Based on the latest sales tally , it really does seem inevitable.
Not long after we asked the question, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich ventured to provide an answer . He says the Xbox 360's shrinking lead will evaporate entirely within the next two years and given the consumer reaction to the PS3 in the past couple of years, it's probably not a bad guess. Said Divnich:
"Worldwide, Sony will eventually take the lead from Microsoft, likely by the end of 2012. North America is a tougher challenge, and as we have seen lately, Microsoft's lead is widening," he continued. "I don't know if the PS3 will ever overtake the Xbox 360 in North America. Maybe 2014? 2016? We do know the PS3 has incredible long-term value as a Blu-ray player, much like the PlayStation 2 did as a DVD player. But with strong competition coming from the digital front, one has to wonder if the PS3 will receive long retail legs like its predecessor did."
North America has always been a safe haven for Microsoft and although Sony continues to push, Divnich is right in saying the PS3 may never surpass the 360 in this region. The one-year head-start, combined with an unbeatable marketing campaign (one Sony executive said in the past that they'd "probably never spend as much as Microsoft") has assured the 360's position. But given Blu-Ray, cutting-edge exclusive titles, the free Network, and great reliability, the PS3 has kept growing.
Next generation oughta be interesting.
Imo, the ps3 has already surpassed the 360. Not in raw sales obviously, but for a machine that cost a lot (a LOT!), is a pain to develop for, and has had some pretty bad ports over the years, staying just a few mil behind the 360 is impressive.
That and the fact that the 360 sold a few extra consoles due to failures after the 3 year warranty.
I'm sure the ps3 will catch up with raw sales numbers, especially after the crap ton of amazing games in 2011. GT5 should move a few consoles if it is ever released, so that gap might get very close just at the end of 2010.
360 also had a 1 year head start.
And maybe the PS3 isn't the pain to develop for as much as it is the nature of the multi-plat business. What we have is two distinctly different architectures. The challenge has been creating the same game on two very different pieces of hardware. If the PS3 was exactly as it was today, and the 360 never existed, I don't think the PS3 would've ever been referred to as a pain. Rather a powerful machine with lots of far reaching potential.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 11/9/2010 9:52:54 PM
No, it actually is a pain. The 360 does things very similar to how a pc does due to its tri-core PPC processor. PPC has been around for a while and anyone worth their salt can get an engine running on it in no time.
The Cell, having only one PPC core with the SPE's everyone loves, forces devs to think about coding in a whole new way. SPEs are incredibly fast but only with very specific tasks. The PPC is meant to break a huge task into tiny pieces and send that to the SPEs. When done correctly it is incredibly fast, but its not something that has ever been done in a mainstream CPU before.
The reason a lot of ports are awful is because the devs try to run as much on the PPC core as possible while barely using the SPEs.
Sony's first and second party devs take the time to do it correctly, which is why it can pull off games like KZ3 and Uncharted 2, but those games are built in a completely different way than anything before it.
I don't doubt that making use of all of PS3's processing is more challenging than what game designers were used to from prior generations or PC design. I'm mostly referring to the "pain" of porting from 360 to PS3. I'd imagine it'd be a lot easier to start a game on PS3 and finish it than to start a game on 360 and port it to the PS3–looks at Bayonetta for a recent example. And then there's all of those engines like UE3 and IW-engine that were born from PC/360 which still struggle on PS3 today.
But to connect to my other point. Even first gen PS3 games still managed to look great and were made in relatively short time by just using the PS3's raw resources–all PPU and RSX (Resistance). That's why I think that if it weren't for the multi-platform "parody" 😉 this gen, the feelings expressed by console devs would've been less upsetting and less of a "pain" but rather, more optimistic about what the future holds from unearthing the processing buried within the CELL. It's a perspective thing.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
XBOX IS HORRIBLE, LAME, AND BROKEN.PS3 IS BETTER IN EVERY ASPECT.END OF STORY.
