I watched almost the entire presentation, missing the ending about pricing and different SKUs, and I have to say I was quite surprised when I logged on and found out the pricing scheme for Playstation 3.
Sony obviously had some hard decisions facing them going into E3, how to compete with Microsoft’s Live! platform, how to deal with Nintendo’s ‘innovative’ controller and most importantly, how to impress the audience by following up on the games that they had shown at last years E3. For the most part, they did a good job – I would like to take this time to congratulate nAo and DeanoC and the rest of your team for a job well done with Heavenly Sword! – in providing the audience with some samples of gameplay footage and teaser trailers of games to come. Playstation Live!, I didn’t happen to catch a name, offered a nice assortment of features and integration into its games. – FOR FREE! …*hint to anyone working at Microsoft – Sony was also smart to capitalize on the micro-transaction system that was first implemented to Live! with the 360, making future upgrades to console games more enticing for developers. I was also happy to see the interesting implementation of motion sensing incorporated into the already successful DS2 design. I think this was a great to way to include proven technology with something that has the potential to be innovative.
Where Sony seemed to stumble was the pricing of the system, which I found to be a little too high for my liking. I know there are some of you out there who would drop almost anything for a Playstation 3, but in reality, it seems to be a bit over priced when you compare it to what Microsoft is offering now and any possible price adjustments that could happen between today and Playstations launch. Let’s face it, for $100 more are you really getting your moneys worth, I mean, are PS3 games going to look that much better in order to justify the extra $100 dollars. From what I have read, the $599 version of the console will not be able to play BD movies in High-Def, which seems like a total waste when you consider that BD support was one of the most hyped features going into this press conference. – I am ignoring the $699 version, as that only really applies to people who are hardcore, with extra cash to burn and already planned on buying the console regardless of the price. – I think Sony’s move to support BD in a console that will not be able to use one of its key features is kind’ a dumb and makes it easier for people to realize the system is overpriced, epically when you look at what Microsoft offers for $100 dollars less.
In the end, I was, at the same time, both impressed and disappointed with Sony’s conference and regardless of the pricing its obvious that they have one solid product to offer. I think the best thing for the majority of people to do is to wait and see what Microsoft shows during their press conference today.
