The Sony PS3 thread (apparently *still* obnoxious!)

[DeanoC]

What people fail to realise is, Sony created their 100million x2 size console market single handedly, it's not that the xbox1 or dreamcast or gamecube where huge disasters, they just happened to get crushed under the stampede to buy a Sony console.

Actually Nintendo did, they first 100+ million selling console was Gameboy (June 15th 2000). PS1 didn't make it for another 4 years

The NES sold 68 Milllion, SNES bout 50 Million. For the really curious Atari 2600 about 25 Million and Megadrive 30 Million...

But hey lets not let sales figures get in the way of the whole "Sony made gaming mainstream" meme that Sony like to promote... They certainly helped and did well, but really "single handedly", surely thats a claim for Ninty?

[Hajile]

What people fail to realise is, Sony created their 100million x2 size console market single handedly, it's not that the xbox1 or dreamcast or gamecube where huge disasters, they just happened to get crushed under the stampede to buy a Sony console.

Actually Nintendo did, they first 100+ million selling console was Gameboy (June 15th 2000). PS1 didn't make it for another 4 years

The NES sold 68 Milllion, SNES bout 50 Million. For the really curious Atari 2600 about 25 Million and Megadrive 30 Million...

But hey lets not let sales figures get in the way of the whole "Sony made gaming mainstream" meme that Sony like to promote... They certainly helped and did well, but really "single handedly", surely thats a claim for Ninty?

The one that always gets me about Nintendo at the moment is their rechristening the Revolution the Wii. One of the reasons they gave for calling it the Wii was in order to create a snappy market brand name synonymous with gaming in the same way that Ipod is with mp3 players and hoover is with vaccuum cleaners. Trouble is, there already is a mass market brand that everyone immediately associates with gaming.

It's Playstation.

See? Sony did it first, but Ninendo did really, and Nintendo do it first, but Sony did really. Would this be considered the 'chicken/egg' situation or the 'my cock's bigger than yours' one for the two companies?

[Yak]

Sony did it first?

I recall when people went round their mates' houses to "play Atari".

IIRC Sega was also invoked in a similar fashion a few years later.

All such things tell us is that nothing lasts forever, and that he who thinks that he can rest forever on the laurels of a brand name is *begging* for a rude awakening .

[teamonkey]

Trouble is, there already is a mass market brand that everyone immediately associates with gaming.

It's Playstation.

There's two - GameBoy and Playstation. Actually, in the eyes of my parents there's only one, the Nintendo Playstation, which particularly irks me when I'm playing on my Sega Dreamcast.

But yeah, in the eyes of the public, handheld===GameBoy (yes, including the DS), console===Playstation.

[Roobarb]

But yeah, in the eyes of the public, handheld===GameBoy (yes, including the DS), console===Playstation.

Nowhere in Nintendo's branding does the DS refer to Gameboy, nor have i ever heard anyone not 'in the know' refer to a 'DS' as a 'Gameboy'. The only thing in common is Nintendo.

Home console = Playstation? Well if that's all Sony has going for it with the PS3, they're fucked* (refers back to Yak's post).

*I don't believe this, but not because of brand names

[Darkflame]

People associate the biggest/best saleing thing with that "genra" of product, seems both obvious and not very relivent to me.

Its Playstation at the moment, because it sales best.

And of course Sony didnt make gaming mainstream, because gameing still isnt mainstream.
It certainly got a quite a bit more mainstream during that period, but it still isnt as social mainstream as, well, any other entertainment medium.
So I dont think we should use mainstream in an absolute term.

One of the reasons they gave for calling it the Wii was in order to create a snappy market brand name synonymous with gaming

I dont remember any quote of Nintendo claiming Wii is going to be "the next hoover" like your implying.
Have you got a link?

The reason I heard was just it was universaly easy to pronounce.

Nintendo is alway synonymous with gaming anyway. Moreso then Sony even today. (but, note, not moreso then "Playstation" )

Oh and some other people, too.

But only some.

Some?
Hasnt it got the lagest female userbase of any machine? (44% in japan I think).

[Mayhem]

People associate the biggest/best saleing thing with that "genra" of product, seems both obvious and not very relivent to me.

Agreed. And with what Jeff said above as well. Pre-crash (1983) it was Atari. Then Nintendo (and perhaps Sega over here, but defo Nintendo in the rest of the world). Then Sony. We might get back to Nintendo again. But that depends how this gen goes.

It's a similar principle that leads us to say we Hoover the house, Xerox some sheets of paper, Tippex a mistake out, Google some information and so on.

[teamonkey]

Nowhere in Nintendo's branding does the DS refer to Gameboy, nor have i ever heard anyone not 'in the know' refer to a 'DS' as a 'Gameboy'. The only thing in common is Nintendo.

It doesn't need to be branded a Gameboy to be called a Gameboy. For many non-gamers the DS is a "Gameboy" because they think it means "handheld games console". I've heard friends and family call it that, I've heard confused parents in Game, even when referring to the PSP. I can understand why Nintendo wanted to get away from the "boy" part of it, but it's still a very powerful brand.

