General thoughts and opinions.

So heres the deal,I really wanted (past tense) a PS3 ....until E3.Why have my feelings changed for the much hyped "super-computer" (yeah right,if people only understood how computers read data then Sony wouldn't be saying that)?Because when I started watching the Sony press briefing I was expecting to see a newly designed controller,A boat-load of games that totally blew me away in terms of graphics,gameplay AND animation.I was also hoping to see a price point that was competitive with Microsoft.

What I got was the same damned controller that I've been using for years with a couple of new features added,a bunch of games that DID NOT LOOK AS GOOD AS CURRENT XBOX360 GAMES (and let me just say that anyone who thinks that ANY of those games showed at E3 for PS3 looked as good as GRAW,Fight Night3,Oblivion or PGR3 has officially lost their damned mind) and a price point that was $200 to $300 more than Xbox360 with absolutly no valid reason as to why.

So it's got a Blu Ray drive in it,so freaking what.I've said this time and time again until I'm blue in the face,the general population either doesn't know what Blu Ray is or doesn't care.Period.I work for an A/V store,I install home theaters,surround sound systems,whole house audio,televisions and I know our customers well.I know that we have to spend time out of our day everyday to go show people how to work their equipment.

Oh and I wanted to say something about a comment that Shane Bettenhausen made on the 1up yours podcast this past Friday.He said that Blu Ray players were totally backwards compatible with standard DVD's just like HD DVD is.What he either forgot to mention or just simply doesn't know (which is most likely the case given the assinine satements he made) is that Blu Ray reads with a different color laser than standard DVD (can you guess which color the laser is?).Because it reads with a different color laser then manufacturers of the players have to add a red laser to the player therefore hiking up the price even more.

Here is a piece of an article on Blu Ray from Wikipedia about compatibility for the players:

"Another aspect of compatibility is more problematic. Due to AACS copy protection, the Blu-ray players will only output HD content via HDMI and DVI-D connections, meaning that older HDTV models with Component, RGB D-Sub, and DVI-A inputs (currently, majority of HDTVs in US) will only display video at standard definition or not at all.
The situation with computer compatibility is even worse. In order to display HD content on a computer monitor, both monitor and video card must be HDCP compliant. Although there are a few HDCP compliant monitors on the market, there are no HDCP compliant video cards. Even the latest cards from ATI and nVidia, labeled HDCP ready, are not HDCP compliant (as of April 2006)."

So as you can see Blu Ray isn't what it's being made out to be.Another strike against Bly Ray is the fact that most consumers aren't "tech savey" and therefore will be totally clueless when they see and hear "Blu Ray".But on the other hand,most people do know what "HD" is and what "DVD" is and would have no problem figuring out what HD DVD is.This same principle can be seen in the video game market domination by Sony.Just like how in the late '80's and '90's the name "Nintendo" was synonymous with video games (and in alot of cases still is),today the name "Sony Playstation" or even just "Playstation" is.The reason the Nintendo name was so successful is because every successful iteration of the Nintendo had that very name in the title(Nintendo Entertainment System,Super Nintendo,nintendo64....I did say every "em>successful" iteration).The same goes for the Playstation name which takes it a step further by simply numbering each iteration of the machine(Playstation,Platsation2,Playstation3,etc.,etc.)

Sony themselves are very open about the improtance of brand recognition by the consumer even going so far as to say that the forthcoming Playstation3 could ship at any price with absolutely no good games and still sell 5 million units.Sounds like overconfidence to me.Nintendo was also overconfident and we all know how that turned out.So judging by the pricing structure,compatibility and name recognition it is my "opinion" that HD DVD will beat out Blu Ray as the dominant HD DVD(pun intended) format.

And just to touch on another one of Shane's comments from the podcast,he said that standard definition DVD playback on Blu Ray would look better that on other formats.Even though Garnet Lee was good enough to set Sahne staright on this I would like to take a moment to bask in his ignorance.........................................................................................
Ok ,I feel better now.

As far graphics go there was no game at E3 on the PS3 that was even in the same ballpark as Gears of war or Mass Effect (and before people go hollering about MGS4,I'm talking about playable games).So come this November when the PS3 ships(and even the following months)it will have a launch lineup ok "ok" looking games that will be facing the likes of Gears of War and possibly Mass Effect.Oh and I almost forgot about Prey,Splinter Cell:Double Agent,Madden '07 and a slew of other awesome games coming to the 360.

So my question is how will Sony convince people to pay $200 to $300 dollars more for a console with games that don't look nearly as good as the ones on Xbox360?Sure the initial batches will sellout,but what about the following months?I think John Davison said it best when he said that the reason the PS2 sold so well was because people were getting a game system AND a DVD player without having to pay extra for the DVD player.The PS1 was $300 when it first came out and the PS2 was the same price.But with Blu Ray Sony is asking people to play $200 to $300 more for the extra feature.

Not to mention the fact that Blu Ray hasn't even come out yet,much less won the next gen DVD war.What if HD DVD wins out over Blu Ray?Several years from now everyone with a PS3 will have a $500 - $600 machine that won't play the newest movies.Wouldn't that suck?It could happen though.An I think that's what will happen.I heard a comment where someone said that the price of PS3 didn't bother them because an Xbox360 premium with the HD DVD add-on will cost the same.To that person I would like to say "thank for being a dumbass,people like you give people like me something to laugh at".First thing is that we don't know how much the Xbox360 HD DVD add-on will cost because a price has not been announced.Second thing is that it's not someting you are being forced to buy,remember,just because you might want a Blu Ray drive for your HDTV (that might not even be HDCP compliant),alot of people don't have an HDTV at all and could care less about a Blu Ray player in their PS3.How many middle America moms and dads ,that work your average 8-hour day and bring home between $20,000 and $40,000 per year are gonna be willing to drop $500 and $600 dollars for a video game system for little Billy or Suzie?To further that scenario,think about what Peter Moore said about someone being able to buy an Xbox360 AND a Nintendo Wii for the price of one PS3.I'm willing to bet that this will be what ends up happening.
Well that's all I have to say about that,so until next time.