Playstation 3- “It only does Everything”
Sony’s motto for their Playstation 3 is a good description of their latest video game system. Since its release in 2006, the Sony Playstation 3 (or PS3) has become a flagship for the modern home entertainment system. The Playstation 3 blends movies, gaming, and social networking into one smooth technological powerhouse. Nearly all of its features offer great possibilities for the future. Technologically advanced from its hardware to its software, the system provides for many benefits. With these benefits come risks as well, although it seems that as time has gone on, some of the initial concerns have proven to be unfounded. With the original fears being assuaged over time, new ones have taken their place. This paper will examine the Playstation 3 and note its potential for good and ill. As a Playstation 3 user and former electronics retailer, I also hope to add my personal experience with the system and its uses to the scholarly information that I found through my research.
Meet Playstation 3
Back when game systems first came out, only a few companies made them and not many people played them. Considered by many to be the first is Pong. Pong was released in 1972 and was marketed as a simulated tennis game where a ball bounces back and forth between two screens (Wikipedia, 2011)1. The screen was black and the ball and paddles were white clumps of pixels.
As the years have gone on, game systems have featured increasingly better graphics as technology has improved. We have gone from 8-bit to 1080p, which means games have gone from a resolution of 256 by 240 pixels to a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. The Playstation 3 is one of two systems that are able to achieve that high resolution. Because of its graphical power, it can take also advantage of Sony’s proprietary high definition video format, Blu-ray, which is the standard format for all PS3 games.
Besides offering high definition games and movies, the Playstation 3 also features an internal hard drive. The hard drive size depends on which PS3 you buy. The currently available models being made by the company are ones with a 40 Gigabyte (GB) hard drive, a 120 GB model, a 160 GB model, a 250 GB model and a 320 GB model (Gamestop, 2011, p1-2)2. These hard drives allow the user to store various media on the system. It can store photos, music, games, and movies. Media can be accessed from a flash drives, memory cards or by downloading it off of Sony’s online network. That network is called the Playstation Network. It offers a virtual store where users can purchase movies and games to download to their systems. Besides the store, the network can be used as a social networking site between the various players by allowing users to keep in touch with their friends and their use of their systems.
Playstation 3’s Potential Benefits
One can imagine the many benefits to the technology that is already available with Sony’s system. The hardware for the system allows for growth in gaming for years to come. Frank Rose for Wired Magazine (2006) found that “[The Cell microchip] developed in partnership with IBM and Toshiba, features a central processing unit and eight coprocessors on the same chip, working in parallel,” (p.2)3. In comparison, Microsoft’s competing high definition gaming system features a three core processor (Rose, 2006, p.2)3. The raw computing power of the Playstation 3’s chip is limited only by the developers of the software’s ability to program for it. Now the highest resolution supported is 1080p, but when televisions and monitors increase their capabilities, the PS3 will be poised to meet the challenge. The Cell microchip allows for more pixels and the more pixels you have, the more details you can add.
Besides the graphical prowess of the hardware’s microchip, the Playstation 3 also features a high definition Blu-Ray disc drive. Blu-ray is a proprietary format designed by Sony. There are many benefits to Blu-Ray. According to the Development Department for TDK Corporation, the discs are made of a hard coating and silica with an added “low friction coefficient” and “lubricant that exhibits oil repellency”(Hiyashida, Hirata, Komaki, Usami, Ushida, Itoh, Yoneyama & Utsunomiya, 2002, p.750-753)4. The benefits of the hard coat resin are obvious to any Blu-Ray disc owner. They are scratch-resistant and fingerprint resistant. Anyone with children (or messy adults) can espouse the advantages of that. The discs have the potential to last longer, which will save money in the long term due to not needing to replace damaged discs. With games costing up to sixty dollars and movies up to forty, replacements can get costly very quickly.
Another feature of the Playstation 3 can also have the potential benefit of saving money. The Playstation Network, fondly known as PSN, offers the chance to rent, purchase, or stream movies to the PS3. Not needing to leave your house saves you money in transportation and time. The value of cheap rentals is also easily noted. Other potential benefits of the Network are the ways you can socially interact with others. PSN offers the ability to “friend” other PS3 users. Through this friendship, you can see what games your friends are playing, send them messages, and chat using either headsets or cameras. In a 2009 press release, Sony announced Facebook integration so that users could interact with their other friends as well. The Facebook integration allows the user to share their game achievements (Sony uses a “trophy” system) and game purchases (Sony, para. 1&2)5.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
While the Playstation 3 offers many great features, it also offers many opportunities for social, ethical, and security concerns. From a social perspective, it seems that a system that offers an online network connecting its many users would be beneficial. The problem is that it leaves little reason to socialize outside of your home. Instead of going out to the movies or dinner, one can stay home and rent a movie through Playstation Network or play a game. Some games last over 1000 hours and can be very absorbing. People should monitor their activity or the activity of their friends or children on the system to ensure that outside social interaction continues. Furthermore, physical activity should be monitored as well. With obesity running rampant in America, a more conscious effort needs to be made to take breaks to get up and move. Bringing people together in an online community is great as long as it does not keep people from continuing involvement in their “real life” community.
