On This Image 2.05.2008 2:22am

I am so sick of seeing this image. Take a good long look at it. Take it all in. If i never see this image again I will be extremely happy.

Sony has done a lot of things wrong as of late; be it too many firmware updates or tacking too many things onto the PSP. But to release a complete atheistic redesign of their hardware a 1.25 years after it launched is ludicrous. People are just now at the point where they associate the Xbox 360 with its concave shape and white casing, after being on the market for almost twice as long. For Sony to change up the appearance of their box now would quite possibly be the worst thing they could do to the PlayStation brand.

It's bad enough that they had 4 hardware SKU's come available in 11 months, 3 of which are now discontinued, with a fifth coming out soon. It wouldn't have been so bad if these 4 versions had the same functionality but they don't even play all the same games. And that's the most confusing part coming out of the Sony camp. Where at launch it was "one has wireless and card readers and the other one doesn't" now it's "well they both have wireless, but this one has less USB ports, oh and this one plays 60% of PS2 games and this one doesn't play any, but it does play PS1 games... whats that? you want to play all your PS2 games? well only the discontinued models do that."

I'm sorry was my talking to myself confusing? Blame Sony. The list of disparities between the 4 versions of their hardware boggles the mind. Where Microsoft keeps adding functionality to their new SKU's (and hits 3 price points very well, i might add) Sony keeps taking away functionality. After removing Wireless from the 20 gig, 40% of the PS2 library from the 80 gig, then the remaining 60% of the PS2 library and some USB ports from the 40 Gig, Sony is running out of things to remove. When this rumored 120 or 160 gigabyte PlayStation 3 comes out it will probably not even play games. Just sit connected to your TV running Folding@home and Calling All Cars. But I'll tell you what. What ever it has (or lacks) inside of it. It WILL NOT look like that picture above.