Razer CEO Defends Company Stance on PS3 Controllers

[CaptnYesterday]

poor guy, but fanboys will be fanboys. Who the hell cares anyway? So you make a company the way you want to make it and produce things you love and want to play. Isn't that what we want?

First people crucify heartless Corps for pumping out cash grabs. We all want products 'By gamers, for gamers', but then lash out then lash out at someone who is doing it.

What fanboys need is self-esteem.

 

[hellohowareyou]

I'm not a fanboy of any systems. I like to play good games wherever I can play them (Nintendo, XBOX, Playstation, PC, or other), but it just seems strange and perplexing to me that a gamer could dismiss this library:

3D Dot Game Heroes
Demon's Souls
Dust 514
Flower
God of War series
Gran Turismo series
Heavenly Sword
Heavy Rain
Ico
Shadow of the Colossus
Infamous series
Journey
Killzone series
Kingdom Hearts series
The Last of Us
LittleBigPlanet series
Metal Gear Solid series
MotorStorm series
Ratchet & Clank series
Jak & Daxter series
Sly Cooper series
Resistance series
SOCOM series
Uncharted series
Beyond: Two Souls (coming soon)

(Some of these are better than others. Dust 514 isn't that great, but it's at least interesting in concept and hopefully will get better. Most of these Playstation exclusives strike me as requisite playing for any well rounded gamer. Min-Liang Tan, you're missing out.)

 

[stevejnb]

Hellohowareyou,

While it's great that some people have time to peruse through generational system libraries of hundreds of titles, there comes a point where someone can post a list like yours and it's not unlike talking to someone who is a devotee of international indie films... You quickly realize that in order to have a discussion with these people about something you both enjoy (films/movies), you would have to spend about twenty times watching movies as you currently do. Simply put, for some of us, it's tough enough keeping up with the things which intensely have our interest, let alone things that aren't "that great, but... at least interesting in concept." Seriously, putting things on a list which are interesting concepts but poor delivery - if gaming time is at a premium, things like that simply do not make the cut. Not even close.

I like to play good games for any system, and I used to be a guy who could play every darned one of them, from Vandal Hearts to Deathrow to Darklands, and I'd throw out lists like yours for each generation. These days though? I have two systems but focus on one and I can hardly keep up with new releases on that one.

When "gamer" becomes an elitist term with us rolling our eyes that some poor sap can't dump $5000 a generation on games and 30 + hours a week on playing them, well,... How do you feel when you're sitting there reading Game of Thrones and someone suggests you read Dostoyevsky for some *real* political drama and true depth of character and moral ambiguity? Are you no longer a novel enthusiast? To some degree, that's more or less what you're doing by putting out a list like there and making a comment like "but it just seems strange and perplexing to me that a gamer could dismiss this library." It's pretty damned easy to figure out for a lot of us with lives and jobs and whatnot... We see three systems, we know we don't the time, money, or a combination of the two, to actually play massive lists of games like you listed, and we pick and choose what we want. Last generation, I skipped the Gamecube entirely, and this generation, I skipped the PS3 for almost four years because of a generally weak library. Am I no longer a gamer?

Or, to put it in other terms... If reading novels is your favourite pastime, do you in fact not like reading novels because we couldn't sit here and have an in depth discussion about 2/3 of the NYT bestsellers list and the classics that inspired them? Gamers stick their heads up the arses and invent little tags like "true gamer" to try and artificially elevate themselves above people who like games and consider it a central hobby, but can't make it a central pursuit of their life.

So, short answer... It's perplexing to you how a "gamer" could dismiss that library? Well, get a job, a girlfriend/wife and some kids and it won't perplex you much any more. If by some chance you happen to have all of those things and still have time, you're in a rare circumstance.

This has taken enough of my time I had set aside to play "Record Of Agarest War" as it stands... Ever played that one before? If not, mind if I pretend like you aren't a "gamer" because you haven't?...

 

[alextheblue]

ikaz, Razer makes tons of PC mice and keyboards. But yes, calling him names and treating him like crap because he makes and sells products he personally uses? That just discourages him from wanting anything to do with PS peripherals.

 

[anxiousinfusion]

Good. Keep it that way.

 

[JUANVAN]

After I could not have my 360 Razor controller repaired I am over buying anything from them.

