So, there’s a lot of hype about the Playstation 4 right now. It’s premature to get too hyped up about it though, for a few reasons:
First, Sony (RIAA and MPAA member) has a much worse track record than Microsoft does about skinning the sheep when it comes to the customers. Note that even as one hand Monday was waving the used games bloody shirt, the other hand was announcing mandatory Playstation Plus. Sony did a masterful job Monday playing to the press and the social media, but you know who else did that? Barack Obama, and we know how much of the hype he lived up to.
Second, I’m old enough to remember when Sony fanboys were outraged about Xbox 360’s paid Live account requirements, and how Playstation 3 was allegedly better because you got the full feature set built-in with a free PSN account. Well, sometime along the way, PS3 got the same paid account bonuses Xbox 360 had. Funny that. So what happens if Sony changes their mind again, this time about used games, a year or two down the line?
Third, this is a five year war. Let’s say nothing changes from now. What happens if Microsoft wins the exclusives war because of the used games feature? EA didn’t cancel online passes out of the goodness of their hearts, folks.
Fourth, I’m also old enough to remember how I was told the last generation was supposed to be a war between Microsoft and Sony, when Nintendo’s innovation won the day. Well, now Sony and Microsoft are all about motion controls, while Nintendo’s shipping a tablet and possibly going online with Pokemon. Too early to declare winners or losers. Again, this is a five year war.
Oh, if you think that Used Games are going to be the knockout blow that “Two Ninety Nine” was to the Saturn, think again. Microsoft ain’t Sega.
So yeah, about that other thing in the news. So a reporter in Brazil conspires with a contractor to steal our secrets, who then fled to the People’s Republic of China to hide out, carrying an undisclosed number of other secrets with him. A Traitor and the Glenns Greenwald are not the ones I will trust to be looking out for American interests, folks. Not now, not ever.
Besides, we’ll never know the whole story until we hear from the esteemed Thomas Ellers and Rick Ellensburg on PRISM.
You know who else isn’t a hero? the anarchist gang Anonymous, who nearly ruined the investigation and prosecution of the rapists of that poor high school girl who was terribly abused by classmates. Also notice how they can’t even try to do ‘good’ without committing crimes.
You want to see what Internet service will be like in 50 years if we let them get their feet in the door with Net Neutrality? read the first two pages of this Supreme Court opinion on raisin regulations. Seriously, raisin regulations.