WTF Sony?

[Ohio Joe]

Sony was looking so nice for the PS4... They really had to do nothing more then deliver a more powerful system. They are fucking it up though.

First... We have the big news that they somehow managed to release a firm ware update that bricked some consoles... ummm... Are you shitting me? Wait, theres more! They had no backout plan... Nothing in fucking place in case something bad happened... Seriously Sony? Stop distributing the update is all you had in place? Mercifully, my PS3 was not bricked

http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-3-Support/bd-p/22035

There is just no excuse for this... Shit happens and updates can always go bad... Which is why it's fucking IT 101 to have a backout plan before you can go live. I promise you Sony... If your practices are this piss poor, put me in charge of releases and testing and I have no doubt I can cut your life cycle by at least a third while also cutting production bugs by 90%... Fuckin-A, no backout plan... Sheesh.

Next on todays shit on Sony time is this little gem that pretty much slipped by me:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/ps-plus-is-not-required-for-ps4-social-features-entertainment-apps-or-auto-updates/

I'm sorry... Did I get that right:

"A subscription to Sony’s PlayStation Plus service is required to play PlayStation 4 games online, but we now know that the console’s auto-update capabilities, streaming entertainment apps like Netflix, and “social features” won’t require a paid subscription. Back catalog streaming of PlayStation 3 games might, but that’s a bramble nest of “ifs” and “maybes,” according to Sony Computer Entertainmet UK managing director Fergal Gara."

WTF? You want me to pay a monthly fee to use a feature of a game I've already paid for and not allow the developers to use any other method of online play?

I am not liking this next generation of consoles at all.

[The Philosopher]

1. Double WTF!?

When was this update sent out? I just checked my system, I don't have it (4.41), but am I at a risk of getting the new update? I'm glad I was smart enough to keep auto-update off.

I haven't trusted Sony since my introduction to Skyrim (without an internet connection), but I don't believe Sony is ethical toward their customers, like many big businesses out there. It seems like a business is never about providing a service to a customer, but getting as much money out of someone before the end (and then using the money to start the process all over again).

And I say the above admiring Sony for a lot of things. The PS3 is a beautiful product. But their handling of business is atrocious.

I've already decided to go the PC gaming route for this next gen. I don't know of any PS-exclusive titles that I play, and if I'm not aware of it, it's apparently a game I won't spend $400 and give myself a lot of annoyance to play. COD, Elder Scrolls, Dragons Age...I'm pretty sure I can play on a PC.

One of the biggest reasons I won't be getting a PS4 is the possibility of not being able to buy used games. Even if I was rich (which I'm not), this would be a point of solidarity to me. Not everyone can afford $60 bucks to play a game. But if you spend $150-400 to have access to a game, then you should be able to buy the title at a discount. Not for free, as Microsoft and possibly Sony seem to think the used game market means, but discounted. It's entirely bad business, in my view, to take this option out of the hands of the customer.

And because so, I think they've missed a potentially profitable market that plays to the strength of what they've been advertising. I bought Skyrim at a discount and fell in love with it, until the glitches. And what did I do afterward? Bagged the updates as soon as I had a proper internet and then bought the DLC's when they came out. The way I see it, Sony AND the publisher made money off me because I had access to someone's used game. And, to me, that's an opening.

If I were a Sony executive, I'd have the PS4 built to handle heavy DLC-ing and PC style modding (why, yes, I do often ask for the impossible from the universe--I did grow up trying to Force choke my friends, after all), as well as backward compatibility all the way back to PS1 games, AND support the used game market. And keep that shit to myself until the Xbox One is released. That, to me, would be the ultimate business decision, and I would pay them the 400 bucks for their system so they know I appreciated their move. Because that would be entirely hilarious to watch Microsoft's reaction.

But, alas, the world doesn't work that way. No one dreams, they just take advantage.