The WiiU pad looked like a uncomfortable POS when I first saw it but when I actually used it was one of the most comfortable controllers I've ever used. Don't knock something till you have tried it. I reserve judgement on the Steam controller. Valve has put a ton of resources into developing something that is better than analog sticks(which are terrible for fps's). I pray to the gods they get it right because the paradigm needs to change.
He literally asked for a launch day ps3? Or ps4?
Sorry, PS4, typo heh.
I still bet that anyone needing a PS4 can probably get one on launch day in stores if the look diligently enough. After launch day the chances are close to nil but I'd bet on launch day he could.
It's not about whether it's comfortable or not, or even the batshit insane idea of using trackpads when anyone who owns a laptop knows what a fucking joke that is. It's about the fact that it simply won't work with console ports due to the placement of the buttons. Console games assume you can press the face buttons while moving the left stick. Valve put Square/Triangle (X/Y) right next to the left trackpad, making you have to stop moving in order to press them. Instead of a d-pad, you get a 2x2 grid of buttons on a touchpad--which could work I suppose, except for you ending up having to press the right side of it with your right thumb, when the d-pad is designed to be used solely with your left thumb in all normal games. Yeah, you could remap stuff from the d-pad to X/Y but who wants to deal with that shit? It's annoying enough to have to remap WASD to ESDF every time I play a kb/m game, when I play a game with my gamepad I expect the layout to be exactly the same as it is on the console version and not have to bother with remapping XInput bindings as well.
steam box is a long term thing, realize that new systems don't get traction until 2 or 3 iterations usually. you need to launch stuff though to learn, get exposure, figure out what works, and be in the right spot and time when your competitors make big mistakes. so steam box 1.0 will be shitty, hardly sell, but get some learning in. 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc will just get better and better and in 10 years it could be the universal platform on which games are written, and launched on whatever micro phone everyone has embedded in their heads using haptic full body suits as virtual reality interfaces. Oops, been reading too much Ready, Player One again.
While technically sold for a loss, the margin is extremely small and a single purchase puts them into the black. I can't imagine there are many people buying the Wii U without buying any games or controllers.
Sony is a massive R&D hardware company. The development of the cell chip, and all losses related thereto, was billed to the games division. However that technology has made them "free" money in other sectors of their business. This is a function of the way we do accounting. That said, the PS3 turned a profit in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010 (April-March the way the Japanese do it). They had a slow down in sales in general on all their hardware in 2012 and a weakening yen caused some issues as well, but overall the PS3 made money as of today and will continue to sell for the next several years at a very nice profit, just like the PS2 did. And that is in addition to the new technologies they developed and the fact that it contributed greatly to winning the format war, which is a huge deal because they own all the patents for Blu-Ray technology. None of those profits get attributed to the games division. Again, function of the way big business does accounting, but it isn't a big secret, they know where that tech and market share comes from.
It's too bad they're not launching with this, but I guess Baseball games have to come out in Spring.
Well, the tablet isn't cheap, which is the primary reason that it's still sold at a loss.
