PS3 Controller Flimsy, Wii Controller Fun 222
With the advent of new input styles in the PS3 and Wii, many gamers are wondering what it will be like to actually play with the new controllers. Via Aeropause, an article on IGN says that the SIXAXIS controller is flimsy and poorly designed. Meanwhile, via Joystiq, an article on British site Entertainmentwise reports that the Wii isn't physically exhausting at all, as some people feared. After two hours of playtime, in fact, they loved the experience. From the article: "Some gamers have shown concern that the activity level required to play Wii games, especially the sporty titles, may be too high. There are concerns that you have to stand for long periods of time and use body actions such as swinging your arm above your head or at the side of your body. After playing non stop for two hours, did this happen to me? No. I'm not exactly Wonder woman in terms of fitness and I can assure you, as a regular player there was enough action to warrant perhaps making sure one has access to a tap before playing (you're going to want a drink if you play for as long as we did!) and possibly ensuring plenty of moving around space in your living room. The key to the Wii control is that even the most active title on the launch line up, Wii Sports, doesn't require you to make large body motions unless you want to."
Good Title (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Good Title (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll be honest, I'm a born-again Nintendo fanboy. I desperately want a Wii, and have no personal interest in a PS3. But what's with the anti-Sony smear campaign? How does that make sense?
Re:Good Title (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if from time to time it looks like the PS3 will barely make it out of the gate, it's impossible to judge a product that hasn't yet been released. (It could wind up either kicking or sucking huge amounts of ass, or some bizarre combination of ass kick-suckery in between.) Yet, it would seem that this post was crafted specifically to make the PS3 look bad by comparing it's controller - which was mentioned in TFA-1 as being awkward and uncomfortable, though still usable - to the Wii's controller, described in TFA-2 as being comfortable easy to use, even though the remainder of TFA-1 showed that not only did the writer approve of the PS3, he fucking loved it. (On a slightly unrelated note, why the fuck would I want to take any site devoted to gaming journalism seriously anyway, when it's been proven time and again that gaming journalism might as well be considered freelance fiction work?) In spite of all this, it'd seem that whoever posted this stuff almost hoped we'd just take their word for it instead of R'ing either TFA, and just take their own 'flimsy' inference as gospel. None of it makes sense, until you look at who posted it.
I'm in the same boat as you, though I have much fonder memories of Sega. I love Nintendo as much as the next guy, and they haven't pissed me off nearly as much as Sony has over the past year, but come the fuck on. This is like Anti-Sony propaganda now, and almost all of it is spouted from the pen - or should I say keyboard - of Zonk. It would've been fine enough to post the articles individually. A mostly glowing review of the PS3, and a nice piece on the Wii's controller, but no. He just had to roll them all into one speculative clusterfuck of bullshit and fail in a thinly veiled fit of fanboyism disguised as reporting. It's this kind of shit that makes Slashdot look less like a news site and more like a retarded fanclub.
Seeing as he can't do it himself, I think someone needs to put a cap on Zonk's shit, or at least give him a stern talking to about the virtues of shutting the fuck up until he has something intelligent to say.
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I expect that vast majority have expected the PS3 controller to behave virtually identically to the PS2 controller. About the only reported differences to the layout are the more trigger like L/R buttons, wider range & precision on the analogue controller and a Sony button instead of the analog button. The Sony button probably takes you back to the system menu.
The lack of rumble is the most pecu
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That's a goddamn lie and you know it.
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Well, he likens loading a disc into the slot-loading drive to getting head from a hooker. And the touch-sensitive power and eject button are magical as well. But I don't recall him saying anything positive about it's ability to, you know, play games. Sure, it seems to
Re:Good Title (Score:4, Informative)
It's fun if the games themselves are fun. That's not really entirely up to Sony.
What is up to Sony are things like the touch-sensitive power and eject buttons.
I will say that I played some Minna no Golf and some Gran Turismo on the PS3's Sony has set up in Ginza last week, and I was pretty blown away by the system. No, those two games aren't anything we haven't seen before (though they've never looked that good). But the system looked and felt extremely polished, and if these are first-gen games, then I can't wait to see what's coming down the road.
I left with the distinct impression that a lot of people bashing the PS3 simply don't know what the hell they're talking about. Maybe there aren't any games you like yet, but the PS3 itself is an extremely well-designed system that exists now, you can play it now, and that seems like it's got room to spare in the power department. That's pretty much all Sony can do.
