25th February 2013, 6:34 AM
PS4 won't have backwards compatibility to lose, so I won't be "forced" to buy the first model on some sort of time limit like I ended up doing with my PS3. Since the system is using an x86 based processor, it is essentially a PC. The only difference is the OS. Porting games should be far easier because of this, but they will still need to be ported. If Sony were smart, they'd make the PS4 OS Linux based and cash in on Steam's recent port to that OS to have a ton of games right out of the gate.
The other big news is that touch screen right in the middle of the controller. While Start and Select no longer exist as independent buttons, I suspect pressing the touch screen equivalents shouldn't prove too difficult compared to having a touch based d-pad and face buttons.
The OTHER other big news is that the PS4 is totes linked all up on to the social metasphere, my digdoggers. Eh. I mean, yeah you can now "comment" on things on some sort of "wall" or whatever, but this still means that Sony's "social" solution lacks that basic thing Nintendo recognized, a "society". Just linking into the various walled gardens on Facebook really isn't enough. On Facebook, as everywhere else, people only ever see the people they approve of, reinforcing their own echo chambers of ideas.
Nintendo's solution essentially forces everyone together, which in the long run makes for a much more productive society. The social interaction on the Wii U is still doing great so far. That said, the Wii U had a TERRIBLE January. They KILLED November and December, but dropped to a level lower than has been seen since 2005 in January. Nintendo will need to pull something desperate in order to reverse that. The odd thing is going from Wii level sales all the way down to Dreamcast level in the order of one month. Normally if January lull is going to be that low, one would be able to predict it from holiday sales, but not this time.
The other big news is that touch screen right in the middle of the controller. While Start and Select no longer exist as independent buttons, I suspect pressing the touch screen equivalents shouldn't prove too difficult compared to having a touch based d-pad and face buttons.
The OTHER other big news is that the PS4 is totes linked all up on to the social metasphere, my digdoggers. Eh. I mean, yeah you can now "comment" on things on some sort of "wall" or whatever, but this still means that Sony's "social" solution lacks that basic thing Nintendo recognized, a "society". Just linking into the various walled gardens on Facebook really isn't enough. On Facebook, as everywhere else, people only ever see the people they approve of, reinforcing their own echo chambers of ideas.
Nintendo's solution essentially forces everyone together, which in the long run makes for a much more productive society. The social interaction on the Wii U is still doing great so far. That said, the Wii U had a TERRIBLE January. They KILLED November and December, but dropped to a level lower than has been seen since 2005 in January. Nintendo will need to pull something desperate in order to reverse that. The odd thing is going from Wii level sales all the way down to Dreamcast level in the order of one month. Normally if January lull is going to be that low, one would be able to predict it from holiday sales, but not this time.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)