It seems like I have to mention I’m not a fanboy before most of my posts recently, namely nintendo and apple ones, but anyway, I’d just like to mention I have a PS2 before I get started.
I’m just pretty shocked by the fact that on Amazon.com, pre-owned snes’s were outselling both the PS3 premium and core versions yesterday. Now I can understand this because of the nostalgia brought back recently by the virtual console. Gizmodo mentions this in their post. However, it’s still a pretty huge thing because you would think even the small number of people buying the PS3’s that are available would surely be more than are buying pre-owned SNES consoles on Amazon.
It seems to have dissapeared from the list now but you would have to think that it is only gone from the list due to supply not meeting demand and also that the seller who clearly had loads to sell, would have kept selling them had he been able to gather more and is probably trying to do just that.
So now back to the PS3, I haven’t talked much about the console war recently so it’s time to refresh the blog with my current thoughts. I’m currently more excited about the PS3 than I’ve been before (mostly due to motorstorm) but at the same time I’m despairing at the constant bashing the console is taking from the news blogs and digg among others, plus of course the price tag for the console and the rip-off games. As far as the PS3 goes I may be persuaded to buy one when the price comes down to somewhere near £300 (but not the core version without wi-fi) and games don’t cost the rediculous £49.99 which is disgraceful considering I was very wary of what games I buy at £40, nevermind £50. I love the fact that I got excite truck on the release date for the wii for £35.
Another requirement for me to get a PS3 is for Blu-Ray to win the format war of at least some real progress with interoperability like the warner ultimate disk format (or whatever it’s called) take place. It’s a big ask but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility in a years time if they sell enough PS3’s (every single one of which is a blu-ray player). It’s really strange because personally I like HD DVD. Then at the same time I like Apple and Sony pictures (spiderman movies) who both as far as I know support blu-ray exclusively. Though there have been rumours that Apple will support both and not one exclusively which would be a very good move as far as I’m concerened.
However, I really am liking the state of the Xbox 360 right now and I’m seriously considering making a joint purchase on a 360 bundle from GAME.co.uk which are really well priced. I’m not sure if I will go for one at this point based on a couple of issues. Firstly there have been a lot of technical issues with the 360 so maybe it would be a good idea to wait until the rumoured (possibly black) zephr comes out. Especially if they lower the price of the current systems. It definitely seems like an advisable thing to do to wait for Zephr to come out with HDMI and a bigger HD. If it exists it will be a great buy because based on the rumoured specs, it will be quieter, hopefully more reliable and have the IPTV function.
Quickly going back to the game pricing issue, I’m really just confused as to how they come to these prices. I mean take motorstorm for example. It is at least to me the most graphically impressive PS3 European launch title and probably the most graphically impressive title so far. It costs a fairly standard £40 but I would say with this title you get pretty much what you pay for. Resistance, heralded by pretty much everyone as the best rest of the world launch title also costs £40. So why then do Virtua Fighter 5 and Virtua Tennis 3 both cost £50. Is it because Sega have been feeling higher R+D costs for making these games? I don’t know but what I do know is I wouldn’t be too happy to put down £50 on a game after £425 for the console not to mention a second SIXAXXIS.
As I said before, I managed to purchase Excite Truck on GAME’s site for £35 on launch day so as far as price goes for both hardware and software, Nintendo are really leading the way.
One thing I’m not so happy about right now though is that I feel stuck with my wii that bricked as far as online capability goes when I first connected it. The UK company assigned to tech support by Nintendo haven’t answered my email and we put the phone down when it said our call would be answered in 17 minutes, while we were expected to pay for every second of that waiting time. I’m somewhat surprised that there is still such a considerable waiting time considering I’ve been waiting since december to even contact them about the issue waiting for the rush to end.
I really feel as if at this rate I’ll have to buy a new Wii when my warrenty runs out in december this year if I want to be able to play online with any future wii titles as well as play any virtual console downloads and get new channels. I’d really love to be pleasantly surprised and proved wrong that no company actually responds to emails even if their address is posted in the user manual. Email me and prove that you were just busy.
