Discouraging Playstation Vita Details 275
itwbennett writes "Sony's new handheld gaming system, the Playstation Vita, launches in Japan in two weeks, and the latest report from Andriasang has some interesting details, including Sony's decision to go with proprietary memory cards. Sony says this is both for security reasons and to ensure a consistent experience for all users, but that 'doesn't explain why they're charging such enormous sums for these cards,' says blogger Peter Smith. 'The caveat here is that we haven't seen official pricing for the cards, but game retailer Gamestop lists them at $120 (!!) for a 32 GB card, $70 for a 16GB, $45 for 8 GB and $30 for a 4 GB.'"
First (Score:5, Insightful)
which is why I don't buy Sony anymore...
Re:First (Score:5, Informative)
This also isn't news. When they announced the device months ago they said it would use proprietary memory, and people reported that memory would be really expensive.
The device itself is selling at $250, which really isn't a bad price for the hardware if you look at it. I suspect they're selling the device for a loss and trying to make their money back with the storage.
Sony memory sticks... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is hardly news. Sony has always gone the proprietary memory format and they have always been much more expensive than the generic equivalent. Is Sony even all that relevant anymore ? I could barely give away my PSP (slim) and don't get me started on the current PS3 with it's ridiculous looking motion controllers is utterly lame next to playing Kinect games on the Xbox. ... and it's a day away from getting even more integrated with my Xbox.
If the Vita also doubled as a decent phone, gps, and camera, I might take a look at it, but who really needs another web enabled device to lug around. My Windows Phone already ties in with my Xbox and has some entertaining away from the PC/Xbox games
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/05/xbox-companion-app-for-wp7-will-launch-alongside-the-new-dashboa/ [engadget.com]
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Is Sony even relevant? The sales of the PS3 have almost caught up to the Xbox 360, even with being released a year later. Yes, the Playstation Move is really lacking.. But Sony is still a big player in the game.
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Indeed. What matters more at this point is how many more consoles sony will be able to push until the 360 gets retired by the 720. Sony did produce a superior console but pretty much shot themselves in the foot with the 12-18 month delay to the 360. The console that still has juice in it might well be the PS3 and that's what I have installed in my living room but as I see it microsoft has set its eyes on leaping sony with shorter console lifetimes and so once the PS3 starts making a lead they will push out
Re:Sony memory sticks... (Score:4, Interesting)
Fixed that for you. I see this argument thrown around a lot, but aside from some figures on how fast the CELL is, nobody can really say for sure that either console is "superior".
Sure, it has a few exclusives that look fantastic, nobody's going to try and say the console isn't powerful, but the multiplatform games released are either identical, or favour the 360 (sometimes only slightly, sometimes by large degrees), with the odd exception.
Sales certainly haven't been "superior", figures released last week show that the 360 basically sold twice as many units as the PS3 in the US (of course, you'll have to take Patcher's word on that one). Half the reason the PS3 caught up is because the Japanese refuse to buy the Microsoft console, but most other markets favour the 360. In any case, if the PS3 was really "superior", it'd have caught up by now. That 12-18month lead isn't really an excuse any more, it has been 5 years and counting - if it was "superior", it'd have trounced the 360 by now.
Now before you get defensive, I'm not actually saying the 360 is better, it's certainly not "superior". It has some features the PS3 doesn't have, like the ability to stream music while ingame (while most PS3 games can't even PLAY music while ingame, nevermind streaming it), but so does the PS3 - Blu-ray, Linux (oh wait, nevermind) and such. The point I'm trying to make is that I think this generation of consoles can easily be classed as a stalemate - a draw, as it were. And I'm fine with that, it means that for once you don't have to own both major consoles to get enough great games through the year (if you're a hardcore gamer, that is) and the best, or at least most popular titles, have all been multi-platform.
Of course, the latter paragraph does fall apart if you mention the Wii, which is easily far more popular but a notably inferior console.
Re:First (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not like it should come as a surprise to anyone that Sony has chosen to create yet another proprietary format (and attempted to lock it down beyond simply being incompatible with anything else). They got away with it in the '80s and '90s because they actually made good hardware and the concept of interoperability barely existed. The only time they've had any real success with it was Blu-Ray, and I'm sure that hasn't seen the adoption they'd like since legal download services so shortly after its introduction, and their attempts to force it down everyone's throats have certainly been expensive. Today the reverse is true - their products tend to be sub-par and we increasingly expect stuff to work across our devices, but they're still stuck in the past.