As for the controller, it's very light. Otherwise, it feels just like the Dual Shock, a controller that even just a few years ago a lot of people were saying was the best game controller ever designed. I never really felt that way myself, but I never disliked the controller either... still, I don't get how you go from loving the Dual Shock to hating the Sixaxis. It's the same controller, just minus a few ounces. And that weight savings comes completely from the motors being removed; it's not like the plastic itself is even any different.
Let me just reiterate - the PS3 exists and is sitting there waiting to be played in Tokyo. So there's really no reason for any of these myths to be flying around at this point. If you can't play the system for yourself (I'm looking at you, Zonk), just listen to the people that have.
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After all, what matters is the games, and that is basically in no way up to Sony(unless you really, really love gran turismo. Or PS1/PS2 titles, in which case buy a PS2 and save yourself $120-$480). It's all up to us. Hence the console wars on the internets.
Pick your poison. We'll see how things turn out.
Pick your side. The one that say
Wow, you're not kidding (Score:3, Insightful)
Henceforth, along with the worthless whatever.com is, like slashdot, an OSDN company disclaimers, every time Zonk posts something game-related I'd like a Zonk is incapable of performing his function as a reasonably unbiased editor on this topic. And I think it's important that the disclaimer stays there when he dupes the article the next day too. At least that'd tell people something they might not know.
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Wii is targeted at different audience. There are some games not available for Wii - but available for PS2/3. As well as Xbox.
Wii is targeted at non-gamers. Bit like Nintendo DS is targeted at kids - but also has appeal to wider range of audience. Games there aren't just dumb - but funny. But on PS3 you get more serious gaming with serious titles. Compare e.g. PS3's "Gundam: Target In Sight" [ps3-gundam.net] v. Wii's "SD Gundam" [channel.or.jp]
I have quite a dilema
Smear campaign? (Score:3, Insightful)
The same company that sold MP3 players that did not play MP3 files?
Or maybe we aren't andI am getting confussed.
Maybe you are talkig about Zony, Soni, or Sonee.
Sorry
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Great News (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great News (Score:5, Funny)
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But, but, it's better to watch those with those fears than those without such fears.
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Next thing you know, Richard Simmons and Tony Little will be endorsing the Wiimote.
Re:Great News (Score:5, Insightful)
The double-standard of this "I'll look stupid" and "it's too much exercise" argument kills me. DDR was one of the most popular games in history (greatly improving PS2 & Dancepad sales), yet people worry about holding a remote control? The way I figure it, most couch warriors are used to holding remotes. There's not much on TV, so it's *flip* *flip* *flip*. Plenty of exercise for warming up to the Wii.
The one part of the article that really stuck out at me, though, was the comment that "large motions is how you have fun". I don't know how many people here have played Laser Tag-type games, but the sweeps and motions you make with your weapon are quite different when you're relaxed and when you're pumped. When you're relaxed, your reaction time is extremely slow. You tend to use extremely fine movements in attempts to aim, and may even tilt your wrist quite a bit. Yet when you're pumped, you work the floor, dodging, sweeping, and rolling. Your arm is primarily used for targetting, and you gain quite a bit of precision because of it.
It's just a lot more fun to get up and exercise. It releases a lot of good hormones that make you enjoy yourself. Besides, there's nothing quite like professionally strapping on your gear, just to have the guy next to you asking, "Have you ever played this before?" Oh yeah, bring it on.
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If i can strap on a plastic guitar and attempt Smoke on the Water fir the firs
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Because
1) I live in a city of 8 million people, where actual tennis courts are usually unavailable, and
2) Because I suck at actual tennis. I spend more time chasing down and picking up errant balls than playing the game itself.
So this isn't a direct comparison? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:So this isn't a direct comparison? (Score:4, Insightful)
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So if you wanted to get a reveiw of cars, would you completely ignore any review by a site that only did a review of one of the cars you wanted? Sometimes, you don't have the option of having a single source review everything on earth.
Re:So this isn't a direct comparison? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, but automobile reviews contain actual measurable data more often than not. I can get actual metrics from one vehicle and compare it to the same metrics gathered elsewhere for another vehicle. I sure wouldn't go take one person's personal impressions of the car and put them up against one other person's personal impressions of another car, especially if one of the cars in question wasn't even the focal point of one of the reviews but merely a side commentary.
