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I have been a HUGE fan of Sony for some time now, way before the advent of the PlayStation,
Everything in my house is made by Sony! The TV, the Video, and my Walkman. Then came 1995, the dawn of the PlayStation...
My little grey SNES looked so dated back then, and I was on the verge of buying a Saturn when on day, I saw the PlayStation being demonstrated at a fair in London. At that point I know I had to have one, not just because it had Sony on the front so that it would match my home, but because, at the time, it was new...
I purchased my PlayStation on release day with Ridge Racer, Tekken and Johnny Bazookatone, a second pad and memory card. I was happy, in fact, ecstatic... I rushed home, boxed up my SNES and set up my PlayStation... My God!... I was stunned by what I saw on the screen of my TV and told myself "You've made a good decision here!"... It's funny looking back how a 20-year-old bloke could get excited over a little grey box, but hey, there you go!!
Over the next 5 years, I purchased every AAA title there was for the PlayStation, and was quite proud of the fact that up until the summer 2000, I still had the original machine (not one of the re-issues), working perfectly well and still looking good. But finally after 5 years of solid playing and abuse, sometime not being switched off for 3 days in a row, it finally blew up! So I went out and replaced it with one of those cute PSOne's...
Sony had delivered well with the PlayStation, and from that point I was a convert, never looking at my SNES/N64 or Mega Drive again.... It did everything Sony promised and redefined gaming forever. I know longer felt like a geek when it came to talking about games, I was now fashion, I was one of those 20 something gamers from the gaming generation Sony had created with the PlayStation.
In 1998 I started hearing rumours about the next generation PlayStation. I started to follow SCEJ on the internet, slowly collecting all of the press releases and finally the release of the official specs in March 1999. My attention was captured everyday by SCEJ/SCEE soaking up every little piece of information.
Now I don't normally get dragged into the hype of a future console release. I usually wait until I see concrete evidence instead of listening to other gamer’s speculations and reading "bull" in magazines, but because the original PlayStation converted me, I couldn't help it, I was addicted to the hype of what became the PlayStation 2.
Along came January 6th 2000, the day fate enabled my to finally purchase my PS2. I couldn't afford it on release date due to other factors, like having to find somewhere to live, but I waited patiently, being sucked in more and more by the hype, and then, £420 later, I was walking trough the streets of Oxford clutching hold of the scared Blue box, Ridge Racer, TImeSplitters and DOA2...
Within half an hour, I was home, as before, I boxed up my PSOne, and set up my PS2, flicked the switch at the back and stood back and admired the blue and green lights on the front for a while (After spending half an hour trying to decide on horizontal/Vertical and twisting the logo accordingly). It was now time to do what I had bought it for, to play games...
Initially, I was very impressed, Ridge Racer was so fast and clean, although plagued with pop-up and crap handling, I was impressed by this as a launch title. The same went with DOA2, this game was blisteringly fast, and very nice looking. As for TimeSplitters, Goldeneye on the PS2, something I always longed for on the PSOne!! For launch titles, I was satisfied, especially after looking back at the PlayStation and the way it had progressed over 5 years. (Who would have thought that within 5 years PlayStation had gone from the blocky Ridge Racer to the amazing Gran Turisimo 2?) So I had faith in my PS2 and it's future...
I've now had my PS2 just over a year, in that time, I've played several titles, Q3A, ZOE, SSX, GT3, GTA3, Onimusha, Kuri Kuri, Klonoa, XG3, Dynasty Warriors, and some other I can remember off the top of my head, and to be totally honest, there hasn't been a single title, apart from GTA3, that's grabbed my by the short and curlies and got be all excited... To say I'm a little disappointed would be an understatement,
What Sony promised, and what they delivered were two totally different things. This is partially my fault for falling prey to "Hype", something I had never done before, and now something I regret. I fell for words such as "Graphics Synthesiser" and the "Emotion Engine" and what Sony said they would deliver and how they would revolutionize gaming today. How untrue was this? The only "Emotion" my PS2 has generated was the boredom of sequels and the cardiac I'm on the verge of having thinking about shelling out a small fortune for the Broadband adapter and HDD!!
I'll admit, there are some real Killer apps finally arriving on the PS2. Titles such as MGS2, FFX and VF4, but in hind sight, I wish I had waited until now to purchase my PS2, especially that within a year, the price is almost half that of what I had initially paid for it, and there are two more consoles arriving on the scene which, hopefully, will inject some life back in to gaming like there was back in the mid 90's.
The lesson I have learnt from this is to avoid "Hype" and not to get dragged in buy it. Instead of falling for polished marketing and magazine rants, I should have done what I had with the original PlayStation, I should have witnessed it first and listened to other gamers before making my decision. I fell, like a sucker, for Sony's marketing plan on the promise of having my life changed forever and finding that 3rd place, something I'm still looking for, and something I may eventually find with MGS2!
