So Sony revealed their PS4 DRM and price...

[A Black Falcon]

$399 (versus $499 for the Xbox One), and the DRM is the same as the PS3, with one exception -- you now need to pay for PS Plus in order to play multiplayer games online. Yeah, that's not good. However, the PS4 does have full standard used games support, so you can sell, lend, rent, etc. PS4 games no problem. Sony really, really milked this at the press conference, and understandably so with how MS is trying to "move everyone into the future" in anti-consumer ways. Then Sony released this video to Youtube.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/stiYAbaJY1w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Yes, that's an official Sony video.

[Dark Jaguar]

I was just about to share that video myself. (Bless you "autosaved posts", one of the greatest new features of TC. Thank you Etoven.)

Sony pulled an absolutely incredible E3 this year. Considering just how terrible their last two E3s have been, it has been an impressive turnaround. Frankly, they have a higher number of "must have" games than MS as well.

So the obviously HEAVILY subsidized PS4 is going to be much more affordable than the XBox One (that name still throws me), and the physical versions of the games will actually still have the same rights as before. This is good. It's basically keeping the status quo though, so steps still haven't been taken to resolve existing DRM issues with purely digital purchases.

Sony's "Playstation Plus" has become mandatory for playing games online. Considering the costs of maintaining servers like that, this sort of step may have been inevitable. All things considered, it is a null effect on me since I will likely cancel my XBox Live Gold at the time I upgrade to Playstation Plus. This leaves Nintendo as the sole provider of free online play this upcoming generation. Well, Nintendo's online solution is still lacking in many key areas, so there's your tradeoff. (In terms of online, I still haven't heard if Sony will implement Nintendo's true "community center" approach to solving the dilemma of rotten online players. Yes, the people in the Wii U community are still being excellent to one another.)

Here is another piece of earthshaking news that Nintendo should copy from Sony. Sony is allowing independent small studios to publish their games straight to the PS4 all on their own without needing to get any sort of licensing fees or anything. I highly suspect this means that those games will be shunted off to some corner and with big warnings that Sony isn't responsible for the content, but it is an amazing piece of news that is very likely targeting the Ouya. Indie developers are already extremely happy about the news. I'm hoping this will prevent the Fez debacle on the 360, where the developer had solved a critical game haulting bug in the game but couldn't afford MS's vetting process for the patch, so it went unreleased.

So all said, I'm seriously considering getting a PS4. I however don't know if I'll get a XBox One this generation. It'll be the first time in a few generations I skipped out on a major "tier" of the current consoles, but MS is sort of forcing my hand. The real kicker? It may also be the first time that getting that console after the generation has passed and the console price drops dramatically becomes a useless proposition. If XBox One games need to be activated and the activation service is down, then there's no market for the used CONSOLE in 10 year's time either. That'll be pretty sad, unless MS reverses course here.

One small detail though... On that PS4, can I replace the internal hard drive just like with the PS3? I suspect the anwer is yes, but confirmation would be nice in light of the fact the XBox One hard drive can't be replaced by the user at all, in an example of MS taking a step backwards. It is a real shame MS has gone so far against the desires of their fans in the past couple of years. I suspect the change in leadership is where the blame lies.

[A Black Falcon]

I don't think the PS4 is actually subsidized; it might actually be profitable for Sony at $400. The parts aren't THAT high end, compared to top-end PCs. Microsoft had to go higher because of the Kinect, mostly.

One small detail though... On that PS4, can I replace the internal hard drive just like with the PS3? I suspect the anwer is yes, but confirmation would be nice in light of the fact the XBox One hard drive can't be replaced by the user at all, in an example of MS taking a step backwards. It is a real shame MS has gone so far against the desires of their fans in the past couple of years. I suspect the change in leadership is where the blame lies.

Yes, you can replace the HDD yourself. PS4 will be region-free too, just like the PS3. And quite unlike the X1.

Here is another piece of earthshaking news that Nintendo should copy from Sony. Sony is allowing independent small studios to publish their games straight to the PS4 all on their own without needing to get any sort of licensing fees or anything. I highly suspect this means that those games will be shunted off to some corner and with big warnings that Sony isn't responsible for the content, but it is an amazing piece of news that is very likely targeting the Ouya. Indie developers are already extremely happy about the news. I'm hoping this will prevent the Fez debacle on the 360, where the developer had solved a critical game haulting bug in the game but couldn't afford MS's vetting process for the patch, so it went unreleased.

