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PlayStation 4: Web reaction to Sony's 'invisible' console

antonz

Member
Shame the gaming press wasn't as trollish as it was with the WiiU.

Afterall all Sony showed us was a controller and eyetoy. Isn't it just a PS3 addon?
 

neptunes

Member
I don't get this at all. So because I like to play Plants vs Zombies on the train I don't want to play on a PS4 when at home?
As ludicrous as it may seem, that may be enough for some people. Who knows.

There are a myriad of entertainment options available now more than ever.
 

solarus

Member
Well sony might has well have announced fuck all if all the news outlets are just going to say "well that's great and all, but i can pay $1 for angry birds, why do i need a console".
 

rouken

Member
the thing with sony right now is they want to do everything just to get everyone on board, but tonight's showing felt lacking in details people actually want like the complete hardware, confirmed software, real functionality in the vanilla console and price. i guess there's E3 for that.
 

Lord Phol

Member
Could be that Sony is saving some stuff for E3 to try and match whatever MS reveals, either that or the design hasn't been finalized yet.
 

solarus

Member
Also this dumb assumption that every console manufacturer has failed unless they are capturing the new large casual audience that has emerged, who just plays on their smartphone or tablet to kill time every once in a while really irks me. The market sony is going for is clearly different and it still exists, the expansion of gaming to this new wider audience does not suddenly mean the market for people who love games has vanished. Neither does it mean that sony fails just because they are not fulfilling this newer and much larger market's needs, apple does that. I hate this comparison.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
???

I don't think this is the response? Seems way off the mark?
 

Vagabundo

Member
The PS4 is a gamers' machine. Not as interesting to those who want a more general purpose device. Xbox will do the set top box thing. Wii U will do it's own Nintendo thing.

Everybody's happy.
 

Sorral

Member
Man, you can easily tell that most of these comments weren't written by core gamers.

They ignored the gaikai and the social features that haven't really been done by anyone else too.

Also, seeing how it looks like is way more important than the actual specs sheet? Looks are going to run the games for you and not the specs? Come on...

I am not worried about the games as they clearly left out so much for later.
 

elfinke

Member
I thought CNET's final line was more appalling than the NYT line. Mind you, that's the same as saying you'd prefer diarrhea to gonorrhoea. Still, CNET struck me as a tad obtuse. I guess they're implying that games are the only concrete reasons worth considering? As though the specs and features shown today don't promise games? Ah whatever.
 

Huggers

Member
As ludicrous as it may seem, that may be enough for some people. Who knows.

There are a myriad of entertainment options available now more than ever.

It does seem ludicrous to me as a gamer. Maybe I'm way off but I think there will always be a big market for cutting edge games in front rooms
 

solarus

Member
I feel like, judging from these responses, microsoft will have a much more positive reception to their system since they will apparently focus it more as an entertainment centre than a game console.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
I am so sick of the "APPLE HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING" narrative with regard to consoles. Its like brain slugs are real, but Steve sneaked them into mobile devices instead of just dropping them on peoples heads.

There was literally shit about remote play over Gakai for these portable only nutters but only when its an iPhone and nothing else.

You must be salty about that shitty Wii U reveal huh? :)

Have seen the same "stab" in all PS4 topics. Must feel like their world is ending really so you can't blame em.
 

Coolwhip

Banned
New York Times:
New features cannot hide the fact that PlayStation 4 is still a console, a way of playing games on compact discs that was cool when cellphones were not smart.

Pretty harsh. I wonder if this attitude will hurt next gen consoles.
 
Could be that Sony is saving some stuff for E3 to try and match whatever MS reveals, either that or the design hasn't been finalized yet.

Going first allows a company to do a wait and see approach. They want to see how Microsoft will price their Xbox, how big of a hard drive it will have, and when it will launch. That is the advantage a company has when they show first.

They're holding back, obviously. We know that other studios are working on projects, by why on Earth would they show their hand when E3 is right around the corner?

The infatuation that so many people have with smart phones is absolutely disgusting. People treat smart phones as if they're the holy grail of all technology and that attitude is becoming more pervasive. Comparing a home gaming console to smart phones is one of the most ridiculous things I've read in some time, but that's the world we live in.
 

orioto

Good Art™
It's not like every console maker wait the last time to reveal the price and date. it's always and have always been like that...
I wasn't shocked when Nintendo didn't reveal WiiU's price until the end...
 
I genuinely don't understand why anyone cares about "seeing the box". It's not like a laptop or a phone. You don't interface directly with the box beyond putting in a disc. Whether it looks beautiful or shit might impact where in the room you place it (ie pride of place vs stuck behind a cabinet) but ultimately it's meaningless. Beyond putting the disc in, you hold your controller and you look at the screen. The console itself could be a chicken with a cable up its arsehole.
 

TrutaS

Member
It is just sad that these people write articles and clearly do not have a love for video-games. This obsession with mobile casual games is just so strange to me. I have an Ipad and I love it, but in no way does it provide the experience I look for in a console/PC. That talk is just depressing and seeing people defend that as a way to go is worrying.
 
New York Times:
New features cannot hide the fact that PlayStation 4 is still a console, a way of playing games on compact discs that was cool when cellphones were not smart.

