PlayStation General Topic

I played the PS Vita at Game today, it feels a lot cheaper than it looks. The analogue sticks are too small and so are the buttons. They're smaller than the PSP's buttons. The D-Pad is also tiny but it's better than the PSP's. Played Gravity Rush and Ridge Racer, they were alright. I think I'll hold off getting a Vita until the second model comes out, it just isn't that appealing at the moment.

Azuardo said:
I've love to have seen what could have been.

Yeah, same here. I also wonder how the Play Station/whatever it was compares technologically to the actual PlayStation. I imagine the console we ended up getting from Sony was more powerful than what would have been. But who really knows? A handful of people on the planet?

This interests me because of the technical differences between the Saturn and the PlayStation. The Saturn being (to this day) premium 2D hardware with super-deluxe parallax support etc but weird almost auxiliary 3D hardware. The PlayStation was the opposite situation. Very good 3D capabilities (at the time), but a headache for replicating the performance of the 2D arcade hardware of the day.

I imagine the Play Station/Super Disc was somewhere nearer the Saturn. Nice beefcake-ish 2D support, less in the way of 3D capabilities. I'm just postulating, here.

Azuardo said:
Would be interesting to see what we'd be playing today if it worked out.

Interesting, of course! But I don't personally think we'd be better off or anything. Some of the world's greatest games were born out of that rivalry between Nintendo and Sony, particularly between N64 and PlayStation (with the SEGA Saturn looking on in envy).

I'd wager that if the Super Disc had gone ahead, we'd be without Ocarina of Time (and therefore Majora's Mask, and therefore every other Zelda since), we'd be without all games that were ever a PlayStation (1, 2 or 3!) exclusive. No God of War. No Uncharted.

It would be so very, very different. You'd be a dangerous man if you had a time machine, Az! Imagine Doc Brown screaming "Marty! Don't use the fucking time machine it's gonna ruin your life!"

Vorash Kadan said:
I wonder who botched the contract? Rumor is that Sony wrote in a larger share of Nintendo than originally agreed upon, ticking of Nintendo & mqking them worry about a possible forced takeover from Sony against them.

I've also heard pretty much the exact opposite. Sony being new in the field, felt they had a really good thing with the Play Station, and that ultimately Nintendo weren't willing to offer Sony enough for their work. Sony's entertainment division, afraid of being swallowed by Nintendo decided that their product was strong enough without Nintendo, and developed it into a stand-alone console.

I've also heard lots of other juicy bits and bobs. Nobody actually knows. Certainly nobody that posts on this board. There'll be a few people pottering about Japan who could enlighten us. All I can find tell of on the internets is "contractual and licensing problems", or things of that same basic definition. Here's a randomly short history of the PSone!

In 1988, Sony entered into an agreement with Nintendo to develop a CD-ROM attachment, known as the Super Disc, for the soon-to-be released Super Nintendo. Due to many contractual and licensing problems, the Super Disc was never released. Instead, a modified version was introduced by Sony in 1991, in a system called the Play Station.

The original Play Station read these Super Discs, special interactive CDs based on technology developed by Sony and Phillips called CD-ROM/XA. This extension of the CD-ROM format allowed audio, video and computer data to be accessed simultaneously by the processor. The Play Station also read audio CDs, and had a cartridge port for accepting Super Nintendo game cartridges. The Play Station was envisioned as the core of a home multimedia center. Sony only manufactured about 200 of them before deciding to retool the design.

The new design, dubbed the PlayStation X, or PSX, dropped the Super Nintendo cartridge port and focused solely on CD-ROM-based games. The component hardware inside the console was revamped as well, to ensure an immersing and responsive gaming experience. Launched in Japan in December of 1994, and in the United States and Europe in September of 1995, the PlayStation quickly became the most popular system available.

SOURCE.

Dear Psyko_2000,

On February 8, 2012, your “PlayStation Network account” will be renamed a “Sony Entertainment Network account” or a “SEN account” in conjunction with Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation 3 system software and PlayStation Vita system software updates. (Note, this change will not be applied to the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system at this time.)

For general purposes, this account change is a change in name only. Your username or password will not change, nor are we asking you to change them. In accordance with this transition, some necessary naming changes will be made to the TOS and Privacy Policy.

This transition is based on Sony’s goal to enhance its unique digital entertainment offering. As a series of these activities Sony started last September, PlayStation Network will be aligned with “Sony Entertainment Network.” This helps us get closer to our goal of establishing a global comprehensive network platform of services across games, movies, music and more, all accessible from one convenient account.

Thank you for your continued loyalty and support during this transition.

Sincerely,
The Sony Entertainment Network Team

I remember when videogame consoles were videogame consoles.

( Edited 04.02.2012 13:37 by Marzy )

Marzy said:
I remember when videogame consoles *where videogame consoles.

