The Atari VCS has been in development for several years, with the announcement trailer being released about two years ago. The company recently announced that the nearly $400 console will be launching during the holiday season this November, going up against the likes of the Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Digital, and Xbox Series S. This is a mistake on SO many levels. Couch gamers don’t want a console that does everything out the box, we want a console that excels at running games. That’s it. We don’t care about YouTube and Netflix, though we may appreciate them, and are more than happy to live without them on our rigs. Even worse, they’re apparently planning to run these streaming services in the RAM greedy Chrome browser as progressive web apps! REALLY?! LIKE, REALLY REALLY?! The console is running an AMD Ryzen 3 3200U with Vega 3 onboard graphics. That only amounts to 0.46 TFLOPS. That’s not an impressive game machine at all when you consider the original PS4 was over four times as powerful in 2013. This is new hardware that can’t even keep pace with a seven year old console. Install Linux? No! It IS Linux. This is basically a Chromebook in an Atari chassis. It can’t even compete. This looks like a huge scam.
A standard controller and an OG Atari joystick? That doesn’t look like fun for local multiplayer. Who wants to play competitive games together when they’re hampered like that? The point is to get you to buy another controller from the start. Want to switch hit between charges? Buy another controller to keep up. We’d much rather just have one standard controller in the box because that’s all we’d want to use. If we'll just have to buy another controller anyway, why not skip the waste?
Look, don’t buy or endorse this. Don’t buy it for teardowns – don’t even buy it just to take a dump on. Don’t waste your money or justify their selling strategy by giving them a cent. If you buy, they’ll use that to try again. It’s this kind of garbage that needs to be removed from the gaming space. We’ll tackle freemium games next. Got a gripe? Leave it down below – not that you’ll have much to disagree with us about, if anything at all. We’d love to read your thoughts about this so-called console. For now, save your money for real gaming systems, be they PC’s or consoles. Don’t buy this. No, seriously, don’t buy this.
Coming as a surprise to few at this point, Microsoft wasn't able to beat Sony on overall startup costs for the coming console generation. Much to our chagrin, they opted for a proprietary upgrade option that will needlessly cost early adopters $219.99 at launch for their 1TB expansion. We expressed the exact problem with this in our last update, so we're not going to beat that dead horse. It's right under this post, so you can keep scrolling to have a look at our thoughts. Enjoy that read.
It may seem like we're just splitting hairs here because Sony could totally screw this up, but you've got to acknowledge the fact that the Series S is the weakest of the four consoles launching at year's end and will cost more than the estimated costs for the PS5 Digital with the same upgrade. It's been stated already that the only three differences between the PS5 and PS5 Digital are the optical drive, the price, and the overall size. That's it. Henry Casey gives a spec comparison over on Tom's Guide.
Got something to say? Leave it down below. For now, take a little extra time to go over your buying strategy this year. Apparently things are only just heating up. Keep an eye out for more, and thanks for reading.
See you next time! Microsoft and Seagate are TOTALLY tone deaf on pricing
This DOES matter and ISN'T justifiableObviously a bunch of people are going to run to Microsoft's and Seagate's defense here, and give some handwave response about the primary defenses being form factor and size, speed, reliability, and the fact that the new expansions are SSD's. Those people are wrong. Right now - RIGHT 👏🏾 NOW 👏🏾 - we can go on the volatile market place that is Amazon to find good solid state deals that are far greater than these offerings by Microsoft and Seagate at the time of this writing. Name brand too! You think it's a game? Watch this.
So, what makes the SanDisk listing comparable or better? It's got a read speed of 1.6 GB/sec, it's 1TB, AND it's something like a tenth of the size of the expansion card for the Series X / S. SanDisk is the industry standard form factor for storage. That's form factor, size, speed, reliability, and solid state ALL satisfied in ONE listing. Pricing? LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING! SanDisk could've produced the expansion card for the Series X / S at half the price and MSRP only a few dollars over that number. They could even double the storage for around $200. Speed? That card can deliver a whole 1080p movie in 5 seconds, and 4K in 20. That's a zero delay viewing experience. Get real!
Got a gripe? Leave it down below. For now, stop applauding these price gouging monsters every time they screw you. This is ridiculous. It's so hard to sort through all of the hype and find an honest opinion about this move. It's either lighthearted or non-existent. Is the accrual of money ISN'T a measure of quality or value. That means that it isn't automatically better just because it's expensive, looks good, and has cool marketing. Learn about the other industries that serve this one; do some research. Most importantly, stand up for yourself. They only have that power because you give it to them.
Thanks for reading, take care of yourselves, and we'll see you next time. Later! |
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