Xbox Project Scorpio 4k Gaming And Supersampling 1080p (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Cooper]

I thought the prevailing consensus on why Sony didn't put a UHD drive in the pro was because they didn't want to cannibalize their own stand alone players? I have no evidence to back that up, just what I've heard discussed.

 

[Sam Posten]

Morgan is set in his ways and has a world view of consoles that most of us arent going to fully embrace. Judging a system by numbers sold is a valid metric but it's not one I personally give a damn about. If, like me, you reject his worldview it's best to just move on rather than arguing about it on the internet.

BTW, you can buy a well equipped X1S TODAY for $240.
https://slickdeals.net/f/9857792-ne...-bundle-240-fs-newegg-via-ebay?src=SiteSearch

 

[Edwin-S]

Yes, I can't figure why he is so adamant on defending SONY's lame decision or inability to include a 4K drive in the Pro. The price for a Pro in Canada is 500 dollars and for what.....an incremental increase in power that might only be noticeable with their VR head set? I might have seen it as more of a value to charge that price if a 4K drive had been added, but it definitely is not worth that cost for the upgrade as it stands now.

 

[Edwin-S]

I thought the prevailing consensus on why Sony didn't put a UHD drive in the pro was because they didn't want to cannibalize their own stand alone players? I have no evidence to back that up, just what I've heard discussed.

I actually think that is the most likely reason. The PS3 was such a capable and upgradeable machine that their CE division lost two generations of sales of standalone players among a lot of home video enthusiasts; first with Blu-ray and then with 3D Blu. Their home video division was not about to repeat that experience, so they lobbied hard to keep a 4K drive out of the Pro. Of course, that is all just speculation on my part.

Either way, all SONY's decision has *managed* to do is drive anyone who wants a single box solution, vis a vis games and home video, over to a 1S or this rumored Scorpio box.

 

[Edwin-S]

Here is some other speculation on my part. The Vive and Oculus headsets are PC based and most likely use Microsoft's DirectX protocols and aspects of the MS operating system. I wonder if this Scorpio box, assuming it actually shows, will be able to support the Oculus and/or Vive VR headsets?

 

[DavidMiller]

Here is some other speculation on my part. The Vive and Oculus headsets are PC based and most likely use Microsoft's DirectX protocols and aspects of the MS operating system. I wonder if this Scorpio box, assuming it actually shows, will be able to support the Oculus and/or Vive VR headsets?

They have stated that it will support VR but I don't think they have said which versions.

 

[Carlo_M]

I just googled Sony UHD player and things have changed since that Forbes article I linked to. Sony does indeed have plans to release a mass market UHD player, although release date is not clear: it's not in stock on Sony's site (the buy now button is gone) and it's not widely available. It's MSRP is $299. So I'm not sure how many sales SCE would have lost to the Pro, given that those who would have only wanted a UHD player would have saved $100 (more, likely with sales) and likely just bought their player. And those that wanted an all-in-one could have still stayed in the Sony ecosystem and bought a Pro. Sure SCE would have "lost money" to Sony Games, but it's better than losing it to Microsoft (from Sony's POV).

 

[Morgan Jolley]

My opinion of the XBox One, PS4, Sony, or Microsoft has nothing to do with sales numbers. I think MS has royally messed up a lot of their moves this generation after doing a pretty great job with the Xbox 360. And I don't think adding a UHD drive to an upgrade version of the Xbox One was anywhere near enough to fix it.

That said, my view on why Sony decided to not really bother with UHD in the PS4 is absolutely based on sales numbers. I think everyone here seems to be under the impression that Bluray was a massive success that blew up demand from consumers for even more high-end tech. That simply just didn't happen and Sony knows. Physical media for movies and music is dying. It won't completely die, but it has been dying enough that the investment into the technology won't pay off enough in regards to the PS4 Pro incorporating a UHD drive. The PS4 has sold extremely well on the basis of being a gaming-first machine. They're leading this generation by a very health margin and are continuing to have bigger-than-ever sales (holiday 2016 was the most PlayStation consoles sold EVER). Exclusive games and the slightly-better-than-Xbox-One experience are driving this success more than media capabilities.

The fact that the One S has been out for 6 months and hasn't led to any dramatic boost in Xbox console sales or UHD disc sales shows how kind of pointless that feature was. The way everyone is talking about UHD being a boon for MS is like saying Kinect, since it added cost but also capability, was a huge positive for MS...which they eventually dropped entirely from the platform.

Is it cool, for us, for HT enthusiasts, that the Xbox One S has UHD support? Yes. Does it really matter to the rest of the world? The 80 million people who bought a console this generation? No. Sony knew this. People griped about the Pro not having a UHD drive and still bought one anyway because it offered a slightly better experience over the regular PS4 and the Xbox One.

Again, the main value between the two platforms is exclusive games. Microsoft is losing out right now because of the bungling of the reveal/launch/messaging early on and their surprisingly-weak exclusive slate. Sony is dominating because of the gaming qualities of their platform and because, frankly, most of the 56M people who own a PS4 don't care about watching blurays or UHDs in their console as much as they would rather stream stuff online.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

While I certainly won't argue that the demographic that is interested in UHD is very small, I would say that those interested in the PS4 Pro would most likely be the ones to also be part of that demographic.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

There could certainly be overlap, especially considering the highest priced version of the One S is the same price as a PS4 Pro, but I don't really think Sony is all that interested in selling the PS4 as a media device. They market it heavily as a gaming machine and sort of even ignore things like Netflix and HBO Go. At most, they push PlayStation Vue and Spotify as media apps but don't focus so much on physical media. I mean, it can't even play CDs.

Again, they've sold more consoles than they have before at this time in a generation, and done so with a really crappy bluray player and nearly zero other media support at launch.