Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

https://amp.businessinsider.com/sony-playstation-4-xbox-one-mistakes-2019-1

Sony's PlayStation 4 is, by far, the most popular and best-selling game console in the world.

Over 91 million PS4s have been sold, putting it ahead of the competition by tens of millions of units. Of the three major video game console makers - Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo - Sony is in a comfortable lead.

But video game consoles operate on cycles, and no one stays on top forever.

Every five to 10 years or so, new consoles arrives from each of the big three companies. And every five to 10 years, they play musical chairs for who will "win" that generation. Sony and Microsoft are in the most direct competition of the three, with both companies making very similar game consoles capable of playing many of the same games as their competition.

And that's been the case for the past 15 to 20 years or so.

With the PlayStation 2 in 2000, Sony dominated the video game market; Microsoft's original Xbox was barely a competitor. But with the PlayStation 3 in 2006, Sony lost its dominance in the video game market. Microsoft's Xbox 360 became the standard-bearer for video game consoles of its generation, and it remained that way until 2013 when Sony and Microsoft launched the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, respectively.

With the PlayStation 4, Sony is back on top.

Microsoft's Xbox One is doing fine, just like the PlayStation 3 did, but it's a distant second place to Sony's PS4. And now, the game of musical chairs has begun once again, with rumors swirling and even some outright official talk from both Sony and Microsoft about their next generation of game consoles.

With such a huge lead, it's Sony's game to lose - and there are some worrying signs that Sony's repeating the same mistakes Microsoft did when it introduced the Xbox One.

Check the link for the full story.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Business Insider is trash, bro.

 

[TLZ]

I read the article and the guy is reaching to try and make it sound the same. Not even close. If he mentioned forced VR I would've seen his point however.

 

[Airbus Jr]

"With such a huge lead, it's Sony's game to lose - and there are some worrying signs that Sony's repeating the same mistakes Microsoft did when it introduced the Xbox One."

What mistakes? They haven't introduce PS5 yet. How can you blame on something don't even exist?

 

[Hendrick's]

Click bait article by Ben Gilbert. To save you all the trouble, and because the op omitted the relevant parts of the article, this is all Ben cites to back up his claim.

1. Sony being stubborn with cross-play
2. Recent corporate quotes about synergy between Sony entertainment division's - equated to Xbox One TV, TV, TV.

 

[ethomaz]

I didn’t see MS releasing games after games at end of 360 gen to build a solid base for XB1.

Or Sony main focus bring anything but games for PS4

Sony is fine.

And about the mistakes... which mistakes? Low level article.

 

[Punished Miku]

1) PS4 hardware is poorly constructed. I've had two dualshocks die. A friend of mine had theirs literally start smoking and ruin their system. My LAN port on my PS4 stopped working and it's a common issue. Controllers have the worst battery life ever, short USB cords, no default headset, stupid light on the controller, touchpad that no one uses.
2) PS+ has declined in quality sharply. Tons of trash games on there. Less games overall. And now you pay for the online access.
3) They're censoring games now more than Nintendo is, and forcing puritanical American standards on Japanese devs in their own region.
4) Services offered are not as compelling as MS. Game Pass is a good deal for $10, and includes all first party games, which is insane.

Those are the main things I hate about PS this gen. They have room to improve. It's not the same situation as last gen, so anything could happen.

 

[Armorian]

Those are the main things I hate about PS this gen. They have room to improve. It's not the same situation as last gen, so anything could happen.

I think safe bet as always is on Sony, unless they screw up like with PS3 (I don't think it's possible). Biggest unknown is streaming and both Sony and MS will have this.

Nintendo Switch is 8 or 9 gen? Will we count x milion Switches sold when PS5 launches?

 

[haxan7]

When you’re right, you’re right. Doesn’t matter the exact words you use.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Claiming Sony is making the same mistakes before Sony’s next generation console before even materializes or we know all the facts about it? Ok.

 

[FranXico]

When you’re right, you’re right. Doesn’t matter the exact words you use.

He's not.

