teething (User)

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15 of PS3's Dirty Secrets: Shhhh... don't tell.

teething | 1266d ago
User blog

The PS3 is a GREAT console. Great processor, strong exclusives, bluray, free online gaming, and more. But with all it's strengths, the road for the PS3 has been a rough one this generation. Here are some facts that Sony would rather consumers not know...

#1: Sony lost A LOT of market share from last gen to this gen. The PS2 used to be king... by a long shot. But with a slow start, the PS3 is fighting to keep within grasp of the second place 360. Sony still dominates Asia, and holds a slight lead in much of the world, but it has lost significant influence in the largest market of all: the USA. As total numbers of consoles go, the PS3 sits in 3rd place worldwide.

#2: Historically, most multiplatform games are better on the 360. They tend to be more stable and have better graphics, even if the differences are slight. Just about any game running on the Unreal 3 engine are great examples. Games like Mass Effect 2 show that parity is coming, but even then the one year old version running on an older engine is arguably just as good (each has it's ups and downs).

#3: Sony lost big money selling PS3 consoles. Ignoring software sales, Sony lost an estimated 300$ per console at release, 50$ per console in 2008, 40$ per console in 2009 when the Slim came out, and 18$ per console sold in Feb 2010. The PS3 was reported by Shuhei Yoshida to be finally breaking even for each console sold in June 2010. In contrast, Wii always sold consoles at a profit. The 360 sold at a loss of 126$ per console when it was released, and was breaking even after 1.5 years (compared to Sony's 4 years). To rub salt in the wounds, the 360 "slim" further increased profits per console sold and Kinect was sold at a reported 50$ profit per unit on release.

#4: Sony loses big money with its online PSN. One of Sony's big selling points is also hemorrhaging money. Nothing in life is free, but at least your gain is Sony's loss. Such losses make the money lost per console sold far higher than money lost due to selling consoles for less than the hardware costs. As such, the 360 becomes even more profitable than the PS3.

#5: Sony sells less software per console than the 360. Royalty fees from software sales is what finally allowed the PS3 to become profitable, but even there the PS3 has lagged behind the 360. VCGhartz estimates put the 360 at 9.4 units software sold per console. The PS3 trails at 7.2 units software per PS3 sold.

#6: PS3 failure rates are higher than Sony will admit, and 360 failure rates are lower than the "interwebz" would have you believe. 360 fail rates are undoubtedly higher than the PS3, but at least they do a better job standing behind their failed consoles with a solid warranty and prompt replacement.

#7: PS3 online gaming is being corrupted by hackers right now. You have to look no further than the COD series than to realize that with the recent compromise with PS3 security, PSN gaming has taken a hit with glitches and cheaters. One can only expect this to get worse if Steam services continue to expand and increase ties with the PC world... known for a strong hacking/glitching community.

#8: Blu-ray is slow. What the blue-ray does well is play movies and hold lots of storage space. What it does not do well is go fast. Copy speeds are slower than the 360 drive. Yes, games will fit on only one disk, but few games actually require more than one disk on the 360. And given the popularity of large hard-drives on new consoles, most games are best played when downloaded to your console, making multiple disks a moot point. Sadly, copying just takes longer on the PS3.

#9: Digital downloaded content is the way of the future, not blu-ray. A lot of people bashed Microsoft for sticking with it's DVD drive and not adopting Blu-ray. Microsoft countered by saying that digitally distributed content was the way of the future. These days Sony is linking with Steam, and even Mass Effect 2 was a day one digital download. At least Sony is doing a good job with their adoption of the digital model.

#10: Move is lagging behind Kinect. Moving into the casual market was a smart move for Sony and Microsoft. The problem is that the Move was too close to the Wii to really capture the imagination of the casual market (who probably had a Wii anyway). Kinect was unique, and better or worse, it stood out... and sold far better than the Move, in far lass time. The fact that Sony is quiet about actual sales to end customers like you and me is very telling... in a bad way for Move.

#11: Move has a weak game line-up. At the moment Kinect actually has a few decent games. All the good Move games are "coming soon". Move is all hype and no content at the moment. And on the subject of hype...

