Sony plays anti-PR card again in new generation. Aims to dismiss Xbox 360

I noticed that, whilst watching the PS3 E3 conference their main method of promotion seemed to be to compare everything to the Xbox 360.....reeks of paranoia to me. The only mention I heard of any competition in the Xbox 360 conference was when, too stifled giggles, they announced that competitors products could be attached. Time for Sony to grow up and stop playing Top Trumps methinks!

Well, it sort-of worked for the Dreamcast, but against Microsoft? Not likely. Many people I know ditched their PS2s in favour of an Xbox when the games started drying up last year. Sony should be working to win them back, not making silly comments like this. Heck, I work in a charity for the disabled, and two of the housemates have PS2s, and one an Xbox as well. The only new PS2 game to enter the house in the last 18 months was the Singstar games, and that's only because one thinks he's a great singer.

And what extra are they going to bring? Sony are more famous for bringing abilities that aren't anything to do with gaming into their new machines. If PS3 is nothing more than PSX mkII (about the only thing I can imagine them doing) they'd just be blowing their own foot off.

Sorry Sony, I think you need a new strategy this time. Game are already touting the 360 as a fantastic machine, as are a few other smaller shops in my area. Not a mention of PS3 yet, though.

You see, this is the kind of attitude I just dont get.

PS2 is PS1 mk2. PS3 will be PS2 mk2.

Xbox 360 is Xbox mk2 (mk1.5 is Sony have anything to say about it!)

The last big change came at the leap from MegaDrive/Genesis, SNES, Amiga, PCEngine, etc. to the Saturn and PS1. The big leap 3D-ward.

Without some new innovative features, which perhaps Nintendo can grant us in the shape of the Revolution, we've reached a point where the new platforms have just the same features as the old, only they're bigger/faster/prettier.

I think that the most recent generation helded massive leaps in terms of the playability of games - graphics have reached the point where games are not limited because of graphic, controls have improved significantly and several games have tried to challenge gameplay.

If anything, the leap from Super NES/Genesis to PS1/N64 was expected.

I agree that the next generation will reply on innovation as graphics have already reached a point of high-quality expected as standard.

I'm already tired of the pseudo-election style "negative campaign" from Sony... All this nonsense about Xbox 1.5 seems a tad cheap for a company with such a massive market share and apparently nothing to fear from it's competitors.

Just like the elections, if they truly had nothing to fear they would have no need to focus on anything but their own product. Having been a Sony customer right from the the first PS1 this could be the first one I don't buy, and it's more to do with their arrogance than specs.

Ok, I guarantee Sony will not dominate this year's console battle. They may eventually pull even and overtake, but they will not dominate the marketplace. This is the reason why:

1. When the PS2 came out, they had a the hype machine going...yeah... i was intrigued too. But the main thing was their timing. Think about it. The ps2 came out on the cusp of when DVD's were becoming popular. Hell, I bought a PS2, because I wanted a DVD player and a gamesystem. If my Dreamcast played DVD's I would NOT of bought a PS2. Bottom line, they had pefect timing.

While I think the PS3 will be technically superior to the 360, it will not be leaps and bounds better that people will forget the good games on the 360. And in this age of multiplatform games, it's just will prove that all 3 systems will survive and be profitable.

With PS3 not out until next year, I'd say that's a given.

The battle at retail won't begin until next year

To not fear the competition would be foolish. Look at Microsoft; it fears innovators in markets that it does not yet play in, subsequently buying future competitors before they too costly an acquisition - or errodes the competitors market share by any means.

It's called "Fear Uncertainty and Doubt" or FUD, and it has been used to great effect by Microsoft to stop competitors from gaining a foothold in "their" markets. Apple, IBM and Linux have all had the FUD treatment, it's actually refreshing to see some flying the other way for a change.

No matter how big you are, you have to fear your competitors. Large companies get lazy and inefficient and produce poor products. Where competition exists that option is not open to them.

Contrast the amount of progress Microsoft made in the years when Jobs wasn't working at Apple to the progress since he went back!

Win 95->98->ME were incremental updates at best. ME->XP was such a huge update in terms of usability and stability it was just not funny. MS had to work to stop people from switching to Mac OS X. This from a company with roughly 94% of the desktop OS market?

Sony need to be afraid of MS, and they are, they just don't show it by hiding behind the sofa.

No, I mean the PSX, that lump they released in Japan with the DVD recorder. It's about the only thing I can see Sony considering a "true innovation"...

The only big leap left is total immersion, and that's years upon years away probably. Then again, Sony are trying to make neural nets- they patented them, remember?

You know whats funny though... the s**t works. All the bullshit they spew is then carried over like some sexual disease to fanboys and then they spread it amongst those that are not knowledgable.

