Humble Pie Served, Hot And Warm

Yeah, call me humbled.

I’m not one to be those types of people in the gaming industry (read: Kotaku and Anita Sarkeesian…wait, did I say Anita is in the gaming industry? There’s something else I might have to take back; she shouldn’t be in the same ROOM as those in the game industry) that cannot admit when I was mistaken on points, and based on the comments in my last blog about the PS4 shortage situation, I got to say that I might’ve been.

Here’s the thing: I’m an opinionated person, and I act sometimes on pure impulse sometimes. I react to what I see at times. Call it the Aries in me, but sometimes, I act without thinking things through. The headstrong ram in me would be proud, but at the same time, people would hate it.

So, of course, when I saw the constant “Out of Stock” signs on nowinstock.net, I immediately became mad. This is because, even with the short amount of time that Sony’s newest console had out on the market, they shouldn’t have had it that bad. A couple of reasons, at least for me, tell me this.

For one, they had to have been expecting this. From the moment preorders were accepted, I think the mass amount of preorders should’ve told Sony that this was a game system that would be very much in demand, and preorders became open back in July, so they obviously have had some time to react to what was going to be a lot of supply pressure. I know it might be tough even knowing that to keep up with that much demand, especially when you underestimate a demand like that.

But the issues the Wii had come to mind to say that we’ve been through this before. I’m convinced that the Wii’s issues weren’t AS bad (I was able to find one at the second Gamestop I checked, as I said), but that should’ve been weighing in on a console that might’ve been anticipated to be in high demand just for the simple fact that we’ve have been in the same generation with the 360 and PS3 for some time (since 2005-2006), and hardware has upgraded a lot for PC gaming since then, to the point where it surpassed the PS3 as the most powerful gaming platform by a mile (given you had the money to drop on one). The Wii had supply issues, so why wasn’t Sony more ready for it when the system was first announced? Of course, the stories about sales figures and the numerous Xbones available based on that data didn’t help me to NOT think something was up.

To me, these are the kinds of questions that we should be asking those in the gaming industry. I don’t mean to ask, say, EA and Activision why Sony wasn’t on the ball with the PS4 demand, but rather tough questions that might ruffle some feathers. I think we’ve become quite scared at pissing people off because of things like embargos and NDA and things like that. We spend a LOT of money for this hobby, and many want to have a career making and covering this industry. If game journalists are too scared to piss people off, they aren’t doing their job, I think. I’m not saying to not be responsible in reporting, but work for the gamers, not the publishers.

But I think me actually getting a PS4 now changed perceptions (Amazon said it shipped and should arrive this Monday; for completion sake, it only took a minute before Amazon was completely sold out again, so I was just one of the lucky ones that got in there). Before I eat the humble pie, though, let me just address that the beating me up over it, saying “no sympathy when you didn’t preorder, you moron” and stuff like that was not necessary. It just makes you look like a fool (even moreso than you think I looked like), and I have yet to know why comments like that are necessary. The one way we get taken seriously is by proving people wrong, not right!

But that being said, my headstrong way that I went about writing that could’ve been handled a hell of a lot better. I did say that I could’ve been wrong in accusing Sony of things in that first post because of paranoia, and maybe that is true. Blame me coming in being far under the weather and early in the morning (I’ve don’t that before, and I didn’t fare too well either). All I can do is to hope that forgiveness is easy to get from some people.

That doesn’t mean that I won’t be blunt and to the point and no holds barred in the future. I hope people like that out of me because it’s me being real. I don’t try to troll in what I say because I don’t want to say what I don’t mean or what I don’t actually believe. I don’t like to trap people, either, as I want people to challenge my beliefs so I can show just how well I believe in what I say. It’s not because I’m trying to be mean or anything, but I’m just trying to be true to myself and true to what I say. Does that get me in trouble sometimes? Maybe, but that just goes with the territory, and as long as we own up to the mistakes and learn from them, we, in turn, become better people in the end, and we just get stronger because of the experience.

I do want to close, though, by saying that this, in no way, takes Sony off the hook to find a quick solution to the issue. Yes, the times are tough to do so, but the longer the issues linger, the more the accusations will pile up (I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the first since Sony brought up the allegation), and the risk of losing a sale to the competitor becomes increasingly worse. I do hope that Sony does fix this issue quickly and promptly, so we can all enjoy a system that will make for better PC ports and has seemly opened the door more for indie developers (waiting on you, Team Meat, to acknowledge this and make peace with Sony) than Microsoft has. We should be arguing over who was better in a custom death match. Not over if we can get a system and why!