#12: PS3 exclusives are not living up to "fanboy hype." The PS3's largest strength at the moment is in it's large exclusive lineup (another very large cost to Sony...). Any Sony fanboy can send you a list of upcoming PS3 exclusives, and a much shorter 360 list. And to date, the exclusives that have been released are solid, and arguably the best showcase of what the PS3 can do. However, Uncharted 2 aside, PS3 exclusives have just not been living up to the hype of the PS3 fanboys. GT5 was not a game-changer. GOW was beautiful, but not revolutionary. LBP2 was solid, but more of the same. To be fair, these were all great games, but they were over-hyped, and gamers were left expecting more, and not appreciating what they had. When the reviews are finished at the end of 2011, don't be surprised to find out that games like Killzone 3 are just more of the same. Fans will scream bloody murder, and "play games not reviews," but at the end of the day the content will not match the hype. It never does.

#13: Sony is terrified of the next gen consoles. As outlined above, Sony has invested a lot of money in the PS3 and has adsorbed a large amount of loss to get the PS3 to where it is today. As such, for the PS3 to be a financial success for Sony, they need to extend the life of the PS3 as long as possible. The next Wii, and the next 360 will be out sooner since their consoles were far more profitable, and can thus afford to move to the next gen. They smell blood.

#14: Sony is already designing the PS4: Sony knows that the next gen Wii and 360 will be announced within a year or so (Wii desperately needs it, and the 360 will follow). As such they are surely smart enough to already have a team that is designing the PS4. Sadly for PS3 gamers, the losses Sony takes this gen will force Sony to sell the PS4 at less of a loss than the PS3. As such, to get a good price-point, Sony will have to cut back on hardware quality.

#15: PSN will eventually charge for multiplayer. Xbox Live is a proven cash cow, and Sony wants in. PlayStation Plus is testing the waters this gen. Expect paid PSN mutliplayer to begin with the next gen, and don't expect PS3 multiplayer to stay free at that point either. Sadly, hackers will be used as an excuse to charge for multi-player... because the increased patches and security will cost money. No more free online folks.

Stay tuned for the 15 dirty secrets of the Xbox 360...

Scottyabanks  +   1266d ago
Very interesting, and I'm looking forward to your 360 list. I do have to say that the majority of your list are opinions of things that may happen, because of what's happened, and aren't exactly secrets, and is borderline fanboy due to it's opinionated nature, and only borderline because of your mention of a potentially similar 360 list to be. However, there are a few good facts in there, but many more opinions than facts.
#1 (Edited 1266d ago ) | Agree(14) | Disagree(1) | Report | Reply
iamnsuperman  +   1266d ago
Agree good but most are not supported by fact but assumption. For instance failure rate has no facts what so ever nor does exclusives section. The next list you do please have more facts and less assumptions. This isn't really a list of PS3 secrets Sony do not want you to kno more a collection of your thoughts of the PS3 and Sony
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SasanovaS1987  +   1266d ago
the games sony has put out are dissapointing? left us gamers hungry for more? lolol kid is confusing trolls and fanboys for gamers. true gamers know the quality sony gives them, and they keep supporting and purchasing the games.
TheLastGuardian  +   1265d ago
#9 oh god, DO NOT WANT!

#11 Kinect may have am ok casual line up but Move has the better line up of games imo.

#12 Yeah well, that's just like, your opinion man. PS3 exclusives are some of the best games of this generation imo. It amazes me how many high quality exclusives Sony has put out this generation. They deserve to have the most success because they try the hardest to bring us as many quality exclusives as possible.
nycredude  +   1266d ago
Nothing but a fanboy rant. Jesus people are really obsessed to be wasting so much time to write absolute garbage like this.

Seriously there is enough of this garbage on N4g already, now we have to deal with blogs.

Many of these are just opinions and asumptions and others are just retarded.

Sony are terrified of next gen?
Psn will eventually charge for MP? WRONG

Psn corrupted by hackers? and names one game? SO PSn is ruined cause of hackers on cod?

BLuray is slow? LOL

Sony sells less software and cites vgchartz

THis guys has absolutely nothing to back up anything he/she says here.

