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[Raist]

If you think the PS3 was more successful than the 360, you are delusional.

I don't know what you mean exactly by "more successful" but:

Mid-October 2013: 360 reaches 80M units shipped
Early November 2013: PS3 reaches 80M units shipped

360 launch: November 2005
PS3 launch: November 2006

The PS3 sold as much, in a shorter period of time, that's a fact.

 

[EGM1966]

Why are we so sure Sony "won"? obviously they are dominating now but the gen is still young, MS can't do anything to close the gap?

Sony were at a worse condition than MS last gen and they still managed to recover and close the gap, so i wouldn't call it "victory" just yet.

Becasue the odds are tiny that MS can swing it around. Also it's a huge mistake to think PS3 "caught up" the way you're implying.

PS3 remained behind 360 in US and UK throughout. It never caught up at all. Outside those territories it sold more from day one than 360, it just launched later. From the start it was outselling 360 in majority of regions (launch adjusted) it was just hidden for a while by the early 360 release.

This gen they launched day and date and outside US the odds of MS catching up are tiny - after all Sony couldn't catch up in regions they were behind with PS3 either.

The outcome from a global perspective for this gen is already 99% set in stone as the 4 to 1 and 5 to 1 sales advantage PS4 enjoys in many territories shows.

MS may well do good business in US and UK when all is said and done but the rest of the world plus similarly good sales in those regions as XB1 will give Sony a relatively easy win.

Wii U clearly isn't going to trouble either in terms of global unit sales although it can still be profitable for Nintendo.

 

[MrCunningham]

We all know this is what had Gates shook...

This thing was developed during a time when Apple had no idea what they were doing as a company and sinking into bankruptcy. It was killed by Steve Jobs along with many other projects that Apple were working on at the time right after they reinstated him as president of the company. Jobs pretty much jettisoned everything he thought was worthless, including the Apple PippIn.

 

[SPCTRE]

He's right. I just wish we could somehow transplant XBL into PSN and make it work just as good as XBL does.

Anecdotally (personally), I'm not so thrilled about XBL stability on XBONE this gen either.

 

[Muzicfreq]

"Xbox is about to become the next watercooler"

This was the moment I realized it wasn't a machine designed for gamers.

 

[Death Metalist]

Well, it's not hard for Sony being the reasonable company like always to do what they had to do since MS was laying on the floor, pretending to be dead. Good on them and it's thanks to Sony plus the voices of many other gamers that we may see a better Xbox in the next generation. A prime example of why Competition is always good.

 

[Charles Brandon]

I guess the ace Microsoft thought they were holding was Kinect, They thought that shit would change the world. But it's already forgotten, dead and buried.

Are there any more Kinect games coming? What are the numbers like for the "With Kinect" SKU?

 

[John Bender]

Sony may be a tech conglomerate producing TVs, AV receivers, Blu-Ray players, DSLR cameras, phones, etc etc. but the man in charge has been in the gaming business for twenty years and he put a games developer in charge of the PS4 projects. Gaming was central to their vision of the PS4. Sony knew what the gaming public wanted, MS had no clue at all.

A mod summed it up pretty nicely. To paraphrase his quote "The guy that designed PS4 was wearing an engineer apron. The guy who designed Xbox One was wearing a suit."

Never forget:

During his presentation at GameLab 2013 in Barcelona Cerny explained at length Yoshida-san’s influence on his career and on the PlayStation brand since the earliest times, and concluded with a quite strong statement:

If you want to know what I’ll be doing in five years time, don’t ask me. Ask Shu Yoshida. It’s all part of his master plan. There reason why there’s a game developer deep within a hardware team is because Shu had the patience and the foresight to make it happen.

"I have a great friend who lives in Kyoto in the eastern part of Japan," Cerny told an audience at Gamelab in Barcelona earlier today.

"He runs a developer there and he's worked with both Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo over the years, and he says that what he respects the most about Nintendo is the incredible continuity they have in the form of a core group of individuals that has now worked together for over 30 years.

"Well, we on the PlayStation side of the business have only about 20 years together now, but I'm really looking forward to the next decade or two with Shu [Yoshida], Andy [House] and the other amazing talents of Sony Computer Entertainment, and I think by the end of it we'll even have my friend in Kyoto telling everyone how our values - held strongly over a great period of time - had such an influence over the world of games."

 

[Sticky&Sweet]

I have to say, as an owner of a new PS4, I sat down with my first current-gen machine (don't own an Xbox One or Wii U), and thought "oh... seems to be missing the bells and whistles I keep hearing about that adorn the Xbox One". I then wondered to myself why the PS4 was so successful in the first place seen as the other two consoles have just-as-if-not-more compelling exclusives (save for Bloodborne, my new baby).