I mean everyone who knows anything about computers can tell that comparing the specs the X-Box 360 is actually more powerful. This came from several sources including Microsoft themselves. However while Microsoft showed working and playable games running on alpha kits about 1/3 the full potential of the system... Sony showed off pretty videos with nothing actually playable. "Done to spec" might as well be "If we hand infinite funds the games would look like this."

Before a "Killzone video was real!" arguemnents break out I am not saying those graphics aren't possible... they just aren't financially accomplishable as well as the team behind it doesn't have the technical know how to pull it off. Thats a fact and not some BS I'm pulling out of thin air.

However you go to forums worldwide and everyone is argueing if its real. While some may go "Well then it isn't good that people are thinking Sony dishonest." they are missing the brilliant strategy here... no one is talking about X-Box 360. Ever heard the term: Theres no such thing as bad publicity. Take GTA and Mortal Kombat. Everytime they release the mainstream media shows off the games and instead of making people not buy it they make many more people aware of its existence and in turn leads to more sales. When MK: Deadly Alliance released none of the gaming sites had full and clear fatality videos.... however I watched the Today show on NBC and got to see not 1, but 2 fatalities! Sony has done the same thing. While the smart people argue with the dumb about it being real everyone has simply ignored the X-Box 360.

Sony: Mission accomplished.

As i said before I think PS3 will do well but who is gonna buy that and a PSP? Remember Sony have said that PS3 will cost the same as PS2 was when it came out. That's a lot of money so here's proaying that they sort out their online service too. If they can't beat MS in this area, or Nintendo for that matter they are gonna have trouble.

I agree with Sony's timing on the DVD angle but all three consoles ar gonna have that option this time and most people have dvd player (and already moving onto DVD HD or blank disc recorders). This will matter less in this coming round.

Hey it's healthy to have a dig at others now and again. If you don't like something then why not say so? It's just opinion after all. And don't forget like Nintendo said, it's true that specs matter less this time as graphics have reached their summit more or less.

The games will do the talking hopefully. Just wondering how long it is before people get bored of watching and playing sequels of samey games.

Anyone else spot the irony here?

PEN15 has fallen for FUD while talking about it!

Microsoft issued half truths with that spec comparison, and now PEN15 is spreading the gospel without questioning it.

I suppose MS must be right. Let's face it, the 360 has three PowerPC processors, and the PS3 has just one. It must be 3x more powerful!

Microsoft has just lead you to overlook the eight SPE units that sit in the same silicon as the PPC, giving CELL it's unique leg-up in the power stakes.

And the 360's ATi GPU vs. PS3's nVidia RSX? C'mon, how can anyone compare a bunch of mostly meaningless figures for hardware that's not even finalised yet. The RSX demos at E3 were on nVidia's current GPU tech, so I would hope those demos were understated.

The only solid comparison I could see in that "analysis" was the bus bandwidth. Woot!



Of course. It would have been suicide for Sony not to.



Absolutely, and more power to Sony. In the fight with Microsoft's marketing machine, you've got fight on the same terms, and that mean gloves-off dirty.

Now. Let's see Nintendo get that those big red cartoon gloves off and fight like rabid bastards!

But it isn't working, is it? Every article that talks about this has at the very least a mention of said competitor, we've all mentioned the competitor, the magazines are full of talk of its competitor. TV will soon be plastered with adverts for the 360, and no amount of "what competition?" campaigning will stop that.

The Xbox brand is already in people's heads, and it'll take a lot more than this to stop it. For example, Game have big adverts up for 360 telling you to "reserve yours today", and Joe Public pays more attention to Game than magazines or the internet. Loaded and the like are currently even talking about it, with pictures of games running on it. How can Sony combat that? With some images of the new PS3 (Lardstation amongst people I know) and the world's ugliest controller?

It's a long campaign ahead; it'll wind down around this time next year, and by then we'll have a decent picture of how this war will play out.

Sorry, but my source wasn't the Microsoft info... that was part of it, but it was also http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1820466,00.asp. So I didn't fall for anything. I added what extremetech said and factored in slightly what Microsoft said and then subtracted points simply because Sony has lied a s**tload meanwhile XNA will help produce games better and faster.

Also the fact that the RSX chip wasn't even used in the actual real time demos proves a lot of what Sony said was bullshit. How can something be done to spec if the tech isn't even completed? How could Killzone be in game when there exists no engine of that type and its power... but GG managed to do it in 3 months? Kiss my ass if you believe that.

So Sony is evil... hence why EA loves them so much. They work for the same guy: Lucifer.

Note: I hate my PS2 and I hate Sony. They've dissapointed me on so many levels. Now they are just blatantly spewing BS.