 

[darkavenger123]

I don't see what's the hoo haa...Razer product sucks and and has low quality (search for all the gamepad low quality issues). I own an XBOX360 and PC...(No PS3)...and i won't be bother with Razer products.

 

[__-_-_-__]

razer blade is the worst valued notebook ever made in the entire history of computing.

 

[hellohowareyou]

stevejnb,

I wasn't trying to be elitist and I wasn't rolling my eyes. I wasn't trying to say that you aren't a "gamer" if you don't play on the PS3. Min-Liang Tan said that after Infamous he didn't think there was anything else worth playing. I was just trying to point out some good games for the system that may be worth his time. Ofcourse, he's never going to read this so I was really just typing for no reason.

I've actually only played a few of the games in that list (Demon's Souls, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and Uncharted 1 and 2). I rarely game (maybe 10-15 hours a week). I seem to spend more time reading about games than actually playing them. I'm the last person to call myself an elitist. My time and resources are, like yours, limited. Nevertheless, I still think the PS3 has an interesting library of exclusives that seem worth it to consider, and, hopefully, I'll be able to get to some more of them someday.

But Min-Liang Tan has the right to play and to produce accessories for whatever he wants.

Thank for recommending "Record Of Agarest War". I'll have to check it out.

 

[ohyouknow]

Razer mouse double click issue. No more Razer for me.

On topic, sucks but oh well. No loss.

 

[brythespy]

I use a Razer mouse on PS3, so HA!

 

[jezus53]

I'm gonna complain to EVGA for not making AMD cards. Or Sapphire for not making nVidia cards. OR maybe I should complain to GMC for not making a sedan. Or Scion for not making a truck. Ooooo, I should complain to my school because they don't offer a law program. Every complain should obviously provide everything for everything ever in existence. That's the logical stance.

 

[brythespy]

I'm gonna complain to EVGA for not making AMD cards. Or Sapphire for not making nVidia cards. OR maybe I should complain to GMC for not making a sedan. Or Scion for not making a truck. Ooooo, I should complain to my school because they don't offer a law program. Every complain should obviously provide everything for everything ever in existence. That's the logical stance.

This.

 

[fixxxer113]

I prefer a business man that does something because he likes it and wnats to do it good, 1000 more than somebody who just churns out tons of crap just to sell to everyone, without even caring who that everyone is, what they want and if that crap actually works. That being said, one shouldn't go to the other extreme and presume that all consumers share their needs and tastes.

 

[fixxxer113]

I'm sure he has signed a exclusivity contract with Microsoft for the foreseeable future and that's likely the real reason behind it.

It's his company and his choice though so who cares he can build and sell the products he wishes to the game demography he wishes more room for other peripheral makers to fill that void.

I think that would be the case if Microsoft thought that Razer building PS3 peripherals would boost their competitor's sales... I have yet to encounter a person who bought a console because it had a cool third party controller...

 

[catswold]

This is so sad. The attitude used to be, if they don't make what I want, I'll invent it myself and sell it. A whole lot of people got very wealthy doing so, but now, we live in an entitlement society

Now, if a company doesn't make what people want, they whine about "racism" or "fanboyism" and demand somebody (usually the government) step in and force them to make it.

 

[alidan]

Considering how little effort it would take to make PS3 versions of their controllers, if Min-Liang's not doing so because of some kind of personal preference for Xbox, ignoring the obvious market, and free money... well... he's an idiot.

And, I'm going to go with the assumption that someone who's built his own successful gaming accessories company wouldn't be purposefully doing something so insanely stupid... which leads to the obvious logical conclusion:

Microsoft is greasing his palms somehow.

There is a third conclusion that *seems* insane but, given that it's Sony we're talking about here, might make sense. That conclusions is that Sony has either intentionally, or just through lack of caring in making it easy to work with people on their machine, has made it difficult for hardware to be created for their machine - perhaps hardware wise, perhaps legally, perhaps some sort of obscene licensing fee, whatever.

Keep in mind, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment has come out and outright said that they intentionally made the PS3 difficult to develop for, rather than making it more reasonable like developers wanted.

"We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that (developers) want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is, what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?" explained Hirai.