So I'm kind of up in the air when it comes to the success of the PS4, which really just feels like an extension of the Xbox 360 in all honesty. I think Nintendo and Microsoft have innovated more than Sony, and that Sony are just riding a wave of good will.

That said, I DO love the PS4 (I love all consoles!) but yeah, the rapid success is a bit puzzling to me, unlike say the Wii, which had a reason to be so wildly successful.

 

[Ethelwulf]

"Xbox is about to become the next watercooler"

This was the moment I realized it wasn't a machine designed for gamers.

Honest question out of ignorance: What do they actually wanted to say?

 

[HORRORSHØW]

ps4 has no bells and whistles

 

[Sjefen]

I was truly waiting in anticipation on the next xbox, I thought MS would walk all over Sony this gen.

Spoiler

the rest is history

. meanwhile Sony came out swinging and made the gamer center off attention again. Check mate. If both had revealed the same mantra as MS, PC would have "won" the console war

 

[The God]

yeah the only way out of this is one or two fucking amazing exclusive games. Games that EVERYONE will want, not just Xbox heads or even gamers in general. They need something like Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Wii Sports, even a Call of Duty. A game that people-who-don't-otherwise-like-games will play.

Maybe Halo 5 will be that game. Maybe the new Rare title will be.

I don't see any game pulling Microsoft out of second place.

 

[Sjefen]

ps4 has no bells and whistles

Thank god for that. Oh wait what do you call project Morpheus, PS Now and Shareplay?

 

[HORRORSHØW]

Thank god for that. Oh wait what do you call project Morpheus, PS Now and Shareplay?

ask the guy i was paraphrasing

 

[Muzicfreq]

Honest question out of ignorance: What do they actually wanted to say?

Kinda like a work office watercooler that people stand around and talk.....
Sure people are talking but most of it is negative

 

[immortal-joe]

The standard Sony set with PS+ alone gives them the victory in my book.

It's looking like we will be getting a lot of revisionist history-type observations the farther we go into the gen, culminating in some people saying that Sony literally just looked at what Microsoft did with XBONE and did the opposite, even though the PS4 was revealed first.

 

[John Bender]

I have to say, as an owner of a new PS4, I sat down with my first current-gen machine (don't own an Xbox One or Wii U), and thought "oh... seems to be missing the bells and whistles I keep hearing about that adorn the Xbox One". I then wondered to myself why the PS4 was so successful in the first place seen as the other two consoles have just-as-if-not-more compelling exclusives (save for Bloodborne, my new baby).

So I'm kind of up in the air when it comes to the success of the PS4, which really just feels like an extension of the Xbox 360 in all honesty. I think Nintendo and Microsoft have innovated more than Sony, and that Sony are just riding a wave of good will.

That said, I DO love the PS4 (I love all consoles!) but yeah, the rapid success is a bit puzzling to me, unlike say the Wii, which had a reason to be so wildly successful.

More like Sony is riding a wave of these points:
1. focusing on the core market = Games/Gamers since the PS Meeting / PS4 reveal
2. better/stronger/easier to develop for hardware = better running games / multiplats
3. new / innovative features like Share Button/Share Factory, Share Play, etc.etc.
4. focusing on the worldwide market = having/getting the biggest games library of them all EU/NA/JP
5. large/good group of 1st Party Studios in EU/NA/JP (see point No.4)
6. well known for supporting their consoles for ~10 years
7. PS+
.
.
.

And the list goes on and on. It's easy to see why they are succesful with their home consoles. If they don't make major mistakes again (see PS3 = launched 1 year too late, too expensive, complicated hardware architecture) they can't be beaten.
And with these three guys on top of SCE (House, Shu and SCE's BFF Cerny) + having Kaz as the big boss of Sony, I'm sure they won't make these major mistakes again.

 

[travisbickle]

X1 is better entertainment hub for sure.

It's a better water cooler too.

 

[LiquidSolid]

I wouldn't go that far. They didn't nail anything, they just did nothing wrong. Their success is largely down to Microsofts failings.

The only real positive thing they did was the push / help with indies.

Sony didn't nail anything.
MS just fucked up big time.

Does it make you guys feel better if you keep telling yourselves that? All it tells me is that you weren't paying much attention at the time.

yeah the only way out of this is one or two fucking amazing exclusive games. Games that EVERYONE will want, not just Xbox heads or even gamers in general. They need something like Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Wii Sports, even a Call of Duty. A game that people-who-don't-otherwise-like-games will play.

Maybe Halo 5 will be that game. Maybe the new Rare title will be.

Sorry but that's the kind of thing you say when you've given up and are just hoping for a miracle to happen. Iwata said something similar last year, in fact.

 

[Replicant]

I still remember watching MS keynote of TV TV TV and I thought none of this is relevant to my interest. That was one thing then they just have to fuck things up even more by introducing the DRM. At that point, they can jump off a cliff for all I care.

