Hi Guys,
Hi Kevin
I heard today that my name was mentioned over here and I wanted to give you a fuller version of my views than Twitter allows:
There was a publisher preview event on the PS4 this week dont ask, I can name who, if I thought that it would impact your end experience I would- and there was some issues around connectivity. This is probably not going to be a big deal for launch and my guess is that it is going to be solved by the launch.
Awesome vague paragraph. No need to clarify. Go on!
The press are alluding to the fact that said publisher has emailed them basically saying Dont even admit that there was a preview event.
Oh, ok, so you're talking about the CoD event. Yeah, the issue there wasn't the ps4.
I would like to breakout some other points though.
Changing the subject so soon...?
Launches:
It is my belief that both consoles will have day one patches, I reckon both will be large, but not to the extent that they will take days to download.
It is my belief that they both will also since they have FUCKING SAID IT PUBLICLY. I mean you're really breaking some serious news here.
Both consoles are world class; they really are fantastic machines Admittedly I have only played with the Xbox One Retail, but I spent a long time on the PS4 dev kit. Do I think that the first few months will be a pain in the ass at times for both consoles? Sure! Thats tech for ya.
Haha, that whacky tech!
I think during the first quarter of 2014 both console houses will have teams working and on site 24X7. Well, small correction, I know Xbox already have that planned and I assume Sony will do the same, as it makes sense to have that redundancy in place.
What in the fucking world are you talking about?
However, this is a long game plan, PS and Xbox want to blow you away for the next ten years or so. They know that launching a new architecture in going to be tough, but I reckon they will both figure it out shortly.
They want to sell consoles for 10 years, sure... that's always sony's stated goal and microsoft seems to want to do the same with the 360. Blow us away for 10 years? A goddamn phone will be more powerful in 6. You should know this, you work in the industry.
Res:
1080P or 720?
Tough decision.
Right now most outlets are capturing in 720. So you play the game at 1080P and capture at 720 to reduce the bandwidth needed for the upload/download. This is 100% up to the publisher and NOT the console guys.
I have no idea what these guys are recording at but that's not what we care about. We don't think that CoD is 720p because some website recorded it at 720p... we think it because people have said it's 720p. Sure, I said it, and Im part of the sonyhivemindgafsonywankfesthivesomething... but even CheapyD, lover of all things microsoft, admitted it today. And Arthur Gies, who has video of himself getting a tattoo with money given by microsoft, backed it up. So... yeah, it's not how they are capturing the video.
The logic here is that more people will be inclined to upload smaller files, thus more eyeballs.
No. The logic here is that you are trying to change the subject.
I have played a single game in 1080P. If a publisher decides to go that route, they just hate money and you as gamers should punish them for it by not buying their game. $60? As a gamer I say NO THANKS DAD, I AM A 1080P THUG.
Now you sound defensive. First you were saying that the whole 1080 thing was because of how it's captured... now you're making fun of people who care.
Coverage and video:
I am 100% sure that Microsoft will get a ton more coverage than Sony. There is no conspiracy theory here, the simple truth is that Sony are providing one debug unit to one video outlet in North America (I dont know about the rest of the world) and only a select few wordy/written/text based outlets.
Right. Only systems to people who eat taco bell. That's it!
And before the question is asked, I dont actually know why Sony doesnt want established video outlets to have access to video footage of their console before or after launch. It has never been done before.
Because there is no video footage of PS4 games coming out daily? I mean you can make shit up but you do know we can check this stuff, right?
In my mind this is a huge mistake and I seriously doubt that, that decision was made in SCEA, but rather at the HQ in Japan. The folks over there need to settle down and have a box of juice or something, because as someone that develops games, I want to get in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
Wrong tactic. Us SonyHiveMind people blame SCEA and love SCEJ. Come on', dude!
I dont know the reason behind this, but I do know that it is like giving Xbox a free advertisement on every 3rd party game review until Sony completes their inevitable
../Drum Roll 180.
Haha! That would be hysterical if it made any sense. Like even a lick of sense. Arthur fucking Gies said we are getting ps4 reviews and not xbox one reviews. But you evidently know something he, I, and the entire universe, doesn't.
