rothbart
01-23-2008, 05:04 PM
Rothbart’s Rant #78 - "Counting Chickens" Edition
by Sean "rothbart" Workman (http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/author/rothbart/)
http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/rr78.jpg
On the eve of going live with Skype for the PSP in Japan, it seems Sony has (indefinitely?) postponed the release due to their microphones/headsets not meeting Skype Certification requirements (http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/23/sony-delays-skype-psp-and-microphone-launch-indefinitely/). It kind of makes you wonder how that one snuck up on them, huh? When you add this news to the fact that owners of the original model PSP can’t use Skype at all, due to it needing the extra RAM in the PSP-2000, the shininess of Skype on the PSP begins to tarnish quite a bit in my opinion.
I love it when companies charge ahead toward their deadline knowing they’re not ready. In case you didn’t catch it, that was the obligatory “sarcastic” statement of this post. What in the hell were they thinking? This was is rather high profile (albeit of questionable use) feature they’re publicly stumbling on. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone (even quietly) loses a job over this.
Up until today, my best example of a last minute bail out, would probably have been Rockstar’s GTA IV. They were down to about a month before their (at that time) October ‘07 launch target, when they delayed it, for what would still seem to be at least six months. Just as I said about GTA IV then, I’ll say about PSP Skype now… they knew they weren’t going to make their launch day before the day they announced it, so why wait so long?
As I think about these situations though, I realize things like this could happen a lot more than we know. If everything “comes together” at the end, we might never know something was almost delayed at the last minute. Sony could have simply been rolling the dice because there was a very real chance everything would work out on time, but clearly they came up snake eyes this time. They seem to be a lot more prone to gambling on things lately. Maybe we should do an intervention, or something? I just can’t help, but do a forehead smack when I think about the stumbling block being the headsets Sony was planning on using. For a VOIP product, you’d think that would be one of the first things you nailed down, wouldn’t you?
While we’re on the topic of indefinitely delayed PSP add-ons, does anyone else find it peculiar that we don’t have the PSP EyeToy, GPS attachment (we clearly know now that release dates aren’t the same as actual releases), or the Talkman microphone released in the states? If Skype is going to take a custom headset and not the SOCOM headset, I wonder how long it’ll take that to get released in the states?
It’s rare that we see such a last minute public misstep. I’m curious what your personal favorites are, other than the two I’ve listed? Do you know of any “almost” last minute delays of major products that would’ve been particularly catastrophic? Let’s hear ‘em!
by Sean "rothbart" Workman (http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/author/rothbart/)
http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/rr78.jpg
On the eve of going live with Skype for the PSP in Japan, it seems Sony has (indefinitely?) postponed the release due to their microphones/headsets not meeting Skype Certification requirements (http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/23/sony-delays-skype-psp-and-microphone-launch-indefinitely/). It kind of makes you wonder how that one snuck up on them, huh? When you add this news to the fact that owners of the original model PSP can’t use Skype at all, due to it needing the extra RAM in the PSP-2000, the shininess of Skype on the PSP begins to tarnish quite a bit in my opinion.
I love it when companies charge ahead toward their deadline knowing they’re not ready. In case you didn’t catch it, that was the obligatory “sarcastic” statement of this post. What in the hell were they thinking? This was is rather high profile (albeit of questionable use) feature they’re publicly stumbling on. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone (even quietly) loses a job over this.
Up until today, my best example of a last minute bail out, would probably have been Rockstar’s GTA IV. They were down to about a month before their (at that time) October ‘07 launch target, when they delayed it, for what would still seem to be at least six months. Just as I said about GTA IV then, I’ll say about PSP Skype now… they knew they weren’t going to make their launch day before the day they announced it, so why wait so long?
As I think about these situations though, I realize things like this could happen a lot more than we know. If everything “comes together” at the end, we might never know something was almost delayed at the last minute. Sony could have simply been rolling the dice because there was a very real chance everything would work out on time, but clearly they came up snake eyes this time. They seem to be a lot more prone to gambling on things lately. Maybe we should do an intervention, or something? I just can’t help, but do a forehead smack when I think about the stumbling block being the headsets Sony was planning on using. For a VOIP product, you’d think that would be one of the first things you nailed down, wouldn’t you?
While we’re on the topic of indefinitely delayed PSP add-ons, does anyone else find it peculiar that we don’t have the PSP EyeToy, GPS attachment (we clearly know now that release dates aren’t the same as actual releases), or the Talkman microphone released in the states? If Skype is going to take a custom headset and not the SOCOM headset, I wonder how long it’ll take that to get released in the states?
It’s rare that we see such a last minute public misstep. I’m curious what your personal favorites are, other than the two I’ve listed? Do you know of any “almost” last minute delays of major products that would’ve been particularly catastrophic? Let’s hear ‘em!