When the week started, Sony was ever so slowly beginning to ramp up interst in its Playstation 2 launch less than a month away from launch.  "Certainly," one could reasonably begin to expect, "certainly this marks a turnaround, and we'll encounter a reinvigorated Sony showing us the best PS3 launch info we've seen yet."

Of course, that fails to take into account that Sony and logic seem to have a tenuous relationship at the best of times.

More after the jump.

First, we got crushing news in the form of yet further game delays:  one-time Sony exclusive Armored Core 4 would miss it's December launch deadline.  But only on the PS3, leaving its recently announced 360 edition to mop up store shelves as the premiere mech game this year.

Then Oblivion, that game where anyone who spent five minutes playing it on a PC would throw away their console iteration in disgust; suddenly became a non contender with the revelation that not only would other gamers get the exact same "exclusive" content, but that said exclusive content would be available a mere three days after launch.

Now, Sony's flagship launch title Resistance, Dawn of man, finds itself further emasculated from its 1080i initial announced resolution (it was only going to be 1080p at its first unveiling, and Insomniac quickly scrapped those plans) to a mere 720p without the possibility of PS3 rescaling the image.

Now, we learn that PS1 and PS2 classics won't get any sort of visual or aural facelift on the new hardware.  Mind you, even the Playstation 2 had texture smoothing abilities for classic Playstation titles.

Sony may have legal trouble with Microsoft for libel after a Sony "comparison sheet" added such necessities as the HD-DVD drive and wireless controllers to the (core) system.  I could also mention their inclusion of the Hard Drive and internet account, but those things pretty much are necessities to getting the full XBOX experience, though both were still misrepresented by the use of the Core system as the starting point.

Finally, amongst rumors suggesting that availability will be even lower than initially thought, Sony has the gall to forcibly prevent (via preemptive legal action, no less) import shops from selling any sort of Playstation merchandise to Europe ahead of schedule.  Including PSP systems, which have been available in that country since last year.


It looks that the only thing more difficult than acquiring a Playstation 3 this year will be selling one.

No worries, though.  We can always watch Talladega Nights to feel better.