As you may remember Sony got into a bit of a pickle in the Christmas of 2005 when intrepid sleuths discovered that Sony music CD’s were installing rootkits onto user’s machines. The trials and tribulations continued well into 2006, causing some (like yours truly) to whip of T-Shirt designs like the one on the right. (We’ve since retired those shirts from the store.)
The number of ways that Sony has abandoned its PlayStation fans is tremendous and can be overwhelming if recapped in straight text. However, put it to music and you have a palpable condemnation of next generation console blunders.
On Rapid Fire the retired circus monkeys and I take a shot at all the news from the past week that we just didn’t get to. So, without further ado, let’s take aim and fire at will:
Tech commentators and talking heads alike declare Sony’s Blu-Ray next gen video media dead. The reason? Sony has mandated that pr0n is too red light for the blue light technology. The best title from all coverage goes to Gizmodo and their post “Blu-ray Porn Update: Not Getting It On“
Slamdance’s Guerrilla Games Competition is all but dead. The organizers pulled Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from competing which caused an avalanche of withdrawals from sponsors and competitors alike. Game boys shrug and go back to playing with their Wiis.
Novell urges people to skip Vista and use Linux. In a similar announcement Royal Crown tells users to skip Coke and drink RC.
Bill Gates says Sony “didn’t know what they were doing” when it came to the PS3. Given that I can still find piles of the $599 “supercomputers” and not a Wii in sight I’d say he’s right.
We’ve clearly stated the reason that the Microsoft Zune comes in brown (for the Cliff Notes devotees, it’s because its crap). Despite its many foibles a largely touted feature was that users would be able to ’squirt’ songs to other users. It turns out that only works slightly better than half the time. From the great Om:
There are now reports that nearly 40% of the songs purchased or acquired through the ZunePass cannot be shared.
Most of the songs that that fall in the cannot be shared category are from a company that thinks all its customers are thieves - Universal Music Group. UMG had cut a special deal with Microsoft, and is getting at least a $1 a Zune. (Insert: marry to the mob joke here!) Sony Music is the other label with some sharing restrictions.
Welcome to the social, indeed. With all the restrictions its like being back in high school.
You remember that it was around the holiday season last year when it was discovered that Sony was stealthily installing rootkits on people’s computers. Done in the name of preventing piracy the pieces of malicious software caused bouts of mass hysteria usually reserved for an unbuckled Britney baby.
No to let a season go by without a mishap, Sony has now come forth and apologized for a series of insulting ads that it tried to pass off as ‘viral’. From Kotaku.com:
Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn’t a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.
Sony Computer Entertainment America
You do that Sony. Meanwhile I’ll be busy buying products from companies that don’t insult my intelligence.
The PlayStation has long been a shiny flagship for Sony’s gaming prowess. The PS1 set the stage for a decade of PS related gaming dominance. That streak, however, may be coming to an end.
“Wii is a core gaming device. It’s a more fun, intuitive sort of product to pick up, where the PS3 is a broader entertainment solution…”
“Rrrrriiiight. Because I need another DVD player. Wait, it has a Blu-Ray drive? Why am I still buying breakable discs? Excuse me why I fire up BitTorrent…”
In corporate Japan they no longer expect disgraced warriors to plunge themselves on their swords; today’s hara-kiri is apparently promotion. That’s what happened to Ken Kutaragi, the man many people felt responsible for building such a lofty perch for Sony to fall from. The promotion takes Kutaragi away from the day-to-day operations of the PlayStation. (Truth be told, Kutaragi was actually demoted last year and was hoping to redeem himself with the PS3 - guess that didn’t work out so great.)
So where is this money going? Not to corporate overlords: even Sony is taking a bath on every sale - estimates put the pinch near $240 PER UNIT! Somebody at Sony better be getting a stocking full of red ink this Christmas! The Playstation 3 isn’t just a consumer electronics device - it’s an economic readjuster! And you thought that giant sucking sound was just promised features and energy responsibility disappearing.