You're gonna reap just what you sow... (Score:5, Interesting)
They got away with it in the '80s and '90s because they actually made good hardware and the concept of interoperability barely existed.
Not quite, remember Betamax? That was a fairly large case of interoperability- or at least support- being an issue, and Sony *not* getting away with it.
The only time they've had any real success with it was Blu-Ray
AFAIK, that isn't proprietary to the same extent, at least not in the sense that Sony almost unilaterally own and are pushing it. (Though I appreciate that they have one of the largest stakes in that business).
Today the reverse is true - their products tend to be sub-par and we increasingly expect stuff to work across our devices, but they're still stuck in the past.
Sony squandered what could have been a major lead in what became the MP3 audio market, and ended up being left behind.
In theory, MiniDisc could have been something akin to a proto-MP3 player almost a decade before (worthwhile versions of) the latter became commonplace. Some sort of very basic filesystem- just enough to let music files be copied to and from the device- would probably have been doable without increasing the technological complexity of the MiniDisc that much. Given that most people didn't have computers with enough storage to benefit from that back then, perhaps that was an understandable omission.
However, their tying it down beyond what people would have seen was technologically possible and desirable even then- i.e. forcing real-time dubbing, restricting what could be done digitally with copying, etc.- blatantly crippled the potential of the system for their own reasons, making it a slightly improved digital version of the standard cassette, but little more. The Japanese went for it, but its success was limited elsewhere.
Then when MP3 came along, they dragged their feet for ages- maybe because they saw this as a paradigm-shift threat to their existing portable players, not realising that the *real* threat was that the market was going that way anyway, and that they could join it ASAP or lose their lead. Of course, they *did* lose their market-leading position, to Apple. "iPod" was the success story of the first decade of this millennium, not some next-generation solid-state "Walkman".
Even after all this, they joined in in a half-baked cynical manner, trying to play things the old way while looking like they were embracing the new. Remember those stupid pseudo-MP3 players that required you to convert all your files to ATRAC via their crappy software before they'd support them? (No, I don't care whether that version of ATRAC was better than MP3 or not- by that point everyone had settled on MP3, Sony had *already* lost their opportunity to dictate what the market would use, and this move was just a mixture of NIH and arrogance).
So, Sony lost the portable audio market through their own arrogance, short-termist self interest, NIHism and generally blinkered short-sightedness... and they really, *really* have no-one to blame but themselves.
Re:You're gonna reap just what you sow... (Score:4, Informative)
They got away with it in the '80s and '90s because they actually made good hardware and the concept of interoperability barely existed.
Not quite, remember Betamax? That was a fairly large case of interoperability- or at least support- being an issue, and Sony *not* getting away with it.
Betamax turned into [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betacam]Betacam[/url] and dominated the professional market in ways JVC only dreamed of.
Not to invalidate your point about Sony and proprietary media. The PS2 Memory Cards are glaring examples, easily supporting higher capacities (when properly designed) but Sony only ever released 8MB cards officially (even still, a brand new one is something like $20 at retail?).
Re:You're gonna reap just what you sow... (Score:5, Informative)
The form factor is still in use today, see HDCAM and HDCAM SR [wikipedia.org]. Some HDCAM VTRs can playback Digital Betacam tapes, and VTRs for the other Betacam-based formats tend to be able to playback at least some of the older formats. HDCAM to this very day uses the exact same form factor as the original consumer Betamax format (albeit with more robust internals designed for the rougher treatment inherent in a day-to-day production environment). Good machines, too. I spent years working with the PVW-2800 and to this day can still perform an insert edit like I never stopped doing it.
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Agreed, pretty much, on all points.
One small addition:
Re:First (Score:5, Informative)
Sort of. They weren't the first, they were one of a bunch of competing formats, and eventually the industry standards body agreed on a new format based on (but different from) Sony's offering. So they didn't invent them, but they can lay claim to having been a key player. But that wasn't really a Sony format war since their standard wasn't adopted as-is...