The other reason behind this is that until Sony allows video capture with unrestricted HDCP, reviewers wont actually be able to review third party games on the PS4 as they will want to do post production.
Right. Because the PS3 doesn't have HDCP. Oh wait, it does. And somehow I can stream it via HDMI. Is it black magic?!?!? Or was it a $100 card I got off of amazon?
That said, Sony are not stupid, they have already said that they will remove the HDCP restrictions to paraphrase We get it, you want this and we will resolve this issue after launch.
In the meantime, any blogger, youtuber or video reviewer will be able to slap an Elgato capture card on their Xbox One and do their reviews on the Xbox SKU.
Hence, free ads
Totally! Except they will be at a lower resolution. I wonder if that's because their cards can only capture at 720p...?
I really, really hope Sony HQ comes to their senses on this, because this was just stupid on their part and I know a LOT of SCEA guys who are frustrated.
I know a lot of SCEA guys. I don't know a single one who is frustrated.
On the flip side with the Xbox you can capture from day one.
Can't wait to see footage of AC4!!!!!
Actually you can capture on both devices on day one, but if you want to do post production i.e. voiceover or edits as most journos need to do, hence the video element of the review- you have to use the Xbox.
Yeah. What?
Embargoes:
I have seen a few stupid tweets saying that Sony, MSFT or both of them are issuing embargoes on 3rd party titles.
To be clear; neither Kaz nor Balmer can tell a publisher what to have for lunch, never mind tell them what they can do with their game. That is just stupid talk.
I finally fucking agree with you. Absolutely true. There has been such gamer paranoia about games being forced into parity. It's absurd. Publishers want to sell games. If, say, BF4 went 720p to have parity with the Xbox One, but CoD was 1080p on the PS4... BF4 would sell less. Publishers like money. They would never hold back their games. It makes no sense.
Long-Story short for developers:
I have two dogs in this race, I want both consoles to succeed because that means that I make more money and then I can make more games. I also dont want a monopoly, both devs and gamers lose out on that score. Less games will be made.
That's debatable (less games being made) but I agree with you in principle.
That said, right now I am pro-Xbox from a developer perspective and I know a lot of my fellow devs feel the same way.
"a lot" = not very many. There's more PS4 games announced for a reason.
The reason for this is not because Steve Balmer makes my toes curl, its just a simple case of economics:
Developer costs using a smallish studio as an example:
Xbox One Dev Kits 10 X $500.00= $5,000.00
Sony PS4 Dev kits 10X $2,500.00= $25,000.00
Except for the part where Sony is handing out dev kits to indies for free you are totally right with those prices.
So from day one that represents $20,000.00 more that I can put into the game, I know that might now sound like much, but for a small team that is HUGE.
You make games?
It lowers the barrier of entry to make a game, it might work, it might not. It worked out well for Apple though.
So Microsoft is Apple in this comparison now? Really?
In fairness, Sony has been great at lending developers dev kits and that is fantastic because that costs me zilch. HOWEVER, that doesnt scale, they cant give that to every dev in the world. They cant give that to the kid in Iowa who is mashing the keys in his moms basement making a game that is going to blow us away.
Actually they can. It's easy as sending a tweet to Shahid. I don't know, can a kid in Iowa do that? I'm going to say yes.
Make no mistake about it, the features of both boxes will mean very little, its going to be all about the games that we can play.
Holy shit, we agree again!
/SuperClicheMode: Content is king.
And again... a lot of cliches are cliches because they are true. This is one of them.
Anyway, all of this talk about winning and losing is BS ultimately, Xbox will find their audience and Sony theirs.
At the end of the day you WANT both of them to succeed as that will force them to fight for your eyeballs. Everyone benefits from an all-out fight for your eyeballs.
I think writing this post, this long, sobered you out. You are making sense.
The bottom-line here is that the stronger the ecosystem is the better the games will be, as more companies will invest their money to make games better.
99.999999% of devs want nothing more than to make you happy and make money in doing so.
Anyway, thats my 2cents guys, I did proof this so bite me
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
I'll try. You too, Kevin.
