Suddenly the PSN is paying for "free"

Discussion in 'Video and Computer Games' started by Uppa 90, Apr 26, 2011.

  1. Uppa 90

    Uppa 90 Member

    Jan 16, 2004
    K.C. MO
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  2. FIFARay007

    FIFARay007 Member

    Feb 25, 2004
    CT
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Definitely not a fan of this at all, not that I play much online, but it's never good hearing your info may be out there.

    However, I don't see how not paying for it makes it worse. I'd be MORE pissed if I did pay for it and it went down.
     
  3. Dante

    Dante Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 19, 1998
    Upstate NY
    Club:
    Juventus FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    PlaystationPlus subscribers pay for their "service"
     
  4. JeremyEritrea

    JeremyEritrea Member+

    Jun 29, 2006
    Takoma Park, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I know a lot of people hate Microsoft, but Sony is much worse, IMO. They are the people who brought DRM "copy protection" to CDs without telling anyone. Yet PS3 fanboyz constantly rag on Microsoft as being some sort of Evil Empire, while at the same time they praise Sony for being innovative and open.
     
  5. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Linux, FTW?
     
  6. That Phat Hat

    That Phat Hat Member+

    Nov 14, 2002
    Just Barely Outside the Beltway
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Japan
    Geez, I hope nobody entered their credit card information.
    Whoa, people actually think Memory Stick/Betamax Sony is "open"? FWIW, they *used to be* innovative, but they really killed themselves with inter-departmental infighting, money wasted on unprofitable projects and price wars in areas they were actually good. Which isn't unlike Microsoft, except Sony didn't have Windows licenses and Office.
     
  7. JeremyEritrea

    JeremyEritrea Member+

    Jun 29, 2006
    Takoma Park, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Fanboyz think they're open and innovative. I don't have a clue why they think that, but it's where their heads are at.
     
  8. Jawz10

    Jawz10 Moderator

    Feb 27, 1999
    Indianapolis
    Club:
    AC Milan
    Sony still make some of the most beautiful and long lasting products. In fact, just the other day they showed off their new tablet line which is going in a different direction from the usual iClones. Just because they had a security breach doesn't suddenly make it open season to voice opinions that would generally reside in the minority.
     
  9. Dante

    Dante Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 19, 1998
    Upstate NY
    Club:
    Juventus FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    And I guarantee they will be a failure.
     
  10. That Phat Hat

    That Phat Hat Member+

    Nov 14, 2002
    Just Barely Outside the Beltway
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Japan
    Yeah, I'd be cautious about expecting much from a device that won't launch for 5 months at the earliest (and I guarantee you the actual launch date will be pushed back, and by the time it ships, there's going to be chatter about iPad 3). And I'd also worry that it looks like Sony rushed to announce S1 and S2 after the Xoom and Playbook shipped (and they both feel like they were rushed to the market), and that they haven't announced the price, which probably means it'll be priced too high and/or require a wireless contract.

    Sony Ericsson and Vaio established a tradition of putting out devices that looked good and beat the pants out of everyone on press releases and spec sheets. I could be proven wrong, but I doubt I will be.

    Their products, and their very public eff ups, are a symptom of corporate clusterf---.
     
  11. Jawz10

    Jawz10 Moderator

    Feb 27, 1999
    Indianapolis
    Club:
    AC Milan
    Well when you go up against Apple its a hard sell, regardless of how well made your product is. Specifically, the problems lie in that both will be using older processors that will be outdated in 5 months time and Sony has a habit of slightly overpricing their Vaio branded line.

    However, as I said, aesthetically the products are beautiful and will probably be well built. Sony's computer division is miles ahead of their phones.
    [​IMG]

    True, they should follow suit with Apple and announce something a week or two before they release it.

    The Xoom is a nice device but using it next to the new Acer tablet I couldn't really tell much difference. Both UI's performed well, apps loaded quickly, both have Honeycomb, two cameras... the only thing I noticed was the screen on the Acer was arguably brighter and it cost $150 less than the Wifi only Xoom. Playbook is promising, but needs more interesting and powerful native Blackberry apps.

    If the price points were similar, I would chose that Sony S1 over all the rest any day because... well, because its sexy.
     
  12. JeremyEritrea

    JeremyEritrea Member+

    Jun 29, 2006
    Takoma Park, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Vaio laptops and desktops are beautiful machines, but they're not worth the money.

    I will freely admit that I have a 40" Sony Bravia flatscreen TV (model KDL-40VL160). A Sony 7.1 surround sound receiver (model STR-DH810) which I bought to replace my old Sony 5.1 sound sound receiver (model STR-DA555ES). And a Sony Blu-Ray player (model BDP-BX2).
     
  13. That Phat Hat

    That Phat Hat Member+

    Nov 14, 2002
    Just Barely Outside the Beltway
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Japan
    I'm sensing that Sony's really good at the high-end hobbyist stuff, and really bad at the general consumer stuff where they're trying to balance software, hardware, industrial design and price competitiveness.

    And I'm thinking they just don't have the attention to detail to pull off a good consumer experience - did you know they have a music store? Of course you didn't.
     
  14. Jawz10

    Jawz10 Moderator

    Feb 27, 1999
    Indianapolis
    Club:
    AC Milan
    Music store Qriocity just launched. Had it for a month... not better than so many other services.

