Ralph CarothersWhy I don't own a PS3
May 16th 2008 13:26
I tend to pick up consoles as quickly as I can. Either launch day, or soon after depending on how finances are and if the console seems worthwhile. Why then have I avoided the PS3?
There's been a few reasons that I'll share here, and please, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on a point. I'd love to maybe have some more reasons to pick up the PS3, next to the very few I'll list here.
First off, pricing of the PS3 has been an issue to me. Simply put, the thing has been way expensive. I say this as an early adopter of the 360 too. The value you get out of the lowest end one compared to the high end is crap as well. At launch, the high end was $600, the low end $500. So, for 100 dollars less you lost: Wifi internet access, flash card reader ports and the HDMI port. Ugh. Yes, comparatively, the pricing drop on that means you'd want the $600 dollar version, and simply put, thats still way too much. Trying to compare it to the 360, the 360 launched $100 cheaper than the PS3's low end solution.
Even now, its not much better with the pricing or the features. As time has gone on, the PS3 has even gotten slightly worse without the pricing getting all that much better. The 60 and 20 gb units both are no longer produced, instead we now have 40 and 80. (In NTSC locations only for the 80 GB unit!) The problem is, the 80 doesn't really seem to be in production. EB, The Sony Store, Best Buy, Walmart, no one carries them. The Sony Store says they will be in stock June 2008 again.
The 40 GB now comes with Wifi onboard,but, it no longer has backwards compatibility. Let that sink in. No backwards compatibility. You can't play your old PS2 or PSOne games at all on the 40 GB PS3. The value on this unit is effectively nil for me. Backwards compatibility is a big thing for me. I have plenty of games on previous consoles I love to play still. Some that will not, or never, be launched for the new generation(s). Guitar Hero and GH2 for the PS as an example. Whats worse? The specialized controllers, even though they fit the ports, won't work on the PS3 either. So, goodbye to playing those games if/when my PS2 dies unless I want to shell out cash for another. They also make the whole "which games work" process nebulous. Microsoft has an entire list up of games that work on their site that you can just browse. Sony, you have to input titles one by one to check.
To be fair I should also mention that Microsoft's not entirely backwards compatible either, but they have many of the titles working now. They update them every so often with a new block of titles that work, and no matter what version of the console you buy, you can get backwards compatibility running simply by plugging in a hard drive. You can't do this on the PS3 unit.
So, we have only one of the PS3s that's really been available since January. (Best Buy and many other retailers stopped selling the 80 gig back in Jan/Feb 08) That one is severely crippled. We have another that isn't coming out until June, and is still way expensive. What reason could many quote to me to buy the console still?
The games? What exclusives has the console really had? For many, the only really "must have" games are all from the same developer, Insomniac Games. Ratchet and Clank Future, Resistance, and soon, Resistance 2. Not a huge deal. There's only one niche game I can even think of that would possibly entice me to grab the system, and even that I'm kinda meh about. (The Eye of Judgement)
Other games are launched on the other consoles or PC for the most part. They either have almost no changes, or people have voted in favor of the 360 for various reason. (Usually multiplayer components) One classic example being Devil May Cry 4, where for some unknown reason the developer makes you install it to the hard drive. Its not optional, and its 20-30 mins of an install that takes like 4 gb of your hard drive. (that's 1/5th of the drive for you 20 GB adopters) What's the difference between the PS3 and 360 versions though? Almost nothing. The load times are slightly faster on the PS3s, definatly not enough to warrant the install.
Multiplayer on the PS3 I'm told is still kind of "eh" as well. Unlike the Live system the 360 has, developers can make what they want for the multiplayer. I'm told its a lot more unstable to boot. With a smaller installed base, its also easy to see that the 360 would have you playing with more people out there as well.
So, that leaves the one feature I've neglected to touch upon that is the big selling point for my wife and myself: The Blu-ray drive.
This is the only thing I can really justify spending the cash on, and to be honest, I don't like why I can justify it now. Basically Sony threw enough money at movie studios to get them on-board for the Blu-ray over the HD-DVD. (I don't own anything HD-DVD either, so I'm not biased due to that at all) I disliked the whole "format war" that came up, but hoped it would help drive prices down a bit due to competition. Instead, prices haven't really changed at all and until just lately, the 40gb PS3 was cheaper than many lower end players. This has been the only real reason, coupled with the fact that it can also play future games, I've ever even considered the PS3 as a purchase.