I can't wait to see the 360 version of this. My guess is it will be just as misinformed.
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slugboss  +   1265d ago
Most of it sounds like he's promoting the 360, but isn't this about PS3? Bluray player in ps3 is slow though, it explains the lengthy installs.
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firefoxprime  +   1265d ago
Yeah...but you also wasted your time reading this "garbage". Guess "you" have alot of time on your hands as well. Not much of a life, is it?

U mad? *giggles*
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Kurt Russell  +   1264d ago
I hope the OP is right... just because I would love to see what happens to emo fanboy nerds like nycredude if was to :)

Bluray is slow, players and burners don't nearly match that of their DVD counterparts. That's not to say it will always be like that, but for now it is. "mimicked idiotic LOL"

The above blog may not be fully represented and backed up like it should have been... But then the same goes for your little spotty nerd rant.

@OP I hope your 360 article is equally as critical just to stamp out the fanboys ironically accusing you of being a fanboy.
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smashman98  +   1265d ago
im with scotty on this one i want to see your 360 list because to me it looks like nothing more than a fanboy rant
mushroomwig  +   1266d ago
Do you have any actual proof for numbers 6 and 15? As in links from credible sites? I only ask because it just seems like you're writing anything for attention.
blackburn5  +   1266d ago
I am sorry but your list is full of assumptions, opinions and things people already know. For instance Sony already admited that PSN is in the red and needs to improve and we all know the multiplats look slightly better on the 360. Also failure rates for the PS3 were not tallied by Sony and if the PS3 fail rate were high you can bet your head everyone would make sure and report it and repeat it over and over again. I hear more about people buying over the 360 6 times then I hear that about the PS3. Also many 360 game fail to live up to the hype.Alan Wake, Crackdown 2, Fable 3, SCC all hyped up games that under proformed after 360 fans hyped them to the moon. Also I am not sure what few decent games for Kinect you mean. DC and KS? Everything you said just makes you sound like another 360 fanboy desperately trying to put down the PS3. I want to see if you are this harsh in your 360 list. The PS3 has it's faults but try not to use opinions as if they are facts next time.
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-Alpha  +   1266d ago
Some of this I agree with, some of it sounds like opinion/requires more proof.

Nice list though, can't wait to see the 360 list.

I doubt Sony will charge for multiplayer. I expect them to have a free service to play online at the least. So long as XBL is around Sony cant compete with them, especially if they charge.

What makes PSN competitive is the fact that it is free. That's the plain truth. The fact that people pay for XBL is testament to how much brand power it has.

The fact is that XBL is a proven service over PSN and people simply are more familiar with it. If PSN is going to start charging they need to be much better than XBL and I don't see that happening considering how much of PSN still lacks in many ways.

If it starts charging it needs a damn good reason to.
#4 (Edited 1266d ago ) | Agree(4) | Disagree(10) | Report | Reply
SuicideShaun  +   1265d ago
You know, I got to be honest. I feel like even the psn+ service lacks a lot. I keep buying the 3 month one until we get a real reason to purchase it. I am currently dissapointed in the amount of content considering that it does cost as much as xbl.

inb4 20,000 disagrees.
smashman98  +   1264d ago
lol then dont buy it. also ur wasting money if keep buying the 3 month 1 versus just buying the year and just waiting for some awesome deals. i personally dont subscribe because i rarely buy psn games. with that being said u cant complain about a service that is optionnal in everyway.
SuicideShaun  +   1264d ago
Yeah, I only did it for the dcuo beta.
Gawdl3y  +   1266d ago
I hate the stereotype that PC is more prone to hacking and glitching. This isn't true at all, thanks to things like PunkBuster and VAC. Not to mention that if someone DOES manage to glitch or hack while playing online, since most games run on community-run dedicated servers, they usually end up getting banned from the server by a server admin and reported to Valve or whomever fairly quickly.
cgoodno  +   1266d ago | Intelligent
1. They pretty much could only lose in the first place. You go from everything to sharing it with others...

2. Agreed, but at a degree that is practically negligible. It's actually a rarity that the game is such that it looks much worse or affects gameplay.