For the Slashdot editors to trot this crap out as some sort of legitimate comparison is deplorable.
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Re:So this isn't a direct comparison? (Score:4, Insightful)
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If I'm in the market to buy a car, I'm going to read reviews of the cars I'm interested in. I'm going to read a review for Car A, and another one for Car B, and another one for Car C. It's very unlikely that those reviews will compare A to B or A to C or B to C, but that doesn't stop them from being useful or informative.
More damning news (Score:5, Funny)
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Really, does it matter? There are six conceptual axes, and nothing inherent saying they must be the same. It's six degrees of freedom, but maybe "SixFree" didn't ring the right bells for their marketing department.
Heck, with 6 degrees (Score:2, Funny)
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Crap, I missed the 'Post Anonymously' again...
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Adding yaw changes your orientation.
If I spin out at 0,0 and go straight to 1,1, while still spinning the steering wheel like mad, I'll be yawing like crazy yet my up/down, left/right movement is a straight line. I could be turned around, facing left, any direction on the X-Y axis.
Now, if, at the end, I was facing forward AND up instead of just for
Spinal Tap: (Score:2)
Yeah, and... (Score:4, Insightful)
Forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical of a negative review of a Sony product before it is even released. I'll wait until I see a demo unit and judge for myself.
Re:Yeah, and... (Score:4, Insightful)
Granted, if it were your mate from down the pub telling you the same thing then you'd be quite right being sceptical, but I don't think so in this case.
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Forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical of a negative review of a Sony product before it is even released. I'll wait until I see a demo unit and judge for myself.
I know, man. Those fanbois will come up with anything based on zero knowledege at all.
For example I myself was skeptical about the "PSP disks shoot out like ninja stars". I'll tell you I was quite dissapointed and ended up deciding not to purchase a PSP when I discove
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Actually, this was true. Sony tweaked the build of the machines before they made it outside of Japan. Google around, you'll find videos of it.
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In the videos I saw, it didn't take much to make it happen. That was from the early run of the machines, though. As I said, Sony did something to them to alleviate that problem. So, yes, it's a myth that it's a common problem. I'm just disputing the bit that it was ever a problem at all.
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Think back. Remember how all the reviews called the PSP flimsy and poorly built? But then they actually came out, and aside from dead-pixel problems, the units were solid. So why should I believe them?
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whiiiiii! (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if the bad feedback of the ps3 controller continues, if it will spark a redesign? Its not like it hasnt happened before, the original dual shock came out years after the lauch of the original playstation if I remember correctly. I wouldnt mind seeing the "boomerang" controller they showed off early in the design. Is the flimy feel a real problem or is it simply the loss of heft from the rumble motors?
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You may find that once you get in to it, strenuous movement isn't required to actually play these games. If it isn't, then the excercise component is non-existent. While some movement is better than no movement, the actual benefits might not even material
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"They dont spend too much time on their current console but with winter coming gaming becomes much more of a time waster."
They get about 2-3 hours a week on their console, they are usually too busy with little league or riding their bikes, but thanks for your concern.
Lazy Gamers (Score:4, Insightful)
Thank you, Zonk (Score:2, Interesting)
Of course it's going to be flimsy! (Score:2)
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Weight doesn't always contribute to making something feel high in quality. There's also...
this is actually good (Score:2)
I suspect playing th wii will get those overweight americans back in shape
Useless without pics (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/05/ps3-control
Correct me if this is out of date, it looks like it's from May. Same style/feel of the PS2 dual shock.
Wow, that PS3 article was, um, interesting (Score:2)
What about the games? Is the thing any fun to play? I guess they were only allowed to play one game and didn't bother saying an
Oh my (Score:3, Funny)
You carefully position the disc-based media of your choice against the PS3's front-loading drive slot and the magic fairies deep inside suck it up like a particularly enthusiastic four-quid whore.
o_Ô
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-BbT
2 hour Wii test... (Score:3, Funny)
As an adult, I don't play nearly as much. I get home around 5:30-6:00 and it takes 30 min to an 1 hour to fix dinner and eat. So say 6:00-10:00 or 6:00-11:00 is left for video game time. That's 4-5 hours. I've been drooling over the Wii, but will I kill over after getting it and Zelda or Mario?