In fact, except for BluRay, Sony has lost every format war they've ever fought. BetaMax/VHS (VHS crushed beta), NT casette/microcasette (nobody remembers NT casettes), MiniDisc/Flash (held on in Asia, but flash and HDD and CDs won), DAT/CD (DAT never made it beyond professional use), MMCD/SD (MMCD abandonned, SD became DVD), VCD/DVD (VCDs saw some use, but DVD came out two years later and started killing it), MemoryStick/MMC/SD/CF/Xd/etc (SD won, even some Sony products use SD rather than MS, CF only sees some professional use), ATRAC/MP3 (ATRAC never saw much adoption outside of MiniDisc), SACD/DVD-Audio (made irrelevant by digital distribution).
So, Sony has had some success with BluRay (which is itself embroiled in a format war with digital distribution), and I guess you could argue that as the basis for the eventual 3.5" floppy they sort of won that one, but not the rest. Many of the format wars they've been involved in have involved Sony pushing a format that is more proprietary (or has less other companies backing it) versus a more open standard. MemoryStick is backed by Sony, while SD is backed by the SD Card Association co-founded by Matsushita (Panasonic), SanDisk, and Toshiba, with many other companies on the board.
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I'm not saying they didn't have the occasional success, only that they lost the vast majority of them. Sony wasn't really the primary inventor of the CD either; Philips was, and Philips also had a hand in the laserdisc standard that gave birth to CDs.
Old skool (Score:5, Funny)
So, um, does it take phone calls and run millions of apps? Or is it just some kind of limited gaming platform?
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"Security" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Security" (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't so much about security as it is about a consistent revenue stream. They're following the "Gillette" model where they take a loss with their actual product, but make up the money in the sale of accessories.
Sony is notorious for this. They have memory sticks that only work with Sony products. This is why I will never buy a Sony product.
Re:"Security" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Security" (Score:4, Insightful)
Sony seems to keep selling things that do something one day, then as if it was a game, take away features to make it less-usable then the previous day.
I dislike Sony as much as anyone else here, but OtherOS is the only thing I've seen like what you've just described. What other things have they taken away from products after purchase?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Playstation 2 slim dropped support for a hard drive making it incompatible with FFXI and had several backwards compatibility problems withe PS1 games that the original PS2 did not.
Re:"Security" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
SACD playback.
The ability to play media across a LAN unfettered (legally-ripped Bluray movies that contain Cinavia will mute audio on purpose or even halt playback). Cinavia was not included in the earlier system software versions. It was forced upon us at a later date.
-AC
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Re:"Security" (Score:5, Insightful)
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They're following the "Gillette" model where they take a loss with their actual product, but make up the money in the sale of accessories.
I hear this a lot, but I will note that nowadays when I see those Gillette razor "starter" kits, (typically the metal handle, a couple of blades, and a mini can of foam), they don't seem to be *that* cheap. Not saying they're expensive, but given that the metal and plastic handles can't cost *that* much to make, I honestly don't think they're taking a loss on them.
That said, I do remember getting sent something similar free of charge (and unsolicited) from Gillette around my 16th birthday, and I'm still u
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"This isn't so much about security as it is about a consistent revenue stream."
Financial security.
Re:"Security" (Score:4, Insightful)
"Security" = trying hard to make sure consumers can't jailbreak their own devices.
Anyone who is surprised by this has obviously forgotten the whole root kit episode. Sony, I buy as few of your products as I can now.
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How long until they're hacked? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sony loves proprietary formats and the market is awash in cheap storage. This is a way to make memory valuable again, but I won't be surprised if someone is demoing a way to use SD cards on the thing within a year of launch.
Re:How long until they're hacked? (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that in today's market, with so many viable alternatives for mobile gaming entertainment, the insane cost of memory is going to be a deal breaker for most users.
Sure it has pretty graphics, but that's almost certainly going to be the one-and-only thing going FOR the Vita. I can't think of a single other argument in support of buying one of these.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, the system is probably targeted at kids than a hardcore IT community like slashdot. Kids have a much easier time begging $100 out of their parents than we have justifying on a product we know is not worth it. The PSP was a dud in this sense, the IT community was able to hack it and trick it out, suddenly you had a 5 year old playing kingdom hearts on it and a 25 year old using a custom browser to access pandora, or bring it on a flight to watch movies. Don't believe me? Look no further than to
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
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This isn't so much a deal breaker for me, I think it's a ridiculously bad idea on Sony's part. This is assuming this is how it all actually pans out.