 

[WaterAstro]

LOL! Xbone at the level of PS3? PS3 was pretty much neck to neck with 360 at the end of the gen. Xbone is doing half as well as the PS3 was doing in retrospect to their competitor.

Garbage analysis.

 

[DiscoJer]

IMHO, the problem with both the PS3 and the Xbox One was they were overpriced and underpowered. I don't see Sony doing that again.

And really, even in the worst case scenario, Sony has the edge in Asia and Europe. The PS3 might not have been as dominant as the PS2, but it was neck and neck with the 360

 

[Meh3D]

"Fortnite" is the biggest game in the world, and it's playable on pretty much anything that runs video games: Your smartphone (both iOS and Android), your computer (PC and Mac), and every current game console (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch). It's exactly the same game across all those different platforms and, in many cases, you can play with people on whatever platform they're playing on - so-called "cross-play." If you're playing "Fortnite" on Switch, you can play with people on phones and Xbox One and computers.

I wouldn't call that a high point. I would not want to play Fortnite on a phone vs Console players nor would I want to play on a Console vs PC players. I don't think this author thought this point out. Nor did they understand the controversy of locking down your profile to Sony's network once you signed in on a PS4.

That said, we're still at least a year if not more, from new Xbox and PlayStation consoles - rumors point to 2020 as the year for new hardware. Sony is far from the position that Microsoft was in during that first year of the Xbox One's life, but recent signs point to exactly the type of shift we saw at Microsoft before the launch of the Xbox One.

Did Microsoft sponsor this guy? Sony changed their stance in September of 2018. It's almost February 2019; does Ben Gilbert not know how to search past August 2018? Is this alternate dimension Ben Gilbert where Sony did the opposite?

Joking aside, this article reeks of "lets make Sony look bad" effort. It's quite the mediocre attempt. Actually it's quite poor. I believe there are actual criticisms of Sony that you can bring up and dig into them deeper with better comparisons.

Edit: Had to highlight that last part. Can't believe I almost missed that. The bolded part, that's the "warranty and disclaimers clause" section; that's our rhetoric tell ( Ben Gilbert and his bullshit.) Write an article trying to convince the reader, Sony is doing exactly what Microsoft with Xbox one reveal, and then throw it all out at the end to cover your ass.

 

[Mr Nash]

Sony's got a lot going for it right now. The only way they could screw up is if they had some sort of debacle at E3 when announcing PS5, sorta like the backlash the Xbox One got when it was announced. Otherwise I see them continuing smoothly like they did from PS1 to PS2.

 

[petran79]

If I recall, Microsoft while launching the Xbox One did exclude many european countries from Live services, adding support much later. As if saying "screw you" to european Xbox360 players. This allowed Sony to gain even more momentum.
If they correct the mistake and allow simultaneous Xbox Live support to the big European countries, plus their Windows united services, they could bridge the gap with Sony

 

[nowhat]

If I recall, Microsoft while launching the Xbox One did exclude many european countries from Live services, adding support much later. As if saying "screw you" to european Xbox360 players.

Not sure about Live services, but at first One was released (officially) in only a handful of countries in Europe. And even then, one of the "main selling points", the HDMI passthru (is this a feature people actually use?) didn't support PAL signals for a long time, which is quite ridiculous.

As a personal anecdote, when I got my OG PS4 in March 2014 here in Finland, there were grey market Ones available from many game stores/online shops. They were gathering dust in the shelves. PS4s were consistently sold out, and I was just lucky to happen to find one at a generic department store.

 

[Mung]

Not even in the same ball park. I'm looking forward to all these articles over the next year or so.

 

[TeamGhobad]

well sony market share will shrink nexgen but lose no.

MS will win over a bunch of xbox360 owners that went ps4 this gen. But yet again it needs to show exclusive amazing AAA+++ games.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Another Microsoft sponsored article. Another VR hate article. A shame to the journalism that you can read this kind of dumbness on supposedly professional articles.

You can tell when a guy doesn't have a fucking clue how VR works that they write bullshit like this.

 

[Pineapple151]

IMO The console situation is a mess for a number of reasons...

First I would argue that relative to the demands/technical standards of the time, things like the original xbox, gamecube, etc, were revolutionary...

