thomas fitzgerald.net

It amazes me every time I read a biased or completely uninformed article about the Playstation 3 as to just how similar it is to the things people used to say about the Mac and the iPod when it first came out. I just don’t get where much of this is coming from, and why there is such a determination by certain segments of the gaming and technology press for Sony to be a failure. Anyway, here’s some of the (exaggerated or not entirely true) stuff that may sound familiar to long time mac users: (Mac equivalents in brackets)

1. It’s too expensive. They should have left out the blu-ray etc. [Mac’s / iPods are too expensive - I don’t want firewire etc or My other music player is much cheaper]

2. There are no games available. [There’s no software available for the mac]

3. The xbox is just better [Windows is just better]

4. Nobody is buying the PS3, it’s a failure. [No one’s buying macs, the platform’s its last legs]

5. “The Troubled playstation devision.” [”The beleaguered computer company”]

6. Xbox users trolling Playstation sites. [PC users trolling Mac Sites]

7. Xbox version of (insert title here) is much better that PS3 version. [The PC version of (insert software title here) is much better]

8. It’s too hard to develop for the PS3 [It’s to hard to develop software for the mac]

9. Poor ports of Xbox games blamed on Sony. [Poor ports of PC software blamed on Apple]

10. You’re not a ‘real’ gamer if you don’t buy an Xbox [You’re not using a ‘real’ computer unless you buy a PC]

I could keep going but you get the idea. If you look too at much of what was said about the iPod when it first came out too there are also striking similarities. The funny thing is, if you say the PS3 will be a success and try and explain why you’ll be written off as a fanatic. But the thing is, much like those of us who could see huge potential in the iPod, I can see huge potential in the Ps3. It’s not just a game console, it’s something completely unique, it’s the convergence device we were all promised but no one ever delivered. No one seems to have realized that yet. I find myself using my PS3 instead of my Apple TV now all the time and I hardly ever turn on my 360.

You can dismiss this as fanboyism if you want but I am absolutely confident that the PS3 is the next iPod in terms of a genre defining device. The best is yet to come.