3. Your $300 amount is pretty bogus there. They lost money, but it wasn't anywhere near half the cost of the console. Also, Sony said they started gaining profit on the PS3 in Q1 2009. So, no clue where you're getting your crap figures from.

4. Sony also gains money by being free. More customers equals more purchases. If they charged for PSN, they still wouldn't be able to compete with XBL due to a lack of knowledge on the infrastructure and software and Microsoft's stranglehold on some very important patents.

5. You're getting your figures wrong since you're measuring total over the lifetime of the consoles. You gotta measure it on the latest year.

Total PS3 in 2010: 46,127,467
Total PS3 Software in 2010: 126,964,288
PS3 attach rate in 2010: 2.75

Total 360 in 2010: 50,759,602
Total 360 Software in 2010: 141,043,647
360 attach rate in 2010: 2.79

6. Proof? The highest it's been shown to be is 10%, which was a very skewed report done by people in the UK who were selling PS3 non-warranty covered repairs.

7. Only on CoD games, which have been hacked since MW on all consoles.

8. Actually, average copy speeds are higher. What's lost is the ability to read fast for a little while. Doing this often on any console destroys the disc drive. Sure, it means faster loading on the 360, but not at a point where it's an issue. Most loading issues on the PS3 are due to poor coding, not due to the read speed of the BD.

9. No, it's not.

10. Agreed. Sony is doing a piss poor job pushing the support of it like Microsoft. Though, they also don't have a $500m marketing budget to overcome either.

11. Eh, not so bad. Kinect's best software item is a third-party title. It' has about two notable games, honestly, while Move only has the one. If Move doesn't change this in the near future, it will definitely be a sign of Sony's inability to support new accessories... again.

12. Ratings and sales defy this. The rest of your comments are opinion... very annoying opinion at that.

13. Everyone is terrified of the next gen. Not just Sony. It means a whole new competition between everyone and not knowing what the others are going to pull out. It means trying to figure out how much they have to invest in their next device while keeping it at a reasonable price while not knowing what the competition is planning. It means spending more money to get more exclusives, moreso than they work on it now.

14. So? Everyone started designing the next console a little after the release of their last console. They are continually looking into new technology and looking at who to invest in for their next technology.

15. Unlikely. As I said above, the competition they afford is in free service with less capabilities. Sony just doesn't have the experience that Microsoft does, nor do they have the infrastructure. If they started making people pay for it, they'll lose customers left and right and Microsoft will gain a few more.

As a person who regularly approves Blogs here, I gotta say I'm kind of sad to see this approved so quickly with it's very opinionated and fairly flameboyish approach. Especially hate it when people provide absolutely no official proof to random figures.
#6 (Edited 1266d ago ) | Agree(26) | Disagree(0) | Report | Reply
GenoZStriker  +   1266d ago
He makes a lot of assumptions and claims them to be facts and also tries to make it seem as if his opinion represents everyone elses.
Rage_S90  +   1265d ago
thank for this epic reply to this fanboy blog by far the worst blog i've read here bubble up
GenoZStriker  +   1266d ago
You start off well with #1-5 then you simply start making assumptions and claim them to be facts and some are just things that are just not as important as you make them out to.

#6: No company admits to the amount of hardware failure. MS stayed quiet for most with the RROD and when the 360 slim came out they dodged when journalist reported RROD the first day they got it. Ofcourse the PS3/Xbox360 failure rates are going to be low/higher than what is talked about on the internet because quite frankly there is a large number of people who are not always on the internet. What exactly are you trying to get at here? Sony doesn't admit more PS3 have more failures than what people talk about but it's much less than the 360.

#7: "PS3 online gaming is being corrupted by hackers right now." Right now? LOL Hackers have been on PS3/Xbox360/Wii since the start of this gen. Using the recent breach in security as an excuse for a game (MW2 & BO, in the PS3 case terrible port) that was poorly coded and exploited and doesn't get patch support from it's developers is just pathetic. People hack PSN to get trophies just as they have done Xbox Live for achievement points.

#8: ERRRRRR? "Copy speeds are slower than the 360 drive?"