Just for once I'd like to see an analyst do their job and analyze the data. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to look at the 360 and see that several million units of the 'sales' figures are repeat sales caused by failed units and permanent XBL bans. It wouldn't really take a lot of analysis from a professional and highly paid group of analysts to figure out what we have known for some time now. PS3 is ahead of the 360, except in the US.
IIRC, the PSN vs XBL subscriber numbers tell the same story.
I forgot about banned consoles, but to be fair there are going to be a few banned PS3s in the future. Unfortunate, but a part of the industry.
what about the ps3, ps3s dont break?
You know, you really don't know how to construct an argument do you? The PS3's failure rate is (and always has been) a mere fraction of that of the 360. If you want to argue the point that millions of 360's are repeat purchases because of dead units, you can hardly cite the PS3's own considerably lower failure rate as justification of your argument.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 11/10/2010 12:47:43 AM
Actually, from what I gather, the failure rate of the PS3 is something around about 16%… I think that was the stat. If my memory serves me right there, then that is roughly half of the 360 failure rate (depending on what rate you're using. I am, of course, using the commonly referred to 33%)… BUT, as a caveat, we must remember that the PS3 currently, and always has, cost more than the 360, thus making it less likely for people to buy a second one in the instance of the first breaking.
I agree with Highlander, although, the use of the PSN vs XBLGold users isn't really fair considering the PSN is made up of every different account on the PS3, PSP, and PC, while Gold is only Gold.
Peace.
Actually, no. 16% is only valid for a self selecting sample of customers of a console repair service in the US.
Neither Microsoft or Sony publish specific figures, however Sony has consistently stated that their failure rate is in line with that expected for consumer electronics devices. Which would put it in the 2-3% range. Microsoft on the other hand has had no choice but to implicitly accept a 30% (more or less) failure rate with respect to the RROD problem alone. Analysis of the $1.1billion (USD) set aside purely for the RROD indicated that they were expecting to repair/replace something like a third of all 360s that were in the market at the time. That was nearly 2 years into the RROD debacle when many consumers initial 1 year warranty had already expired and they'd bought replacement units.
16% is not the correct failure rate for the general PS3 population at all.
I'll take your word for it, but we must remember 'on a large enough time scale, all survival rates fall to zero.'
Also, I would expect the death rate of PS3s to be at least 10% by now. Everything stops… even PS3s. But the 360 failure rate is well documented. You really have to estimate for the PS3, as nothing has really been definite.
Peace.
I'm on my second PS3. My 60Gb, that I sold a kidney to buy at launch, died after almost exactly two years. I reflowed it and babied it and got an extra few months, but that was the end.
I took a lot of flak for that one. I'd been promoting the PS3 and it's remarkable reliability to my xbox friends (all still on their original 360's by the way… go figure). That was a pride burner, it still stings.
Unfortunately, my YLOD experience with the first seriously shook my once rock solid faith in Sony's console reliability. I hate being a statistic. I know it's rare, but trust me it's devastating for those who paid an inordinate amount of money for their uber console…
Oh and by the way everyone, backup!!! all the time. When a PS3 hard drive is formatted it's locked to a hardware signature (gay). This means that if your PS3 croaks, even if your hard drive is in pristine condition, you're screwed. There's absolutely no way to recover that data. You HAVE to reformat it to put the drive in another PS3. Sony got an earful from me on that little quirk.
I still believe, that although there are exceptions to every rule as may be in gumbi's case, that all systems, 360's and PS3 both, have a large number of failures due to people not taking proper care of their systems. I firmly believe that if people did the little things, they would have no problems.
My PS3 is a 60GB launch system. I preordered a month before release, even. Still going strong!
People put their PS3's and 360's on things like glass, metal, or carpet (glass conducts heat, people…), put them in poorly ventilated encasements, leave them on for days at a time (not a big deal if properly ventilated), play their systems for long periods of time in heat above the recommended playing temperature as stated in your manual (if it's summer, stinkin' hot, then put a fan or A/C near your PS3 if you MUST play it ceaselessly), and some people NEVER clean out the vents!!!
