10th June 2013, 9:00 PM
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.
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.
"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)