Sony Big Announce Feb. 20: PS4? (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

I think your ebook example is flawed. I see ebooks on sale for $2 all the time. I never see real books on sale for $2. Also, wasn't there a lawsuit about publishers working with Apple and other companies to fix the prices of ebooks? Sony releases games on the PS Vita for X amount of dollars but the digital download is 10% lower. How can Sony afford to do this or even think it's a good idea if what you're saying is true? Brand new, big budget games on modern consoles are $60. Not-quite-as-big games are now starting to be made as digital-only games at a lower price. Look on the XBLA, PSN, or WiiWare/WiiU Store and you'll see them. Sure, it's not Assassin's Creed 3 for $40 but they're still cheaper. Further, games like The Walking Dead and Fable III have ventured into the episodic realm. I think this could lead to an a la carte system where gamers buy what they want from a game and nothing more. For example, you could by the single player mode, multiplayer mode, and challenge modes of a game separately for $20 each or all together for $50. Game developers release games on PC for $10 less than consoles purely due to console maker licensing fees, but games on PC are quite frequently available for a lot less. PSN and XBLA even do frequent sales on games of all kinds, so the choice of pricing is more about maximizing profit than being fair or competitive. Unfortunately, I think this means prices will have to come down to remain competitive. Will we get $40 disc games? Probably not, but I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually see games with fewer modes or features and at reduced prices with optional add-on DLC. I also think Call of Duty and Halo's competitive modes should be single games that get annual updates through DLC rather than be full-blown releases every year or so, but people keep buying them so nothing's changing. I don't think consoles will die. Yes, you can get most of the same experience on a PC but that's also like saying you can get a movie theater experience if you dedicate a whole wing of your house to building a home theater. Some people will do it and love it but others might not want to be bothered with it. Do you really think a more casual gaming market is going to be torn between getting the next Xbox or getting a good PC? Hardcore gamers (present company) will probably go for the approach of more than one gaming system. Personally, I have a Vita, 3DS, PS3, Wii, Wii U, 360, tablet, droid phone, and a good gaming-capable laptop. I'm going to buy consoles because I like them. More casual gamers will buy them for the convenience. It's not that hard to set up a good gaming PC and it's not much more expensive than buying a couple consoles, but there are a lot of products that are made simply to make things easier and they sell extremely well. People buy consoles because they're used to them and they're simple. PC gaming is better and easier than it used to be, but it's not as easy as a console. Maybe Valve's Steambox will fix that, maybe Ouya is a step in that direction, but that's not changing any time soon. (Also, I think Windows 8 could make games easier to access/use on a PC but everyone seems to disagree.)

 

[Sam Posten]

Big budget games are launching on the PC for $10-$20 cheaper than their console counterparts. Fact.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Big budget games are launching on the PC for $10-$20 cheaper than their console counterparts. Fact.

That's usually due to the lack of licensing fees, which are around $7-10. If it's a digital download it may be cheaper, but it usually takes either awful launch sales or a few weeks for the price to go to $40 or less.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

I think your ebook example is flawed. I see ebooks on sale for $2 all the time. I never see real books on sale for $2. Also, wasn't there a lawsuit about publishers working with Apple and other companies to fix the prices of ebooks?

You must not shop the bargain bins. Anyway bargain bins is not the counter example at all. We are talking new releases and your point was that new releases would be cheaper with download only because of all the savings. If that were true then e-books on new releases would be much cheaper than the hardcover versions but they are not. You might save a dollar or two now when before they were the same price and the paperback version when it comes out is cheaper than the e-book version when it first came out. The overhead cost of the e-book didn't change and there is still all that extra cost of the paperback so how is it that the cost of a paperback is cheaper than an e-book? It isn't but you have to realize the retail price isn't based directly on the cost of an item and that cost savings are rarely passed onto the consumer in a controlled market. Cost increases, yes but cost savings, no.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