I'm just sayin'…. some people are practically BEGGING for a YLOD or RROD. The only reason more 360's fail, is mostly due to engineering behind it's ventilation and heat generation. I think you'll find the newer 360's have a much lower fail rate.
PS3's are most likely due mostly to people being careless with their system. However, I do recognize, that anything with moving parts will always have at least a small chance of failing, so there will be inevitable exceptions to my main rule of thumb. But they are likely few and far between.
YloD victim right here =)
hahaha I got a ylod too on a 60gb deluxe 600$ after 2yrs and a half. 😛
210$ for shipping and repairs and they can't even get your data back (worthless techs) lol
But yeah in my case that was due to my girlfriend not opening the doors of the cabinet my ps3 is in XD and she let the console run and left. When I came back from work it was on FAN EXTREM SPEED lol. And so I turn it off and the next day it had ylod.
So anyway I just bought a slim instead for a 90$ difference lol.
The thing is that the RROD on an Xbox 360 is/was a 100% fatal issue. The new kinder gentler error that masks the same condition so that the extended warranty no longer covers it, is similarly fatal…
The so-called YLOD on the PS3, is a general hardware fault, not a failure. More often than not this fault condition can be traced to either a bad HDD or BD player. That's one of the reasons I refute the higher failure rates that people sometimes quote for the PS3. The simple truth is that they are not dead units. When Sony gets them, they turn around and send the customer back a fully reconditioned refurb unit. It's during the initial triage process that happens to incoming faulty units that the really dead units with motherboard or chip issues are separated from the others. Units that have faulty, but replaceable components such as the BD player lens assembly, are then factory refurbished to return them to factory condition, ready to go out to another customer.
Of course there are complete failures where something no the motherboard has died, or there's a solder problem, or the heat sink fan fails. But these are in the minority of PS3 YLOD issues, and are within the failure rate normally associated with heavily used consumer electronics. I'd definitely agree that the failure rate will be on the higher end of the normal range for CE products since PS3s are often very heavily used, but that's still not generating double digit failure rates.
BTW if anyone thinks that the 'reflow' thing actually works, please do some research on the temperatures required to re-flow solder and how those same temperatures will affect the components on the motherboard. The motherboard in the PS3 is, like most modern systems, a multi-layer board. Many of the solder tracks that people think break are buried within the motherboard. The heat needed to make solder melt sufficiently to flow is generally at least 180 degrees Celcius. 180C will bake your motherboard and cause damage to the components. The solder joints that are also thought to sometimes break require the same amount of heat, and unless it's applied locally, the same problems of damage to the motherboard and other components apply.
When these things are manufactured the motherboard is passed through a special machine that applies solder using a wave which passes across the underside of the motherboard quickly, depositing solder on the joints that must be connected. There is a masking method that prevents the solder from fixing to the whole motherboard and only the joints are soldered. This doesn't expose the motherboard to the heat of soldering for more than a moment which causes no damage.
I've seen people recommend a heat gun or really hot hairdryer be used to heat the solder so that it re-flows. This doesn't work. All it does is cause the motherboard to heat up, expand and flex slightly. That flexing can cause poor joints to re-contact and the system will 'work' for a while until the heat of operation causes the weak joint that's failing to fail again. But the heat from the heat gun causes more damage to other components, and is causing the motherboard to expand and flex which in turn weakens other joints. Many times a system that doesn't have any motherboard fault is apparently 'fixed' by this method because the process of dis-assembly and re-assembly re-seats some connection or jars something mechanical that was causing a failure. Such as a poorly lubricated drive arm, or SATA connector. But like the solder issue, this is often simply masking the problem which will potentially re-occur, not to mention the fact that the motherboard which was not at fault has been given a heat treatment that has almost certainly degraded it's condition.
Of course no one offering to repair YLOD using any method that claims to reflow the solder is going to tell you this at all, and will claim it's just scare tactics by Sony, etc… Whatever. The information is easy to find, and the melting point of led free solder is really well documented.
Sigh… I paid almost $700 for my 60Gb. There's no way in hell I wasn't taking great care of that piece of hardware. it was on the edge of my desk, elevated on a grated platform and well ventilated. I took good care of her, she just went kaput.