The real deal breaker for me is if they don't deliver games. I can live with out having a pile of
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There's another couple "apps" called "iOS" and "Android" that already support all those features and far more and can be had for far cheaper. ;-)
Well ... (Score:5, Funny)
Let's hope they'll invest some of that excess money into administrators who won't just leave the default passwords in place.
Do Not Want (Score:2)
Playstation Vita: Do not want.
Not much I want from Sony/Playstation nowadays.
Gouging (Score:5, Informative)
If anyone is surprised by this, they don't know Sony.
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Gouging? Really? A company trying to protect its profits is gouging? If you don't like it, don't buy it. That's your right as a consumer. It's Sony's right as a company to set their prices. That's part of how a free market economy works. If lots of people don't like it, Sony will change their model. Until then you need to weigh up whether or not their offer is worth your hard earned. It is not your human right to be able to afford a play station.
No, but it's everyone's human right to be able to slag off Sony's proposed system and its cynical pricing model, whether or not they intend buying it.
This implied reasoning ("if you don't like it, you don't have to buy it, and therefore you have no right to criticise [manufacturer X].") pops up on Slashdot quite a lot. The first half is correct, but no-one was complaining about *having* to buy it anyway. The second half obviously isn't correct. The notion of a free market (and a free country) says nothing
Re:Gouging (Score:5, Insightful)
So what should a free individual do when they don't like what a company is doing? Maybe refrain from purchasing from them? Maybe tell friends and advise them to not buy from them either? Maybe even go on to a web site and post about it? Tell me when I start suggesting something unreasonable.
I'm not sure how this happened but at some point poeple got confused and started thinking that because companies are set up to always maximise profits we shouldn't be allowed to criticize any of their attempts to do so. There is a difference between wanting government regulation and using your right as a free person to criticize the actions of a company.
Sony is being anti-consumer and as a consumer that pisses me off. Other companies have found ways to make money without resorting to the lock-in BS that Sony prefers. I will not buy from them, and I will say why very loudly so that they and everyone else knows exactly why they aren't getting my business.
Ahem... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they can.
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Moheeheeko: 'doesn't explain why they're charging such enormous sums for these cards,' 'Because they can.'
They can charge anything they ant to charge. That does not compel anyone to purchase the gizmos. Right now their US sales are zero, and they may stay that way.
Third Party Adapter Market (Score:5, Insightful)
This just means that someone in China will be making money off selling an adapter for microSD cards.
Apple must use them (Score:5, Informative)
Apple does exactly the same thing with iPad and iPhone prices, but doesnt let you swap the mysteriously expensive memory "cards". Clearly it's all about the value to the consumer, not the cost of manufacture.
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Apple does exactly the same thing with iPad and iPhone prices, but doesnt let you swap the mysteriously expensive memory "cards". Clearly it's all about the value to the consumer, not the cost of manufacture.
Huh? The iPhone and iPad have been competitive on the price front, and in fact it's taken two generations of the iPad for a viable challenger to emerge based on cost. Heck, Apple's the only manufacturer to stand up to the carriers and demand a better experience for users. All the other manufacturers -- including Google -- treat the carriers as the customers and please them first.
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Re:Apple must use them (Score:4, Informative)
Not at all. It's market segmentation 101. It's the same reason Intel's top-of-the-line chip costs twice as much as the next lower model but only performs a few single percentage points better. (And because of binning, each chip actually costs the same amount to produce.) Anyway, you create one market segment for people who can only afford to pay a lower price for your product, then you give a little extra value to people who can pay more so they can feel superior despite the fact that they just paid significantly more for what is essentially the same product. It's actually insulting to the buyer when you get down to it. Fortunately neither of the two groups who pay more are likely to complain. The first group doesn't want to violate the image, real or imagined, that they can afford to spend more, and the second group will usually rationalize their overspending by any means necessary to avoid admitting they made a bad decision. (These groups are not mutually exclusive).
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No, because the highest upgrade tier is +48GB for +$200 over the base tier.
