I’ve seen a number of people break out this old Harry Truman chestnut recently:
“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job it’s a depression when you lose yours.”
By this definition, the current economic situation has indeed become a depression for a number of our colleagues in the gaming industry. Just in the past few weeks, some people we’ve linked to, who make the games we play, who have guest-posted on this blog, and even some close friends have found themselves out of work.
As if that didn’t hit close enough to home, just in the past few days we’ve heard about the closing of the Gamerscore Blog, and the subsequent layoffs of its staff. Major Nelson may be the big name, but we’ve always felt the GSB to be more of an opposite number to the PlayStation.Blog. And while we’re on opposite sides of a sometimes contentious competitive atmosphere, we’ve maintained cordial, even friendly, ties with those who do what we do – only in Seattle.
On my first trip to that city last summer for PAX, it was GSB’s Chris Paladino who welcomed me to an opening night party and a joint Rock Band 2 jam session. Since then, we’ve continued to talk about things personal and professional (he’s a huge MLB The Show fan), and to jointly recognize how lucky we are to work in an industry that we’ve both loved since childhood.
That’s why the news was particularly shocking. While we absolutely love working for PlayStation, there’s no joy in seeing some of the more noble soldiers of a competitor go out like that. Best of luck Chris, Nelson, Sara, and the rest of you who find yourselves, hopefully only temporarily, a casualty of the times we live in.
The PS Blog weekly reading list (Week of January 19, 2009)
- Media Molecule teaches how to make a LBP survival challenge – Joystiq
- Resistance: Retribution gameplay videos reminds us to charge our PSPs – Destructoid
- LittleBigPlanet scores most nominations for February’s AIAA – PS3 Fanboy
- Exclusive Look At ‘Resistance 2′ Comic Pages – MTV Multiplayer
- Ubisoft Publishing Tenchu 4 PSP In North America – Siliconera
- Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Q&A – IGN
- Sony set to bring PSP replays, streaming for Arsenal matches – PSP Fanboy
- Wireless Keypad Eases Typing on PlayStation – NYTimes.com
- ESRB Explains Noby Noby Boy For Us – Kotaku
- Crisis Core’s Quiet Redefining Of The Gameplay Narrative Divide – GameSetWatch
- Watch this 41 minute Killzone 2 interview – PS3 Fanboy
- Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Ultimate Edition for PS3 is the ultimate edition – Destructoid
- Review: Cuboid – The Escapist
- PS3 FW 2.60 = Non-Gaming Goodness – Sarcastic Gamer
- PS3 is the More Affordable Console – Gaming Target
- Star Ocean: Second Evolution Review – IGN
- Welcome To the Family: A Letter From Playstation’s Peter Dille – Kotaku
- PS3 Fanboy hands-on: Flower
@ #9- CaruthK
Wait, the wireless keypad gives massages!? I thought $50 was a bit steep, but if it’s going to give me some hardcore shiatsu action, I’ll buy 2 of ’em… ;)
That was extremely classy, thank you for that Jeff. I’m sure Chris appreciates it.
@KazeEternal
Like I said only first party companies or companies making exclusives will implement a system to replace cross-game inviting because they want you to be able to play with friends eassier.
Here are ways for extra spots:
-Someone leaves
-you have a private online game
-you join a game thats not full when not match making
Think about have you ever played a game where when u were in the game and you could invite the person to your game while actually playing the game. You would have to tell your friend through the XMB join my game, and what I’m saying is most of the time developers don’t want a develop a whole new system for the PS3 because they don’t have cross game inviting. So most of the time your friend has to wait til the game is over then you can invite him to your party and you can find a new game. I’d rather you be able to invite him by clicking his name twice. Then he’s automaticlaly in there. You never used anything like this before so you haven’t seen how much eassier and sufficient it makes things.
@ 63 jakinov
“most of live’s features wasn’t available from the gecko”
Did you seriously type this?