Starting with the PS3 I believe it simply became more of like an upgrade over the previous one.. relative to technology at large with advanced TV/Machines and such they started to fall behind.

In the late 2010s that process became complete and now we have machines that feel like just really advanced version s of their predecessors...

The mistake they're all making IMO is just ignoring PCs and that whole community... and also not going for maximum power and intensity... I feel like the standards of video game technology
are just so much higher than whatever they were for other systems etc that making a super powerful console isn't enough, it has to be a mind numblingly psychotic rad brad of the 80s
level machine that completely blows away all the previous competition sorta deal...

I guess in summary I would say the mistake is not factoring in relative standards and change over time... absolute performance is increasing but the relative increase in cost and the
performance relative to other systems and during the same time frame is poor.

I also would just argue that the lumpy 400 dollar super performance consoles don't age well.. they burn out quicker and the visual upgrades aren't really worth it... so yes
I would say the Xbox One X is basically the PS3 of it's generation.. paralelling that exactly... but for different reaasons that have been going on for a long time.

So my title would be Microsoft is making the same mistake that hobbled Sony and almost killed the Playstation 1.

 

[Dee Dah Dave]

Seems a bit silly. I’m sure that Sony consider Microsoft very dangerous competition because it would be stupid not to. But they are hardly in trouble next gen and are in a comfortable place. I do expect MS to improve their position though over the next 10 years and then who knows what the gaming landscape will look like.

 

[Kagey K]

All these articles are way too early.

We know literally nothing about what these next gen consoles are, yet there a people begging to preorder, people predicting winners and losers, and a whole lot of misinformation and guessing.

Why can’t we just wait and see, while enjoying things that are already known?

Everything else is meaningless speculation and offers a whole bunch of nothing for the time being.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Sony are just fine. I mean sure to some people they had questionable practices regarding cross play but they are still a very "for the players" company. They did nothing even close to how MS wanted to control what you do and could do with their system. They are just protecting their brand.

Even if they never allow cross play, who cares. Im playing on the system i want to play on already. I could never before play against xbox or Nintendo players so why make such a big deal out of it now. Sony are extremely comfortable, already more than douboe the sales of the Xbox, they are gearing for the new chapter.

Look what happened after PS3, how sony came back with total domination. So MS im sure will fire on all cylinders and Sony know it, they wont just chill and let the competition run through them. Im sure they are making the best possible decisions for themselves to stay in the game because MS have way more money. The PS3 at least caught up to 360 in the end. The xbox brand totally lost this one.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

1) PS4 hardware is poorly constructed. I've had two dualshocks die. A friend of mine had theirs literally start smoking and ruin their system. My LAN port on my PS4 stopped working and it's a common issue. Controllers have the worst battery life ever, short USB cords, no default headset, stupid light on the controller, touchpad that no one uses.
2) PS+ has declined in quality sharply. Tons of trash games on there. Less games overall. And now you pay for the online access.
3) They're censoring games now more than Nintendo is, and forcing puritanical American standards on Japanese devs in their own region.
4) Services offered are not as compelling as MS. Game Pass is a good deal for $10, and includes all first party games, which is insane.

Those are the main things I hate about PS this gen. They have room to improve. It's not the same situation as last gen, so anything could happen.

1 and 2 are correct, 3 and 4 are not.

Censorship is a GLOBAL thing, started up by american PCs. Sony is a global brand and suffers from this world trend of censoring stuff and pandering to certain audiences. Unfortunately that's the way it is.

As for the services, Microsoft's are better or more attractive because their AAA exclusive line up sucks big time. You cannot make games like Sony and then offer them day 1 on your gamepass. If you guys are asking for all the games to be in that service, start buying flowers for the burial of the AAA SP games as we know them Today. They will be extinct in no time.

 

[Panajev2001a]

https://amp.businessinsider.com/sony-playstation-4-xbox-one-mistakes-2019-1

Sony's PlayStation 4 is, by far, the most popular and best-selling game console in the world.