This is Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason they're doing this is because fuck you.
At Least MS (Score:4, Interesting)
At least Microsoft will actually tell you that they're trying to rip you off. Sony pretends like they're doing you a favor.
Profit (Score:3)
Invent cheap microSD to proprietary adapter
Sell adapter bundled with SD cards for half Sony's price
Profit
???
Get sued by Sony
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Forget sued. The way they'll structure this, and with the various laws and treaties that have essentially been purchased, anyone doing that will probably be arrested.
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Don't Like it... (Score:2, Insightful)
It is only a Video Game System. No one is forcing you to get one.
I'm sorry I feel little pity for people who cry Foul because their Video Games cost too much.
Re:Don't Like it... (Score:5, Informative)
You know, I really hate this type of comment.
"If you don't like it, don't bother complaining, just don't buy it."
Yeah, that will work. I have a better idea: let the company know why you're not buying it, and let other people know why you believe they shouldn't purchase it. That way the company has feedback on why people are refusing to buy their product, and the "invisible hand of the free market" is properly informed. Because don't forget, a proper free market involves informed customers, and people complaining about things they see as defects helps keep customers informed. (Which means that if someone is spreading lies about a product, sure, go ahead and debunk what they're saying.)
Word of mouth is important. Telling people to shut up about things that they don't like is silly and counterproductive.
Or, to invert your comment, if you don't care about high prices, don't bother complaining about people who do, just buy the expensive memory card. What do you care if other people don't?
Does Sony PR read Slashdot? (Score:2)
If they do, I want them to know that there were a couple of times I wanted to buy a Sony digital camera, based on some feature or other it had.
But then I realized the camera only worked with a more expensive Sony-proprietary memory card, so I bought another camera from a competitor that used industry standard memory cards that cost less money.
Guess what I won't be buying?
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Recently Sony gave up with their cameras and switched to SD cards like everybody else.
Gaming, especially portables, is another market. Namely, young gamers who are too blinded by the latest gadgetry to worry about the little ways in which they're being gouged.
Sony is not the only one. (Score:5, Insightful)
The only difference between the iPhone 4s 32Gb and 64 Gb is 32Gb of memory. The difference in price is $100. Are you all going to vilify Apple the same way for not including the ability to insert SD cards?
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An SD card, or rather, an expensive add-on is not [i]required[/i] for the core functionality of the iPhone.
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Ugh. Been posting on Ars too much lately.
To follow up;
the Vita requires a memory card in order to play certain games. As in, they won't even start up if they don't detect a memory card.
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Yes, but you can function with one of the cheaper cards, you don't have to have the most expensive option.
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Actually, I'd tend to be more annoyed about the decision to *not* support a removable storage card (or battery) at all.
The price between 32GB and 64GB in terms of an SDHC card is actually >$100. For a high-speed SDHC card, even more-so an microSDHC card, it's huge.
My big gripe is that when those become more affordable, iDevices don't have any upgrade option storage-wise except to replace the whole unit, which IMHO is incredibly wasteful (not to mention expensive, but I'm sure Apple is more than happy for
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Are you all going to vilify Apple the same way for not including the ability to insert SD cards?
Yes.
The difference is, the iPod has been out for nearly a decade now. There's been that many years of complaining about the lack of SD card functionality. It's fairly quiet now because it's clear Apple's not interested in including a memory card slot in the device, and the people who would otherwise be interested in Apple devices are no longer interested in them (meanwhile, everyone else just didn't care enough or caved).
The Vita is a new product, and thus draws in a fresh round of criticism. It will simila
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Spot on !
Isn't that one of the rally cries behind the whole Android market, cheap standard memory, with a cheap OS, on (cost-wise) cheap hardware.
Security (Score:2)
Listen, guys... of course they use proprietary memory for security. Remember when someone used an unauthorized HDD in their PlayStation last year, and took down the PSN? We don't want that again. So, to ward off the memory card threat, Sony will require you to purchase proprietary cards.
On a more serious note, Sony seems to always have considered accessing your device's hardware a security problem, and have moved to revoke the times they granted that power.
Shame. (Score:2)
I'm not paying Apple prices on memory cards.
Insult to injury (Score:3)
Vita will not be recognized as a mass storage device on your computer. You'll need to use a separate utility device.