On a side note, if I don't die from over excerise, I might get fit.
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Maybe I'm getting old, but the idea of playing any video game nonstop for two hours (or more!) strikes me as ridiculously uncomfortable.
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It's all the chair. With the right chair, working 8 hours at work is a breeze. With the the right futon chair, playing 5-6 hours of FF is a breeze. It sounds like the excerise part will be optional and that you don't have to excerise that much if you don't want to. Well, 4-5 hours of light excerise is still excerise. If I'm going to be doing medium or heavy exercise for 4-5
Wii controller fun (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems the Wii controller is still having problems working in a room with sunlight [warcry.com], or fluorescent [ign.com] or halogen [digg.com] lighting.
I think I'd rather have a controller that worked properly and could be change if desired.
Wii controller not as good as the hype either (Score:3, Informative)
Reading this little review [2old2play.com] of the Wii and its games shows that the Wiimote isn't without fault either, especially when it comes to games that only got adopted to the Wii and not written from scratch and yes, that includes Zelda.
It however doesn't stop with this, its not just a problem with badly adopted games (very bad sign for multi-platform titles and thus third party support), but there is also another "problem" with the Wiimote that seems to have been largly unnoticed. Unlike early rumors have indicated the Wiimote isn't a true 3D device that can detect its position in space, instead it can only detect relative motion and tilt, just like the PS3 controller, the only different is that the Wiimote has a lightgun-like sensor that allows aiming at the TV/sensorbar. This pretty much destroys a lot of game ideas, like for example everyones favorite, the realistic sword fighting. Sure, there can still be sword games, but it won't be a 1:1 mapping from Wiimote to sword. Red Steel for example is even after the cleanup limited to basically 8 predefined sword moves.
That of course doesn't mean that the Wii will be a bad console, but after all the hype some people should better adjust their expectations to reality or they will have to deal with a huge disapointment.
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You can of course do some 3D motion if you only have relative data, but sooner or later (most likly in a matter of minutes) it will declaibrate and the console won't have any idea where the heck your controller truely is. It might be possible to recalibrate it with the optical sensor, but that assumes that the sensor gives depth information, quite possible, but given all the talk about the Wiimote basically gets out of control when you get closer to the TV I am not so su
I liked the PS3 Controller (Score:3, Informative)
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Slashdot? They're posted everywhere.
I wouldn't complain anyway. I find it very interesting that Sony spontaneously decided to lower the Japan launch price. I wonder why they'd do something crazy like that?
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Re:Bring out the 'zonked' tag - never said "flimsy (Score:2)
Zonk is just upset because they canned their original "boomerang" shaped controller. He loved that thing.
Re:Bring out the 'zonked' tag - never said "flimsy (Score:2)
Attach the "Zonked" tag for such a blantant re-writing of article content.
Quite. See how far you get if you submit an article about alleged problems with the Wii and sunlight, or Wii consoles locking up.
Re:Bring out the 'zonked' tag - never said "flimsy (Score:5, Informative)
FTFA:
"Personally, we can't help but feel that the SIXAXIS (as it's now known) has been sadly neglected when viewed alongside the rest of the PS3. Compared to Microsoft's uber-comfortable Xbox 360 pad, the SIXAXIS feels cheap, plasticky, uncomfortable and disconcertingly light - almost as if it's going to fly out of your hands during those more extreme gaming moments.
More worrying still, the newly-designed lower L and R shoulder triggers feel more like they belong on an early controller prototype than the near-final model. Replicating the 360 pad, rather than being simple shoulder-mounted buttons, the triggers are now hinged horizontally along the controller, with pressure forcing them inward along the bottom - like triggers then, really. Trouble is, they're placed almost unnaturally low meaning we found ourselves operating them by jamming our fingers in between the hinges to apply pressure, rather than using the buttons themselves. What's more, the triggers are convex, with no grooves to keep your fingers in place - an issue further compounded by their smooth finish, offering no resistance against your finger tips. Invariably we found our digits slipping off with the triggers snapping back to their default position. Bah. Of course, the PS2's Dual Shock pad wasn't without its faults either but we still learned to live with it. It's just a shame that Sony hasn't used its resources to bring its controller up to next-gen standards along with its cutting-edge hardware."
