The impassioned call rang out above all others in a recent Sony investors meeting:

With the company in the red yet again in its most recent quarter, Japanese investors were in an unhappy mood. “I bought shares in mighty Sony,” cried a woman whose holdings had lost nearly two-thirds of their value. “What are you going to do about this?”

Wired Magazine investiages the company’s future with Can the PS3 Save Sony? and comes to the ultimate conclusion that Sony’s various teams and departments are in such dire straights the fate of the entire company rests on whether or not the PlayStation 3 can be a profitable success.

Sadly, the future is not looking any brighter this day. Joystiq reports: European launch of PlayStation 3 delayed until March 2007, and this heartbreaking blow to the fastest growing game market is quicky followed up with North American, Japanese PS3 launch limited to 500,000 units.

Add on the fact that the unit itself still costs $600, and trendsetters like Penny-Arcade have sworn off the launch as “bullshit” and even the editor of Official PlayStation Magazine will be opting for an Xbox 360.

Maybe I’m not seeing the glow of Sony fans right now. Entire sites like This is Waiting mock the future of the PS3, and literally hundreds of posts on digg, youtube, and blogs all across the net collectively laugh at every single mis-step. The detractors aren’t watching Sony fail, they’re actually cheering it on.

There is little doubt Sony will sell through the initial stock quickly. I’m sure they’ll also meet their trimmed goal of 2 million by Spring 2007.
But with Xbox360 poised for its second year and reporting rapid success, and the Wii celebrated at the most talked about console since console wars began 20 years ago… Does Sony even have a shot now? I mean, could this be the end of the road for the biggest company in gaming? A year ago I’d say this was impossible, but now I wonder if a Playstation 4 will even see the light of day.

Hero Squared #3
Written by Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis, art by Joe Abraham

The setup so far: Milo’s self in an alternate universe is Captain Valor. But in this universe, Milo’s just a lazy, immature ass. Too bad Captain Valor’s universe got DESTROYED by Caliginous, his arch-enemy, because now he’s stuck here with Milo. In this universe, up until recently, Milo was dating Stephie. That is, until he hooked up with the Stephie from Captain Valor’s universe… who just so happens to be the super-villainess Caliginous. Got it?

All of last issue was spent in a therapist meeting for Milo, who dragged Captain Valor along for the ride. It was thoroughly entertaining, and while there isn’t always a lot that happened in each issue, it’s always rife with the classic “Bwa-ha-ha”-larity and meaningful characterization that Giffen and DeMatteis are so beloved for.

So, if you like the Super Buddies, or the recent Defenders mini they did, then this is the book you need to be reading. You’ll probably have to shakedown your comic shop guy if you want to buy one though, because I know my guy only orders two – one for me, and one for the other guy that reads it.

Of course, if you didn’t like their previous work, then I can’t really recommend this to you. It’s clearly too much for your fragile mind to handle. Go read something dark and gloomy instead, like the newspaper.

There was a lot of Transformers news in the past few days that we passed over, so I wanted to do a quick round up of some of the things we missed in case you missed it too.

First off, the lenticular cover art was revealed for the 20th Anniversary release of The Transformers: The Movie. That can be seen here. Its a large animated gif, so it may take a minute to load. Magnus seems to have gotten the shaft on this one.

The Hartmans’ shared some images of a ‘few’ items they will be bringing with them to Botcon to be sold. The Hartmans’ have what is generally believed to be the most complete collection of Transformers and have stated that it will be on sale at Botcon. The images can be seen here on the 2005 boards. The wall of American carded figures alone leaves me speechless.

Registration letters and events schedules should be arriving in the mail for those who have pre-registered for Botcon.

An image of an upcoming 2-pack in the Classics line surfaced. It features a repaint of Prime as Ultra Magnus and Starscream as Skywarp. The package indicates it will be a Target Exclusive.

The peoples at e-Hobby have listed Rodimus on their site, with a very nice collection of pictures showing his all the new features that he comes with. Check out this boner-riffic repaint below.

Link.