All for security, and giving dirty pirates no direct access to the device.
*pulls up seat to watch* (Score:2)
I presume this all started as somebody designed the thing to be media free, after the wonderful UMD on the PSP (I presume the minidisc dept has been canned, by now). So, it's going to be flash only, like the PSP-Go.
You remember, it was like a PSP without the god-awful drive inflicted, but then you for forced to pay more for your device as the memory dept
Nah (Score:2)
Didn't help that I found a 4Gig M2 card in a drawer during my weekend clearout, for a phone that broke many years ago. I remember being annoyed when I bought it and just felt slightly haunted by it.
I guess I'm maybe just old, cranky self-hating gamer - PSP Ridge Racer did make me go ooo
bad news (Score:5, Interesting)
This was on Kotaku yesterday: http://kotaku.com/5864910/digital-download-discount-for-vita-may-explain-sonys-memory-stick-plans [kotaku.com]
The info is unconfirmed, but it says they're charging 40% less for downloads than games at retail and that's why the memory cards are more expensive. In other words, please pay up front so they can hold your money for you, and very probably the developers don't get a cut.
Crappy. (Score:2)
Although I'm wondering what kind of specs are they going to see out of these things. I'm guessing the MemoryStick Duo experience might have taught Sony a lesson about relying on fungible media. Both MSD and SD Cards have the massive downside of being a nice range of crap to awesome. By restricting the kinds of memory cards the Vita can take, I'm guessing they're trying to make the experience consistent. Like the Mini Disc. The specs of current generation discs were pretty consistent. So, say what you
Didn't Sony try that before? (Score:2)
Remember the Sony Memory Stick [wikipedia.org]? How did that work out?
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Why is this news? (Score:2)
New Name (Score:2)
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The above mentioned proprietary memory card is for saving, patches, game data as well as DLC. As far as I'm aware they have not mentioned that said memory card would be used for actual games on the system. If we compare this to the Nintendo 3DS we find that Nintendo uses a regular SD/SDHC card for saves, downloadable content and similar while the retail games themselves comes on a completely different medium.
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Nintendo doesn't even allow you to redownload online purchases on a replacement system. I'd hardly compare to Nintendo as some bastion of consumer fairness. They have a long history of proprietary storage formats, while the Playstations have used CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays.
It's been known since last June that the Vita would use NGV memory cards due to size, weight, lack of noise, and other factors. The only difference with this story is that Slashdot has posted a summary slanting it in a certain direction, bec
Re:Good thing (Score:4, Informative)
Nintendo isn't quite as evil as you think. They're just unprepared. My daughter dropped her out of warranty DSi into the toilet. I called them up and asked them how to transfer the save data to a new 3DS (That I had in the closet waiting for Christmas). They couldn't do anything, so they repaired the DSi for free. Outside of warranty. The problem is that people are afraid to ask and see what they can get.
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CSR Smithers: Sir, there's a man on the phone who says his daughter dropped her DSi in the toilet and he wants to know how to transfer the save data to the 3DS he's going to give her for Christmas. But there's no way to do that! What should I do?
Supervisor Burns: Dear God! The child has heard that the iPhone is going to do everything our product does and more for less money, so she threw it in the toilet! But the parent hasn't figured this out yet... w
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Not true. My coworker just had his Wii stolen. He called Nintendo and they locked out his old Wii and moved all his purchases to the new one.
All of which were modified in a proprietary fashion to make them not function on other devices. The systems also were designed to not work with standard discs.
Also, Blu-ray WAS a proprietary Sony format at the time PS3 was announ
Re:Good thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Vita would use NGV memory cards due to size, weight, lack of noise, and other factors..
I'm fairly certain that few people would find a micro-SD card too heavy or too big. Also, I can't recall what noise my micro-SD card makes... anyone?
Every one of those reasons is spurious. Let's just call it what it is. It's Sony being Sony; and that's ok.
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You mean like the SD card that plugs into the front of the Wii?
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Nintendo has a history of proprietary storage formats for every single one of its game systems, from the NES to the Wii. Sony has used CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray for the Playstation series.
Hell, the Wii won't even let you plug an external flash drive into its USB port.
