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Kids' No. 1 holiday wish? PS4 for boys (CNET)
- Thread starter Foghorn Leghorn
- Start date
molnizzle
Member
People in general are much more well-informed than the average Microsoft PR jockey would have you believe. This isn't 2005, many people (and most kids) get all of their news from the Internet these days. Especially since all kids apparently carry Internet-connected computers in their pockets.
Yea, i don't know how many kids would want a PS4 just from seeing the perfect day ad or the taco bell one. But the buzz has been consistently positive for the PS4 and i think that's what has caused this outcome.
thatsafakewebsitebro
Member
Never thought I'd EVER see LoJack being used on Gaf, but boy did that make me lol.
Foghorn Leghorn
Unconfirmed Member
It may be Sony, but more then likely MS helping Sony. As I was saying up above my son is in middle school, MS scared most of them and their parents off with the no used/rented games. You want to strike fear in the heart of these kids, tell them they're stuck playing the same few games until the next birthday/holiday.
Alcoholikaust
Member
yup. all 38 years of me.
civilstrife
Member
Bodes very well for Sony. This is a huge indicator for how a gen will go.
People figured the Toys R Us list was probably a paid for slot by Microsoft (I think that's the situation for all of the items there?), and if it's not that then it was probably constructed by a group who looked at what the big game console and thought, naturally, the XB1 would be the most desirable one. Not like that inherently reflects reality if that's the case, same people probably would've expected landslide dominance from the Wii U.
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
im dreading everyone having the capability to voice chat. was one of the saving graces of playstation multiplayer (other than being free)
This is the first console launch in the post social media world. Information spreads much faster and much wider than it did back in 2005/2006.
Can you imagine the early PS3 era Sony launching the PS3 the way they did in today's social media landscape? It'd be a bloodbath for them.
Can you imagine the early PS3 era Sony launching the PS3 the way they did in today's social media landscape? It'd be a bloodbath for them.
SwiftDeath
Member
That was a great part of my childhood as well
I feel sorry for the state of the game industry but I suppose it's making more money than ever *shrug*
An avalanche of American 12 year olds. Just what PSN needed to become more like Xbox Live
Finally, PSN is now at feature parity with XBL.
You say that, but Contra was a popular series once as I recall, and failing that GI Joe was massively popular at that time. And in contrast there were probably a lot of kids that just want to go on a fantasy adventure and played Skyrim. Or Skylanders, that certainly is bringing in enough money.
Which is why iphone was number one. What other genders are there?
Please, all the cool kids were playing Doom and Duke Nukem and Mortal Kombat.
Kids were informed when I was at school arguing mega-drive or Snes with only 3rd hand magazines as a source.
Kids these days have tablets and are Internet literate from an early age.
I do agree with you. I too, was born in the Arcades/NES era.
Luckily, there are plenty of games on PS4 that aren't shooters.
Yeah, no doubt. Sony would've had it worse if Social Media were very huge back in 2006 & would've possibly damaged the PS brand even further than it already has because of the $599 scandal.
SwiftDeath
Member
I was at the hairdressers earlier tonight and a father gave his 2 or 3 year old son his iphone to play with while he got a haircut
So there was just this toddler playing with an iphone stuck on google. Obviously kid couldn't do anything but still had fun with it. Thought it was quite telling that the kid is already associating with apple and google at such an early age even if it's likely only at a minimal subconscious level
fallen_dawn
Member
I was at the lower end of this demographic (13) when I got my PS3 in 2009, at the time I knew what I was looking for. I can attest that kids in this demographic definitely can do their research on what is the best system to purchase - and peer groups play a big part of it.
With the big Xbox DRM backlash earlier this year, many of my friends, now 17, were turned off from Xbox. Others refuse to part from it, but that's for more nostalgic reasons, I suppose.
It only really takes one informed person to influence many other peoples' decisions.
2006 isn't 1986 or even 1996, we have made huge strides since mainly owing to tablets and mobile BUT we were still largely on the internet and seeing this stuff broadcast by then. The difference based on social media would've been smaller I think (though if the PS1 hit at $600 in 1996 it'd probably have just been stillborn entirely.)
molnizzle
Member
The current social media landscape is way different than it was in 2006. There was news on the Internet in 2006 but you usually had to purposefully go and look for it. That was back during the days when Facebook was limited to college students with .edu accounts. We had MySpace and Xanga, neither of which yet had "feeds" (or many users, compared to today's Facebook and Twitter). These days if Obama so much as sneezes funny I'll have it blasted all over my news feed by like 14 different people.
