Sony has removed previous compatibility from PS3 — don’t need Blu Ray, just the games, they want too much for them, Sony needs to remove the crap from them; The second song is called No PS3 for Me!

Sony’s problem is that it’s both a hardware company and a content company (Sony Pictures and Music). Thus it has a desire to make innovative and useful electronic devices for consumers. But then it also has the contradictory desire to lock them down to ensure that no one can actually use them in any meaningful way.

Update: I heard last month (September 2009) Sony issued a 3.0 firmware update for the PS3 that bricked thousands of PS3 owners PS3 consoles which downloaded and installed the mandatory update and stopped working. A class action consumer lawsuit was started by a Florida resident whose PS3 stopped working after the 3.0 update when he contacted Sony for technical support and was told he had to pay up big time for repairs as his PS3 was out of warranty — it was Sony’s fault the PS3 stopped working altogether though — Sony ultimately issued a 3.0.1 update to fix the bugs but that caused even further issues with the Blu Ray drive on the PS3.

I for one am tired of all the DRM by Sony. I’ve stopped buying Sony products altogether — including their content — no music or movies by Sony, or electronics products do I use anymore.

Sony went wrong with their PS3 (its not like the XBox 360 is flawless it is by Microsoft another unethical company that has used its clout with its Windows and Office monopolies in the past to blackmail competitors to drop their products (Microsoft blackmailed Apple once to license the Mac’s GUI to MS for use in Windows before the Apple v Microsoft copyright case occurred or Microsoft would stop making Office for Mac; they tried to blackmail Apple again to dump QuickTime for Windows media playback and hand media playback to Microsoft. While they succeeded in getting Apple to license the GUI to the original Mac OS under pressure they failed to do so again for QuickTime. Microsoft Windows is already the dominant OS for PC gaming why allow them to dominate consoles also? Sure there are games for Mac OS X and Linux but there not as many as for Windows. Lately, since switching to Mac have been getting more games exclusively for Mac — considering running Linux also so got some Linux games.

Said goodbye to Windoze Blue Screen of Death why would I get XBox 360 that has had Red Ring of Death errors? For some XBox fans 360 may be fine for them — and 360 in some ways is a better value than PS3 (PS3 is terrible) but 360 is not perfect either. I’m boycotting 360 and PS3.

Sure I’d like HD graphics but don’t want more restrictive DRM.

Sony has released updated Blu-ray, dvd, and audio discs that could not play in Sony’s own players. Does that make any sense? Not to a normal person. But the content industry has never been known for its normalcy.

Most audio CDs were also DRM free but video in analog VHS or DVD which uses digital technology while still a physical medium has copy protection (albeit a weak one) seems that content companies always want to blame piracy even when its not responsible.

Lets say I’m in the movie making business and make $400 billion dollars last year — but I say those darn pirates if there was no piracy I could have made $700 billion.

It amounts to greed due to corruption in our capitalistic system.

Sony has a lot of problems today and the quality of their products is not as good as they used to be anymore. It is sad bur true and the fact they insist on treating their customers like criminals has led me to decide to stop buying Sony products in future (at least until they start making quality products again and stop mistreating their customers if that ever happens will resume buying Sony but right now seems like a long shot).

Now they have to weigh the interests of their entertainment units (Sony BMG for music and Sony Pictures for movies and films) with their electronics team and to satisfy their video and music producing units Sony Electronics has started using DRM in their products to prevent users from using Sony content with their Sony devices the way they want.

In the early 1990s and much of the 1980s everything I used was Sony.

I have an old big screen Sony TV (and by that I mean its HUGE — this was before High Definition TVs even existed) that we don’t use anymore — we used to up till early this year and twice while we owned it the TV stopped working and we paid to repair it.

Both repairs were needed and took place after some number of years of owning it — as time went by it began to have problems from old age.

We also had a Sony Surround Sound system and I used to own a Sony Walkman cassette tape player. My dad used to have a Sony VAIO laptop with Windows until a few years ago. He still has a Windows PC laptop now but the brand has changed to Eureka.

We recently upgraded to Hi Def TVs and we have a Full 1080P HD TV by Samsung in our family room and Panasonic Viera 720P TVs in all the bedrooms.

I now use Apple iPods (first I had the 5th gen video iPod with click wheel and now a 2nd gen iPod Touch which I updated to iPhone OS 3.1) and have a Nintendo Wii and Apple TV.

I do not need Blu Ray nor do I want it due to the draconian DRM and higher pricing Blu Ray has. I rip DVDs for Apple TV often rather than similarly buying iTunes protected content The more Sony pushes the PS3 as a Blu Ray player the less likely I am to want one.

I never owned a PS1 or PS2 but would have to liked to have owned either of them but PS3 I would never buy. It has hidden costs. I remember when the PS3 first came out Sony sold it at full price $600 which was way to expensive and that didn’t even factor in third party accessory sales, or software sales of games for PS3 or Blu Ray movie sales. Blu Ray is expensive to manufacture which is why PS3 had that high price tag.

Now they sell the PS3 at a loss to gain market share — despite PS3′s failure Blu Ray still bested HD DVD which I preferred due to it having less DRM.

I’d rather stick with DVDs and get a new DVD Player capable of up-sampling my existing DVDs to Hi-Def.

Sony has fallen way behind and lost its reputation and its brand. They lost their top spot in video game consoles and lost their dominance in portable music players long ago to Apple — now Microsoft is trying to beat Apple with their Zune players but have so far been unsuccessful as well in doing so.

Here’s an interesting joke: Sony and Microsoft need to merge and become an even worse and bigger company.

Inevitably I think in future there will be more and more video games providers in the industry, catering for their own niche. Nintendo is focusing on gameplay and attracts audiences who want a simple machine with simple games. PC gamers want a more technical advanced gameplay, but Sony and Xbox are trying to fight it out for domination on a huge broad market.

Sorry, but I can’t be of any help there. Glad you like it though.

[...] Here’s a case study of how SONY got it wrong. [...]