The price of a cheap PS3 is still more expensive then the deluxe 360 model. This may start to hurt Sony, oh sure, every one and their grandma wants one for the holidays, but come April or May, do you think your Mom and Dad are gonna want to drop $600 bucks on a system. The holidays bring out the generosity in people, but the other 11 months of the year it’s old-man-mizer time and he does not want to drop that kind of scratch on a game system.
Blu-ray, what the hell is Blu-ray? Well, to be honest with you, this is the reason these things cost so much. Check your local Best Buy ad, they sell Blu-ray players for $999.99. It is supposed to be the new standard for DVD, the Blu-ray disc, it can hold six times (whatever) the content on a single disc then a traditional DVD can.
Problem is, most people have no desire to upgrade to a new DVD standard, especially if, like me, you have a gazillion DVDs and re-buying them is NOT an option. Plus to be honest with you, watching the copy of “Ballad of Ricky Bobby” that came with my PS3, I wasn’t all that impressed. And yes, I am running a HDTV, so count me out. Sony has had a history of jumping on the wrong “AV medium”. Years ago, they said BETAMAX would be the videotape standard, it was VHS. Then they said minidiscs and their players would be the new hot thing, people stuck with their CDs. We’ve been down this road before people, I don’t see it being a new hot thing.
The wireless controllers work great until you have to charge them, then the provided cable is only four feet long. You can play while it’s charging, but nobody can play comfortably with such a short cable. Again, you must go buy another cable to make it so you can still comfortably game from your chair or couch.
Additional controllers don’t come with a charging cable. You believe that?! Spend $50 on another controller, and then you still have to buy another USB charging cable. What’s worse, they aren’t expensive, so why didn’t they include it? The PS3 has four USB port on the front for charging the damn things; it’s just plain silly not to include it.
Signing up to get online is a cumbersome experience. You have to register a credit card to prove you are “of age” they promise to never bill you, but the first time I tried it said the registration failed and so I had to go back through the long and tiring process. I know Sony is desperately trying to compete with Xbox live, but they still have a way to go to making this an enjoyable online community experience.