So, is there something I'm really missing at the moment? Is there really any reason to buy now or should I just wait still? Feel free to let me know via comments!
There's been a few reasons that I'll share here, and please, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on a point. I'd love to maybe have some more reasons to pick up the PS3, next to the very few I'll list here.
First off, pricing of the PS3 has been an issue to me. Simply put, the thing has been way expensive. I say this as an early adopter of the 360 too. The value you get out of the lowest end one compared to the high end is crap as well. At launch, the high end was $600, the low end $500. So, for 100 dollars less you lost: Wifi internet access, flash card reader ports and the HDMI port. Ugh. Yes, comparatively, the pricing drop on that means you'd want the $600 dollar version, and simply put, thats still way too much. Trying to compare it to the 360, the 360 launched $100 cheaper than the PS3's low end solution.
Even now, its not much better with the pricing or the features. As time has gone on, the PS3 has even gotten slightly worse without the pricing getting all that much better. The 60 and 20 gb units both are no longer produced, instead we now have 40 and 80. (In NTSC locations only for the 80 GB unit!) The problem is, the 80 doesn't really seem to be in production. EB, The Sony Store, Best Buy, Walmart, no one carries them. The Sony Store says they will be in stock June 2008 again.
The 40 GB now comes with Wifi onboard,but, it no longer has backwards compatibility. Let that sink in. No backwards compatibility. You can't play your old PS2 or PSOne games at all on the 40 GB PS3. The value on this unit is effectively nil for me. Backwards compatibility is a big thing for me. I have plenty of games on previous consoles I love to play still. Some that will not, or never, be launched for the new generation(s). Guitar Hero and GH2 for the PS as an example. Whats worse? The specialized controllers, even though they fit the ports, won't work on the PS3 either. So, goodbye to playing those games if/when my PS2 dies unless I want to shell out cash for another. They also make the whole "which games work" process nebulous. Microsoft has an entire list up of games that work on their site that you can just browse. Sony, you have to input titles one by one to check.
To be fair I should also mention that Microsoft's not entirely backwards compatible either, but they have many of the titles working now. They update them every so often with a new block of titles that work, and no matter what version of the console you buy, you can get backwards compatibility running simply by plugging in a hard drive. You can't do this on the PS3 unit.
So, we have only one of the PS3s that's really been available since January. (Best Buy and many other retailers stopped selling the 80 gig back in Jan/Feb 08) That one is severely crippled. We have another that isn't coming out until June, and is still way expensive. What reason could many quote to me to buy the console still?
The games? What exclusives has the console really had? For many, the only really "must have" games are all from the same developer, Insomniac Games. Ratchet and Clank Future, Resistance, and soon, Resistance 2. Not a huge deal. There's only one niche game I can even think of that would possibly entice me to grab the system, and even that I'm kinda meh about. (The Eye of Judgement)
Other games are launched on the other consoles or PC for the most part. They either have almost no changes, or people have voted in favor of the 360 for various reason. (Usually multiplayer components) One classic example being Devil May Cry 4, where for some unknown reason the developer makes you install it to the hard drive. Its not optional, and its 20-30 mins of an install that takes like 4 gb of your hard drive. (that's 1/5th of the drive for you 20 GB adopters) What's the difference between the PS3 and 360 versions though? Almost nothing. The load times are slightly faster on the PS3s, definatly not enough to warrant the install.
Multiplayer on the PS3 I'm told is still kind of "eh" as well. Unlike the Live system the 360 has, developers can make what they want for the multiplayer. I'm told its a lot more unstable to boot. With a smaller installed base, its also easy to see that the 360 would have you playing with more people out there as well.
So, that leaves the one feature I've neglected to touch upon that is the big selling point for my wife and myself: The Blu-ray drive.
This is the only thing I can really justify spending the cash on, and to be honest, I don't like why I can justify it now. Basically Sony threw enough money at movie studios to get them on-board for the Blu-ray over the HD-DVD. (I don't own anything HD-DVD either, so I'm not biased due to that at all) I disliked the whole "format war" that came up, but hoped it would help drive prices down a bit due to competition. Instead, prices haven't really changed at all and until just lately, the 40gb PS3 was cheaper than many lower end players. This has been the only real reason, coupled with the fact that it can also play future games, I've ever even considered the PS3 as a purchase.
So, is there something I'm really missing at the moment? Is there really any reason to buy now or should I just wait still? Feel free to let me know via comments!
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