Over a year and a half ago in September of 2018, following the announcement of the PlayStation classic I wrote an entry on the then-hot subject of it not coming with any kind of power supply — you were expected to provide your own USB power supply, rated at 1 Amp. I felt this wasn’t a big deal, as units meeting that requirement can be found pretty much anywhere — a dime a dozen, as they say.
Following the release of the device in December 2018 I was a major surge in interest for that previous article, so I wrote a follow up based on what I had seen being shared on Twitter regarding the device and people’s experiences with it. It was mostly a reiteration of the original article but I went into more details on what I had seen in discussion on the device, the search terms that I was getting hits from, and a few other things.
The idea on each of those entries, however, was that generally speaking a person shouldn’t have much trouble finding a suitable adapter. Understand that the way people were talking about the device and acting about the situation was as if this was a complete deal breaker — that the device was useless as sold, as if there was nothing out there that could provide power.
Since then I’m had a few things happen. One is the occasional comment on one of those entries attacking me for proposing such isn’t an issue. Of course these follow the usual pattern of selectively ignoring what I say, missing the point entirely for whatever purpose they have in commenting. I recently left one of these up, the “least worst” of them to come in, and replied to it in detail. Others I just let rot away, a waste of the commenters effort.
The other thing, as I mention in the entry “The Only Articles I Truly Regret Writing” is that the first of these entries has gotten far more hits than any other entry I’ve written on most any given day. Frustratingly high numbers for a completely disposable article with a follow up that, ironically, gets little attention by comparison (for the most part.)
These factors together are why I’m writing this entry, where I’ll put things as bluntly as I can:
The PlayStation Classic has proven to be a failure in the eyes of consumers. The device was considered a joke in performance, in its offerings, and for the originally intended price. Its overall poor reception and quality doesn’t change the fact that yes, the device should have come with a proper supply. I stated that I felt this way in each entry.
That being said, I found the confusion and frustration that many exhibited about this to be somewhat absurd and, to a degree, overplayed. I still stand that powering the device isn’t difficult and, as I finally opened mine a few days ago to try a few power supplies, I found plenty which worked fine with the unit.
I NEVER INTENDED EITHER OF THOSE ARTICLES TO BE ANY KIND OF “GUIDE” AS TO HOW TO POWER THE SYSTEM. They were written solely to point out that options exist, as people were thinking something that could power the device was rare, expensive, obscure, what have you. I simply wanted to stress that options to power the device were probably sitting, unused, in a box just a few feet away from the very people wining about the “problem” of the system lacking a power supply.
I still stand by my original statements as I intended them at the time of publication, which I’ve reiterated in this article. However, it’s been over a year and a half since the release of the system. It has become a joke, sold for a fraction of its intended price and isn’t considered anything worth owning, unless someone intends to mod it in some way. I don’t understand why the entries are still getting hits or, even more so, why I’m getting comments on them over a year and a half later.
If the thing sucks, why do people keep on going to the articles; why do they care about my opinion enough to comment as if this device is loved and I don’t like it?
The nature of the internet these days will never cease to amaze me, but as it stands now I’ve struck-through all of the original text of those entries, leaving unavoidable links to this one. I’ve also disabled comments on those because, seriously, it’s been over a year and a half. No one cares. The only reason I don’t delete the entries is they bring in ad revenue.
Unless I get around to actually using and modding mine, expect me to never talk about the PlayStation Classic again.
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