Over 91 million PS4s have been sold, putting it ahead of the competition by tens of millions of units. Of the three major video game console makers - Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo - Sony is in a comfortable lead.

But video game consoles operate on cycles, and no one stays on top forever.

Every five to 10 years or so, new consoles arrives from each of the big three companies. And every five to 10 years, they play musical chairs for who will "win" that generation. Sony and Microsoft are in the most direct competition of the three, with both companies making very similar game consoles capable of playing many of the same games as their competition.

And that's been the case for the past 15 to 20 years or so.

With the PlayStation 2 in 2000, Sony dominated the video game market; Microsoft's original Xbox was barely a competitor. But with the PlayStation 3 in 2006, Sony lost its dominance in the video game market. Microsoft's Xbox 360 became the standard-bearer for video game consoles of its generation, and it remained that way until 2013 when Sony and Microsoft launched the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, respectively.

With the PlayStation 4, Sony is back on top.

Microsoft's Xbox One is doing fine, just like the PlayStation 3 did, but it's a distant second place to Sony's PS4. And now, the game of musical chairs has begun once again, with rumors swirling and even some outright official talk from both Sony and Microsoft about their next generation of game consoles.

With such a huge lead, it's Sony's game to lose - and there are some worrying signs that Sony's repeating the same mistakes Microsoft did when it introduced the Xbox One.

Check the link for the full story.

Ignoring PS1 as if it was not yet another generation they massively won, ignoring how both Xbox 360 and PS3 were given a spanking by the Wii, ignoring how PS3 started beating Xbox in sales month over month pretty soon (how else do you close a year and a half almost of sales by the Xbox 360 which launched early?), ignoring how PS3 essentially caught up to the Xbox 360 while Xbox One is much much farther behind (not doing that well outside of the U.S.), etc... all of that is then followed by a fear, uncertainty, and despair geeric “Sony may be repeating the same mistakes... MS will win!!!!!” scenario that seems as well supported and researched as the intro :/... back in pre-console ears with U.S./U.K. media giving Sony a chance I see .

Normally it is either game consoles are dying or Sony is making mistakes and Xbox will win the generation back when Sony is winning .

 

[Panajev2001a]

1 and 2 are correct, 3 and 4 are not.

Censorship is a GLOBAL thing, started up by american PCs. Sony is a global brand and suffers from this world trend of censoring stuff and pandering to certain audiences. Unfortunately that's the way it is.

As for the services, Microsoft's are better or more attractive because their AAA exclusive line up sucks big time. You cannot make games like Sony and then offer them day 1 on your gamepass. If you guys are asking for all the games to be in that service, start buying flowers for the burial of the AAA SP games as we know them Today. They will be extinct in no time.

... and PSNow allows you to download games too and you do not have to pay for PS+ if you want to play them online against people: GamePass forces you to pay for Xbox LIVE Gold on top.

PS+ decline is debatable but not a slam dunk either way. I think this is referring to the games provided, but the rest of the service is comparable to Xbox LIVE Gold... you pay mostly for that.

HW quality of the main console is another draw between both consoles and I do not see the indication that with 100 Million of manufactured consoles the defect rate is high or even just higher than the Xbox One (perhaps it may be compared to the Xbox One X, but I am not sure we have a big enough sample size yet). Not sure how complaining about the DS4 light and it’s touchpad belong in the HW quality discussion (while the nice controller speaker does not ?!?)

 

[Panajev2001a]

Not sure about Live services, but at first One was released (officially) in only a handful of countries in Europe. And even then, one of the "main selling points", the HDMI passthru (is this a feature people actually use?) didn't support PAL signals for a long time, which is quite ridiculous.

As a personal anecdote, when I got my OG PS4 in March 2014 here in Finland, there were grey market Ones available from many game stores/online shops. They were gathering dust in the shelves. PS4s were consistently sold out, and I was just lucky to happen to find one at a generic department store.

Forgot the PAL issue for the HDMI pass through hehe.

 

[onQ123]

This is all part of the Xbox 2020 campaign , same theme " Sony is Xbox before Phil saved the world"

 

[Kagey K]

This is all part of the Xbox 2020 campaign , seem theme " Sony is Xbox before Phil saved the world"

Not sure if English?

