"The PS3 is not a game machine"

That's more words of wisdom from Ken Kutaragi in his latest interview, Sony's Emperor (uh, I mean President). I'm seriously starting to think Sony has become the arrogant ass Nintendo used to be when they ruled the console world, truly believing they can do no wrong. Now, to be completely fair, they had the best overall showing at E3. No one can deny the awesomeness of the PS3 videos we saw, real or not, and they showed very strong support for the PS2, with plenty of games I am very interested in (even if most are out next year). But they keep shooting themselves in the foot with their strategies or lack thereof. First up, they claim that they see the PS2 as having a ten-year life cycle. Well, if that's the case, then why the hell should I ditch my PS2 if it still has a few good years left? We know that the Xbox & GC have max 1 year left, so there's not really much of a reason to hold onto those systems much longer, Sony is in effect competing against itself in this way, and as impressive as those videos were, we know what we saw for the 360 is going to look BETTER at launch because the games were running on underpowered test units. Odds are that the PS3 games are going to look worse (but hey, if I'm wrong I'll gladly pick up a PS3 as soon as there's a quality rpg on it, just like I did with PS2).

Secondly, and probably Sony's biggest mistake is their online strategy, or lack thereof. In a recent interview, a top Sony rep stated that they don't really plan on changing their current online plan of letting the game publishers do all the work. So, there's an immediate slight advantage in that in a sense, Sony's online service for the PS3 will be completely free like it is for the PS2. The problem? The system sucks right now. It's complete and utter chaos when you compare it to Microsoft's slick and fairly inexpensive setup ($50 a year isn't much to ask, folks) that allows for a fairly universal interface, not to mention ONE username and password for most games (I think EA has a seperate setup, but that's one more reason to hate EA), whereas if you play games online with the PS3, you'll theoretically have different user names, passwords and friends lists (assuming they even have those) for EVERY SINGLE GAME! That's just massive insanity keeping all that crap straight. This pretty much garauntees I will not be playing any online games for the PS3 because it's just an incredibly clumsy and lame setup. And, while online gaming isn't currently the monster Microsoft claims it to be, it will get there in a couple of years and this will hurt Sony in the long run when people actually start caring about a simple, easy to use online system.

And then there's Katarugi's latest. The PS3 isn't a gaming machine? Well, I and millions of others gamers get news for you Kenny, WE WANT A FUCKING GAMING MACHINE!!! Microsoft may offer different types of entertainment on their upcoming console, but they made one thing perfectly clear: it's mainly a gaming machine that can do other stuff, not some machine that can play games. I know that may not sound different, but the bottom line is that if the PS3 isn't optimized to mainly play games, we won't get the best games possible out of that system now matter how many numbers you throw at us. That's why most people buy consoles and not computers to play games, especially in this next generation, where the difference between a high-end game console and a decent computer isn't much in terms of price. Pretty much the only smart thing to come out of anyone from Sony is that they are reportedly saying the PS3 will be around $370, still a bit high for my tastes, but if the 360 is truly going to be around $350 or even $400 as some early reports are saying, I wouldn't blame anyone for choosing a PS3 if it's only a little more or especially if it's less.

Moving on, this weekend we have two somewhat interesting selections for movie goers. First up, is Madagascar, the latest generic CG film from Dreamworks. I'm sure it will be fun for kids, but aside from the psychotic penguins, this seems to be yet another tepid "safe" film for kids much in the vein of Robots. I like the the film is obviously more focused on visual style than pure technical prowess, but the previews and reviews seem to point to another fairly bland movie that you can take the whole family to, but only kids will really enjoy.
And then there's The Longest Yard, from the critics' favorite whipping boy, Adam Sandler. Now, Sandler has done some true stinkers the last few years (Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, Eight Crazy Nights, 50 First Dates), and although it was good, no one really went to see Spanglish because it wasn't his usual frat boy antics. I think it actually looks like stupid fun, like Sandler's best films, and I expect to go in and just have a good dumb time at a good dumb movie, now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and play my GAMING MACHINE.....