O_o
Just so you know, the expression is “from the get-go”…
I would also like to point out that I feel none of these people were accountable for there companies situations. I would also like people to point at themselves first and than face it north. Canada has not had anything good and that goes for all gaming powerhouses. What ever the bait was just leave it in the water.
Hi guys,
Just wanted to say I love the PSblog, the online industry blogs are one of the best bits of this generation of consoles, it really helps to build the community.
I’ve never commented before but after reading todays comments about your counterparts at Microsoft I felt compelled to say just what a credit to the PlayStation brand you are, I’ve always been a fan of the PlayStation buying all 3 at launch and a PSP at launch, but I’m also a massive fan of the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live and todays post showed huge class.
Keep up the good work guys and may the PlayStation3 finally regain it’s spot at the top of the pile because it genuinely is a wonderful machine.
Indeed my sympathies go out to everyone who has lost their job or is in peril of losing it in these tough times.
Very classy, guys. Great post — and may the PlayStation.Blog continue its fantastic work for many years to come. Here’s hoping the Gamerscore Blog team (and anyone else who’s jobless) gets on their feet soon.
I hope SONY announces that the Eye of Judment will get an update using the yu-gi-oh concept.
Tough times indeed.. This is my first post so i’d like to use it to say hi and also offer condolences to anyone affected by the current economic downturn.
Hopefully it wont affect this blog or PS3 release schedules too much.
Thanks to OP for the skinny on the street.
Keep up the good work fella’s
@KazeEternal
Why do you feel you speak for all of us? Trivial? Why don’t you make a list of what you would like added, what you want taken out, and what your absolutely content with right now, and we’ll pass it on to Jeff so that he can pass it on to Eric and him to Jack and so on and so on… Really? Trivial? I hate getting back into this “OLD” topic but, its comments like yours that just get under my skin. I have an xbox360 and ps3. I’ve been w/ sony from the beta days so please don’t question my loyalty. Ok, that was just some background. Now, I bought the 360 first cause it obviously came out first. It has had x-game invite if not from launch then quickly right after. I don’t remember never having it. If sony didn’t care about competing with the 36o or the wii, then fine, let the ps be. But it is in business to make money and it isn’t.
The hardcore gamers know where its at, on the 360. unless they have the opportunity to have both consoles. I have resistance 2 and COD:4 and world at war. I have over 20 games for the ps3 and even more for the 360. That’s not to toot my own horn (giggles like a little girl as he says that) but suffice to say, i can commment a little on what it is and isnt to have x-game invite, in-game music(choosing your own music while you play ANY game) and friend list features like starting a party w/o being in a game (so that everyone can vote on what game to play) and especially voice messaging. fine, they didnt have it from the door. But it’s been 2 years going on the third! time for some action. Forget all the other crap we didn’t ask for. Its nice. but once you get the MAIN features, then you can add the really TRIVIAL stuff like the 360 does now.
I think the PS3 is trying to compete w/ the whole family entertainment system, which is cool but, they are forgetting that the only reason they can do that right now is because most of us whiners, fanboys, and trivial people waited online overnight back in Nov. 06 for the new PS3 and we’re promised features that to this day, still aren’t implemented. So please, if you don’t need or like a certain feature, feel free to say so. But state it as your own opinion and don’t assume you speak on behalf of all of us or that when people think psfanboy or the blog community, that the picture is you… Point is, time is up and these are features that need to be implemented now instead of photo gallery. And Sony shouldn’t even bother w/ a price drop if they cant compete w/ the 360 on GAME features cause these are GAME consoles w/ EXTRA goodies, not the other way around…
Wow, what a rant!!! Its 9am NYC time! That’s what you get when you read the PSBlog every morning after my 4th cup of coffee. Sorry if I insulted anyone but, this rant is WAY to big to go back and edit…
sorry for taking up 4 spots on the blog but, wouldn’t let me put my rant in one comment. sorry…
@ anyone that post lie
having in game chat, music or cross game chat have nothing to do with why the 360 selling more then the ps3 . the only reason have to do with it is price and selling it a year early then the ps3 .
i do believe that these features will be in home and not from game to game but home from game . home is the new in game chat and its doing great by selling a million dollars in under a month . in 2008 ps3 has out sell the 360 untill 360 had its price cut. oct ,nov and december sells were good but not great but for a 399 to 499 system the number are good there not wii number but still show there selling system . as long they are selling and making money on psn and home i just dont see a price cut in 2009 .