#9:Digital download has absolutely nothing to do with Blu-Ra vs. DVD.

#10: It's not a secret, we all know. They know. Everyone knows.

#11: I don't think we need Sony to tell us this. WE KNOW!

#12: LOL? "GT5 was not a game-changer" yet a lot of people bought it, play it and enjoy it. "LBP2 was solid, but more of the same" at this point you are simply trying to make it seem as if your opinion counts for everyone else and calling out "fanboys"

#13: Sony has no reason to start making a move into the next gen with just having release MOVE and them trying to push 3D gaming TV to enhance gaming visuals. The PS3 till this day hasn't been fully utilized by developers.

#14: And Nintendo has started working on Wii 2 and Microsoft on Xbox 720. Source?

#15: Assumption.
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Pandamobile  +   1266d ago
You can't honestly believe that Sony, MS and Nintendo aren't working on their new consoles at this point.

They pretty much jump straight into R&D as soon as they ship a new gen of consoles.

They're not paying hundreds of engineers to sit idly for years at a time til they decide it's time for a new patch of consoles.
ZombieAssassin  +   1266d ago
#9 is kinda a doubled edged sword, I don't think we'll get to Download only for at least 15 years especially for games...i mean do you really want to download 50GB of data on a 1.5mb connection (standard in my area). At the same time though I think we'll get alot more Download only games because it's cheaper and more indie devs can afford it.


#12 is all your opinion i mean is Gears 3 really gonna be any different or a "game changer" than Gears 1 or 2, same with Halo they're all basically the same. Look at the New Super Mario Bros it's almost the same damn thing we played 20 years ago but it's still a good game that many enjoy...yea nothing ever lives up to the hype but you can't base something on the hype you have to base how good something is on the product not what the interwebz says it's going to be.


#14 you do know the reason that Sony sold at such a loss at the beggining of this gen is because of the Blu-ray drive right, yea sure I garuntee theyll lose money on the Ps4 at launch but by then I'm sure theyll be making decent profit on Ps3 and you know how sony loves to support it's consoles for a long time and if they become even cheaper you'll prolly see a sales spike because it'll basically be a blu-ray player that comes with a game console (or vise-versa).

Honestly pretty much the whole Blog was your opinion with some random facts in it.
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jneul  +   1265d ago
#10&11 are lame as hell, and this is stupid, move has plenty of good games if you owned one you would know this i have heavy rain, re5:gold, modern combat domination, time crisis: raising storm, eyepet, and ruse all as hardcore titles, where are kinect's oh right the only good game it has is dance central :-D??
ps btw i would be writing a very long blog if i listed all ms's dirty secrets about the 360...
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Mista T  +   1265d ago
truth hurts for people :)
Rage_S90  +   1265d ago
yh i know your hurting i can taste your tears lol
Lyr1c  +   1264d ago
Eww....They smell like fish.
Corrwin  +   1265d ago
And not a single source sited. Thanks for your opinions.

But one, I may add I know is false. BluRay in general is not slower than DVD. A BluRay 1x speed drive can read and write data significantlty faster than a 1x speed DVD drive.

The confusion comes in when you see that the PS3 has a 2x Speed BR drive, and the 360 a 16x Speed. The 16x DVD speed is faster than the 2x BluRay, but not always.

You see BluRay has a constant reading speed. It does not matter where on the disk the data is held, it will always be read at one speed. DVD does not have this, it's data read and write speed varies according to it's position on the the disk, and on which layer.

Data that takes up 4.5GB (roughly) of space, sitting on the first layer will read faster on the 360, compared to the same data sitting on any given layer of a BluRay disk.

However, once you use that 2nd DVD layer (as games have been starting to do for a couple of years and go up to 9GB of space, that second 4.5GB on the second layer of a DVD will read slower on the 360, than the same data from a BluRay on the PS3.

Even if you ignore the games that must be placed on a 2nd DVD (because the 2nd layer is all but useless if you wish to maintain reading speeds), you may wonder why SONY would give us a 2x BluRay, when they could have simply given us a 3X speed, and put the matter to bed.