Well if that's all Sony has going for it

Eh?

A mum wants her kid to stop playing games and have some dinner, she tells him to "stop playing on his playstation" irrespective of what kind of console it is. "Playstation" and "Gameboy" are powerful household names. "Xbox" is getting there. "GameCube" never did, "Wii" may do.

And it's not simply because it's the biggest selling product either. How long has it been since Hoover and Xerox were brand leaders? The Gameboy hasn't been the biggest seller compared to the DS for a year, yet the average person in the street wouldn't immediately know what you mean if you said "DS" or even "Nintendo DS" (though they might have a clue that it was to do with computer games).

[gravy]

On another note PS3 playing a 1080i HD mpg movie under YDL

http://ps3mods.blogspot.com/2006/11/ps3 ... 1080i.html

[Kronos]

What people fail to realise is, Sony created their 100million x2 size console market single handedly, it's not that the xbox1 or dreamcast or gamecube where huge disasters, they just happened to get crushed under the stampede to buy a Sony console.

Actually Nintendo did, they first 100+ million selling console was Gameboy (June 15th 2000). PS1 didn't make it for another 4 years

The NES sold 68 Milllion, SNES bout 50 Million. For the really curious Atari 2600 about 25 Million and Megadrive 30 Million...

But hey lets not let sales figures get in the way of the whole "Sony made gaming mainstream" meme that Sony like to promote... They certainly helped and did well, but really "single handedly", surely thats a claim for Ninty?

Home consoles, I've already said Nintendo have the monopoly on hand held markets

They made their first home console thanks to Nintendo's "better than thou" arrogance over the SNES CD incident, and then ended up selling 2-4x more of the best of the competition both in the PS1 era and PS2. Like them or not at the end of the day they did it 2x in a row, it wasn't a fluke of monopoly like Atari and NES.

[Orangy Tang]

A mum wants her kid to stop playing games and have some dinner, she tells him to "stop playing on his playstation" irrespective of what kind of console it is. "Playstation" and "Gameboy" are powerful household names. "Xbox" is getting there. "GameCube" never did, "Wii" may do.

Just after I'd moved house, the landlady came around. One of her first comments was "I see you've got the playstation set up already".

It was a NES.

[Kronos]

Ahhh, showing my age now but my mum would call anything (even an Amiga) an Atari if it played games and plugged into the tv

Just found a really nice downloadable movie of E3 target render vs actual gameplay footage, can't see any real speed/framerate issues on the latest gameplay footage (not that I have ever seen any problems from gameplay footage posted on various sites anyway)

WMV Version

Quicktime

Thought others might like to see it too

Edit: it's for Motorstorm btw ooops

[Darkflame]

They made their first home console thanks to Nintendo's "better than thou" arrogance over the SNES CD incident, and then ended up selling 2-4x more of the best of the competition both in the PS1 era and PS2. Like them or not at the end of the day they did it 2x in a row, it wasn't a fluke of monopoly like Atari and NES.

It wasnt exactly arrogance of Nintendos part though, there concerns over CD piracy rang very true....Nintendo being depedant on gamesales a lot more then Sony.
The split imo, just game from two different companys with different goals.
Sony naturaly wanted to use normal cds, as it was in their interest, and they had expirence and factorys for them already.
Nintendo wanted strong first-party game sales....They dont want 1/3rd of Mario64 or Zelda sales to taken away from them.

And I dont think its fair at all to call the NES (which also did it twice in a row) or Atari "flukes"
They were the right product at the right time...exactly like the playstations. They had competition too, exactly like the playstations.

[Hajile]

A mum wants her kid to stop playing games and have some dinner, she tells him to "stop playing on his playstation" irrespective of what kind of console it is. "Playstation" and "Gameboy" are powerful household names. "Xbox" is getting there. "GameCube" never did, "Wii" may do.

Just after I'd moved house, the landlady came around. One of her first comments was "I see you've got the playstation set up already".

It was a NES.

It probably helps that the name is fairly logical and self explanatory. It is a station for playing games, and so it is a Play Station. Game Cube doesn't sound quite so official, while all X-Box does is tell you its shape.

Even more so for the N64, Dreamcast and Saturn - they might, disputably, have cool names (and Sega's always had the coolest) but they don't explain the product to a layperson in quite so effective a way.

That probably helped PlayStation lodge in non gamer's heads as the word to use to describe all consoles.

[Public Hermit]

Oops, looks like movies can be copied to the HDD on PS3s; maybe also games.

It looks like enterprising hackers have figured out a way to dump Blu-ray movies using nothing more than a PS3 and Linux. Now, there's a whole lot of Linux jargon to comb through, but the premise is simple: boot up the appropriate flavor of Linux, then input the command "dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/blu-raymovie.iso" and that should do it. It's interesting to note that similar methods are used to dump ("back up") PS3 games themselves.

Oh dear, I'd hate for Sony to lose money.