 

[Panajev2001a]

Click bait article by Ben Gilbert. To save you all the trouble, and because the op omitted the relevant parts of the article, this is all Ben cites to back up his claim.

1. Sony being stubborn with cross-play
2. Recent corporate quotes about synergy between Sony entertainment division's - equated to Xbox One TV, TV, TV.

Ok, so the rest of the article was indeed as poorly researched and supported as the rest of this piece... U.S./U.K. centric media trying once again to give Sony a chance eh? Lol... more like they keep wishing them dead and defeated (... which is what they were screaming just before Xbox One was announced and how they defended Xbox One reveal even to the point of insulting their readers when MS did their 180° pre-launch... yep defending to the death the mistakes they are attributing to Sony as bad awful things... make up your mind...).

 

[Shin]

Business Insider is trash, bro.

I have to agree, such a waste of a good url for actual corporate news.
This tidbit popped up on Google feed while browsing this morning and I read a bit, so much wrong in their articles.

 

[Sparda]

Gaming journalism is trash.

 

[Sparda]

1) PS4 hardware is poorly constructed. I've had two dualshocks die. A friend of mine had theirs literally start smoking and ruin their system. My LAN port on my PS4 stopped working and it's a common issue. Controllers have the worst battery life ever, short USB cords, no default headset, stupid light on the controller, touchpad that no one uses.
2) PS+ has declined in quality sharply. Tons of trash games on there. Less games overall. And now you pay for the online access.
3) They're censoring games now more than Nintendo is, and forcing puritanical American standards on Japanese devs in their own region.
4) Services offered are not as compelling as MS. Game Pass is a good deal for $10, and includes all first party games, which is insane.

Those are the main things I hate about PS this gen. They have room to improve. It's not the same situation as last gen, so anything could happen.

True but switch has many more defects and it's praysed.

 

[Kagey K]

Gaming journalism is trash.

Is recycling PR printouts journalism? Cuz that’s basically all they do now.

Copy and paste PR releases, mixed with editorials and “reviews”

 

[dirthead]

Yup. It's so blatantly obvious that Microsoft has been paying shill media corporations to write dumbass articles like this. It's pure astroturfing.

Okay look, I'm going to break it down since it seems like a lot of people don't see the obvious.

The ONLY, and I repeat--ONLY--reason the PS3 stumbled was because the pricing on it was absolutely stupid and it was essentially a modern Sega Saturn that was way too difficult to develop for. That's it. No one's ever liked Microsoft. No one ever wanted an Xbox. The ONLY reason the 360 did well was because Sony completely bungled the pricing on the PS3 and made it difficult to develop games for. I really need to hammer this home because people don't seem to get it: the 360 wasn't a Microsoft success; it was a Sony failure. In fact, people hate Microsoft so much that despite Sony completely fucking up the PS3 launch, after they adjusted the pricing on it and got it down, it still somewhat recovered and started to do pretty well near the end of its life. That's how hard Sony has to try to fuck things up. They couldn't even manage to make the PS3 a complete failure despite literally fucking up everything out the gate.

The PS4 addressed that, and mysteriously, it completely decimated the Xbox. The Japanese are xenophobic. Microsoft winning and becoming the only AAA game in town is a nightmare scenario for them. Europe absolutely hates Microsoft. Now that video game consoles are just budget PCs, you'd have to try to do the "difficult to make games for" thing again, so as long as Sony prices future systems sanely, there's absolutely zero chance anything is going to change. Sony's 3rd party relationships have never been better. They've got basically all the exclusives, and there's nothing on the horizon indicating that it's going to change.

Finally, as a whole, the entire Xbox brand hasn't even turned a profit yet. That's how much of a money pit generation #1 was and how much the 360 hardware failures cost them. The Xbox division better hope that the bean counters don't realize that it's an albatross and kill the whole thing, because honestly, all they've really been doing is pissing off Windows PC gamers with artificial exclusives designed to make their shitty console platform look better than it really is.

Is recycling PR printouts journalism? Cuz that’s basically all they do now.