"So it's a kind of--I wouldn't say a double-edged sword--but it's hard to program for," Hirai continued, "and a lot of people see the negatives of it, but if you flip that around, it means the hardware has a lot more to offer."

http://news.cnet.com/sony-ps3-is-hard-to-develop-for-on-purpose/


This company is one part arrogant and one part inane. Would it really shock anyone if they've made it substantially more difficult or costly than it has to be to produce hardware for the PS3 just so they could keep their edge? Nintendo used to produce a whole slew of games with more advanced cartridge technology before releasing them to third party developers so that their games would seem technically far superior to those of their competitors... Based on Sony's history of industry bullying, would it be such a shocker for them to do something similar here?

you sure nintendo did that? i mean i know they had extra chips, but remember, those cost extra money too, and nintendo more or less crapped gold back than (quality wise)

was it nintendo holding back, or was it developers not wanting to invest in something that may screw them, remember, back than the size of the game made the game cost more (ff3/6 cost what 80-90$ back than new because of size) unlike now (lost odyssey, 4 discs, still 60$ new)

I'm not a fanboy of any systems. I like to play good games wherever I can play them (Nintendo, XBOX, Playstation, PC, or other), but it just seems strange and perplexing to me that a gamer could dismiss this library:

3D Dot Game Heroes
Demon's Souls
Dust 514
Flower
God of War series
Gran Turismo series
Heavenly Sword
Heavy Rain
Ico
Shadow of the Colossus
Infamous series
Journey
Killzone series
Kingdom Hearts series
The Last of Us
LittleBigPlanet series
Metal Gear Solid series
MotorStorm series
Ratchet & Clank series
Jak & Daxter series
Sly Cooper series
Resistance series
SOCOM series
Uncharted series
Beyond: Two Souls (coming soon)

(Some of these are better than others. Dust 514 isn't that great, but it's at least interesting in concept and hopefully will get better. Most of these Playstation exclusives strike me as requisite playing for any well rounded gamer. Min-Liang Tan, you're missing out.)

3D Dot Game Heroes - a decent game if you like the zelda style with with some humor
Demon's Souls - not a game for everyone but damnit i love it
Dust 514 - i cant play shooters on consoles
Flower - i just cant bring myself to like that game
God of War series - game 1, discs was damaged (i rented) and never finished, 2 was fun, 3 i just never finished... not the most compelling of games
Gran Turismo series - compared to forza, i just despise GT5, the load times and the constant i need to reload just makes me never want to pick it up again, and the fact that bad driveing seems to put me ahead, some of the game looks laughably bad... i just cant bring myself to like the game
Heavenly Sword - never played it, but it was a middle of the road GOW style game, before GOW3 came out
Heavy Rain - DEFINITELY not a game for everyone, i loved indigo prohpacy, but cant bring myself to buy this for even used prices... i just cant
Ico - not a game for everyone, on the ps2 this game played like crap, so bad that it made me sick at times and the artstyle as a whole just abused the bloom effect
Shadow of the Colossus - i couldnt play it, again, i could count frames so often it made me sick
Infamous series - open world, somehow i just never can get into games like this
Journey - i have to play it to like it, but i dont want to pay for it, and watching game play doenst make me want to play it
Killzone series - cant play shooters on consoles
Kingdom Hearts series - i played one, fun game, i played 2, cant remember if i beat it... you remember how convoluted FF games get, and how off the storys tend to make barely more sense than MGS? well kingdom hearts does that, but doesnt have the benefit of a refresh each game, they have how many off shoots taht are basicly the same game but a little more added to it... i just cant... not any more
The Last of Us - i cant get it now, costs to much for me, will wait till christmass.
LittleBigPlanet series - the game suck, floaty controls, its a platformer thats a bad platformer... the user content saves it, but i just cant like it because they kill user content that may be copywrited... i hate the system because of how limiting it has to be.
Metal Gear Solid series - very good but not everyones kind of game
MotorStorm series - arcade off road raceing, a niche in a niche in a niche... fun but not something i would buy
Ratchet & Clank series - you play one and 2 and you played them all
Jak & Daxter series - one was good, i hated 2 and 3
Sly Cooper series - sadly never got into it, though i want to try
Resistance series - cant play shooters on consoles
SOCOM series - despise shooters on consoles
Uncharted series - very good, but you need to like that style of story, and its not for everyone
Beyond: Two Souls (coming soon) - just make a movie already, you dont like games, we get it.

just my thoughts on that list. don't get me wrong, i have most of my games i can't get on the pc on the ps3, but just had to pick that list appart.