Or at least so sayest Bill O’Reilly, perennial blow hard and self aggrandizement magnet. In a typical hallucinatory screed brought about by the excess of hot air, the Fox commentator rallied against the borg… at least the coming of it.
Basically what you have is a large portion of the population, mostly younger people under the age of 45, who don’t deal with reality - ever. So they don’t know what day it is; they don’t know temperature it is; they don’t know what their neighbor looks like. They don’t know anything… because they are constantly diverted by a machine.
The source of this vile escapism - the PS3!
The newest thing is the PlayStation 3. Now this is a machine that allows you to play games in hi-def and all this other stuff… It’s the newest state of the art system from Sony…. It has a video game console, plays DVDs, connects you to the Internet, tells you how handsome you are. It’s six-hundred bucks. Now people lined up for hours to get this thing. Hours!
Hours! Hours he sayest! But Bill, what should the youth of America be doing instead?
If this is your primary focus in life - the machines… it’s going to have a staggeringly negative effect, all of this, for America… did you ever talk to these computer geeks? I mean, can you carry on a conversation with them? …I really fear for the United States because, believe me, the jihadists? They’re not playing the video games. They’re killing real people over there.
Sounds like somebody is still pissy that they couldn’t find all the stars in Mario 64…. Anywhoo, remember kids: if you play with your Wii, the terrorists will win.
This weekend both Sony’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii next generation consoles were launched - and the aftermath’s couldn’t have been more different.
The Playstation, a $599 power play for the future of electronic devices disguised as a game player, had a number of eye raising launch day happenings. Lots of recap from Endgadget: a PS3 crime spree, people shot, armed robberies, riots, police using pepper spray, and escaped rapists. You know, your normal, every day type of thing in the adrenaline soaked world of consumer electronics. Look for Jerry Bruckheimer to scoop up the movie rights.
In the other line were the polite Nintendo fanboys. Coverage from that event was described as nothing less than friendly, perhaps even genteel. Could it have something to do with the fact that the would-be Wii owners actually planned on playing with their purchases? That the over hyped and under supplied PS3 was nothing more than eBay bait? Is this what happens when geeks stop being nice, and start being entrepreneurs?
Nolan Bushnell is one of those odd figures in the geek cannon. On one hand he is revered as the man who created Atari. On the other we cringe at the animatronic monstrosities he unleashed with his follow-up, Chuck-E-Cheese. Despite no longer being at the helm of the since tarnished gaming legend he still keeps close tabs on what he wrought. And he predicts upcoming failure for Sony’s PS3 video game console.
I think Sony shot themselves in the foot… there is a high probability [they] will fail. The price point is probably unsustainable. For years and years Sony has been a very difficult company to deal with from a developer standpoint. They could get away with their arrogance and capriciousness because they had an installed base. They have also historically had horrible software tools. You compare that to the Xbox 360 with really great authoring tools [and] additional revenue streams from Xbox live… a first party developer would be an idiot to develop for Sony first and not the 360. People don’t buy hardware, they buy software.
Remember shortly before the shopping spree season last year when some diligent geeks discovered rootkits on their machines? Remember the outrage that erupted when it was discovered that Sony had put them there? Apparently the electronics makers deemed that stopping grandparents and kids from backing up their lastest music purchase had to be stopped at all costs - user privacy, computer security, and digital rights be DAMNED.
As you may remember Sony got into a bit of a pickle in the Christmas of 2005 when intrepid sleuths discovered that Sony music CD’s were installing rootkits onto user’s machines. The trials and tribulations continued well into 2006, causing some (like yours truly) to whip of T-Shirt designs like the one on the right. (We’ve since retired those shirts from the store.)
Firewheel Design, the fine folks behind useful apps like Blinksale and IconBuffet are getting rid what’s left of their Rootkit T first run. In full Firewheel fashion the design is fun and bubbly. They’re 100% pure cotton and are priced at $15. Shipping is $4 to anywhere in the US.
You remember that it was around the holiday season last year when it was discovered that Sony was stealthily installing rootkits on people’s computers. Done in the name of preventing piracy the pieces of malicious software caused bouts of mass hysteria usually reserved 
