SONY and M$ rant

Here is a short wired article about a way that SONY is attempting to screw itself over. In an attempt to give themselves a good image that doesn't seem to be working very well. Let me step up on this pedestal right quick. Be warned doesn't have really anything to do with SONY's supposed graffiti.


The angle SONY needs to utilize against M$ in the game console race should involve emphasizing the personification of Microserf being the "Evil Empire". Instead they seem to be garnering a very similar image from the public.

It does make sense that general perception of a corporation like Sony would be similar to that of M$, they are both multi-billion dollar companies, and they both have a large handle on their prospected primary markets, and even further they have a history of forcing or attempting to force proprietary formats and software upon markets in general (SONY: minidisc, CD, vhs, memoryStick, encrypted music cds and DRM in general, the new Bluray highdef dvd; M$: direct3d/draw, the office formats, IE/activeX and other bastardized webformats and database formats). It's also very understandable that a major corporation would desire to set these kind of proprietary standards.

For example, M$ started designing and pushing direct3d/draw (a proprietary graphics library of functions that allows programmers to make 2d/3d graphical programs, mostly used for games) around 1998 with clear intentions. The intentions weren't to make programming games easier, there was already an easier to use library available (OpenGL). Their intentions were to encourage programmers to use direct3d because a program using their library wouldn't work on operating systems besides those sold by M$. It makes sense from the corporation's stand point to behave like this. If enough games are produced using their libraries it makes cost a good excuse to prevent a company from releasing their game on more than just Windows, which give M$ the advantage in the sale of operating systems.

From a strictly financial standpoint it makes perfect sense, but what isn't usually taken into consideration is the effects of going against the interests of your customers. OpenGL is open source and cross-platform, meaning its use is unrestricted and it is prepared to be utilized on many different operating systems, such as Mac OSx, windows, and *nix. If m$ encouraged the use of OpenGL they would be giving their customers more choice, but instead they push direct3d to limit consumers choice and in the long run monopolize the operating system market.

M$ just released a new gaming system, and no surprise it runs a version of Microsoft Windows Media Center and all the games are programmed using the newest direct3d libraries. SONY has a system that is priming for a release in Q3/Q4 2006. SONY games are utilizing OpenGL and the system most likely has a proprietary OS. There are rumors abound that they intend to ship the PS3's harddrive with a distribution of Linux pre-installed on it, and that it may even be possible to run Mac osX on the PS3 hardware. It's quite an obvious move, because it would be foolish to embrace their competitor's software. They could have made the programming environment with all proprietary libraries and software, but they are showing signs that they will be embracing open-source.

I think SONY should take that idea and run with it. If they want to prevent M$ from taking the living room they should take a public role contributing to the open-source community, despite their rich history of pushing new proprietary hardware onto vendors and consumers. They are billing their new playstation as a fully functioning computer that is cheaper and runs all the hottest new games faster than the family computer. If this is completed with linux powering it they are in a position to make a major change in the world of computing as well as repair their image quite a bit. If SONY does just half as good as they did with the first two playstations it would be a huge blow to m$'s stranglehold on desktop computing. 50 million new linux users would be a huge boost to the user base, and the more users on an OS the more viable of an option it becomes for both software developers and additional users.