10.05.07
Games Of Give And Take
This might be a bit preliminary, but I am warming up to the idea of actually buying a Playstation 3. I certainly am not putting it on my “to buy” list anytime soon– I will always maintain my stance of not buying systems based on promises of good games– but it’s no longer on my “won’t buy at all” list. The reason for this change, of course, is the rumored/announced price drop that’s a year too late.
Europe, as always for Sony, gets the news first: a 40GB PS3 at a price point of 399 Euros was announced, and the latest rumors are that the US could see this as an official announcement of the same hardware for $399 as soon as next week. The hardware in question is slightly modified from the original PS3 specs; the new model loses a couple of USB ports and the memory card reader, but retains Wifi connectivity and HDMI output. The most important difference, of course, is that the ‘budget’ (ha!) PS3 also sacrifices PS2/PS1 disc compatibility. You would think I would be upset over that, but I’m not, actually.
See, the reason I’d buy a PS3 wouldn’t be just to play PS2 games, but more for the PS3 titles (which, coincidentally, is why I don’t already have one). I already have a PS2. I don’t need another one. More to the point, the rest of the hardware losses are of negligible importance. How much USB crap am I really going to attach to the PS3? I have a memory card reader already, and if I really want a bigger hard drive, I can get one (but I doubt I’ll want it). Those changes don’t affect the perceived value of the machine in my eyes. The PS2 probably would only get me about $55 in credit towards the PS3; Sony’s just telling me to keep the machine and knocking $100 off. Since I could give two craps about Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, the movie playback capabilities are also a non-issue.
It’s still expensive– still too expensive right now given its library– but it’s getting closer. As soon as there’s a set release date for Metal Gear Solid 4 or Disgaea 3, or previews of FF13 that praise gameplay, I’ll consider it. A price drop further would sway my favor as well. But for once, Sony might actually be doing something kind of almost right. Now, if they just weren’t trying to spin the pulling of backwards compatibility as a ‘feature’ rather than a sacrifice, I would have been willing to say they actually did do an unqualifier-affected good thing.
Rob Browning said,
10.05.07 at 10:58 pm
PS2 games look strikingly better on the PS3 than they do on the PS2, at least on HDTVs. But I have a hard time believing that there won’t be PS2 emulation on these new PS3s eventually anyway, since the only thing that still needs to be emulated in software is the graphics chip. (By which time it won’t even matter, just as PSX emulation didn’t matter on the PS2 after a couple of years.) Yeah, this value PS3 looks a lot better than its 360 Core counterpart (or that XBLA SKU that’s supposed to replace it).
Rob
Playstation » Games Of Give And Take said,
10.06.07 at 12:55 pm
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThis might be a bit preliminary, but I am warming up to the idea of actually buying a Playstation 3. I certainly am not putting it on my “to buy†list anytime soon– I will always maintain my stance of not buying systems based on … [...]