That's also an apples-to-apples comparison in terms of the content. An ebook has the exact same content as a hardcover book, but there aren't any revolutions taking place in the book industry. In gaming, you have app-sized games being given app-sized prices and that's going to have a certain effect on console-sized games. If there were all of a sudden a bunch of indie books coming out for $1 as ebooks only on release day and they were taking the world by storm and everyone was buying them, then the ebook market would be different than it is right now. I think the movement towards media as services (Amazon Prime's lending library for books, Hulu Plus for TV, Netflix for movies, etc.) will make it so games are dirt cheap or provided as part of an annual fee. OnLive and PS+ are ahead of the curve on this. Since this thread is originally about the PS4 announcement and we're only 2 days away, here's my guess as to what gets announced: Console - power matching what was previously rumored. Uses Blu-ray discs. No hardware backward compatibility, but rather as a streaming service that comes with something akin to PlayStation Plus. Pop a PS3 disc in the system and it will let you play the game through streaming. This will carry over all of your cloud saves and DLC from PS3. The question is whether every PS3 game will be supported or if they need to be added over time once licensing rights and such are dealt with. The hardware will probably look really sexy and be thinner than the launch PS3, but thicker than the current PS3. PS4 games will not have instruction booklets but come in cases similar to BDs. No release date or price announced, but rather loose details like "cheaper than PS3 launch price, before Christmas." Controller - Looks similar to what the leaked photos show. LED bar for Move integration, speaker integrated, touchpad that clicks, new triggers. Probably allow the PS Vita to be a controller for all games in order to really emulate Wii U play. Maybe have a PS4/Vita combo bundle? Games - Show some demo reel videos of previously announced, popular games. New sequels in popular IPs. Maybe the Last Guardian is a launch title? They will bring at least 2 Sony developers out to demo new features of the console with their new games. Chances are they will announce a new game for a series not getting a sequel this year, so no God of War, most likely Uncharted or Killzone. Wouldn't be surprised if they announce a PS Vita and PS3 price cut, too. What would be cool is if the new system launches with PS Plus and gets free launch games. EDIT: I think a possible surprise announcement would be using Gaikai to let people either play PS1/2/3 games on non-PS devices (like smartphones, tablets, PCs, etc.) or let you play PC games on the PS4.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

There are thousands upon thousands of e-books coming out at dirt-cheap prices (or even free) all the time. Unfortunately, very few of them are worth reading. Developing a console game requires a large investment of time and money. Anybody can type a book (note that I didn't say "write" ).

 

[Sam Posten]

Snuggled up next to my fireplace, tuned in for the #PlayStation2013 #ps4 announce. I am excite!

 

[Sam Posten]

Totally nd completely sold, minus the social media integration. I am not sure how much if any ties I want between my gaming friends and RL friends worlds...

 

[mattCR]

Yeah some of the graphics holy cow. Very impressive. I'm not sure of the share button bit, but other then that, lots of cool things to show. Did not like the no backwards PS3 compatibility, but that's to be expected I guess.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

To add PS3 backward compatibility would mean including a PS3 Slim inside the PS4 and boosting the price by about $200+. I'd rather just have each one sit side by side under my TV. Honestly, the presentation seemed interesting and great right up until they actually started to show games. I'm just trying to imagine a similar Microsoft presentation and think about whether they would announce similar features or not, then how much value those things would hold for either platform. I think PS Move is WAY better than Kinect and developers haven't used it to its potential. I think the fact that they will connect to smartphones and tablets makes SmartGlass seem meaningless, and the Vita integration gives Sony a leg up that is like a more powerful Wii U. Heck, the social features even seem pretty similar to what is on the Wii U. The best thing I heard was the "instant on" functionality and the ability to pause a game and pick it up immediately at a later time. This is what I think of as a truly next-gen feature. But the games.....ugh. Aside from the fact that the big game they showed, Watch Dogs, was announced last year, the graphics didn't do much for me. Maybe my connection's video didn't do the graphics justice but I don't think better graphics will mean better games. The animations in the Killzone demo looked odd, the racing game had visible polygons and looked a little rough, and Knack looks like something you could have basically made two generations ago. Where's the game that takes advantage of the new features? Where's the game that pushes the boundaries of tech that we already have to provide us with a truly new, next-gen experience? The brief old man demo from Quantic Dream was extremely impressive, but it was a really limited demo (one floating head, not a scene of people who are all animated and interacting). I was hoping for more big game announcements. The Last Guardian as a launch title. Final Fantasy Versus XIII coming as an exclusive. A new Uncharted. The Phantom Pain really being MGS5. But what we got was Killzone, a racing game, Diablo 3 (honestly....who cares?), and the promise of more to come. And even Destiny looks like just Halo as an MMO, which sounds really, really boring to me. That said, I really like the idea of announcing hardware less than a year before release. It would have been nice to actually see the console itself, but at least it's not that long of a wait.

 

[mattCR]

As a major Infamous fan, the announcement of a new Infamous game as a launch title was good by me.

 

[mattCR]

. A press release reveals that the PS4's PC-like configuration will include an 8-core 64-bit x86 "Jaguar" CPU built by AMD, with a Radeon GPU comprised of 18 "compute units" capable of cranking out 1.84 TFLOPS to process graphics and more. Its Blu-ray drive -- yes, it will still have one of those -- spins at a brisk 6X (8X for DVDs) and as mentioned on stage, it packs 8GB of unified GDDR5 RAM capable of 176GB/sec of bandwidth. 802.11n WiFi, USB 3.0, Bluetooth 2.1, HDMI, optical out and even a legacy analog AV out make up the inputs and outputs, although the potential amounts of storage are still unspecified.