Don't get me wrong, I do love my PS2, and I wouldn't live without it, and I'm still impressed with Sony for coming out of nowhere 7 years ago and dominating the market ever since, a fate no other firm has managed, but I didn't buy it to continue playing PSOne killer apps on, I bought it for the promises Sony made.
Avoid Hype, Witness things first hand, experience these machines for yourself, and base you decision on what you want from a console. Listen to those who have played them and not those who are basing their decision on the same hype I fell for before you part with your hard earned cash!
There's a lot of speculation and arguments in these forums about the new next gen consoles and which one will be better, but most of these assumptions have been made on the same hype I fell for and not based on their "actual" experience. You can only learn this from people who, at least, own one of these machines and not from some guy who had a 30 second blast on one in HMV.
I return now to try to find that 3rd place, that dimension Sony promised its gamers...
Everything in my house is made by Sony! The TV, the Video, and my Walkman. Then came 1995, the dawn of the PlayStation...
My little grey SNES looked so dated back then, and I was on the verge of buying a Saturn when on day, I saw the PlayStation being demonstrated at a fair in London. At that point I know I had to have one, not just because it had Sony on the front so that it would match my home, but because, at the time, it was new...
I purchased my PlayStation on release day with Ridge Racer, Tekken and Johnny Bazookatone, a second pad and memory card. I was happy, in fact, ecstatic... I rushed home, boxed up my SNES and set up my PlayStation... My God!... I was stunned by what I saw on the screen of my TV and told myself "You've made a good decision here!"... It's funny looking back how a 20-year-old bloke could get excited over a little grey box, but hey, there you go!!
Over the next 5 years, I purchased every AAA title there was for the PlayStation, and was quite proud of the fact that up until the summer 2000, I still had the original machine (not one of the re-issues), working perfectly well and still looking good. But finally after 5 years of solid playing and abuse, sometime not being switched off for 3 days in a row, it finally blew up! So I went out and replaced it with one of those cute PSOne's...
Sony had delivered well with the PlayStation, and from that point I was a convert, never looking at my SNES/N64 or Mega Drive again.... It did everything Sony promised and redefined gaming forever. I know longer felt like a geek when it came to talking about games, I was now fashion, I was one of those 20 something gamers from the gaming generation Sony had created with the PlayStation.
In 1998 I started hearing rumours about the next generation PlayStation. I started to follow SCEJ on the internet, slowly collecting all of the press releases and finally the release of the official specs in March 1999. My attention was captured everyday by SCEJ/SCEE soaking up every little piece of information.
Now I don't normally get dragged into the hype of a future console release. I usually wait until I see concrete evidence instead of listening to other gamer’s speculations and reading "bull" in magazines, but because the original PlayStation converted me, I couldn't help it, I was addicted to the hype of what became the PlayStation 2.
Along came January 6th 2000, the day fate enabled my to finally purchase my PS2. I couldn't afford it on release date due to other factors, like having to find somewhere to live, but I waited patiently, being sucked in more and more by the hype, and then, £420 later, I was walking trough the streets of Oxford clutching hold of the scared Blue box, Ridge Racer, TImeSplitters and DOA2...
Within half an hour, I was home, as before, I boxed up my PSOne, and set up my PS2, flicked the switch at the back and stood back and admired the blue and green lights on the front for a while (After spending half an hour trying to decide on horizontal/Vertical and twisting the logo accordingly). It was now time to do what I had bought it for, to play games...
Initially, I was very impressed, Ridge Racer was so fast and clean, although plagued with pop-up and crap handling, I was impressed by this as a launch title. The same went with DOA2, this game was blisteringly fast, and very nice looking. As for TimeSplitters, Goldeneye on the PS2, something I always longed for on the PSOne!! For launch titles, I was satisfied, especially after looking back at the PlayStation and the way it had progressed over 5 years. (Who would have thought that within 5 years PlayStation had gone from the blocky Ridge Racer to the amazing Gran Turisimo 2?) So I had faith in my PS2 and it's future...
I've now had my PS2 just over a year, in that time, I've played several titles, Q3A, ZOE, SSX, GT3, GTA3, Onimusha, Kuri Kuri, Klonoa, XG3, Dynasty Warriors, and some other I can remember off the top of my head, and to be totally honest, there hasn't been a single title, apart from GTA3, that's grabbed my by the short and curlies and got be all excited... To say I'm a little disappointed would be an understatement,
What Sony promised, and what they delivered were two totally different things. This is partially my fault for falling prey to "Hype", something I had never done before, and now something I regret. I fell for words such as "Graphics Synthesiser" and the "Emotion Engine" and what Sony said they would deliver and how they would revolutionize gaming today. How untrue was this? The only "Emotion" my PS2 has generated was the boredom of sequels and the cardiac I'm on the verge of having thinking about shelling out a small fortune for the Broadband adapter and HDD!!
