Arnold-KatayevFirecrackers Again, Sony?
I have to say that I'm pretty upset with Sony, again (!), at
their lackluster Tokyo Game Show conference. What is it with them
and building up the hype around their shows, only to let us down?
Why not just stay low-key, don't tell us to expect fireworks if
you don't have any fireworks planned in the first place. It'd
really tone down how upset people get after they witness nothing
more than just a 99-cent firecracker.
I'm pretty pissed off that we didn't get to see or hear anything
on the Final Fantasy VII remake. But now, word is beginning to
fly that Sony is going to make a huge announcement on October
12th, which I doubt will be Final Fantasy VII. The other issue
that left people sore was that Sony was dumb enough to let
Microsoft have last week all to themselves with the release of
Halo 3 – when they should've announced the alleged 40GB PS3 and a
price drop to $399.
In a way, it sort of makes sense for them not to announce a
price-drop at a Japanese event for the American crowd. And
perhaps they were also waiting for the full momentum of the
Holiday rush, which just so happens to begin mid-October. So if
this rumor of a 40GB PlayStation 3 is finally made official on
October 12th, then Sony should see a terrific holiday push.
Furthermore, I think it'd be very wise of SCEA to force Polyphony
to put out at least a downloadable English version of Gran
Turismo 5 Prologue for the holidays. The demo is nice and all,
but to have the complete package (or would that be, a partial
package of the complete package?) would be a great holiday
booster for Sony.
Next Spring though is the big show, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand
Theft Auto IV, Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet, Home, Socom, Devil
May Cry 4…Uhh, yeah, next Spring is going to get a little
nutty, and it may be the point of the console war where Sony
turns it all around to even out the score with Microsoft, perhaps
even surpass the X360 by the end of 2008.
All of that is up in the air right now, but there's no doubt
about it that Sony not only has the best line-up of games setup
for next year, but also some fantastic 1st and 3rd exclusives.
Then with Gran Turismo 5 closing off the Summer and Final Fantasy
XIII for the 2008 holiday, things look very bright. And Lord
knows what else Sony has in store…Final Fantasy VII, Sony.
Please?
HD Awareness
The final thing I'm going to talk about is the issue of HD
awareness. It sort of sucks how many people are absolutely
clueless about the whole concept of resolutions and progressive
scan modes. I like the fact that Microsoft packs their consoles
with component cables and regular composite cables. And it's
pretty dumb of Sony to not do the same. I mean, really…you can
buy HDMI cables for $2-3, they're not expensive to produce – same
goes for component cables. A video tutorial embedded into the
hard drives of each console would also be a nice way to get the
word out. As it stands now, only 1/3 of HDTV owners are actually
using their HD capabilities! That's pathetic, and it makes the
purchase of the TV absolutely pointless.