It's the wrong question to ask. The question should be: if Naughty Dog, Guerilla, Sucker Punch, can make extraordinary looking games stream from the disk with no HDD install, why can't multi-platform developers?

With Microsoft sticking to DVD, and charging (fining them in some cases) developers to use more than 1 DVD, they are effectively holding back the development of their own Exclusives, and multi-platform games. Because no developer will risk the backlash of releasing more content on PS3 or PC.
additup28  +   1265d ago
that was so lame, cant believe i actually read through this stuff..promise myself to stay away from these things this year, but was actually thinking I was going to find something of substance and new information, instead its fanboy drivel with no citations or sources.
Paradise Lost  +   1265d ago
I just wasted 5 minutes of my life, i would like a refund please.
adamx  +   1265d ago
it seems like some of your facts are more opinion based then a proven fact. I will wait for your 360 list to see if the same tactics are used.
Parapraxis  +   1265d ago
Check his comment history, you most likely won't see a 360 version of this flamebait crap.
smashman98  +   1264d ago
i checked his comments they were allrite i could see his he seemed more pro 360 but i didnt see any ps3 or pc hate
Otheros00  +   1265d ago
PSN will eventually charge for multiplayer.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! *wipes tears*

PSN has NEVER charge for mutiplayer!!
If your going to write a blog at least get your facts straight.
You sound very much like a fanboy.
You VGZFAKECHARTS numbers!! Seriously?!!!
It's better to use official numbers or npd numbers.
Z501  +   1265d ago
Can't wait for the 360 version of this list.
Information Minister  +   1264d ago
Have you seen his comment history? Don't hold your breath.
Vesemir  +   1264d ago
15 things you should know...
This guy's an idiot. x15

Just my opinion. No offense meant.
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smashman98  +   1264d ago
99% of this list had to do with sales thts kinda retarded
mastiffchild  +   1264d ago
Comparing Move and Kinect is also daft when Sony placed way less eggs in that basket and Kiunect also has few actual games.

My real issue is with your the multi plat being superior on the 360. In the whole of this gen multis have nearly all been so similar that you couldn't tell them apart without a site to pull them apart for you because devs aim to make them the same and not as good as possible. There's nothing these to make either seem "better"-and the number of games with big enough differences to merit actually picking one over the other(and overriding where mates play, free online, or controller preference)can be counted on one hand-for me it's JUST TOB and even that was appalling on 360- compared to PC.

And if LBP1/2 didn't live up to the hype just how did AW/TH/N&B or dross like Craxckdown2 measure up to fanboy expectations? If anything Sony exclusives have done really well at review. None of these were secrets and most were hackneyed 360 fanpoints without reason or source.
thorstein  +   1264d ago
"#12: PS3 exclusives are not living up to "fanboy hype.""

Lulz. I thought you had some articulate if fanboyish points but basing all PS3 exclusives on what GT5 did is absurd.

Killzone2, Infamous, Uncharted 2 (which you name), God of War, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are coming on one disc (they were exclusives to PS2), Demon's Souls, LBP1 obviously lived BEYOND fanboy hype, and LBP2 isn't just "more of the same." A statement like that PROVES you have yet to play it. You sound like that moron who claimed LBP's multiplayer levels were "tacked on."

I have news for you: Microsoft is NOT going to reward you for your loyalty. In fact, MS has actually punished its fanbase for its loyalty by charging to play online. Nintendo, Sony, and PC games are for free online (except in subscription based situations, which have been around long before the Xbox 180).

Digital distribution is not going to be anything until connection speeds increase exponentially. HDDVD failed. Get over it.

With the advent of 3D TV, I am not waiting around to dload a 3d movie via digital download. Digital Download has its place, but it isn't the be all and end all of distribution. Oh, and ME2 is NOT the 1st dloadable game for the PS3.

The saddest thing of your xbot post is your absolute inaccurate knowledge of PSN.
LA-Z-BOY-_-  +   1263d ago
Its more like 15 ways to bash the PS3 im not a fanboy but i love my PS3 and my 360 this guy is just mad because Sony Baned is Console with 3.56 FW lol

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