Sony and their decisions.

I thought I'd briefly talk about Sony and a bit about their consoles, games and just the way they do business. Dunno why, just I feel the need to get some stuff off my chest.

Ok, so you've probably heard of Sony at some point, maybe you've also heard that they will shortly be releasing a PS3 slim, one of the worst kept secrets/most leaked stories they've had recently. The release date for the PS3 slim is in a few days in the UK, and shares the same date as the States. Surprisingly enough, we are getting it 2 days before Japan, where PS3s have been selling by the boat-load for ages now.

Europe and USA: 01.09.09
Japan: 03.09.09

Here's some more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps3
http://uk.playstation.com/

{I'm just posting this last one because its the official site, I don't particularly like the site-its hard to navigate and find useful info or even what you are looking for.}

So, what makes the PS3 slim a better buy than the original model? Not a lot of groundbreaking changes, but some welcome ones.

Firstly and most importantly for me and many other gamers with an eye on the bank balance, the price will be reduced to £250 in the UK.

The slim is going to feature a 120Gb HDD which can be upgraded and is 33% smaller, 36% lighter, and consumes 34% less power than previous models. Pretty cool I guess, but when I am buying a console, the weight isn't one of the prime selling points for me, I mean...I don't carry my home consoles around with me much.
There is also a new matt black finish incase your original model was too shiny for you. Also a new logo for this new model. Wow, Sony are spending their money on all the right things it seems. -_-

Back-compatibility with Playstation and PS2 games? Kind of, but not 100% reliable, some games might work and others might not. I've also heard games crash and get errors as well. I don't think they've made improvements to the PS3 slim for this, I heard that Sony representatives said it "wasn't a selling point." They might even have taken it out, I'm finding it hard to get a straight answer on this one. Ok, I did some more reading and it seems there won't be PS2 back-compatibility.

What the hell is with that? Why not include back-compatibility? With the amount of money and time they must have wasted making the thing look different and more aesthetically pleasing they could have easily made some progress on getting it to play old PS1 and PS2 games. Why not give your customers something some of them desire from a console? Its almost like they are trying to ignore customers and make stupid decisions. Maybe they just like pissing money up the wall. I mean, when the PS2 has outsold the PS3 month to month on occasion doesn't that tell you that maybe they dropped the ball on this one?

Articles on some of our back-compatibility hopes crushed, trampled and thrown into a volcano for good measure:

Gossipgamers

Eurogamer

Kotaku

Wired

ALBOTAS

Anyway, I guess its not all bad, the lower power consumption might mean it wont sound as loud as an aircraft taking off.
Despite the shafting that Sony is determined to give to the loyal customers paying £250 for each of these expensive bookends, it might surprise you to hear that I am actually interested in getting a PS3 at some point. Sony says that there are lots of games making the PS3 a good choice. I would have to disagree. No, its not that I didn't buy a PS3 up till now because it had a bad logo, was too shiny or too heavy, its because it was and I'm inclined to say still is an expensive piece of junk with few good games. Very few system sellers jumped out at me. Now I kind of want to catch up with some of the gems that are only on the PS3 ie. Valkyria Chronicles.
Also, I would be able to watch Blu-Rays, something I haven't been able to do yet.

Maybe the PS3 slim might tempt me one of these days.

I'm just so much more happy with my Limited Edition Halo 360, I haven't regretted getting it once I don't think. From what I've heard, the PS3 has many things wrong with it. The game library on the Xbox is just so much better here than the PS3 selection which they have for some bewildering reason decided to limit with the lack of PS2 compatibilty. The Japanese get a lot of good PS3 titles however, and that is one reason it sells so well over there. Actually, that just reminded me of something, the region free aspect of it. I could technically import games and play them on my PAL console as long as they dont decide to axe that with the slim as well.

http://kotaku.com/5346777/ps3-slim-vs-xbox-360-elite-tale-of-the-tape?skyline=true&s=i

Sigh...Sony really know how to treat their customers and fans eh? Don't even get me started on the PSP Go. Some malicious part of me wants the hackers to f**k some shit up for the PS3 and the PSP Go just so Sony lose a bit of money and maybe learn from some of their mistakes. That is asking a bit too much I am guessing though.