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And sony also has to following to its name;
Minidisc
UMD
Atrac
SACD
memory stick (incl. MagicGate)
Sony loves proprietary gear, probably more so than any other company, they seem to persist with them a lot, and quite a few of them have been failures, atrac in particular, if they didn't persist with atrac and tried to make a digital music player people actually wanted, i doubt the ipod would have been a success.
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The point I'm trying to make is that Slashdot loves Nintendo and hates Sony, and this story (which is very old--NGV cards were known about last June) only exists to serve that purpose, yet Nintendo has a long history of using expensive, proprietary storage formats. The company doesn't even let you redownload purchases from their online store if you replace your device. Your purchases are forever tied to the single piece of hardware you bought.
The fact that the Wii U will "apparently" support USB HDs isn't v
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Except that the Wii supports starndard micro SD cards. The N64 not supporting standard memory was kind of a given considering how old it is. On the wii I can pop my SD card out and put in in another wii with no problem. I can put it in my computer and backup my saves if i want. /. does not hate sony because its cool to hate sony, its because we have been fucked over so many times and sony is about to fuck us over again. For a divice that is suppost to function as a phone/media/game system not having standa
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The point I'm trying to make is that Slashdot loves Nintendo and hates Sony...
You are half right, and it was well earned.
The fact that the Wii U will "apparently" support USB HDs isn't very encouraging given that the Wii already had a USB port and did nothing with it.
They used it for the wifi adapter. Wii Content isn't exactly straining the 512 meg SD card that it comes with. It's not that surprising that USB support for external hard drives wasn't Nintendo's highest priority. Oh, incidentally, the whole thing about using the SD card really kinda sinks your argument.
There is nothing new in this story at all except that it serves as another opportunity for Slashdotters to bitch about Sony.
I'll be the first to admit I love bitching about Sony. You got me to confess, that's great! Only... it didn't make any of the points made about Sony go away.
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The NES, SNES, GameBoy, GameBoy Advance, and the DS stored the save data right on the media. The DSi, 3DS, and the Wii use a standard SD card for game saves and download of software. The N64 and GameCube used proprietary memory cards like the Playstation and Playstation 2 did.
I don't know why you're fixated on the media the games come on. The original Playstation used black CDs as an anti-counterfeit measure. I don't remember if they ever tried to prevent the PS1 from playing burned games, but the PS2
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Poorly.
The PSX (as we called it) just read the bar code from the inner ring of the disc. If the data therein matched what the machine expected, it happily executed whatever code that might happen to be located on the rest of the disc.
And I haven't actually tried, but I'm willing to bet that a bone-stock PSX (as we called it) will gleefully read burned games with an appropriately-burned bar code.
And if such an ancient machine is capable of focusing ~1mm closer than usual, I'd even be willing to bet that it'
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The NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, DS, and 3DS all use proprietary storage for games. Sony used CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays for the Playstation series.
The Gamecube and Wii use DVDs. They weren't a typical book type, and had protection mechanisms, but they absolutely are DVDs.
And proprietary storage for games isn't an issue for users. Proprietary storage for user data is an issue for users. Nintendo loves SD cards for user data storage.
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That SD card adapter was however not a memory card replacement, but only usable by games that specifically supported it and there weren't many that did. It was also never sold outside of Japan. Third party replacements used for homebrew/piracy do however exist.
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um.. blueray? Other than that, i can't think of one. UMD was crap because nobody could use it. Memory sticks were pricey when they first came out but usually adapters could be found for loading content onto it.
Fourth straight year of losses = success? (Score:2)
Sony has been losing money. Not just making less profit or something, but plain straight losing money for four years in a row and you call this a success?
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As far as I know, it isn't SCEfoo (the various Playstation divisions) that's been losing money. SCEfoo's been propping up the company for years, which is why SCEfoo could get away with things that other Sony divisions couldn't.
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The funny thing is, SCEfoo is "Weird", and all over the map on these things.
The original PSP supports MP3, WMA and AAC, and you don't need special software to put music on it. It was the first Sony portable music playing device to support MP3 natively without converting to ATRAC. (Though it also supports ATRAC as well)
But the thing uses fragile UMD's...the damn little white shells crack if you look at them funny.
The PS2 can use standard PATA hard drives if you want to install Linux on the thing....but if