives you a funny look if you try to get one there).
On a forum I frequent, and certainly since the release of the Xbox 360, I’ve been fairly critical about Sony in the run-up to this release and I still think that £425 is pricing a fair few out of the market, for most of us that don’t really want a Blu-Ray player, thanks very much. Most of the launch games are already available on another console and Resistance: Fall of Man, Sony’s shiny white beacon of a launch game has suffered from average reviews. The online side is light years behind Xbox Live (although the recently announced Sony Home looks interesting). I firmly believe that software will make or break this console and Sony will need some fairly decent tricks up its tweed-jacketed sleeves throughout the rest of the year.
Titles such as Singstar, with a fairly hefty catalogue of downloadable content and the forthcoming ‘Little Big Planet,’ recently featured in Edge Magazine show there is certainly potential and that Sony still knows its market and realises that innovation (and not just graphical updates of its big PS2 sellers – hello Killzone) must come with every jump to a new platform to ensure the market does stagnate. After all, Sony isn’t the new kid on the block anymore.Regardless of this partly negative blog post, the closer the launch has gotten, the gadget freak in me can’t help but want one. The technology cabinet, divided into four under my spectacularly non-HDTV has a spare space and I think, no, I’m pretty darn sure it’s been calling out to me to fill it.
Now, where’s my screwdriver and wrench, I’ve got a time machine to fix!
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