Orbis

Sony, as a company is between a rock and a hard place. Sony is expected to have a loss of 6.4 billion. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/business/global/sony-revises-expected-loss-to-6-4-billion.html) That’s mind-blowing. Being a tech company, Sony has to innovate, so they have to have the Orbis. They just can’t afford another slow PS3esque start. The PlayStation 3 wasn’t profitable until July 2010; that’s 4 years after its 2006 launch. Sony can’t let that happen again. If the Orbis fails, Sony is finished.

My question is how does Sony innovate as well as keep up technically without sinking itself. My bet is that they will go with existing technology rather than trying to develop their own processor. I would expect them to use Intel based processors and an AMD or Nvidia graphics card; something that can be mass-produced relatively cheaply.

Does Sony have the infrastructure to keep online services free? In other words, will Sony be charging us to play games online via Xbox Live Gold? Will the Orbis be 2K and 4K capable?

Proprietary devices

Proprietary devices are the worst. My 2010 Macbook Pro’s HDD just failed. I took it into our local Apple Store to confirm my assessment and unfortunately, I was right. The Apple employee suggested that instead of pay Apple $200 to put in a new 500gig HDD I should order one and install it myself. My replacement 1TB 2.5 SETA HDD was $99. Everything is working great.

Now my wife needs a new laptop. She really likes OS X, so we’re looking into buying a the cheapest Macbook Air. However, the new Macbooks have proprietary connectors so I would be forced to take it to Apple to have them fix it, which is bullshit.

When I look at my Vita all I see is proprietary connections. The memory and the charging cable are all proprietary. What’s wrong with a standard USB and SD card? The same is true with the 360 HDD. It’s all garbage.

I hope price gouging isn't the future of video games.