Yes, I’m back after two weeks off. I would’ve had this for yesterday but I don’t have internet in the tent I slept in so that was impossible. Anyway, for better or worse, I’m back, so lets begin with the blurb and then move on to some questions. Alright, this week’s blurb is going to be about digital distribution. This gets A LOT of coverage in the games media, but not really anywhere else. Now, I don’t want to say bad things about the games media but you people are dirt wrong on this one. Digital distribution is the future, but it’s not the present. It will be at least the next generation of consoles before physical media goes the way of the dinosaurs and disappears. Frankly, the world just doesn’t have the infrastructure to support it now. I live in a place with a surprisingly good broadband connection, and a lot of the cities have them. However, all of those other people who buy their games from Walmart and not GameStop don’t necessarily have the connection speed necessary to make downloading a game like Metal Gear Solid 4 or Fallout 3 (read: really big game) in a practical amount of time. Further more there are a lot of legal issues that are still to be sorted out with digital downloads. I’m not saying that digital downloads aren’t the future of gaming, they are, I’m just saying calm down people, the future isn’t here yet, and it’s still a long way away. Right, so on to the questions.
Do you think the new PS3 Slim rumors are true? And do you think it’ll be sold for $50-100 less than the current model?
I hope so. At this point people are expecting a new, slimmed down PS3 sku for a cheaper price. There’s no doubt in my mind that all of these price drop rumors are hurting their already low sales numbers. As a rule, I usually don’t care about sales numbers, but if these dirt low numbers keep up (or down rather) through the holiday season and into next year than I’m going to start getting a little worried. I don’t know how long Sony will be able to keep pushing this system if they can’t sell consoles. So, yes, I do believe the latest slim rumors and for the hope of PS3 gamers everywhere, they’d better be true, or our console of choice might disappear completely. Also, what I think Sony should do in my opinion, is launch the PS3 slim as soon as possible but only for $50 less, then at Tokyo Game Show drop the price of the old skus $100 and the slim a further $50. Sure, they’ll be losing money but lets look at it like this. They can sell a bunch of systems for $299 and lose some money, or they can not sell a bunch of systems for $399 and lose all the money. This isn’t a matter of making money anymore, it’s about moving systems, because $299 is greater than $0.
Do you think the PSP Go! will see a price cut before it’s even launched?
It’s possible. It’s my understanding that they could sell it for the price of the PSP 3000 and they’d still be making money on it. So while it’s possible, I don’t see it happening unless the Go! flops misserably at launch, which I don’t think it will. So I think it’ll be at least 6 months (read: E3 2010) until the PSP Go! sees a price drop. That said, I’d like it to have a price drop because I want one. I didn’t buy a PSP because of the UMD so the fact that it’s now UMD-less it makes me very happy, but that price point makes me want to cry.
How’d you enjoy Killzone 2?
Alright, so I got this question on twitter from someone who saw that I was playing Killzone 2. Yes, I just bought my own copy (but I did play it before) so it wasn’t until last week that I got to just sit down and play through it at my leisure. So what did I think of it? It was pretty damn good. I won’t say it’s the funnest game I’ve ever played, but it’s the best looking. Haven’t got a chance to check out the multiplayer yet, having just beat the single player yesterday morning, so I can’t comment on that, but I will be checking it out shortly. So, my thoughts on the game, very good, did it deserve the massive mountain of hype? I don’t know, I wasn’t the one hyping it.
What game are you most looking forward to in the second half of 2009?
I think it’s because it’s coming out next month (hopefully) but actually it’s Batman: Arkham Asylum. I am a HUGE Batman fan and I really want to play this game. I’m definitely going to pick it up Day 1. Just the thought of a GOOD Batman game makes me giddy. But, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, MAG: Massive Action Games and (looking to next week) Battlefield 1943 are all games I can’t wait to get a hold of and play.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week. It’s summer time so until the GamesCon in Germany I’m not sure what I’m going to write about. I finally have some time to play actual games so I’ll be doing a lot of that. Anyway, I’ll be back with more next SATURDAY (unless I’m stuck in a tent somewhere) so if you have any questions leave them in the comments or send them to my twitter account (right her’).