*were

Not sure where you get your sources Martin since the CEO of Nintendo BACK THEN (not the crazy Saturo Iwata like it is now) was alot more personable & lept at new ideas. Hell he's rated as being in the top 10 most valued men in Japan!! You don't get classified like that if you're overly power hungry or make bad relations with people like SOny's been doing over the past fee years.

No I'd say my explanation has more bearing & backed up with how greedy SOny has been lately, it's more likely they wanted more control of Nintendo than Nintendo felt comfortable with...esspecially; as you said, since SOny was a new comer to the gaming industry.

Vorash Kadan said:
Not sure where you get your sources Martin

The exact same place you did - "rumours" and other crap written on various websites. Nothing of what either of us says on this subject can actually be substantiated. It's all a "he says, she says". The only real credible information you'll come across is that there were contractual conflicts.

Vorash Kadan said:
since the CEO of Nintendo BACK THEN (not the crazy Saturo Iwata like it is now) was alot more personable & lept at new ideas. Hell he's rated as being in the top 10 most valued men in Japan!! You don't get classified like that if you're overly power hungry or make bad relations with people like SOny's been doing over the past fee years.

I'm sure Hiroshi Yamauchi is a lovely man, but for your "You don't get classified like that if you're overly power hungry" comment, there is an equal one to be made - you don't become one of Japan's richest men by far without mercilessly cutting down your rivals at the drop of a pin. I'm just saying. Yamauchi's status in Japan has absolutely no bearing on this subject. Who really cares if he's been Man of The Year every year for 50 years running?

Vorash Kadan said:
No I'd say my explanation has more bearing & backed up with how greedy SOny has been lately, it's more likely they wanted more control of Nintendo than Nintendo felt comfortable with...esspecially; as you said, since SOny was a new comer to the gaming industry.

I'd say your explanation is all over the place, and has very serious flaws. For example, you leverage Yamauchi's status in Japan as if it's relevant. And here you try and point out that basically 'it must have been Sony who ruined it then, look how greedy they are now'. 1) Who says Sony are any more greedy than Nintendo are Microsoft? You pay way more money for way worse hardware if you go with Nintendo. 2) Even if you're right and Sony are evil, evil bastards recently - we're talking about something from over twenty years ago. So no, I'm going to have to disagree that your explanation 'has more bearing/backing'.

Are you dense Martin? You can't be a Psycho SOny Only since you're a member of a predominantly Nintendo themed website so I'm not worried about that, but with the back & forth sony did with the Vita having internal memory & DLC saving to the cartridge it's on as well as game saves then switching standards & forcing us to, not only buy a NEW memory stick...but have NO WAY to use the Pro Duos the psp used AND making us rebuy all our UMD's again? If you don't think that's greedy then you're a very blind or corrupst individual.

Nintendo was smart enough to allow DS titles to play on the 3DS AND include a free SD card which SOny clearly couldn't be bothered with & they gave 20 free games to early adopters when the price dropped. The only reason I'm getting a Vita at launch is because I've got a feeling sony will be doing the same thing for early adopters of Vita.

It's not gonna sell to well because Graphic Whores won't want to part with their precious pixels to play on a tiny screen, so sony will most likely do a price drop & offer a similar deal to vita owners that Nintendo did for us.

And you don't become a beloved, valued member of a country if you act like a dick which is why I know my reason behind what I said has more leverage & yeah it does matter having a high net worth...otherwise society would NEVER make such a thing duh!

C'mon guys let's keep it clean density has nothing to do with this-

Vorash Kadan said:
And you don't become a beloved, valued member of a country if you act like a dick which is why I know my reason behind what I said has more leverage & yeah it does matter having a high net worth...otherwise society would NEVER make such a thing duh!

I can see that SuperLink. But given his personality when he was CEO it seems contradictory to have acted that way, & again SOny has great examples of greed & miss management. Replaning Vita's memory set up to makecus buy more over priced sony made memoey as apposed to the open market SD Card standard the world uses & not offering a free download system foe people who own UMDs...saaay they require some sort of code from the box or manuel to prove to sony you own a physical copy of a game, no money lost!! =D

Why are you always spelling Sony as SOny? Let go of the shift button man! It's driving me crazy.

& again SOny has great examples of greed & miss management. Replaning Vita's memory set up to makecus buy more over priced sony made memoey as apposed to the open market SD Card standard the world uses & not offering a free download system foe people who own UMDs...saaay they require some sort of code from the box or manuel to prove to sony you own a physical copy of a game, no money lost!!

See, your logic here is really completely broken. You can't use decisions a company is making today in 2012 as evidence for how they acted 20 years ago. Companies change. Heck, Nintendo used to sell instant rice and run "love hotels".

Furthermore, one could easily argue that Nintendo is doing the same thing with the Wii U. They're not supporting GC games, despite supporting Wii games. And we all know that the Wii is pretty much just an overclocked GC with some extra memory. The only legitimate reason for not supporting Cube games is probably so they can sell them on the VC. Greedy Nintendo!