@ anyone, im an idiot…
firstly, that’s not what I said? IT was just a rant about X-game chat and other features and a reply to KazeEternal rebutting his reply that those and other features arent important. Furthermore, I only stated that before they drop the price, think about implementing the features cause we want them not cause the 360 has them. Please don’t start off your comment by saying what I said was a lie!!! Show me where I said that having those features is why the 360 is selling more. simply stated that basically, we want/need the features and if they do drop the price that by that alone doesn’t mean they will sell more. Seriously misquoted!!!
Wow, cool heartfelt post to all 3 of you. Sorry to hear about the industry layoffs. And so many people thought entertainment was recession-proof.
@115 if you didnt say it dont worry about mine post but to anyone i dont care who it is that think the reason why 360 is selling more systems then the ps3 because the lack of these features are lie its have more to do with cost and coming out a year early then anything else.
to anyone go look at the wii sell it have no in game chat, no cross game chat , no in game music and do not fully support on line gaming like xbl or psn and its still beat both systems out the water . also to everyone on both side stop the ps3 vs 360 war if that a war what they fighting for? second ? sony or ms are not worry about each others its the wii cause next gen gaming have a lot riding on this.
@Safil
I never said it wasn’t important, I said it was trivial (Cross Game Invites). As Jakinov listed his issues with cross game invites I still feel that his request is trivial and not important enough among the list of other features that could be added. We should get it at some point just not now as it would do very little to enrich the online experience for us at this point in time.
I would like to say I am not for the removal of any feature from the PS3. If you’ve seen what I’ve been up to on the forums as well on the blog you’ll see that the removal of BC has me pretty pissed off. While I have a 60 gig PS3 it is disheartening to tell people that they can’t have this feature that you cherish so much and know they will love too. So I’m not some brute telling you what you need or don’t need.
As far as inviting people during a match. I don’t want people [DELETED] around on the XMB when they should be worry about me making them my next kill or them watching my back so the other team doesn’t score me as a kill. You’re in a match then you’re head should be in the game not gallivanting about the XMB to invite a friend.
Lastly I have the two performance game consoles PS3/X360, please don’t imply otherwise.
I’ve always tried to make the argument that PS3 is actually the cheaper console, but things like “forced Blu-ray” always get shoved in my face.
The $299 price point is a great deal in my eyes. I purchased the 40GB SKU in July 08 and I feel it was still a good deal.
The problem is that the general consumer doesn’t see the value in the PS3. They just see $300 for PS3, $200 for Xbox 360. In their mind, they think they are saving $100 by getting the 360.
I don’t see how Sony can get around that either without some aggressive marketing laying out the comparison to the general consumer. Either that or suffer huge losses with a couple more price drops in 2009 to bring the price down to a more even level with the 360.
I’m a dad, a student, a full-time worker and a husband. I cannot justify $50/year for online when I already pay that to my ISP. Plus, I don’t play online enough to justify that cost. Some months I can’t get online, so it’s a waste to have to pay. PS3 gives me the flexibility I need and all of functionality I could ever want (Remote Play Rules!).
Thanks Sony for a great console. Please work on getting your sales numbers up so the industry can stop dogging on your amazing console.
It was great to read kind words. I know most of the people in journalism are friendly and see this as a Hobby more then a competition. So it was great to read this post.
Speaking of PAX. It was great to meet you at Top Pot last year. Will the Blog be hitting up PAX09 again this year?
Hey TwinDad, planning on being there. I need those donuts again!