As comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has a connection to the internet and even a passing interest in technology, Sony got busted for AllIWantForXmasIsAPSP, originally put forth as a blog by "Charlie" in an attempt to give readers "all the hype" about the P.S.P. so they can "wage a holiday assault" and get a P.S.P. for Christmas. Heck, Penny Arcade did a comic and news post about it.
Me--I'm going to shake my head dejectedly, but not for Sony's attempts to bilk potential customers. Hell, if I wanted to do that, I'd shake my head over the whole H.D.T.V. cable mess that started going around a few months ago, or just over the seemingly-insane six hundred dollar price tag on the P.S.3 alone. I'm going to shake my head because this isn't the Sony I used to know. The Sony I used to know sold this small radio-slash-tape-deck stereo back in the mid-'Eighties. Even at the time, it couldn't have cost more than twenty dollars or so; this was nowhere near a top-of-the-line machine, by any standard.
That stereo has been dropped more often than I can remember, once from a height of about five feet or so, onto bare cement. Didn't even crack. In fact, about twenty years later, I still have the thing, and it actually works. The sound's a bit warbly, especially in one speaker, and I'm not entirely sure I'd trust it to play a tape, but the radio works just fine--even without an antenna. That was a product that lived up to the brand-image Sony was putting out there. Same thing with my original Playstation--not even the compact P.S.1, but the original, large, dark-grey Playstation. Thing still works, and it's a second-generation model, if memory serves. I became, really, a "Sony fan-boy" because of those, mainly because of that little stereo. If they can make a product like this, the reasoning went, that lasted forever, how awesome must their other products be?
The problem I have, really, with their recent acts of attempted chicanery is that I'm not surprised. After the P.S.2 came out, for a good while afterward there were talks of its laser dying after a comparably short amount of time. That happens, though, so while I noticed it I didn't pay it much mind. Then the Slim version came out. The average complaint was that it overheated quickly--as in after a half-hour of operation. I scrunched my nose at that, and tried to put it out of my mind. That proved fruitless when came the news that not only was the Dual Shock lost due to a lawsuit--Microsoft settled out of court, Sony battled and lost, then turned around and said that the P.S.3 controllers are not going to have vibration capabilities due to incompatibility with the tilt and rotate abilities. Not only does this fly in the face of common sense when the Wii did it with their remote, but Immersion (the company who sued and won against Sony) President Victor Viegas flat-out disbelieved it--and I really don't blame him.
What happened to the Sony I remember? What happened to the Sony who made quality products that lasted damn-near forever, and making their brand name nearly synonymous with quality work and good customer service? That's the Sony I remember, and that's the Sony I want back. As a self-proclaimed gamer, feeling like I've been shafted by Sony is rather insulting--especially as I can't really turn to either of the other companies for my gaming needs. Beside the fact that I'm used to the Dual Shock controller to the point of using it completely without needing to think about it, they have most of the companies who make the games I play. A few titles from Nintendo, and very few titles from Microsoft--that isn't enough for me to purchase their systems.
So where are gamers like me left as Sony continues its descent? Where are the people who defended Sony--not in the manner of fools and trolls, but intelligently and faithfully, accepting flaws but believing in underlying trustworthiness--left, now that Sony's detractors are being proven right? Where are we left?
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