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Dude, relax. A lot. No amount of Zonk in this world will prevent you from enjoying your precious PS3.
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What other property, besides flimsy'ness, would the term 'plasticy' describe?
"I didn't say they liked it wholly, just that they basically thought it was about the same as the PS2 controller - which they also found flawed."
They didn't like it wholly? Heh.
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Plenty of things that are otherwise durable have been described as "plasticy". It usually has a corresponding defintion of "light", which they also said - but has nothing to do with durability. Some cameras are described as "plasticy" even with very firm bodies if it's only plastic used in the construction.
They didn't like it wholly? Heh.
Yes, that's what they said, as you quoted. Heh. Heh. Heh.
That wasn't the topic. That's just
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Okay. However, they combined it with cheap and light. What other connotation besides 'flimsy' did they mean?
"Yes, that's what they said, as you quoted. Heh. Heh. Heh."
Heh.
"It does lend credence to my somewhat less negative reading of the "we don't really like it all that much.". I guess you couldn't follow the logical connection, but then your inability to read attentivley or make infrences
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That's pretty well the meaning of flimsy right there, aprt from "uncomfortable", which is just a bonus problem.
Perhaps you should learn English before trying to be pedantic in it.
Definition is easy (Score:2)
But understanding is not, apparently. (Score:2)
The meaning of cheap does not seem to be apparent to you. Neither does it's combination with "plasticky". It generally means light, and composed of cheap plastic (imagine that!), and has quite a lot to do with durability, especially in the vernacular, where "cheap plastic" is a common slur against something made for the least amount of money possible and which breaks the first time you put any torque on it.
If those words don't imply "Flimsy" to
Not you (Score:2)
Legos are cheap plastic, and they are indestructible.
If those words don't imply "Flimsy" to you, then
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Sure, but at the same time, it still conveys largely the same meaning as what was in the article. As you note, someone would find a way to argue with whatever wording was used. I do grant that Zonk is a shitty editor, and in quotes "cheap, plasticky" would have actually had more punch (I'm assuming this wasn't the submitter's headline, or its their fault, though Zonk sti
Sounds good to me (Score:2)
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Not to nitpick your nitpicking but... (Score:2)
Light
I checked a thesaurus...... Flimsy is listed under Light and Light is listed under Flimsy
Good enough for me.
Not to mention Plasticy does not appear to be a word, so I define it as Flimsy (2 to 1 so would the author)! Prove it means something else!
Maybe you should check one before you tell others to do so
Plasticky is a word (Score:2)
I think it's too much of a stretch to go from Light to Flimsy when you are talking about plastic, which is by defintion light but strong. I know exactly the kind of things they are talking about, like a PS2 controller without the weight of the rumble components - light, plenty strong, and also plastiky. That's why I simply cannot get
Re:Bring out the 'zonked' tag - never said "flims (Score:2)
Exactly! (Score:2)
You too are reading in to the artcle what you want to see and not reading what is there.
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Then say what you mean (Score:2)
I'll give you poorly designed if it is truly uncomforable to hold though, that would be a design flaw. It's hard to know though if they evaluation of either system was with a final controller.
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I cannot think of another reason anyone would rationally post so many times about the definition of the word flimsy and its profound difference from the words "cheap" and "plasticky."
That, or you are a philosophy major in a liberal arts college.
Re:Zonk Articles Flimsy, Actual Journalism Fun (Score:5, Insightful)
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Where does it say that?
"The PS3 they have won't even play DVDs. But don't let that stop a nice Sony bash Zonk, after all its all you've got going on in games.slashdot."
Um, yeah, it has slightly older firmware. That's hardly the same as rewinding it back in time to an earlier revision of the controller.
If Zonk's guilty of drawing absurd conclusions to support their agenda, then you are as well.
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Nintendo wasn't even present TGS.
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Re:Sad but true story... (Score:2)
If I can break a PS2 controller, then I have no doubt that the 'alre
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Says who? What does "final" mean anyway in a system which will upgrade its firmware over time? What does it mean to developers who expect and will receive updated versions of the SDK over time?
- Final hardware have not been shipped to developers yet
Says who? A quick google of "final developers kit ps3" yields an article from August that says otherwise [ign.com]. Interestingly it says "Speaking of LAN play, all eight dev kits were connected over the PlaySta
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