From engadget

 

[DaveF]

According to the NYT, "The console itself was never shown during the two-hour presentation. No release date was given, although before the Christmas holidays is a good possibility. No price was mentioned." Were the game demos real, running on actual PS4 hardware?

 

[Dave Scarpa]

A Release Time frame was given it's releasing for the holidays 2013.

 

[Ruz-El]

Having sifted through all the info, I'm a bit "meh" on this one. Certainly in no rush to grab it out of the gate since I have a bunch of PS3 games to get through. If it was backward compatible in some form I'd be quicker to bite. Hell, I have 70 plus PS3 games that I got for free from the PSplus membership that in theory wont work. Or will Infamous 2 that was downloaded on the PSN work, but the purchased Infamous Collection disc wont? If that's the case, then the PS4 is a bunch of bullshit and just flat out unfair to the past supporters. The share button is a nice theory but is going to be annoying from the get go. Forget about finding worthwhile game clips online, there's going to be countless hours of vids of dopes playing games. I'm not sure we need to be even more connected to social media while playing a game then we already are.

 

[Sam Posten]

Release date prediction for the PS4: 13/13/13 =)

 

[DaveF]

Why did Sony do this non-announcement? There's no Xbox 720 to keep people from buying. WiiU buyers seem wholly different market than PS3 buyers. This will have no effect on iPad sales. It seems they're at most risk of shooting themselves in the foot: Osbourne effect on PS3 sales through Spring and Summer. Now that WiiU is out and PS4 is proto-announced, will Microsoft show off Xbox 720 in short order? (That's what I'm interested in) I do hope with the PS4, the PS3 drops in price dramatically ($99?). There are a couple exclusive games I'd like to play on that, but can't justify new console price for.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by DaveF
Why did Sony do this non-announcement? There's no Xbox 720 to keep people from buying. WiiU buyers seem wholly different market than PS3 buyers. This will have no effect on iPad sales. It seems they're at most risk of shooting themselves in the foot: Osbourne effect on PS3 sales through Spring and Summer.
Now that WiiU is out and PS4 is proto-announced, will Microsoft show off Xbox 720 in short order? (That's what I'm interested in)
I do hope with the PS4, the PS3 drops in price dramatically ($99?). There are a couple exclusive games I'd like to play on that, but can't justify new console price for.

MS is pretty committed to showing 720 hardware (or whatever they will call it) at E3. Developers already have dev kits and word is that hardware is finalized.
This is very different then Sony, who is saying they haven't even finalized the hardware. The more this story goes on, the more it seems as though it was an attempt to get some attention from MS who will be showing hardware with the next XBOX. I'm not sure what Sony is doing. I like the idea, but I'm not sure if this was handled very well. The fact they didn't show hardware of any sort isn't the way this should have went on

 

[Morgan Jolley]

mattCR - Did they say inFamous: Second Son was a launch game? I think only one game at the press conference was referred to as "launch window" and the rest were just announced as "coming to PS4." Russell G - I see your point about backward compatibility, but I don't think it's a big deal. If you own a PS3 right now, then you will be able to play all of your PS3 games on your PS3 until you get rid of it. Buying a PS4 shouldn't keep your PS3 from working, so why should backwards compatibility matter? Further, they announced that Gaikai is going to allow you to play PS1/2/3 games through a streaming service, but they didn't announce the details. The popular theory is that the console will read and recognize the disc then allow you to play that game through the streaming service, but you probably have to keep the disc in the console to do so. I'd guess that DLC and downloaded games will be linked to a PSN account and can be transferred to this new service, but Sony also said that no PSN titles will work on PS4 natively; they must be updated/modified to do so. Either way, I own a PS3 so I don't care much if my PS4 can play its games or not. It's a bit inconvenient to keep two consoles under my TV, but the alternative is to literally pack the PS4 with the guts of a PS3 and jack the price up accordingly (since this is how the PS2 and PS3 had BC). DaveF - While they didn't show the console and they didn't highlight what makes PS4 games special (like how unique-to-PS4 features will impact game design), I think this was a good press event. They showed that the PS4 is going to be a beast of a system that does everything. Personally, my biggest gripe is that the games don't seem all that interesting, but I doubt MS will have anything mindblowing to show either since, let's be honest, only Nintendo really seems to be trying to do something different when it comes to hardware AND software. I think MS is going to end up disappointing immensely since they're forcing Kinect 2.0 into their next console and probably relying more heavily on non-gaming applications, which are nice but not the purpose of a gaming system.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

mattCR - They showed the new camera and new controller. Arguably, that's the only hardware you need to show since it's the piece people actually touch and play with. Someone from Sony recently said that they showed the controller because they had to if they wanted to show any real-time demos while people played on-stage. I think the console is kind of an afterthought because how it looks matters a lot less than what it does.