I'll admit, there are some real Killer apps finally arriving on the PS2. Titles such as MGS2, FFX and VF4, but in hind sight, I wish I had waited until now to purchase my PS2, especially that within a year, the price is almost half that of what I had initially paid for it, and there are two more consoles arriving on the scene which, hopefully, will inject some life back in to gaming like there was back in the mid 90's.
The lesson I have learnt from this is to avoid "Hype" and not to get dragged in buy it. Instead of falling for polished marketing and magazine rants, I should have done what I had with the original PlayStation, I should have witnessed it first and listened to other gamers before making my decision. I fell, like a sucker, for Sony's marketing plan on the promise of having my life changed forever and finding that 3rd place, something I'm still looking for, and something I may eventually find with MGS2!
Don't get me wrong, I do love my PS2, and I wouldn't live without it, and I'm still impressed with Sony for coming out of nowhere 7 years ago and dominating the market ever since, a fate no other firm has managed, but I didn't buy it to continue playing PSOne killer apps on, I bought it for the promises Sony made.
Avoid Hype, Witness things first hand, experience these machines for yourself, and base you decision on what you want from a console. Listen to those who have played them and not those who are basing their decision on the same hype I fell for before you part with your hard earned cash!
There's a lot of speculation and arguments in these forums about the new next gen consoles and which one will be better, but most of these assumptions have been made on the same hype I fell for and not based on their "actual" experience. You can only learn this from people who, at least, own one of these machines and not from some guy who had a 30 second blast on one in HMV.
I return now to try to find that 3rd place, that dimension Sony promised its gamers...
Page:
$lik wrote:
> wrong again! the gameboy is the most sucessfull console of all time, it's even sold over 100 million units for gods sake! sorry to nitpick but there you go...
slik ~_~
The Gameboy "Brand" has sold 100million over a period of 11 years in 3 diffrent incarnations (GB/GBC/GBA) compared to the sale of 70 Million PlayStations (in 6 Years) and almost 30 million PS2's (in 2.5 years) which equals about 100million units in 6 years making the Playstation "Brand" more succesful that the Gameboy.
i have the Famitsu(not sure on spelling there?) figures kicking about the office somewhere, I'll post them when I find then..
The same goes for Launch figures, the PS2 still holds out as the most Successfull Launch in videogaming history.
> wrong again! the gameboy is the most sucessfull console of all time, it's even sold over 100 million units for gods sake! sorry to nitpick but there you go...
slik ~_~
The Gameboy "Brand" has sold 100million over a period of 11 years in 3 diffrent incarnations (GB/GBC/GBA) compared to the sale of 70 Million PlayStations (in 6 Years) and almost 30 million PS2's (in 2.5 years) which equals about 100million units in 6 years making the Playstation "Brand" more succesful that the Gameboy.
i have the Famitsu(not sure on spelling there?) figures kicking about the office somewhere, I'll post them when I find then..
The same goes for Launch figures, the PS2 still holds out as the most Successfull Launch in videogaming history.
Tyla wrote:-
>The Playstaton is still the most successful console of all time...
wrong again! the gameboy is the most sucessfull console of all time, it's even sold over 100 million units for gods sake! sorry to nitpick but there you go...
slik ~_~
>The Playstaton is still the most successful console of all time...
wrong again! the gameboy is the most sucessfull console of all time, it's even sold over 100 million units for gods sake! sorry to nitpick but there you go...
slik ~_~
DrDragon wrote:
>The GC is now selling brilliantly in Japan, it picked up after the launch of Smash Brothers and the black/ spice cube, and the sales have not fallen since.
>Also, I have the GC, and it really does rock, no hype.
Excellent, someone who's actually based his knowledge on "real" experience. How do you rate the Cube based on you experience with it. I'm debating getting one.
> Nice original post :-)
Cheers...:-)
>The GC is now selling brilliantly in Japan, it picked up after the launch of Smash Brothers and the black/ spice cube, and the sales have not fallen since.
>Also, I have the GC, and it really does rock, no hype.
Excellent, someone who's actually based his knowledge on "real" experience. How do you rate the Cube based on you experience with it. I'm debating getting one.
> Nice original post :-)
Cheers...:-)
I was lucky then I suppose, I was given my PS2 as a gift in November last year, when a lot of good titles were floating around for it. Now it seems that every week there's a top title being released, so I just can't get enough good games for it, there's too many to choose from.
Despite Sony's Third Place marketing campaign, I was planning to hold out for an XBox, but now I've got the PS2 and it satisfies all my gaming needs I'm going to stick with it.
I'd probably say the same thing if my gift had been a Gamecube or an Xbox.
