Journalistic Integrity : Admit being wrong

Been... silent for a while. If I can find my mini-sd to sd card adapter I'll put up some photos of what I spent a weekend doing. Anyways, I wanted to go over a topic that I semi-addressed before. When I called out Matt Hartley of OSWeekly, I made a comment that he, Matt Hartley, had never ran a retraction. Okay, that raises the question, why are retractions important? Well, in the past one of the marks of journalistic integrity is being able admit when one is wrong. Consider the global warming hoax. Thanks to the, and I'll put quotes on this, "power of the internet," the global warming scare has largely been debunked. People like James Hansen have been exposed for the liars that they are. Evidence is now circulating that the global warming figures originally cited at over 80 years old are being proven to have contained falsified or incorrect data.

However, there are a large number of people who are still hung up on the global warming scare. No points for guessing liberal democrats, but that is to be expected. Despite the mounting evidence that various federal and state level agencies have helped commit fraud against the general public, you don't see high visibility people like Al Gore admitting they were wrong, and that they intentionally mislead their people.

So, I think it's a fair litmus test of integrity to admit when one is wrong. I'm having to chew on some of my own words since Sony is doing much better in the High-Resolution Digital Video market than I predicted. Yes, I'm still convinced that the Playstation3 would have sold better had it shipped as a Linux Desktop, and I'm convinced that the Playstation3 would sell even better if Sony would release a Linux Desktop Operating system disc for the platform...

But I've been wrong about Sony before. In fact, I've been dead wrong. Want to know how wrong I've been? I dug this one out while cleaning up my cave. Brace yourself's, I've been... this wrong:

Subject: PSX2, PSX, Wonderswan

I'm writing this in response to all the Pro-Sony people. Got some news folks, you might want to jump ship. Why? First of all, the PSX2 is going to fail, and fail badly. I do not make this statement rashely, or as a Sega Fanatic. I say this because I've noted several things you haven't. What? How about those Hires PSX2 shots. In case you didn't read the fine print, no PSX2 demo has yet to run the emotion engine. Get that? Your prize processor, accoding to Sony's own japanese sources, isn't even completed yet. All PSX2 demo shots are running off of a 128bit chip that is almost identical to the Dreamcast chip. Also Sony has announced its working on the Playstation3. Now out of courisity, why should Sony state working on its next-gen system when its next - system isn't even fully completed. See the market implications? Don't? In plain terms, Sony's not even counting on the PSX2 to make a profit.

Other things I've noted? How about how few companies actually have games lined up for Sony. Square's now got a deal with Micro-opoly (Microsoft). Namco is eyeing Dreamcast DVD. Most other "Sony" companies are also looking around and many are trying to get about the Dolphin Project. Also, ded you ever realize that with most Sony PSX hits, the games came from other systems (Tomb Raider) or previous systems (Chrono Cross Trigger)? That's because a lot of SNES programmers wanted the 32bit SNESCD and already had development kits. When Nintendo, in a rather stupid move, ditched the SNESCD many developers still went to Sony who modified Nintendo's (gasp) product into the record breaking PSX. Should I also mention that many 1st year PSX games used SNES Super FX chip programming. Wo, your hearts couldn't staqnd Sony's most famous project actually being a Nintendo system.

I should now me Many of you are probably now going to quote Sony sales statistics. Don't bother. There's only going to be a few hundred of you. However, there's going to be a few thousand who realize the only item keeping PSX game sales up. Bleem! I went around to several stores in my area and contacted many others. It turns out that PSX for DC tradeins far outweight PSX sales and N64-for DC sales. (on a side note IGN, you should have mentioned this to that company that was going to do a 64 (unreable), they should've dropped the PSX with that logic.) Simply put, rede readers, 90% of people buying PSX games now buy them for use with an emulator. You see, much like Microsoft, Sony chooses to not mention or include some #s in their statics. Much like Microsoft only counted all IE5 initial downloads as total downloads, which was not the case as fewer than (what was it) 15% actually downloaded and went through complete setup. Sony only lists how many units it sells out of its factories. Sony does not include trade-ins, returns, or total systems sold by stores. If they did, like Microsoft, there would be a drastic drop in sales.

I'd also like to mention that Sony is also like Microsoft in that it won't be around much longer. Bleem! Inc has already started a lawsuit claming (unreadable) Sony is a monopoly. After they have sued 4 times by Sony before. And only after getting a judge to grant them leave to do so. With this in mind, also realize that of this typing there are several other corporations who are going to back this lawsuit. Now supposing that Sony defends itself after losing 4 straight with Bleem! INc. Everything hunky-dorey for you. But if they don't? Well, the best that can is Sony will lose all its in-house development facilities. Sony...

*end*

Anybody want to start counting the number of points where I completely lost all rational thought? Don't tell me, I'll get too depressed again. The fact is, I just about mis-called every portion of what I wrote. Sony hasn't gone bankrupt. The PS2 sales detonated after the launch of Devil May Cry, and Sega is the hardware manufacture who went bust. Nintendo struggled to get developers on board with the Gamecube, and it wasn't till 8 months after the Wii launched that publishers and developers began to actively shift their development priorities to get Wii games out into the market. Bleem! today is a distant memory, and I don't even know how that lawsuit turned out.

So heres the overall view: if you read somebody on an occasional basis, are they willing to admit they are wrong? How about the possibility they are wrong? If they don't... you might not want to be reading what was written.