    Sony suck at software, which is understandable considering they're a hardware company, hence awesome PS3, terrible PSN. Microsoft are a software company, hence awesome network, terrible hardware problems.

    And after the whole RROD debacle everyone called Microsoft greedy and evil, so I suppose Sony hate is par for the course.
     
  15. That Phat Hat

    That Phat Hat Member+

    Nov 14, 2002
    Just Barely Outside the Beltway
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Japan
    I hate to quote the whole article, but the most informative piece about the debacle I've read: http://www.cringely.com/2011/04/sony-may-be-clueless-in-psn-hack/
     
  16. SpaniardFC

    SpaniardFC Member

    Jun 8, 2009
    Vilagarcía de Arousa
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Sony always makes proprietary accesories for their electronics. I had a sony ericcson phone that was also an mp3 player but I couln't hook up headphones to it, had too hook up sony heaphones to it.


    Anyone remember the sony mini discs? They're always trying to monopolize the market, ******** sony.

     
  17. Jawz10

    Jawz10 Moderator

    Feb 27, 1999
    Indianapolis
    Club:
    AC Milan
    iPod's and iPhone's use a proprietary cord to sync with proprietary software (iTunes) with DRM encrypted songs. iPad's don't have a USB and have no expandable memory.

    ******** Apple too right? Perspective people...
     
  18. FIFARay007

    FIFARay007 Member

    Feb 25, 2004
    CT
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Glad someone brought this up. Apple is by far the BIGGEST proprietary bitch around.

    Can't speak about the other Sony things, I think the PS3 is the only Sony thing I own! :) Although this hacking incident sucks, one thing I really did like about the PS3 was the ability to upgrade my 40G HD to 600G with relative ease.
     
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  19. SpaniardFC

    SpaniardFC Member

    Jun 8, 2009
    Vilagarcía de Arousa
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    I can walk into any department store and pick up a sync cable, I cannot walk into any store and pick up headphones for my phone.




     
  20. Jawz10

    Jawz10 Moderator

    Feb 27, 1999
    Indianapolis
    Club:
    AC Milan
    I'm not trying to go tit for tat, in fact, the point of my rebuttal is that these are companies, and making a profit is the goal. If that means selling propriety cables, DRM, gimping capabilities, and short changing the consumer then so be it.

    There is a long list of positives to be written about Apple products as well, so too for Sony products. However, pointing out Sony's negatives at this particular time is just taking a cheap shot.
     
  21. That Phat Hat

    That Phat Hat Member+

    Nov 14, 2002
    Just Barely Outside the Beltway
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Japan
    * DRM encryption was mandated by the labels. Jobs was against it, and now most songs you can get DRM-free. Plus, no one has to buy music from iTunes. Consumer just choose to, in massive numbers. The iTunes format is pretty non-ass-backwards and it doesn't get in the user's way for the most part. Yeah, it's DRM, but in the real world, who cares? The iTunes itself is getting a little old and bloated, but it's still pretty intuitive, and it's the reason the iPod is the only mp3 player that people actually bought in measurable quantities and why iPhone is the best-selling smartphone on the market - iTunes works just fine (and better than most alternatives) for most people.

    * Yeah, sure, Apple's iPod/iPhone connector is proprietary, but again, in the real world, it's a non-issue. Most households I know have multiple iDevices and have bought multiple generations of iPods. If I'm traveling and forget my charger at home, I'm not going to have any trouble finding a store that sells one. And there are so many iPod dock speaks and other accessories around, it's just not that big a deal. But how many people have Sony Ericsson devices? Which third party manufacturers make Sony Ericsson accessories? How certain am I that I can find a store that sells Sony Ericsson-compatible cables?

    * Sony Ericsson phones have a proprietary headphone jack. HEADPHONE jack. Or to be more accurate, there's one plug for the charger, headphone and USB. That meant on my old phone, I couldn't charge and listen to music or sync or use a hands-free device at the same time. Sony's become one of those companies that confuse industrial design with "shit that looks good".

    * Remember back when the first iMac came out, people lost their shit because there wasn't a floppy disk drive? And it did inconvenience people for a little, but then a couple of years later, nobody cared, because people just stopped using floppies. Now, I don't think people will stop using USB devices just yet, but that's the trend. People will use Wifi or cloud-based external storage. Services like Dropbox will make thumb drives less essential. My printer's already wireless. Yeah, buying an adapter to download photos from cameras is a bitch, but it's not ungodly expensive.

    Look, you can compare Sony and Apple products and talk about "proprietary" and "DRM" and about which features are missing, but where Apple has succeeded is being different in ways that doesn't get in the way of most consumers ("most" being the operative word) and leaving out features that many people want, but most people can do without.
     
  22. Goodsport

    Goodsport Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 18, 1999
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  23. Goodsport

    Goodsport Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 18, 1999
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  24. Dante

    Dante Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 19, 1998
    Upstate NY
    Club:
    Juventus FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I have yet to receive any sort of notification from Sony regarding the shut down or anything, I just think that's poor customer service on their part. It's not like they don't have our emails, or maybe they don't anymore since they were stolen.
     
  25. Jawz10

    Jawz10 Moderator

    Feb 27, 1999
    Indianapolis
    Club:
    AC Milan
    I got an email for my Japanese PSN account, but not for my US one...
     

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