I would like to make clear from the outset that I HATE MICROSOFT. This will show you where I’m going. I despise Microsoft. I was an avid Macintosh user until the lack of software literally drove me from my Mac LC III to an earlyish Dell of limited power. Microsoft makes buggy operating systems, drives out competition with unfair monopolistic practices, and consistently delivers software that is under-expectations and under-performing. Sony makes beautiful things that work but which sometimes require maintenance. Wonderful HDTVs, wonderful stereo equipment, and, at least they used to make, the monitor and other such equipment for the Macintosh.
Why should their damn gaming consoles be any different?
I am a self-admitted PS3 “fanboy”. I love the Playstation. Always have. From the second I tried Resident Evil 2 on it on a PS1 (guy who showed it to me warned he had given up sex for the game), I was hooked. For years, I lived in the Playstation Eden — until Microsoft popped it’s snake’s head up to offer us all an apple.
I will not say the XBox is a piece of shit. Perhaps it is. All I know is that I will not play it. It doesn’t have the games library I want. The controller is clunky as hell. And it’s made by MSFT.
So now MSFT is gloating because the PS3 has been delayed until November 11. They seem quite certain that if they can sell 10 million consoles before Sony gets to market, they will be the “dominant system of this generation”.
Here’s why they won’t, and why they might:
Rabid fans of the PS3, like me, have been saving up cash in the hopes that the Spring release date originally released by Sony was true. The closer we’ve gotten to Spring without hearing anything or seeing any commercials on TV, the more we began to accept the fact that Sony is probably delaying the console. So I doubt it was really a shock to anyone when we found out it was going to be a wait until November. Oh, people aren’t happy, but…we’ll wait. Or will we?
Microsoft is betting that we won’t. Microsoft is betting that the wife is out of town and we want a quick blowjob from a gross hooker — a gross hooker who will only offer HD-DVD as a peripheral (way to rush to market, MSFT). But we’ve got the money saved up for that glorious night of romance when the wife returns. Are we really going to blow it on a reach-around from Microsoft’s generation-and-a-half-step console?
Okay. I’ll admit it. I’m tempted. But who wouldn’t be tempted when the ads for Fight Night are running right in your face? Your PS2 boxing game don’t look like dat, do it?
But for now, I’m just tempted. About as tempted as I was to get an XBox as a second system back when I had the cash and was wondering what Halo is like.
It remains to be seen whether I, or the rest of my stupid cohorts, jump on board XBox’s ship since Sony left us treading water for another year. Because chances are we’re not going to buy both of them, at least not for a long while.
/rant