Sony still trying hard to pretend PS3 isn't a games console, produces handy diagram
People are stupid. Too stupid to know what’s good for them. THEY MUST BE EDUCATED. Never more so than at Christmas time when their tiny minds are further subdued by the warm numbing sensation of too much mulled wine and mince pies. Good thing Sony is here to step in like an over-affectionate uncle and tell them what to think, where to think it, how it’s all their little secret and they shouldn’t tell mother about this.
You may have thought that the PS3 was a games console. Think again, nitwit. The PS3 is only ONE PATHETIC FRACTION a games console. The rest of it is some kind of generic home entertainment device – it stores photos (like a computer), it stores video (like a computer), it browses the internet (anyone seeing a trend here?), it plays CDs (what is this, 1990?), it plays MP3s (I love how the image confuses it with a portable MP3 player) and it even plays DVDs (if you don’t already have a DVD player, I’m guessing a PS3 is probably not your cup of tea). It connects to your PSP (note how that extra £130 is missing from the shopping list). The only point I’ll agree on is the Blu-ray player, because if you’re actually considering getting a standalone Blu-ray player, you are either a dangerously addicted early adopter or just a tit.
Sony packed a shed load of goodies into the PS3, fine. Can’t we just accept that some of them are just a tiny bit shit and that they’re only in there because we know they are possible to implement and we’d all kick up a big stink if Sony left them out with no good reason? Sony keeps bullishly shouting feature sets at people, blithely ignoring the things that DO make the PS3 stand out from the crowd:
First off – it’s a f*cking GAMES CONSOLE. If you are not shopping for a games console, you would do well to step away from the PlayStation 3 aisle. It isn’t bad games console though; I happen to think it’s actually a rather awesome games console. There are more than a handful of top notch titles already out and easily enough to keep your corpulent body firmly glued to the sofa for the festive period. And then, as luck would have it, there’s plenty on the horizon to keep you content for the forth coming year.
Second of all – it’s a f*cking BLU-RAY PLAYER. Still just about the cheapest one there is. It is, naturally, compatible with all the other various disc formats that Sony has been pushing over the years (except UMD and Mini-disc; I wonder why...). You might not need it now, but someday you will cave into your innate desire to own an absolutely gigantic telly and then you’ll be laughing your socks off as you bathe in high definition wonderment.
These are the only two factors that are needed to sell the PlayStation 3, and – given that Sony is peddling the PS3 at below its cost price – games and Blu-ray discs must be sold in order to recover some of those losses, so why on earth are we pushing them to the side? Everything else is just a neat extra, and neat technology is what we once used to associate with the brand ‘Sony’. For the love of god, someone take this diagram and bury it in the same lead lined box as the This Is Living campaign.
/end rant.
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Comments
Spot on, I can't understand why Sony are trying to promote all these other aspects when at the moment it's a games console and blu ray player. Yes it has lots of other bits and bobs but will someone really say 'oh look I can store my holiday snaps, gimme’? Sony marketing dept need to sell it on the fact that warhawk is the most terrifyingly addictive game ever and if they sort out xvid compatibility then mine will probably never be switched off….
Posted by: Pete | December 12, 2007 12:06 PM
Is someone going to sack this jerkoff, he is making your site a total joke..
PS3 is a great bit of kit, and at £299, it's a total bargain, if you simply use it for a Blu-ray player, it's a bargain, if you use it simply for gaming, it's a bargain, if you use it as a network media player client, it's a bargain, if you use it for all of these, it's an unbeliable bargain..
Posted by: Mak | December 12, 2007 12:16 PM
Agreed. I DO use all the additional functionality of the PS3. I stream music, videos and photos to it from my network media drive. I put memory cards in so I can view photos in glorious 42" sizing as soon as I get home having taken them. I play the games, use it as my DVD player etc. etc.
So some people pigeon hole it as a games console with "add ons" that's too expensive. That's their right, if all they want is a games console, but using it to it's full potential and it becomes a bargain. The choice is simple. If you think it is too expensive and don't want the extras don't buy it.
Sony are right to market all the functionalities because that's what it's FULL potential is...
Posted by: Sean | December 12, 2007 12:33 PM
@Sean:
"I DO use all the additional functionality of the PS3. "
I don't think that's in dispute - the question is what really made you want to buy the PS3 in the first place. Yes, the PS3 has a ton of extra functionality, but blurring the lines between its main functions and brilliant extras can't make for a great marketing campaign. It just confuses the issue totally.
