14 DAY TRIAL // Commenting on recent NPD numbers, Dean Takahashi, technology commentator and consumer electronics reviewer of the San Jose Mercury News, writes a few impressions concerning Sony and the PlayStation 3 on his blog. The respective impressions are rather negative. In fact, they're so negative you might feel really ripped off for buying a PS3.
Naturally, Takahashi comments regarding the PS3's performance on the market come in light of other negative news surrounding Sony's next-gen platform. According to him, Sony's had a change in attitude, appearing more humble than ever, before video game developers:
"One piece of news that came out this week was that Sony pleaded with third-party developers not to abandon its struggling platform. That change in attitude is a marked difference compared to the arrogance of past years. The argument is that the PS 3 will show its strength as developers learn how to make games for it. But developers know they can staff four or five Wii teams with the same number of people it takes to make one PS 3 game. We may have a glut of Wii games soon, but that's not as bad as not having enough games on the PS 3."
Although many of us dedicated PlayStation fans love the way Sony has treated us over the years, we have to admit that PlayStation 3 is a rotten apple. More than that, Sony is only now showing what it really stands for, faced with losing... a lot. "The argument that [...] the PS 3 will show its strength as developers learn how to make games for it", has been a really sensitive one ever since the first development issues surrounding the platform emerged.
Developers were, and probably still are asked to keep quiet about how difficult it is to make games for the PS3, although they reserve the right to develop for whatever platform they want and the Wii is their best option, as Takahashi too mentions. So, the final question begging for an answer is obvious: after all this time of living in denial, is Sony finally admitting that the PS3 is the company's biggest screw-up to date? Hopefully not, because it would give birth to a whole lot of other negative aspects, one of which would be the hardcore gaming-fall off.