And yes, reflowing DOES work. if your BDROM and HDD are okay, then it's probably a mobo issue. This is NOT a permanent fix, and it definitely voids your warranty (if you still have one) and sony won't do the $200 swap for you (that's what it was when i YLOD'd, it may be cheaper now). But you can squeeze and extra 2 – 8 months out of your console if you know what you are doing and are careful not to cook the board. I did this, it does work, i got an extra 4 months, then YLOD again, then I reflowed a second time and got another few weeks out of it. If you want to save your data, this is the route to take. Reflow it, backup your data. Then start saving for a new console, cuz you will need it when she dies for good.
@gumbi
Yeah, I did say you were probably the exception to the rule. (I find the kids that don't take care of their systems typically have more than one system go kaput… you know… the ones who say "I've gone through 3 360/ps3's!!")
The failure rate numbers that I've seen from most article not associated with either Sony or M$, were…..
PS3 3 to 5% *
360 33 to 55% **
Please note:
* These numbers are PRE-PS3 Slims
** These 360 numbers are Pre-360 Squat failures.(one of which even had a YouTube video of the new 360Squat failing on the very first day it released).
Yeah I got ya Underdog, no worries. This topic just always strikes a chord with me. My PS3 was the only console I've ever had die on me. My NES, SNES, GC, PS1, PS2, and PSP are all still working fine (last I played them anyway). Here's hoping my Slim will keep kickin for a long while.
@Gumbi,
I'm afraid that it really doesn't work, your own experience proves this beyond a doubt. If 'reflowing' worked, you would not have had to do it a second time just a few months later, and then a third time after that. All your experience does show is that you can heat the motherboard and the thermal expansion causes poor joints to flex, and perhaps make contact again, but it weakens others. Which is why your PS3 failed again, and then a third and final time. Did you put your PS3 into a test rig to diagnose the motherboard to see if there was a flaw there? All the heating process that people use to 'reflow' solder does is mask the real problem. If reflowing really did work, your system would not have failed again.
Seriously guys, this isn't a matter of opinion, it's pure materials science. But, you know, if you want to believe in re-flowing, that's your right. Just as it's my right to think that it's just a flawed method to mask a real issue and cause further damage to a piece of electronics that doesn't like extreme heat.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 11/10/2010 4:17:50 PM
Highlander, I think our definitions of what 'works' are a little different here. Reflowing worked perfectly for what I needed. I'm not suggesting reflowing as a permanent fix, realistically there is no permanent fix if your solder joints have deteriorated. Unless you are very skilled and have the right tools.
I do however promote reflowing as an alternative to paying Sony $200 for a refurb with a 90 day warranty when they can't even recover your data which is perfectly in tact. Reflowing can buy you some extra time with your console to backup your data and save up for a brand new PS3 with a full warranty that's surely to last you much longer than a refurb that cost 2/3 as much.
First mover advantage has really given the Xbox360 a strong base to work from. Kinetic may continue to bolster the machines presense in the home market and give it legs for a good few years to come.
My prediction is that M$ will introduce the next Xbox to the world before Sony is ready to release their console. I am concerned that by waiting too long Sony will lose momentum again!
M$ has had enough time to see how Sony works in this market. In addition I am sure they will not play second fiddle to Sony when it comes to technology next time around. I am sure they will do what they can to produce an HD multi-core beast that will probably be a very good piece of hardware.
Generally, when people talk about the next generation of consoles we are looking at the CPU having at least 8 to 16 cores, maybe more… with a decent update to the GFX allowing for true 60FPS gaming at 1080p without compromise… something the current gen has been a let down personally.
A lot of hype was bounded about at launch, but when push comes to shove, we see developers having to cut corners and proving that even when trying to "max" out the hardware, it is difficult to make 1080p stick. Hopefully this will not be the case in the next generation of hardware, which in my eyes… were the consoles we wanted this generation… basically!
Q!