( Edited 05.02.2012 17:22 by Jacob4000 )

Was gonna mention the SOny thing XD

Not to mention not letting you bring your VC games over to 3DS, forcing you to rebuy them if need be. Or the dirty port of Mario All-Stars for Wii. They're all money-grabbing buggers. They all have their pros and cons of the way they rip customers off. Best thing to do is not so much pick sides and try not to get drawn in of getting ripped off, and then just enjoy the games you like when they come, regardless of platform. Too many petty arguments these days over games companies.

That's possible Jacob...except Nintendo has a 2 gen gap where as sony (not gonna touch shift anymore sorry) is making us rebuy games we own on its PREVIOUS system which is un acceptable no matter how you look at it ON TOP OF THE FACT that when the vita was first announced as the NGP sony said they would have internal memoey for the system, game saves & dlc would save directly to cartridges (much like the ds) & NO mention of plans to make us buy new memory sticks....that is a fine example of greed being reason for changing plans.

With the Wii U Nintendo NEVER said it'd play GC games so there's no turncoating from them to complain about.

Also I still say sony & microsoft went to far too fast & shot the industry in the foot. A steady pace is better for improvement because NOW they need to do something even greater to impress audiences. How much will the ps4 cost, what about the xbox720!?!!? I'm not playing close to $800 for a feaking toy!!

A "Psycho SOny Only"..? Gotta love the terminology, there!

Martin_ said:
A "Psycho SOny Only"..? Gotta love the terminology, there!

If you think any company actually cares about you more than your money, you're delusional. It'd be like falling in love with a prostitute.

( Edited 06.02.2012 14:16 by Angus )

Vorash Kadan said:
Also I still say sony & microsoft went to far too fast & shot the industry in the foot. A steady pace is better for improvement because NOW they need to do something even greater to impress audiences. How much will the ps4 cost, what about the xbox720!?!!? I'm not playing close to $800 for a feaking toy!!

Well, if that's your opinion. Mine is that you may have a somewhat skewed perception of this because you've been playing Wii for 5-6 years? 360 and PS3 are old shitty hardware (finalized in 2004-2005), now. Yes, they make Wii look old school, but that doesn't mean they themselves are 'impressive' or anything. My PC is over 3 years old, and specification-wise it totally destroys my 360 and PS3. That's 3 year-old hardware, some of which wasn't exactly top drawer which I built it, let alone now.

They could build a console in this day and age for a reasonable sum that'd embarrass 360/PS3. You make a good point, though. Why even spend $400 on a console? Why not just build a better PC. Ah, the games. Now I remember. The games! Seriously though, they don't have to charge best part of a grand to bring you new consoles which totally beat the performance of the current two.

But a hooker with a heart of gold (& a disease free vagina) is a wonderful thing!! (sarcasm)

I know $$$ is important to companies, but they don't have to treat us like financial livestock which is the feeling I get from sony sometimes.

I miss the old days when they made genuinely GREAT games like The Legend of Dragoon...(sigh) are they ever going to make a sequal to that GEM let alone put it up on the psn for all to enjoy!?!?

I find it odd you get that feeling from just Sony and not Nintendo. At least Sony offer free online compared to Microsoft's service. Every company is guilty of it, Nintendo included. I'm not trying to pick sides between companies at all, I just think it's odd you constantly rip on Sony when others are just as bad.

( Edited 07.02.2012 13:19 by Squidboy )

Azuardo said:
I find it odd you get that feeling from just Sony and not Nintendo. At least Sony offer free online compared to Microsoft's service. Every company is guilty of it, Nintendo included. I'm not trying to pick sides between companies at all, I just think it's odd you constantly rip on Sony when others are just as bad.

A business is a business, all of them do questionable things to get ahead, and most of us are gonna buy into them anyway regardless of the shit they pull.
I too once believed that Nintendo were some kind of pure and kind company who only cared about their gamers but no really all 'sides' do a lot of shit to their userbases and then 'make up for it' in their own ways.

For example remember when Sony suddenly redesigned the PS3 and made it super cheap at the same time completely discontinuing the outdated model.
Probably cost a shitload to them but I know a lot of gamers were extremely happy about it.

Well for one this IS the playstation themed board & secondly I don't have a problem with Xboxlive. Sure you pay for it, but the services & comnection quality you get are well worth the $50 a year...esspecially when you consider MMORPGS like WoW cost around $12 a MONTH...it's really not that much for Xboxlive.

But I digress, did Nintendo charge for online use? No considering they eeally had NO online program whatsoever & ot was up to individual devs to ha e online play cor their games just like on the GameCube...there was just more of them lol.

So, anyone getting a Vita on launch?

Marzy said:
So, anyone getting a Vita on launch?

I won't, and I don't know if I'll get one at all, I saw one in the Westfield GAME yesterday and it does look pretty nice, I'll just wait and see.

Marzy said:
So, anyone getting a Vita on launch?

Nah man, probably won't ever get one. I've got a GBA SP and a DSi. Don't need any more crap I don't use.