Copy and paste PR releases, mixed with editorials and “reviews”

It's even lazier than that. Half the shit you see on the internet was machine generated. Humans don't even write a lot of the news stories anymore, which is why they read like Google translations.

 

[onQ123]

Not sure if English?

Just waking up

 

[Kagey K]

Not sure if English?

Did I break the bot?

 

[onQ123]

Did I break the bot?

Look like you broke yourself lol

 

[Kagey K]

Look like you broke yourself lol

No?

You repeated yourself twice and never clarified your initial response. Just broken English. Something something Phil’s Spencer.... Sony.

I just don’t understand your initial post, and instead of clarifying you just repeated it.

I’m actually very enthralled to see, how you explain what the fuck that was you were trying to say. I feel like this.



I expect it should be entertaining.

 

[Radical Dreamer]

seriously I always think crossplay is blown way out of proportion mainly by reddit

 

[mejin]

You guys should be smarter. Xbox beat PS4 on december in the US market. This is a clear sign: the age of Phil is coming.

 

[onQ123]

No?

You repeated yourself twice and never clarified your initial response. Just broken English. Something something Phil’s Spencer.... Sony.

I just don’t understand your initial post, and instead of clarifying you just repeated it.

Look up there is a glitch I quoted myself when trying to edit my post then you quoted yourself when trying to respond to me.

 

[Kagey K]

Look up there is a glitch I quoted myself when trying to edit my post then you quoted yourself when trying to respond to me.

Still doesn’t answer my question.

Glitch or not the words are still there.

 

[zwiggelbig]

E3 is also for consumers now. I dony get why theh dont even stand on the floor...

 

[dirthead]

No?

You repeated yourself twice and never clarified your initial response. Just broken English. Something something Phil’s Spencer.... Sony.

I just don’t understand your initial post, and instead of clarifying you just repeated it.

I think it's pretty obvious what he's saying.

Phil Spencer, the do-nothing suit that's been packaged and sold to us like he's Gaming Jesus™, supposedly pulled Microsoft from out of the muck and made them the gaming powerhouse they are today (despite the Xbox One still having no exclusives or really any reason to exist at all). These shitty shill articles are trying to paint Sony as declining, needing a "Phil Spencer" shot in the arm like Microsoft supposedly got when absolutely nothing changed other than gamers getting subjected to another smarmy talking head making empty promises constantly.

 

[Kagey K]

This is all part of the Xbox 2020 campaign , same theme " Sony is Xbox before Phil saved the world"

I think it's pretty obvious what he's saying.

Phil Spencer, the do-nothing suit that's been packaged and sold to us like he's Gaming Jesus™, supposedly pulled Microsoft from out of the muck and made them the gaming powerhouse they are today (despite the Xbox One still having no exclusives or really any reason to exist at all). These shitty shill articles are trying to paint Sony as declining, needing a "Phil Spencer" shot in the arm like Microsoft supposedly got when absolutely nothing changed other than gamers getting subjected to another smarmy talking head making empty promises constantly.

I just posted his original words. Do you still get that? I love the paragraph you get out of his 8 words. It really shows the thought process.

I would definitely hire you as a translator , based on that example.

 

[onQ123]

Still doesn’t answer my question.

Glitch or not the words are still there.

What is it that you don't understand?

This is a reoccurring theme in the campaign leading up to the next gen Xbox release , "Sony is Xbox before Phil"

 

[Kagey K]

What is it that you don't understand?

This is a reoccurring theme in the campaign leading up to the next gen Xbox release , "Sony is Xbox before Phil"

What is that sentence?

It makes no sense. That is my issue.

If I say Xbox is Sony before Cerny that makes sense to you?

There is no context or relevance it’s literally just words and naming people.

If it makes sense to you then elaborate so we all get it,

 

[onQ123]

What is that sentence?

It makes no sense. That is my issue.

If I say Xbox is Sony before Cerny that makes sense to you?

There is no context or relevance it’s literally just words and naming people.

If it makes sense to you then elaborate so we all get it,

You not understanding something so simple is not my problem.