According to the advertising agency that Sony employed to market the PS2, the 'third place' is purely that state of mind you are in when you are gaming, you are not at work, you are not at home, mentally you're in a different world altogether. And all their hype indicates is that the PS2 makes it easier to get into that state of mind, which it does for me, so I won't be suing. :)
Despite Sony's Third Place marketing campaign, I was planning to hold out for an XBox, but now I've got the PS2 and it satisfies all my gaming needs I'm going to stick with it.
I'd probably say the same thing if my gift had been a Gamecube or an Xbox.
According to the advertising agency that Sony employed to market the PS2, the 'third place' is purely that state of mind you are in when you are gaming, you are not at work, you are not at home, mentally you're in a different world altogether. And all their hype indicates is that the PS2 makes it easier to get into that state of mind, which it does for me, so I won't be suing. :)
@Tyla
The GC is now selling brilliantly in Japan, it picked up after the launch of Smash Brothers and the black/ spice cube, and the sales have not fallen since.
Also, I have the GC, and it really does rock, no hype.
Nice original post :-)
The GC is now selling brilliantly in Japan, it picked up after the launch of Smash Brothers and the black/ spice cube, and the sales have not fallen since.
Also, I have the GC, and it really does rock, no hype.
Nice original post :-)
$lik wrote:
> No offence to any PS owners but I think that the long and short of the success of the PS was that it was a cheap console,
Please expand on this. Cheap as in cheap to develop for, or cheap as in purchase price as at launch it was £299, which I wouldn't call cheap. It's now only £70 as Sony's strategy with the PSOne over the last year was to use it as an introduction platform to no-console owner and parents who wanted to by "little Tommy" his first console.
>but the fact that sony gave away development kits to every third party developer under the sun
And why not? They were new to the console market, they wanted to make an impact, and they did. The Playstaton is still the most successful console of all time...
> meant that it was overun (and still is) with absolutely cack games (sorry but they are)
True... But us "Serious" gamers know the difference between AAA and triple cack! All my PSOne titles are AAA and I have never bought anything else.
> and to a certain extent it is the console for the casual gamer who knows allmost nothing about games
I don't concider my self a "casual" gamer, I've been playing consoles since the dawn of the Atari 2600. But Sony's plan was to make gaming a fasion and bring it out of the bedroom. This they managed and now Gaming has become a lifestyle. It was never aimed at the casual gamer, but aimed at people , who at the time, were my age (20-25).
Please tell me... What is there to know about games?
> sorry if this sounds bias but it's the truth and I think that the PS2 is starting to go the same way
How is the PS2 going the same way? How come all of the titles an the PS2 are making their way to "Other" consoles? Shurely if they were that bad, other firms wouldn't be interested? As for 3rd party development, Sony have cracked down on this because of what happened with the PSOne.
>which I don't really care about cos i'm getting a gamecube:- the choice of the videogame enthusiast :P
Based on? Who said it was the choice of the video game enthusiast. If you were an enthusiast, you'd own them all and not have a bias. So your getting a GCN, I wouldn't say this was choice. It's not selling amazingly well in Japan at the moment now is it? And it's relying on Biohazzard to increase it's low sales, originally a PSOne game!!
And why did you choose the GCN? How did you come to this decision? Are you a strict Ninty? Have you been suckered in by the hype too? Have you had the chance to play one yet, and I mean "really" play one?
My pint was baout being suckered by "Hype" Something a lot of you on here are falling prey to as well, especially to consoles that haven't even arrived yet.
> No offence to any PS owners but I think that the long and short of the success of the PS was that it was a cheap console,
Please expand on this. Cheap as in cheap to develop for, or cheap as in purchase price as at launch it was £299, which I wouldn't call cheap. It's now only £70 as Sony's strategy with the PSOne over the last year was to use it as an introduction platform to no-console owner and parents who wanted to by "little Tommy" his first console.
>but the fact that sony gave away development kits to every third party developer under the sun
And why not? They were new to the console market, they wanted to make an impact, and they did. The Playstaton is still the most successful console of all time...
> meant that it was overun (and still is) with absolutely cack games (sorry but they are)
True... But us "Serious" gamers know the difference between AAA and triple cack! All my PSOne titles are AAA and I have never bought anything else.
> and to a certain extent it is the console for the casual gamer who knows allmost nothing about games
I don't concider my self a "casual" gamer, I've been playing consoles since the dawn of the Atari 2600. But Sony's plan was to make gaming a fasion and bring it out of the bedroom. This they managed and now Gaming has become a lifestyle. It was never aimed at the casual gamer, but aimed at people , who at the time, were my age (20-25).
Please tell me... What is there to know about games?
> sorry if this sounds bias but it's the truth and I think that the PS2 is starting to go the same way
How is the PS2 going the same way? How come all of the titles an the PS2 are making their way to "Other" consoles? Shurely if they were that bad, other firms wouldn't be interested? As for 3rd party development, Sony have cracked down on this because of what happened with the PSOne.