Kinda like you NYT? We cannot hide the fact that you are still primarily a newspaper, a way to read news on pieces of paper that was cool when the Internet was not invented.
 
I imagine each and every one of those impression writers sitting there with hiperster glasses writing the impression on their macbooks with a cocky look on their faces. What a load of absolute bullshit, especially NYT. Sony talked a lot about there "everything everywhere" approach a lot. Yeah your iPhone too mister NYT.

With the power the media has nowadays, they shouldn't let people like that write stuff. In my opinion, media has more influence than politics. Control that shit.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Personally I thought Sony hit it out of the park last night, and now today, I'm wondering if I've woken up in some bizzaro universe.

Sony showed actual PS4 games in development from first and third parties. Added plenty of neat social functions to the system, cool Vita interaction, announced some specs, etc, and it's still not enough?
Some media outlets were bothered that they didn't see a stupid little PS4 box? Really?! They expected a price announced? Are they that dumb to expect Sony to announce the price this early, and allow Microsoft to adjust the price of Durango to come in cheaper?!

I'm just shocked. Might as well just turn the keys of the hobby over to Apple, because that's what the media seems to want. Kill off the outdated console dinosaur and bring on tablet/smartphone gaming. I could just vomit.
 
Problem is that the mainstream press thinks they got it all figured out. Gaming before Wii and Smartphones was only for hardcore fans. Since then gaming a mainstream medium in the form of waggly casual games and small smartphone mini games.

Now with the majority of casual/mainstream gamers behind them they think they can put us hardcore gamers in a corner and declare traditional living room/PC gaming "old school" and "outdated".
 

NBtoaster

Member
Techcrunch:
A new Killzone game was among the exclusive software titles unveiled at the event
What was missing from Sony was a discussion of anything that could've made it a more broadly appealing device. It (and we, as potential customers) needed way more than a falling back on graphics, eye candy and tech demos, which may have served the gaming industry well in the past, but which have done nothing to stem the rising tide of mobile platforms like iOS and Android.
.

wat

The conference had a huge focus on connectivity, the tech was clearly secondary.
 
Video streaming, streaming full games, letting another person take over if you get stuck, suspending the machine at any time; it's like they don't give a fuck about things people who play games would give a fuck about.

Fuck boxes
 

Hana-Bi

Member
Well from a gamer perspective, the games shown were a tad disappointing imo. Only the Capcom game looked like something that I would buy.

Yeah 1st party exclusive games didn't impress me a bit. And all the talk about features and the controller was just like: "Hey, yeah this is this and this that, what you'll can do with it, you'll see it soon..."

Especially the controller... Why is there a touchpad, why is there this blue light, what are they for?
 
Techcrunch:
A new Killzone game was among the exclusive software titles unveiled at the event
What was missing from Sony was a discussion of anything that could've made it a more broadly appealing device. It (and we, as potential customers) needed way more than a falling back on graphics, eye candy and tech demos, which may have served the gaming industry well in the past, but which have done nothing to stem the rising tide of mobile platforms like iOS and Android.

This is spot on. I also like Sessler's, Gerstmann's and Morris' assessment.
 

Margalis

Banned
The conference had a huge focus on connectivity, the tech was clearly secondary.

Just throwing the words "social" and "connectivity" around doesn't make something broadly appealing.

You can watch and record video of gameplay sessions. That's "connectivity" but it's hardly a feature with broad mainstream appeal. Similarly you can "connect" your Vita to your PS4 but that's something 10 Gaffers care about. Right now the PS4 is a super powered PS3 featuring a bunch of upgraded PS3 games. Features like suspending games are nice quality of life improvements but they aren't game changers.

For better or for worse the PS4 doesn't appear to promising any sort of change in the way the console integrates into your lifestyle or any change in the type of content offered.

I don't really like iOS comparisons but there is something to be said for the fact that stuff like iPhone and iPad have changed the way people interact with content.
 

LCfiner

Member
I'm still surprised at the negative reactions by some of the mainstream press when it was a mostly positive reaction from enthusiasts.

I thought they showed way more than they had to and I was impressed by a good chunk of it.

Anyone with common sense knew they weren't going to launch till fall so there's no need to show a plastic shell of the console. They showed plenty of software running in real time (plus some tech demo stuff which is more suspect), they showed OS functionality, they showed enough of the specs that mattered (8GB GDDR5!) and they showed one piece of hardware - the controller.

And they later confirmed that it will not be tied down with always online DRM nor will it restrict used games. But they talked enough about the convenience of digital releases to make it worthwhile for some people.
 

Epcott

Member
I suppose press was expecting Sony to blow their entire wad before E3 is even close to starting.

What's so strange about a company showing a controller before the actual console? Nintendo did it with both the Wii and Wii U.
And if NYT likes short attention span mobile games compared to console games, they need an actual game enthusiast to post their reaction, not a hipster.
 
Meh. It doesn't matter what they or their readers think. They weren't going to buy it anyway.

PS fans seem satisfied and that's the important thing at this stage.
 
That's a bit of an overreaction, don't you think?

No. Our last national elections showed that. The media had more influence on the elections then the parties themselves. And when it comes to tech, when a big blog writes a positive article about a turd, people will buy it.
 
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