-----------------
now with those said
i have been through 6 nagas in 2 years, i have an onza that is screwed up by design, and my brother has a razer mouse that died once by design.
when razer makes a quality product, ill want a ps3 version of it, till than, im waiting the warranty of my naga out and switching to logitecs version.

 

[doomtomb]

Min-Liang Tan doesn't make peripherals for platforms he doesn't care about. Call it unfair but if you've ever met the guy you'd know he has ego as tall as the empire state building.

 

[hellohowareyou]

alidan,

I'm totally fine with all your criticisms because I know that taste is subjective. Even so, some of your same criticisms and dismissals could be leveled at any of these exclusives for the XBOX:

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Blue Dragon
Crackdown series
Dead or Alive series
Fable series
Forza series
Gears of War series
Halo series
Kameo: Elements of Power
Lost Odyssey
Perfect Dark Zero
Project Gotham Racing series
Trials Evolution

Most of these are good games, but what is it about these exclusives that make the XBOX so much more compelling for Min-Liang Tan than the PS3? It can't be the controller. If he liked the XBOX controller he wouldn't have felt the need to make a new one.

Actually, I can probably answer my own question, and that answer would be XBOX Live. XBOX Live is better than the Playstation Network for connecting with and playing with friends. It seems that most people who want to game online use XBOX Live so if you want to game online, Live is where you need to be.

 

[alidan]

alidan,

I'm totally fine with all your criticisms because I know that taste is subjective. Even so, some of your same criticisms and dismissals could be leveled at any of these exclusives for the XBOX:

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Blue Dragon
Crackdown series
Dead or Alive series
Fable series
Forza series
Gears of War series
Halo series
Kameo: Elements of Power
Lost Odyssey
Perfect Dark Zero
Project Gotham Racing series
Trials Evolution

Most of these are good games, but what is it about these exclusives that make the XBOX so much more compelling for Min-Liang Tan than the PS3? It can't be the controller. If he liked the XBOX controller he wouldn't have felt the need to make a new one.

Actually, I can probably answer my own question, and that answer would be XBOX Live. XBOX Live is better than the Playstation Network for connecting with and playing with friends. It seems that most people who want to game online use XBOX Live so if you want to game online, Live is where you need to be.

ok, this list

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - an unmitigated disaster by rare who had a working banjo game but scrapped it for a car game when they thought no one would like a solid platformer
Blue Dragon - this if i remember right is a jrpg, nothing wrong with it, but its also not a sequel to something big, and its on a system that was more geared toward western gamers, who by and large either grew sick of the jrpg or just never liked it
Crackdown series - the only reason 1 sold well was because what, was it gears of war or halo demo on it? the first one was good, the second one lost much of its charm
Dead or Alive series - this isnt an exclusive, though one is exclusively on the 360, team ninja at the time was only developing games for the most powerful systems, and xbox and 360 (at lauch) where that.
Fable series - fable one was good, i bought it 3 times, standard, platinum and on the pc. 2 REALLY sucked, and 3 was the final nail
Forza series - this is a great raceing game, and it appeals to a core that want a sim, and with the assists on, it also appeals to a serious (not crashing into everything) arcade style, and the game is made for a controller, with wheels in mind, where as GT on the ps3 is made for a wheel with a controller as an afterthought (i have to believe this, otherwise gt has the worst controls in any raceing game i have seen sense the n64 era minus joke games like big rigs) but again, a minimal audience
Gears of War series - i can't understand why this is popular
Halo series - halo 1 and 2, those are 2 games that really, fps on consoles barely work, but these games made it tolerable to an extent, though i despise them to an extent you cant understand because their mechanics leached into games i was looking forward to, i at least see why its popular.
Kameo: Elements of Power - came out at launch, and was a platformer that wasn't the best of its genre. doesnt help that rare kind of died around this game or shortly after it came out, i enjoyed it but i know why others didnt.
Lost Odyssey - this is a jrpg that required a hdtv at a time when hd tvs were not heavily penetrated. this game was next to if not impossible to play on a crt and is why i never made it far in, hell, i hit a brick wall boss that expected me to grind levels to kill... this was also around the time that i really stopped liking the jrpg genre because i saw its design, i can go through the game do the side quests, but still have to run in circles to grind exp to kill crap... FF12, though it had a highly forgettable story (i forgot what was going on while i was playing the game it was so bad) had a combat style that i really enjoyed, i liked no random encounters,
Perfect Dark Zero - this game really sucked, i loved perfect dark, but my god was this a disappointment.
Project Gotham Racing series - never got into them, these were racing games that were somewhat serious but rewarded based on style correct?
Trials Evolution - now if i remember right, this was a pc game, that went to consoles in hd, got a sequel, which was only recently released on the pc... but again its not for everyone.