Posted by: Greg | December 12, 2007 12:44 PM
The author of this 'trash' article should be sacked. You are a plain idiot, and quite seriously probably one of the biggest morons to vent BS in the usual anti-Sony BS manner.
Heres why. Name a product where YOU DONT market FEATURES. Thats right. FEATURES. You wouldnt buy a car just for MP3 playback, but its ALWAYS noted as a feature even on TV commercials. As the dumbest article writer on the internet you would now be realizing just how stupid your article looks.
Myself and the majority of the population WANT to know what FEATURES a device has - hell Im paying enough for it? And NONE of the features you mentioned are useless at all. I have converted my CD collection to the PS3 hdd, because its REAL EASY TO DO, and its REAL USEFUL AS A FEATURE!
Added to the photo viewing.. and movie playback, it gets used a huge amount. Even watching vids on youtube from the PS3 browser is common in our household. Just because you are an ignorant little PS3 hater who quite obviously hasnt even used these features, doesnt mean these FEATURES are useless, and not worth having.
Please get a new idiot writer pspsps.tv this one is really broken.
Posted by: GroverFD | December 12, 2007 1:01 PM
Actually, I use my PS3 for quite a few things. And no, not just Blu-Ray and Games. I use it for long-distance telecommunication across the country to a friend who lives in CA (I live in VT). I use it as a media center for photo's, music and downloaded media. I definitely use it for gaming, and watching movies, but I can't deny that part of it's allure for me is being in contact with friends.
Posted by: Mornelithe | December 12, 2007 1:11 PM
@Greg
I am being totally honest when I say I bought it for all the features not only Gaming and / or Blu-Ray. The anticipation of having a system such as this as a media hub really appealed to me to the extent that I bought a media server to complement it and avoid the issue of the size of the internal hard drive. When I can use it as a recorder for TV too I'll be happy.
I agree with GroverFD in that a company is absolutely correct in stating all features should be advertised. If you don't you miss out on potential customers who will buy for differing features.
I'm not the teenage gamer stereotype. I'm in my 30's (ok late 30's) who plays game and uses all the media the PS3 can handle. I would not, probably, have bought it for just the games or just for Blu-Ray. It would have been expensive for just these. I would have waited but bundle in everything else it gives me and it ws an easy decision.
I don't agree with the over the top reactions to the article though. This is one guy giving his opinion and even if we don't agree with it we shouldn't be calling for his sacking. He is entitled his opinion. Maybe he should have thought harder about the tone of the article (which does come across as niaive as to the interests of different users) and hopefully he'll learn. I make mistakes in my job but thankfully I'm not sacked every time I do !!
A grown up would admit he was wrong about the overall concensus regarding the marketing (but I doubt we'll see anything) or at least state that it's ONLY his opinion. That Sony put these functionalities in because people want and use them.
Posted by: Sean | December 12, 2007 1:42 PM
Okay yes, the package is pretty good but I bought it primarily for games and lets face it, that's what others will do. By concentrating on all the other add ons it almost seems like a tacit admission from sony that okay, the games lineup isn't amazing at the moment but look, there are all these other reasons to buy... Ultimately I don't really care, now when is that addition to warhawk coming?
PS GroverFD; calm down, you'll do yourself an injury getting so worked up like that.
Posted by: Pete | December 12, 2007 2:47 PM
@Sean
Many thanks for your response; it is always very encouraging to read a balanced and thoughtful opinion (although Mak, Grover – I enjoy your more impassioned responses just the same :)
It wasn’t my intention to imply that the non-gaming and Blu-ray features weren’t worth having, and I apologise whole heartedly if that is how it came across. This was, of course, just my opinion and a bit of a rant. It is born of my frustration that Sony – SCEE are the more guilty ones in this issue TBH – often fails to push the gaming features of the PS3 sufficiently. I’m NOT saying that there is no need to have or advertise these other features; it is just disappointing to see things that the PS3 is blatantly very good at being sidelined in a muddle of other things that the console can do.
The image above was distributed this morning and is intended to draw in customers who might not have any idea what a PS3 does. My argument is that dumping all the ten randomly assorted functions in right from the start isn’t going to help convince them – it makes it look like a PC. I’d hope that high definition gaming and Blu-ray movies would be used to lure people in, so that the additional benefits of the PS3’s media hub features could then sweeten the deal. It is, admittedly, a challenge to put this message across in a succinct form. I don’t believe this particular method – the picture – was an adequate way of going about it.
Posted by: AlW | December 12, 2007 2:54 PM
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