Beyond its social impacts, gaming offers security and ethical concerns as well. Ever since its release, people have been trying to find ways to change the Playstation 3 internally by making various modifications and attempting to hack into their coding. This is called “modding”. Michael Riley and Ashlee Vance for Bloomberg BusinessWeek report that a man named George “GeoHot” Hotz successfully hacked the system to “allow it to run [games] made by amateurs and other unsanctioned software. Hotz published his technique in an online diary; Sony sued for him to take it down… Anonymous, the amorphous hacker collective that brought down the websites of MasterCard and other payments processors in December, vowed to retaliate,” (2011, para. 4)6. Because of this lawsuit, hackers accessed private information through Sony’s Playstation Network on April 19th, 2011. Sony shut the Network down, but provided customers no details. On April 26th, they announced a cyber-security attack that resulted in the loss of customer information including passwords, and possibly including credit card information. Because of the delay in relaying the information to their customers, Sony was looking at possibly legal actions from the House of Representatives. Kazou Hirai, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sony Entertainment America, submitted a letter to the sub-committee of the House with answers to their questions. Patrick Seybold, the Senior Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, posted the letter and a summary of it on Sony’s blog on May 4th, saying that the company waited until they verified their information to inform customers and planned on offering free identity theft protection for one year for those interested (para. 4&5)7.
This cyber-attack is a great example of the risks involved with information technology. Although Sony offered incentives for their customers, one must ask where Sony’s ethical responsibilities towards their customers really lie. Many people, including security experts, believe that Sony has not done a good enough job of protecting customer information. Although Sony claims that the attack was “very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated” (Seybold, 2011, para. 2)7, Bret McDanel, a veteran security researcher interviewed by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, found that Sony left an unguarded server log online. Server logs keep a record of all activity on a server. He found that, as early as March, relatively easy-to-access software known for checking networks for weaknesses was active until about six weeks later. Four days later, Sony found that 100 million accounts had been compromised (Riley & Vance, 2011, para. 3 & 4)6. Undoubtedly, Sony has made changes to their security system and fired and hired experts to prevent this from happening again.
Sony’s Playstation 3: Friend or Foe?
Sony’s system offers many technological, economical, and social benefits, but for all those benefits, there are a bevy of risks as well. Most everything in life has pros and cons, information technology is no different. So while the Playstation can be a friend or a foe to its users, it is undeniably an impressive piece of technology. Further research will be required as time goes on to determine if the PS3 has more advantages or disadvantages. This determination will also depend on how you view it. Are games an art form or a destructive force? Will Blu-ray overtake DVD as the reigning video format or be another expensive format that falls on its face? Is the cyber-attack on Sony a vision of things to come or a costly lesson for all those in the information technology field? These questions, and more, can only be answered in time. For now, we can appreciate the efforts that Sony has made to give its customers a worthy form of home entertainment for young and old alike.
Reference Page
This webpage has a lot of basic information about the game Pong with many strong citations.
2. Playstation 3/New. (2011). Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.gamestop.com/browse/consoles/playstation-3?nav=2b0,13ffff2412-8d-4f.
Gamestop is a specialty store focused on video games and their official website lists the available new Playstation 3 systems.
3. Rose, F. (2006, September). Can the PS3 save Sony? Wired, 14(9). Retrieved September 27, 2011 from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/sony.html?pg=1&topic=sony&topic_set=
This article from the reputable Wired magazine discusses the new technology that Sony’s Playstation 3 offers.
4. Hayashida, N., Hirata, H., Komaki, T., Usami, M., Ushida, T., Itoh, H., Yoneyama, K., et al. (2003). High-Performance Hard Coat for Cartridge-Free Blu-ray Disc. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 42, 750-753. doi:10.1143/JJAP.42.750. Retrieved September 27, 2011 from http://jjap.jsap.jp/link?JJAP/42/750/
The Japanese Journal of Applied Physics is a peer-reviewed journal published through the Institute of Pure and Applied Physics in Japan. This entry details the results of using certain materials in the production of blu-ray discs.
5. Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. to Offer Richer Online Social Experience to Playstation®3 Computer Entertainment System Owners With Facebook Integration. (2009). Retrieved September 27, 2011 from http://us.playstation.com/corporate/about/press-release/532.html#top
This is a link to the official Sony website. The official website includes news and information directly from Sony.
6. Vance, M. R., Ashlee. (2011, May 12). Sony: The Company That Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. BusinessWeek: Online Magazine. Retrieved September 27, 2011 from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_21/b4229035889849.htm?chan=magazine+channel_news+-+technology
BusinessWeek is a well-known publication that dates back to 1929 and is currently headed by the former deputy managing editor of Time magazine. This article includes interviews with a cyber-security expert who discusses the holes in Sony’s online security and what led to the massive security leak through their proprietary network.
7. Seybold, P. (2011, May 4). Sony’s Response to the U.S. House of Representatives. Playstation.Blog message posted to http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/04/sonys-response-to-the-u-s-house-of-representatives/
This is the official blog of Sony and is headed by Sony’s Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Social Media. This post includes a link to a copy of the official letter that was sent from Sony’s Chairman to the House of Representatives to address their concerns with Sony’s handling of their security breach.