>which I don't really care about cos i'm getting a gamecube:- the choice of the videogame enthusiast :P
Based on? Who said it was the choice of the video game enthusiast. If you were an enthusiast, you'd own them all and not have a bias. So your getting a GCN, I wouldn't say this was choice. It's not selling amazingly well in Japan at the moment now is it? And it's relying on Biohazzard to increase it's low sales, originally a PSOne game!!
And why did you choose the GCN? How did you come to this decision? Are you a strict Ninty? Have you been suckered in by the hype too? Have you had the chance to play one yet, and I mean "really" play one?
My pint was baout being suckered by "Hype" Something a lot of you on here are falling prey to as well, especially to consoles that haven't even arrived yet.
No offence to any PS owners but I think that the long and short of the success of the PS was that it was a cheap console, but the fact that sony gave away development kits to every third party developer under the sun meant that it was overun (and still is) with absolutely cack games (sorry but they are) and to a certain extent it is the console for the casual gamer who knows allmost nothing about games, sorry if this sounds bias but it's the truth and I think that the PS2 is starting to go the same way which I don't really care about cos i'm getting a gamecube:- the choice of the videogame enthusiast :P
slik ~_~
slik ~_~
In response to original message:
You could say that the PS2 really is the third place seen as there's been a lot of support for GameCube and X-box :)
You could say that the PS2 really is the third place seen as there's been a lot of support for GameCube and X-box :)
I have a similar topic on this in the Sony room:
"Why was the Playstation such a hit?
*Well, Sony gave development kits away for nothing and offered superb support for developers.
*They bought a few small developers of their own
*They gave deals on publishing costs if developers made games exclusive for the Playstation
*The console was very easy to develop for thanks to its fab design.......
And the list goes on. However, the biggest reason Sony came out top is because they had no competition. Nintendo officially said that only they would be allowed to release launch games and have development kits for the first few months of release, and shunned developers like Square and Namco. They raised publishing costs for the "privilidge" of printing games on a Nintendo consoles, and ended up with an over priced, under supported console- it released with ONE game, and only had 4 games 3 months after launch!
So, by the end of the 32bit era Sony had 100million gamers with Playstations out there.
However, things have changed very much. Firstly, Sony's approach:
Rather than encourage developers to get on the PS2 bandwagon by making the console super-user friendly and offering great price incentives, Sony have relised that the console will sell on the back of the Playstation anyway. So developers wuite simply have to support it because (when the console was in development) there was still no news from the Nintendo camp, and the Dreamcast just wasn't selling enough games.
So, first big change Sony made: the console architeture. Rather than do a Playstation and base the console on easy-to-develop-for PC architecture Sony rushed the design of the console. Ok, maybe that doesn't do it justice. Sony have ended up with a console based on a completely new type of architecture that will, in theory, allow every once of power to be used for gaming.
However, big problem. No one has made games for any machine like this before. In fact, Sony knew this, so made middleware- premade graphics engines and the like that developers can buy off the shelf and use. The idea being that after a few months developers could go on their own way and make games from scratch. In fact, the console is proving so hard to develop for that middleware companies are making millions, and small developers can't program the graphics engines et al from scratch. Not only that, but middleware makes it impossible to squeeze all the power from a console anyway! So the whole new architecture is wasted!
Ok, so Sony went stray on that... but it gets worse. Development kits were substandard, under supported and expensive- the exact oposite of what made the Playstation popular! Not only did the kist not have simply things like "anti aliasing" to get rid of jaggy edges, but even now such problems persist!
But who cares! The console will sell anyway. Developers HAD to support it because people were guranteed to buy it, and people would buy it because it was so well supported. All good.
But times are changing- Nintendo have actually come around and made a fairly good console- easy to develop for, low cost and PC based... reminds me of the Playstation!
That's not really a problem- Sony will always stay dominant in a 2 console market. However, add Microsoft to the equation and you have a problem. They have basically "done a playstation". MS has bought some big development names, made excluive contracts with others, got a huge marketting budget and made the console esy to develop for. It is just a Playstation all over again!
So the Xbox won't storm the market- Sony are too far ahead. But it will take a big chunk of it. And the worry is that in the next console generation, if Sony continue to be so arrogant about their market strength, then they will falter. Not die out, but certainly lose a lot of ground to Microsoft.
Sonic"
*********************************************************
Adding to this a bit, when Sony released the info for the PS2, they had demos of a 70 person tekken brawl. They promised photorealistic graphics.
The problem was that all these demos were made on PCs, not on PS2 dev kits. The final PS2 Tekken game was VERY different from the 70 man, photorealistic brawl we were promised.
Sonic
"Why was the Playstation such a hit?