now with all that said, i believe the reason xbox is popular is because the first 3-4 years.
it had 1 year of no contest
and at least 3 years of games are better on the 360 than the ps3 (ports did not become just as good till about mid console cycle)
the only thing that xbox live has over ps3, at least that i remember, was that everyone got a headset, they had a standard way to communicate. otherwise the ps3 was just as good when the publishers/developers didnt screw the games up
take that 3-4 year head start, halo (its a system seller) and you see why its more played, its the console that more or less is grounded in the FPS, they also shell out for exclusive dlc times in fps games more than any other genre

basicly its not that live its good, its that its the system most people bought for a game/genre and they dont get more than one console.

 

[lordjakian]

"(1)I think I spent 2 days straight on it for Infamous - but haven't felt the need to go back since...(2)I really like Infamous so hopefully I'll like Last of Us."

LOL! Didn't anyone else notice these two comments?

Infamous was a FREE game offer for the PS3 network downtime gift. The ONLY PS3 game this supposedly knowledgeable and credible person has to speak of in this article is a free offer? Are you kidding me? As a gamer, his choice that Infamous was the most notable game he could speak of made him lose a lot of credibility for me on anything he could say about PS3. It makes him sound like he knows nothing about games.

He's either in the pocket of Xbox, or he is not inclined to experience games on different systems. Either way, being a directional CEO of a game centered business, for saying these things he should either get a kickback from Microsoft or be replaced as the head of the company.

 

[lordjakian]

"(1)I think I spent 2 days straight on it for Infamous - but haven't felt the need to go back since...(2)I really like Infamous so hopefully I'll like Last of Us."

LOL! Didn't anyone else notice these two comments?

Infamous was a FREE game offer for the PS3 network downtime gift. The ONLY PS3 game this supposedly knowledgeable and credible person has to speak of in this article is a free offer? Are you kidding me? As a gamer, his choice that Infamous was the most notable game he could speak of made him lose a lot of credibility for me on anything he could say about PS3. It makes him sound like he knows nothing about games.

He's either in the pocket of Xbox, or he is not inclined to experience games on different systems. Either way, being a directional CEO of a game centered business, for saying these things he should either get a kickback from Microsoft or be replaced as the head of the company.

 

[stevejnb]

"(1)I think I spent 2 days straight on it for Infamous - but haven't felt the need to go back since...(2)I really like Infamous so hopefully I'll like Last of Us."

LOL! Didn't anyone else notice these two comments?

Infamous was a FREE game offer for the PS3 network downtime gift. The ONLY PS3 game this supposedly knowledgeable and credible person has to speak of in this article is a free offer? Are you kidding me? As a gamer, his choice that Infamous was the most notable game he could speak of made him lose a lot of credibility for me on anything he could say about PS3. It makes him sound like he knows nothing about games.

He's either in the pocket of Xbox, or he is not inclined to experience games on different systems. Either way, being a directional CEO of a game centered business, for saying these things he should either get a kickback from Microsoft or be replaced as the head of the company.

Since in the first paragraph you say:

" As a gamer, his choice that Infamous was the most notable game he could speak of made him lose a lot of credibility for me on anything he could say about PS3. It makes him sound like he knows nothing about games."

I'm guessing you're happy he's not designing controllers for the PS3. Maybe you should design one since you're obviously more knowledgeable.

 

[redeemer]

As for online services its a joke to compare XBL to PSN

 

[gggplaya]

It's easy to please no one, but impossible to please everyone!!!!