Paranoid nutjob meets anti-paranoia nutjob.

Ah, reductionism — even Hawking isn't immune. "Because we can explain the apparent physical makeup of the universe, we can therefore make far-reaching statements about meaning and any being supposed to operate outside the confines of the manifest universe."

Some of the best games of the past few years have been great precisely because they have a Japanese sensibility but take advantage of Western technological developments.

Still, renting through Netflix is so much cheaper. Yeah, there's the convenience of on demand... but still. Also, aside from being small, it's not really clear to me what this device does differently from the myriad other streaming devices already outh there.

@HiAperture: Given that it's streaming-only, I imagine that a purchase option created too many complications. That, or the fact that publishers get real weird about digital vs. physical media purchases, release dates, etc. A huge headache, in other words.

@Archaotic: Yep. I think the time is ripe for publishers to go all-digital though. They're the ones with the content, after all — I just can't buy that the need the advertising clout of retailers as much as they say they do.

Whatever. If it ain't Powerstone, I ain't getting out of bed.

The fightpad works not just because of the d-pad, but because it's much thinner, and because two of the shoulder buttons are placed alongside the xyba buttons to recreate an arcade layout. Also, it's wired, so you're never disconnected (perhaps better latency? I dunno). And Chun Li. There's that, too.

Yeah, again, I think people have to get over the notion that games, at least AAA releases, will continue to be like books or CDs. They won't. They're either going to be like theater releases, which you purchase a ticket for (which cannot be resold), or like services, which you pay a subscription for. This goes for…

Yeah, wahtever. The fightpads are already awesome, cheap, and have Chun Li on them.

I love using multi-touch, but whenever I need to do something productive it's back to the mouse and keyboard. Don't need a study to explain to me that flicking my wrist and tapping my fingers is faster than flailing my arms around... so to speak.

@DunnCarnage: Looks like it, which is too bad, actually. It should be a win-win for everyone to release content digitally. I guess they didn't bank on publishers not wanting to release their titles digitally (god knows why).

Their watermelon beer is off the hook. Just the perfect little zing at the end of every sip. The can only makes it seem more refreshing (like a soda).

Yeah, Netflix continues to be the best thing ever. That app exists on just about every electronic device I own, and it seems they improve it every time I turn it on. The company must be the product of all the psychic discord caused by Blockbuster for the past 20 years.

@Dreamwriter: Yeah, I hadn't thought about that (forgot about the whole Disney bit). At the same time, you'd think the could work out a profit sharing arrangement for the digital release — that way both companies make money as opposed to neither.

Why wouldn't Square release it? Releasing a game digitally requires virtually no work. This has to be thousands of potential sales lost, failure or no.

The real story here is that Sony managed to almost entirely dodge the mod-chip problem. We're really late in the system's life cycle, meaning that most hardcore gamers will have burned through their original systems by the time they install this chip. MEANING, Sony may patch up this security loophole in all new…

@Adamk24: I agree that they should be, though again, I don't know that they will be. For one, it's very easy to price fix in the entertainment business. The reason for this is that people don't price shop. If you want Assasin's Creed, you won't buy a different game because it's 10 dollars cheaper.

I'm surprised the would feature more Mega Man 1 than 2.

I agree. I'm actually surprised it's taken publishers as long as it has to start distributing their games entirely via download. ESPECIALLY Nintendo with its DS — a system with such small games (in terms of file size) and such high piracy rates... it's just absurd.