Nintendo actually has done a LOT in the last year to try to improve their relations with indie developers. They've been giving indies dev kits, they got rid of their requirement to have a separate office (OB1 might have liked that one :p), etc. Nintendo is trying to build indie relationships, and they are having some success; remember the "eShop" section of the Nintendo Direct conference. Sony is doing that as well, while Microsoft has turned off most indies. A few indies still support MS, but Sony and Nintendo have really moved into that space, even though XBLA helped create the market, along with Steam.

[Dark Jaguar]

I would ask if Nintendo no longer requires a certain "threshold" of sales before they actually PAY the eshop developers. When I heard about that, I was disgusted. Some Wii store developers probably STILL haven't been paid just because they got JUST UNDER the payment "threshold".

More to the point, what sets Sony apart here is that no one needs to pay Sony anything to publish games on the PS4 now. In that way, it is more like the PC (or the Atari).

I read about MS's "family sharing plan", and I just found it is NOT what we all thought it was. No, you can't share your game with 10 people simultaneously. Only one person can actually play the game at once, so basically, there are NO advantages over traditional game sharing, it's actually as we thought, more LIMITED than traditional game sharing.

[A Black Falcon]

I believe the threshhold is gone, though I'm not 100% certain. I don't think keeping that would make any sense given the other moves they've made, though, so I very highly doubt that they did. I do know that people publishing on eShop can set their own price now, and can do sales if they want, when they want. On Wii, of course, Nintendo set all prices, and sales were, and are, not allowed.

[Dark Jaguar]

I would still like to find a definitive statement confirming that, yes, "sales thresholds" are a thing of the past, and publishers are getting paid on a regular basis (say, monthly) regardless of how many sales they actually made.

Another good move by Nintendo was twofold. They abandoned "Wii Points" in favor of real world currency (except Bitcoins, oh right, REAL currency, not "here's how you buy drugs without being tracked" currency), and further, you can pay EXACTLY the sticker price without having to pay for "chunks" of cash to be put in a wallet. Mind you, the option to pick "put in $5.00, $10.00, $15.00, or $20.00" is still right there as big buttons right on the purchase screen, but nestled right under those buttons is a sweet little "pay the exact amount" button that just pays exactly what the price of your items is. It is rather annoying to pay MORE than the listed amount, with the remained sticking around in purgatory like unspent Disney Dollars until the next purchase. Now, Playstation Network DOES allow for this as well, but only if your shopping cart total is over $5.00. (As a direct result of this, I forgo buying single items less than $5.00 until something else shows up on the store I can bundle with it to total over that threshold.) So, Nintendo recognizes now that fake currency never helped anyone. I suspect MS is abandoning "Microsoft Points" as well. Too bad everything associated with MS right now is toxic waste.

I recognize that I'm "on the band wagon", that I'm banded to this wagon, or perhaps it is a wagon for a band, and I am on it as a roadie, but the song they sing is sweet to the ears, and unobjectionable. I thus join them willingly and with thought towards their goal and not just out of a popularity for wagons per say.

[A Black Falcon]

Yes, MS is indeed abandoning Microsoft Points. They've already announced that they're being transitioned into real money soon.

[Dark Jaguar]

Thank you for reading that back to me secretary.

[A Black Falcon]

Here's another example of Nintendo reaching out to small studios. http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/06...g_to_wii_u

[Dark Jaguar]

An example of what exactly? All that says is Nintendo asked them to release a specific game on there. No details were given.

[A Black Falcon]

Huh? Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD and Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee New 'N' Tasty are coming to the Wii U eShop. There's never been an Oddworld game released for a Nintendo home console before, and the article makes it clear that this happened because Nintendo's new indie people (and sure, Lorne Lanning might not be exactly "indie", but his current studio is quite small!) reached out and made this happen. Nintendo has changed a lot in the last year or so, as far as indies go.

[Dark Jaguar]

So some new games came out. WHAT exactly was so different here? All the article says is Nintendo approached them asking them to release the games, and they did. Give me concrete details.

[A Black Falcon]

The whole point is that Nintendo approaching indie developers and trying to get them to publish on their platforms is a pretty new thing.

[Dark Jaguar]

So this new innovation is "courting"?

I'm sorry but I'd be a lot more interested in what actual policy changes they've made.

[A Black Falcon]

That is a policy change, though. Before Nintendo didn't do that. Sure, they got some stuff on the Wii, but they should get more now. The NoA guy in charge of eshop stuff, Dan Adelman, sounds like a very good hire; he apparently used to be with MS.

As for the thresholds, they are apparently gone, and have been since DSiWare; that was a WiiWare-only thing they have not used in anything else, because it didn't work well. See this interview. http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/03...s_possible

[Dark Jaguar]

It's great to hear the threshold policy is GONE now. That was a horrible way to treat publishers.