E3 Thoughts - How the PS3s Fortunes Have Turned

Its interesting looking back at the past year how the fortunes of the PS3 have flip flopped. At last years E3, most people were hailing the PS3 and its proof-of-concept pre-rendered video mock-ups as the greatest thing, many in fact commented that the PS3 demos stole the show and much of the thunder Microsoft was trying to generate with Xbox 360.

This year though the PS3 is looking dead in the water. The system itself is pretty lackluster in regards to its specs, the results that we are finally seeing of the games really isn't as impressive as the smoke and hot air Sony blew up everyone's asses last year, no one gives a shit about blu-ray and lastly the price is astronomically outrageous ($499 to $599 USD on release date depending on your model, $100 to $300 more expensive than Xbox 360, who likely will be even cheaper by November 17th when PS3 comes out).

Things look bleak for Sony, especially when you consider the fact that the Playstation is the only think keeping the overall company afloat (the rest of its divisions lose money). So what are the responses that Sony's leaders have to the industry, media and the gamer's sudden disgust for the PS3?

"we don't want you to think of it in terms of game machines ... For instance ... Is it not nonsense to compare the charge for dinner at the company cafeteria with dinner at a fine restaurant? It's a question of what you can do with that game machine. If you can have an amazing experience, we believe price is not a problem" - Ken Kutaragi

Well Ken, that might be true if we were getting some sort of awesome meal, but we aren't. The food that you are serving up in your "fine restaurant" is of the same quality, or less, than that coming out of the cafeteria, only difference is that we are feeling satisifed and that we got a good deal for our cafeteria food. You can serve crap up on a silver platter, but its still crap irregardless of what you garnish for it or the price tag you give it. Your arguement about the experiance is somewhat relevent... or at least it would be if your system wasn't so dammed expensive and provided the same thing that we get elsewhere.

Time will tell if the PS3 will be the juggernaught that the past PS devices have been, but yours truely isn't going to hold his breathe.