*Well, Sony gave development kits away for nothing and offered superb support for developers.
*They bought a few small developers of their own
*They gave deals on publishing costs if developers made games exclusive for the Playstation
*The console was very easy to develop for thanks to its fab design.......
And the list goes on. However, the biggest reason Sony came out top is because they had no competition. Nintendo officially said that only they would be allowed to release launch games and have development kits for the first few months of release, and shunned developers like Square and Namco. They raised publishing costs for the "privilidge" of printing games on a Nintendo consoles, and ended up with an over priced, under supported console- it released with ONE game, and only had 4 games 3 months after launch!
So, by the end of the 32bit era Sony had 100million gamers with Playstations out there.
However, things have changed very much. Firstly, Sony's approach:
Rather than encourage developers to get on the PS2 bandwagon by making the console super-user friendly and offering great price incentives, Sony have relised that the console will sell on the back of the Playstation anyway. So developers wuite simply have to support it because (when the console was in development) there was still no news from the Nintendo camp, and the Dreamcast just wasn't selling enough games.
So, first big change Sony made: the console architeture. Rather than do a Playstation and base the console on easy-to-develop-for PC architecture Sony rushed the design of the console. Ok, maybe that doesn't do it justice. Sony have ended up with a console based on a completely new type of architecture that will, in theory, allow every once of power to be used for gaming.
However, big problem. No one has made games for any machine like this before. In fact, Sony knew this, so made middleware- premade graphics engines and the like that developers can buy off the shelf and use. The idea being that after a few months developers could go on their own way and make games from scratch. In fact, the console is proving so hard to develop for that middleware companies are making millions, and small developers can't program the graphics engines et al from scratch. Not only that, but middleware makes it impossible to squeeze all the power from a console anyway! So the whole new architecture is wasted!
Ok, so Sony went stray on that... but it gets worse. Development kits were substandard, under supported and expensive- the exact oposite of what made the Playstation popular! Not only did the kist not have simply things like "anti aliasing" to get rid of jaggy edges, but even now such problems persist!
But who cares! The console will sell anyway. Developers HAD to support it because people were guranteed to buy it, and people would buy it because it was so well supported. All good.
But times are changing- Nintendo have actually come around and made a fairly good console- easy to develop for, low cost and PC based... reminds me of the Playstation!
That's not really a problem- Sony will always stay dominant in a 2 console market. However, add Microsoft to the equation and you have a problem. They have basically "done a playstation". MS has bought some big development names, made excluive contracts with others, got a huge marketting budget and made the console esy to develop for. It is just a Playstation all over again!
So the Xbox won't storm the market- Sony are too far ahead. But it will take a big chunk of it. And the worry is that in the next console generation, if Sony continue to be so arrogant about their market strength, then they will falter. Not die out, but certainly lose a lot of ground to Microsoft.
Sonic"
*********************************************************
Adding to this a bit, when Sony released the info for the PS2, they had demos of a 70 person tekken brawl. They promised photorealistic graphics.
The problem was that all these demos were made on PCs, not on PS2 dev kits. The final PS2 Tekken game was VERY different from the 70 man, photorealistic brawl we were promised.
Sonic
I have been a HUGE fan of Sony for some time now, way before the advent of the PlayStation,
Everything in my house is made by Sony! The TV, the Video, and my Walkman. Then came 1995, the dawn of the PlayStation...
My little grey SNES looked so dated back then, and I was on the verge of buying a Saturn when on day, I saw the PlayStation being demonstrated at a fair in London. At that point I know I had to have one, not just because it had Sony on the front so that it would match my home, but because, at the time, it was new...
I purchased my PlayStation on release day with Ridge Racer, Tekken and Johnny Bazookatone, a second pad and memory card. I was happy, in fact, ecstatic... I rushed home, boxed up my SNES and set up my PlayStation... My God!... I was stunned by what I saw on the screen of my TV and told myself "You've made a good decision here!"... It's funny looking back how a 20-year-old bloke could get excited over a little grey box, but hey, there you go!!
Over the next 5 years, I purchased every AAA title there was for the PlayStation, and was quite proud of the fact that up until the summer 2000, I still had the original machine (not one of the re-issues), working perfectly well and still looking good. But finally after 5 years of solid playing and abuse, sometime not being switched off for 3 days in a row, it finally blew up! So I went out and replaced it with one of those cute PSOne's...
Sony had delivered well with the PlayStation, and from that point I was a convert, never looking at my SNES/N64 or Mega Drive again.... It did everything Sony promised and redefined gaming forever. I know longer felt like a geek when it came to talking about games, I was now fashion, I was one of those 20 something gamers from the gaming generation Sony had created with the PlayStation.
In 1998 I started hearing rumours about the next generation PlayStation. I started to follow SCEJ on the internet, slowly collecting all of the press releases and finally the release of the official specs in March 1999. My attention was captured everyday by SCEJ/SCEE soaking up every little piece of information.