It's a different era.
This is the period where blogs would freak over what the fuck Halo 3 did with its X button. It had less social media, but digging around usenet or collecting every magazine as it came out for every piece of news this was not.
molnizzle
Member
You had to actively look for that blog though. These days people typically have Facebook accounts by default. News comes to them. I know my feed was filled with outraged gamers after the Xbone DRM reveal. I'm willing to bet that the average 12 year-old boy's was, too.
SwiftDeath
Member
I think twitter might be more relevant as Facebook seems to be losing share with teenagers these days. Twitter isn't exactly on fire with the demographic of course but it delivers the news in much the same way
Some of the responses in here are funny, multiplayer will be awful, now they need to sow up the older market etc.
It is the number one want for boys this Christmas is just another way of saying it is in demand and a product many are excited for.
It will sell mostly to the older market in the early years, it will only trickle down to the younger demographic as it gets cheaper over time ..... some lucky kids might get one this year.
Also this is not news that the PS4 is favourite at the moment, even on the small scale look at he Xbox one and the PS4 online id threads ........... PS4 is sitting over 500 and the Xbox is just over 100 ....... hell of a ratio, even on here.
It is the number one want for boys this Christmas is just another way of saying it is in demand and a product many are excited for.
It will sell mostly to the older market in the early years, it will only trickle down to the younger demographic as it gets cheaper over time ..... some lucky kids might get one this year.
Also this is not news that the PS4 is favourite at the moment, even on the small scale look at he Xbox one and the PS4 online id threads ........... PS4 is sitting over 500 and the Xbox is just over 100 ....... hell of a ratio, even on here.
I think you're really overestimating how much social media changed things, not that it doesn't help spread awareness but it wasn't as if people didn't talk with one another until Facebook and Twitter made it big, nevermind we had forums like this where we'd come across that kind of news and talk about what we think about it. Hell, just for fun I dug into the archives and brought out the E3 2006 Sony conference.
Incidentally, I completely forgot the 20 GB model originally didn't have HDMI in it. It's almost like a bizarro version of the DRM reversal, except on a smaller scale and involving a DRM'd connection!
molnizzle
Member
You're making the mistake of assuming that the average "normal" kid is as nerdy as you were and posts on Internet gaming forums.
I have good news for you - the majority of people playing CoD on 360 where everyone has a headset are silent, most are in private chats or have the headset unplugged.
I'm sure the wildlife that you were killing by invading their territory enjoyed the experience.
Actually, more like COD is gonna clean up. So glad I don't play stuff online. The XBL crowd is coming to a Sony server near y'all soon.
super-famicom
Member
I spent a lot of time playing online multiplayer on PS3 and never experienced the "dumb 10 year old who messages me with a bunch of profanity" thing. Really really hope that I have just as good an experience on PS4.
Street Fighter 2 was the biggest game of that era so kids where into kicking the shit out of each other, Zelda was yawn bro.
dragonbane
Member
Fucking Knack. I knew it.
Prince Vultan
Banned
But Toys R Us said...
spatenfloot
Member
Based on the one kid I remember encountering on PS3 Battlefield, it might be a good thing. He was one of the few people who would actually listen and play the objectives.
It's unfortunate isn't it. I bet many of the COD kids would call such games "gay".
However there is hope. I have a younger family friend that spends more time playing PS1 platformers on his PSP than he does on his 360. And a little cousin who is MineCraft crazy at the moment.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Gaming is much more mainstream nowadays and you guys act like all kids are like that. My cousins aren't like that, my sister isn't like that either. Not every kid is into shooters.
Android18a
Member
Nice to see, actually. Games consoles still have relevancy with todays youth amongst the world of mobile games and apps, even if it's COD and GTA that drives the industry to remain popular, it paves the way for the niche games like Disgaea and Project Diva to get released. I daresay if it wasn't for these big games that the kids love that a lot of the hidden gems wouldn't get released at all, as consoles flounder and flop around without any real audience.
Street Fighter 2 was the biggest game of that era so kids where into kicking the shit out of each other, Zelda was yawn bro.
Not to mention that we all went batshit for Mortal Kombat. Fatality.
Somebody only read the thread title