"please don't hack me… I'm innocent"
Last edited by Qubex on 11/9/2010 10:03:45 PM
It seems every gen presents a crazy set of variables that determine success. I know that beating a competitor out of the gate has often times resulted in slow progress, if not failure. Turbo Grafx 16, Saturn and DC stick out in my mind as systems that launched early but hit the dirt first.
I think 360's success was mostly riding on the wave of the rapidly growing competitive online gaming market that was booming. MS had a good head start with that and I think that helped them out a lot this gen. I also think the whole online community this gen, especially for 360, kept gamers glued to their platform despite the whole horrendous RRoD issue. It's just too hard to walk away from all of those achievement points and online buddies.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 11/9/2010 10:10:24 PM
Temjin, you make a good point about the competitive online gaming addage. No doubt M$ took their vast experience of PC gaming and pasted it all over their development methodology and ethos on the Xbox360.
They made the hardware "easier" to develop for. The underlying cross platform development tools for PC to Xbox360 game engine compiling made the whole M$ <> Partner model work well out of the gate, and the developers were able to start harnessing the power of the 360 pretty quickly. Just look how 80% of the time Digital Foundry reports that a multi platform title performs better and looks nicer on the 360 than on the PS3… this should have never happened according to Sony's hype in the early days.
The online multi-play ecosystem M$ refined for the 360 also helped nicely, as you pointed out… but some years have passed now… we will have to see if that first mover advantage holds out again for the next console round…
Q!
"please don't hack me… I'm innocent"
Yeah, the PC to 360 friendliness really helped with the multi-plats. The PS3 usually gets the shaft with ports from that orientation.
On the bright side, we've been seeing a few multi-plats recently that have used custom PS3 engines that yield better, if not equal to, performance on PS3: Castlevania, FF13, Darksiders, NGS2, Tekken 6 are a few that come to mind.
Qubex,
Well, I for one would love to see the 720 have that much power, if for no other reason, there wouldn't be any more gimped up games ported to the Playstation.
And of course, that Sony would still have either a bigger & more powerful console, or it could least do more with it's architecture, than M$ does.
I just hope what ever happens, M$ lesser disc-abilities doesn't wind up hindering any of the PS4's multiplat games once again.
M$ Skynet needs to either start playing ball with the rest of planet Earth…..or die a agonizingly slow painful death!
Qubex, it should never happen today, the PS3 is more than capable of matching the performance of the 360 in the majority of games. It's just that the graphics/game engine has to be built for the PS3, and optimized for the PS3, not built for the 360, ported and briefly optimized for release. But then I tend to take Digital Foundry with a pinch of salt. I think multi-platform games are s poor indicator of the actual performance capability of the PS3. When porting a game all you are required to do is the minimum necessary. Sadly, inferior ports will always be an issue.
Thank you for your responses guys… You make valid points.
No doubt it will be interesting to see what M$ does with its future hardware, I am sure they are going to want impress and try to take the lead once again in the next round.
Let us not discount the dark horse, Nintendo's HD console, which may come in and be a new beginning for the company with powerful hardware to boot.
Highlander, no doubt; and, as mentioned by Temjin too, with more care and attention by multi-plat developers, to enhance and optimised their PS3 engines, we actually see the multi-plat games in question look better and more polished than their 360 counterparts… and it has been happen more often this year than any other time.
So it's taken 5 years to get to this point… maybe we can expect similar long "get to know the hardware" cycle for the next generation of hardware?
*Biker Saint – so true man 🙂
Q!
"please don't hack me… I'm innocent"
I'm not sure Qubex. I am still hoping against hope that Sony has an attack of logic and builds a system with twin PowerXcel8i processors and a semi-decent GPU. That sort of system ought to have sufficient power to pull off real time ray tracing in games. It would render the entire debate about GPUs and everything else moot. Either way though, it would allow developers that have invested in working with the Cell to use those skills on the new console instead of relearning another architecture.
What I don't think Sony needs to do is go for yet another different and complex architecture. I think that would stunt the growth of the game library of the new system and mean a repeat of the situation we have now with poor multi-platform ports.