Now I don't normally get dragged into the hype of a future console release. I usually wait until I see concrete evidence instead of listening to other gamer’s speculations and reading "bull" in magazines, but because the original PlayStation converted me, I couldn't help it, I was addicted to the hype of what became the PlayStation 2.
Along came January 6th 2000, the day fate enabled my to finally purchase my PS2. I couldn't afford it on release date due to other factors, like having to find somewhere to live, but I waited patiently, being sucked in more and more by the hype, and then, £420 later, I was walking trough the streets of Oxford clutching hold of the scared Blue box, Ridge Racer, TImeSplitters and DOA2...
Within half an hour, I was home, as before, I boxed up my PSOne, and set up my PS2, flicked the switch at the back and stood back and admired the blue and green lights on the front for a while (After spending half an hour trying to decide on horizontal/Vertical and twisting the logo accordingly). It was now time to do what I had bought it for, to play games...
Initially, I was very impressed, Ridge Racer was so fast and clean, although plagued with pop-up and crap handling, I was impressed by this as a launch title. The same went with DOA2, this game was blisteringly fast, and very nice looking. As for TimeSplitters, Goldeneye on the PS2, something I always longed for on the PSOne!! For launch titles, I was satisfied, especially after looking back at the PlayStation and the way it had progressed over 5 years. (Who would have thought that within 5 years PlayStation had gone from the blocky Ridge Racer to the amazing Gran Turisimo 2?) So I had faith in my PS2 and it's future...
I've now had my PS2 just over a year, in that time, I've played several titles, Q3A, ZOE, SSX, GT3, GTA3, Onimusha, Kuri Kuri, Klonoa, XG3, Dynasty Warriors, and some other I can remember off the top of my head, and to be totally honest, there hasn't been a single title, apart from GTA3, that's grabbed my by the short and curlies and got be all excited... To say I'm a little disappointed would be an understatement,
What Sony promised, and what they delivered were two totally different things. This is partially my fault for falling prey to "Hype", something I had never done before, and now something I regret. I fell for words such as "Graphics Synthesiser" and the "Emotion Engine" and what Sony said they would deliver and how they would revolutionize gaming today. How untrue was this? The only "Emotion" my PS2 has generated was the boredom of sequels and the cardiac I'm on the verge of having thinking about shelling out a small fortune for the Broadband adapter and HDD!!
I'll admit, there are some real Killer apps finally arriving on the PS2. Titles such as MGS2, FFX and VF4, but in hind sight, I wish I had waited until now to purchase my PS2, especially that within a year, the price is almost half that of what I had initially paid for it, and there are two more consoles arriving on the scene which, hopefully, will inject some life back in to gaming like there was back in the mid 90's.
The lesson I have learnt from this is to avoid "Hype" and not to get dragged in buy it. Instead of falling for polished marketing and magazine rants, I should have done what I had with the original PlayStation, I should have witnessed it first and listened to other gamers before making my decision. I fell, like a sucker, for Sony's marketing plan on the promise of having my life changed forever and finding that 3rd place, something I'm still looking for, and something I may eventually find with MGS2!
Don't get me wrong, I do love my PS2, and I wouldn't live without it, and I'm still impressed with Sony for coming out of nowhere 7 years ago and dominating the market ever since, a fate no other firm has managed, but I didn't buy it to continue playing PSOne killer apps on, I bought it for the promises Sony made.
Avoid Hype, Witness things first hand, experience these machines for yourself, and base you decision on what you want from a console. Listen to those who have played them and not those who are basing their decision on the same hype I fell for before you part with your hard earned cash!
There's a lot of speculation and arguments in these forums about the new next gen consoles and which one will be better, but most of these assumptions have been made on the same hype I fell for and not based on their "actual" experience. You can only learn this from people who, at least, own one of these machines and not from some guy who had a 30 second blast on one in HMV.
I return now to try to find that 3rd place, that dimension Sony promised its gamers...
Everything in my house is made by Sony! The TV, the Video, and my Walkman. Then came 1995, the dawn of the PlayStation...
My little grey SNES looked so dated back then, and I was on the verge of buying a Saturn when on day, I saw the PlayStation being demonstrated at a fair in London. At that point I know I had to have one, not just because it had Sony on the front so that it would match my home, but because, at the time, it was new...
I purchased my PlayStation on release day with Ridge Racer, Tekken and Johnny Bazookatone, a second pad and memory card. I was happy, in fact, ecstatic... I rushed home, boxed up my SNES and set up my PlayStation... My God!... I was stunned by what I saw on the screen of my TV and told myself "You've made a good decision here!"... It's funny looking back how a 20-year-old bloke could get excited over a little grey box, but hey, there you go!!
