The Good, The Bad and Sony...?

Sony. Not only did they break into the video games market with the PSone but they took over from Nintendo and Sega. Jump forward almost 15 years and we are at the arrival of the PS3 and almost the end of the PS2.

To start, the PS3 is possibly the most highly anticipated console of all time after the mass popularity of the PS2, but Sony have made some key mistakes in this battle and being a European ( I live in the UK), I have unfortunately felt the full force of the mistakes.

It seemed to start with the mass shortages at the launch of the PS3, only 80,000 or so were available for Japan, Sony's home country. The same with America as only around 200,000-400,000 were shipped, although currently it's in stock everywhere in America. This shortage of consoles led to the delay of 6 months for the European launch which brings us onto another matter...

Sony have stripped down the backwards compatibility of the console for the Europeans so that only 20% of PS2 games are playable ( I think). Surely Sony had a valid reason right? No it was to save money. Yet again this heavily annoyed the European market. We wait 6 months longer then the rest of the world and receive a console with a poor backwards compatibility. Sure you buy the console for NEW games right? Correct, but the fact is Sony's reasoning is disgusting and the fact we pay $200 more then Americans for a console that isn't the same. That's a kick in the teeth.

Sony then a day later announced first party games would cost £10 cheaper in the UK which is a nice bit of news, considering the cost of next gen games, It's nice of them. So what was next for Sony? The GDC of course..

Sony's keynote was headed by Phil Harrison who was joined by the developers of two new features for the PS3. First up was Home. Home isn't something necessary for a console, it's what looks like a cross between Phantasy Star Online and The Sims. Although I thought it looked rather cool, the idea of it is nice and even though it seems to have mashed a few ideas of other companies and games it looks very well done even if it's another way to be advertised products. Clearly the depth of Home is massive with the presentation showing all the little developers/publisher areas making almost a galaxy look to it.
I'll be honest in saying it's not something I'd use but it looks impressive non the less.

Next up was Littlebigplanet. This was, according to those at the showing, the most impressive demo they've ever seen. I'd have to agree. It was hugely impressive, from the Teamwork to the customisation to the humor all mixing to make endless possibilities. I've honestly never heard of those developers but they seem to have come up with one of the most impressive looking and feeling games I've ever seen.

With the launch of the PS3 imminent, the PS2 is surely defunct? In my opinion that's a no. I recently bought Okami and Final Fantasy XII, two late titles in the PS2's life. Soon to be released is God of War 2 as well. These three titles alone are supposedly huge with 35+ hours. If the PS2 is really dead then why would such high profile and quality titles be released within a month of the PS3's release. Add to that the mass of yearly updates which, developers are more used to the PS2 development kits which would surely mean they, for the first generation of these on next gen consoles, will be poor, yet good on the PS2 (E.G. FIFA 2007 is apparently good on PS2 yet woeful on the 360).

So, roll on march 22ND, While Sony, I don't think could be forgiven for the treatment of Europeans but I will still buy a PlayStation 3... In two years. I unfortunately need to start driving and am looking into getting a HDTV so the PS3 is a bit far away for me at this time, what with not many good games, I'll do what I did with the 360 and wait a year. This time a bit more patiently and actually wait for the price to go down.

Thanks for reading,
Nick.