I don't know how they could do it, but I'd love for Sony to find a way to make the PS4 work both as a game console (securely) and as a regular personal workstation, perhaps running Linux or Android. Obviously, security is a major issue there, but Sony has clearly learned some lessons with the PS3, and perhaps they can take it even further allowing homebrew to work on the system in the non-game mode, yet fully protecting the game mode and game content. Like I said, I don't know how they can pull that one off, but it would be great if they could.
Highlander. I share you're hopes on this one, but I highly doubt we'll ever see a console that supports homebrew (legitimately). I've been pining for it for years. And after that mess with Geohot I don't know if they'll ever even support a secondary OS again. Which is a crying shame, I loved having Linux on my old PS3.
Highlander, you make a very interesting point about the non-game mode idea for homebrew developers. I think it would be great if Sony looked at promoting this, and also getting famous demo groups to make tech demos for their new console.
Sony need to be inclusive, not divisive , whereby they perceive the "non-gaming" community as a threat and have to take features away from a piece of hardware they intended to sell in a certain way… I mean it still makes me shake my head when I think about it… incredible…
Also, let's not forget though, that the current PS3 was actually glitched via a hardware hack initially. If I remember correctly, in Geohotz case specifically, he had the bare motherboard open with a whole lot of wires coming from it… pulsing the ram as the console ran and dumping LV2… incredible… looked like open heart surgery… Surely something similar could be done on new hardware if the hacker knows the hard lines to hack into… lol, like the Matrix or similar 🙂
Why does Sony not do what Apple do and create a single "hard body" for their PS4… so only they can open it with a special custom tool?
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
i imagine once GT5 releases Sony will be catching up pretty quick and then fact in exclusives i reckon they could probably do it before 2012 especially with Sony pretty much owning europe right now.
Bullsh*t to 2012!!!!
As Highlander & myself keep on repeating, we both say that PS3 has to have already surpassed the 360, just by these facts alone….
1.Sony counts "SOLD" units, M$ counts "SHIPPED"
2. Numerous 360 re-buys due to 33% RROD'S(and at one point,it was at an astonishing 53%)
3. Over a million banned modded 360's(and that was the second ban, the first one was only for a couple hundred thousand xbox-bots)
4. Kinect – Over the last 3-4 months, I've read articles on how the Kenect motion sensor isn't compatible with any NON-squat 360's hardware, so everyone who want's to use the Kinect seamlessly, needs to upgrade their bot-box to the new bot-box squat.
Now with all those informational facts, and, with all the money Electronic Entertainment Design and Research paid out to that analyst, I'm not sure how many $1000's & $1000 less Highlander would've charged them for this info, But hell, I can go for cheap, & just a $500 Gamestop card would've made my whole freaking day.
LOL! Dude, make it 2 $500 cards for GameStop and we'll co-author the next report. Co-authored reports are always more authoritative…
not to play devil's advocate here but with a 3 year warranty that they are pretty much forced to offer their customers, id be willing to say that the number of people who actually bought another system are lower than what some believe
Not really, their extended warranty only came nearly 2 years into the product life of the 360 when the RROD problem reached epidemic proportions and MS could no longer ignore it. That was when reports started to surface that showed failure rates of at least 30%. Despite the extended warranty, many 360 owners have opted to purchase an Arcade system as a stand-by in case their main unit dies, then all they need to is swap out the HDD. The extended warranty was too little too late. Based only on the reported failure rate at the time the extended warranty plan was announced, very nearly 3 million Xbox360s could already have failed out of warranty and before the extended warranty was brought in to effect.
"Kinect – Over the last 3-4 months, I've read articles on how the Kenect motion sensor isn't compatible with any NON-squat 360's hardware, so everyone who want's to use the Kinect seamlessly, needs to upgrade their bot-box to the new bot-box squat."
Where did you read this?
I think that the problem with the older Xbox 360s is that their USB ports can't power the Kinect camera and it therefore requires an external power unit and therefore an extra power socket. But as far as I know it's 100% compatible, the issue is limited to the power thing.