Over the next 5 years, I purchased every AAA title there was for the PlayStation, and was quite proud of the fact that up until the summer 2000, I still had the original machine (not one of the re-issues), working perfectly well and still looking good. But finally after 5 years of solid playing and abuse, sometime not being switched off for 3 days in a row, it finally blew up! So I went out and replaced it with one of those cute PSOne's...
Sony had delivered well with the PlayStation, and from that point I was a convert, never looking at my SNES/N64 or Mega Drive again.... It did everything Sony promised and redefined gaming forever. I know longer felt like a geek when it came to talking about games, I was now fashion, I was one of those 20 something gamers from the gaming generation Sony had created with the PlayStation.
In 1998 I started hearing rumours about the next generation PlayStation. I started to follow SCEJ on the internet, slowly collecting all of the press releases and finally the release of the official specs in March 1999. My attention was captured everyday by SCEJ/SCEE soaking up every little piece of information.
Now I don't normally get dragged into the hype of a future console release. I usually wait until I see concrete evidence instead of listening to other gamer’s speculations and reading "bull" in magazines, but because the original PlayStation converted me, I couldn't help it, I was addicted to the hype of what became the PlayStation 2.
Along came January 6th 2000, the day fate enabled my to finally purchase my PS2. I couldn't afford it on release date due to other factors, like having to find somewhere to live, but I waited patiently, being sucked in more and more by the hype, and then, £420 later, I was walking trough the streets of Oxford clutching hold of the scared Blue box, Ridge Racer, TImeSplitters and DOA2...
Within half an hour, I was home, as before, I boxed up my PSOne, and set up my PS2, flicked the switch at the back and stood back and admired the blue and green lights on the front for a while (After spending half an hour trying to decide on horizontal/Vertical and twisting the logo accordingly). It was now time to do what I had bought it for, to play games...
Initially, I was very impressed, Ridge Racer was so fast and clean, although plagued with pop-up and crap handling, I was impressed by this as a launch title. The same went with DOA2, this game was blisteringly fast, and very nice looking. As for TimeSplitters, Goldeneye on the PS2, something I always longed for on the PSOne!! For launch titles, I was satisfied, especially after looking back at the PlayStation and the way it had progressed over 5 years. (Who would have thought that within 5 years PlayStation had gone from the blocky Ridge Racer to the amazing Gran Turisimo 2?) So I had faith in my PS2 and it's future...
I've now had my PS2 just over a year, in that time, I've played several titles, Q3A, ZOE, SSX, GT3, GTA3, Onimusha, Kuri Kuri, Klonoa, XG3, Dynasty Warriors, and some other I can remember off the top of my head, and to be totally honest, there hasn't been a single title, apart from GTA3, that's grabbed my by the short and curlies and got be all excited... To say I'm a little disappointed would be an understatement,
What Sony promised, and what they delivered were two totally different things. This is partially my fault for falling prey to "Hype", something I had never done before, and now something I regret. I fell for words such as "Graphics Synthesiser" and the "Emotion Engine" and what Sony said they would deliver and how they would revolutionize gaming today. How untrue was this? The only "Emotion" my PS2 has generated was the boredom of sequels and the cardiac I'm on the verge of having thinking about shelling out a small fortune for the Broadband adapter and HDD!!
I'll admit, there are some real Killer apps finally arriving on the PS2. Titles such as MGS2, FFX and VF4, but in hind sight, I wish I had waited until now to purchase my PS2, especially that within a year, the price is almost half that of what I had initially paid for it, and there are two more consoles arriving on the scene which, hopefully, will inject some life back in to gaming like there was back in the mid 90's.
The lesson I have learnt from this is to avoid "Hype" and not to get dragged in buy it. Instead of falling for polished marketing and magazine rants, I should have done what I had with the original PlayStation, I should have witnessed it first and listened to other gamers before making my decision. I fell, like a sucker, for Sony's marketing plan on the promise of having my life changed forever and finding that 3rd place, something I'm still looking for, and something I may eventually find with MGS2!
Don't get me wrong, I do love my PS2, and I wouldn't live without it, and I'm still impressed with Sony for coming out of nowhere 7 years ago and dominating the market ever since, a fate no other firm has managed, but I didn't buy it to continue playing PSOne killer apps on, I bought it for the promises Sony made.
Avoid Hype, Witness things first hand, experience these machines for yourself, and base you decision on what you want from a console. Listen to those who have played them and not those who are basing their decision on the same hype I fell for before you part with your hard earned cash!
There's a lot of speculation and arguments in these forums about the new next gen consoles and which one will be better, but most of these assumptions have been made on the same hype I fell for and not based on their "actual" experience. You can only learn this from people who, at least, own one of these machines and not from some guy who had a 30 second blast on one in HMV.
I return now to try to find that 3rd place, that dimension Sony promised its gamers...
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