 

[Sotha_Sil]

I think Microsoft over-estimated the importance of making a console your entertainment center.

The PS4 does feel like the early 360 years when they were getting noticeably better ports and PC/360-only games.

 

[Occam]

Yep, revisionist history incoming.
One of the reasons PS4 does well (besides simply being a better game system than Xbone) is because Sony supported PS3 the way they did.

For most consumers, PlayStation offers a superior value proposition.

 

[Charles Brandon]

What do people need an "entertainment" centre for. They they smart tvs, they have chromesticks (forgot the actual name of that thing), they already have consoles that can Netflix, iPlayer etc

 

[Dirtyshubb]

What do people need an "entertainment" centre for. They they smart tvs, they have chromesticks (forgot the actual name of that thing), they already have consoles that can Netflix, iPlayer etc

For me, I like having everything running from one machine without the hassles of having to change things/plug in other things etc.

Also, I find the PS4 to be MUCH faster and responsive than my Smart TV, when you add in the ability to just pop in and out of Netflix and a game without th eneed to load things up again it makes it super convenient. As for Chromecast etc. while they seem really good I would rather have my media hub hooked up via Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi to prevent any annoyances.

 

[DieH@rd]

Sony didn't nail anything.
MS just fucked up big time.

I don't agree. Sony did a lot of things right. They made a great marketing plan, surprised MS with early unveil of PS4, got their publishing plan right with all indies, created/promoted several new nextgen streaming services [shareplay, remoteplay, psnow], and they did everything to make their console more desirable to gamers.

Riccitiello was right this time, MS fucked it up, Sony actively tried to fix their past mistakes, and they got rewarded for it.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

People are fickle and get bored quickly. People's interests shift on a dime and loyalty to one company over another can quickly shift.

MS just need to make games people want. I am actually very interested to see what his whole Windows 10 thing does for the console overall. That alone is more interesting to me than what Sony have done so far.

You make it sound as if Sony doesn't make games that people want.

 

[Melchiah]

Sony didn't nail anything.
MS just fucked up big time.

Does that also apply to last gen with roles reversed?

 

[Cthulhu_Steev]

But you guys, we totally destroyed the Xbox One by criticizing their original DRM plans. We stopped progress. We are the bad guys.

At least that's what tech blogs told me after Microsoft's 180.

I really wish they'd gone through with it to the bitter end just so we could see the result, and how rubber-stamp just how hilariously misguided the idea was. And also we would have seen the finer details of that digital trading, family sharing 'awesomeness' that they had in mind.

Nancy 'Didn't' Tellem.

 

[Raide]

You make it sound as if Sony doesn't make games that people want.

No no, just games that I don't want. I am getting old and fussy for all consoles to be honest. Nothing really excites me!

 

[Occam]

What do people need an "entertainment" centre for. They they smart tvs, they have chromesticks (forgot the actual name of that thing), they already have consoles that can Netflix, iPlayer etc

Indeed. I could plug a usb hdd into my smart tv and record tv programs with it, if I wanted to. Or use it for streaming, or surfing the internet. My LG tv even plays MKV natively. No expensive additional device that consumes additional power needed.

 

[OléGunner]

I have to say, as an owner of a new PS4, I sat down with my first current-gen machine (don't own an Xbox One or Wii U), and thought "oh... seems to be missing the bells and whistles I keep hearing about that adorn the Xbox One". I then wondered to myself why the PS4 was so successful in the first place seen as the other two consoles have just-as-if-not-more compelling exclusives (save for Bloodborne, my new baby).

So I'm kind of up in the air when it comes to the success of the PS4, which really just feels like an extension of the Xbox 360 in all honesty. I think Nintendo and Microsoft have innovated more than Sony, and that Sony are just riding a wave of good will.

That said, I DO love the PS4 (I love all consoles!) but yeah, the rapid success is a bit puzzling to me, unlike say the Wii, which had a reason to be so wildly successful.

Sounds like being able to yell "Xbox On!!" is a game changer for you.

Innovation for innovations sake does not equate to future success.

 

[D6AMIA6N]

I intended on buying an Xbone before everything went down, as the 360 had been great the previous gen. After the reveal though, the direction they were headed held no interest for me, so I bought a PS4. Having my TV play through my game console assumes I give a shit about TV, which I don't. It seemed an odd choice to build your new game console around a bunch of features I'm sure very few actually use. Cool story huh?

 

[Phat Michael]

X1 is better entertainment hub for sure.

which is ironic since the PS3 was the better media hub compared to the 360. I still use my PS3 as my media server, it is way better than the PS4/XB1.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Why are we so sure Sony "won"? obviously they are dominating now but the gen is still young, MS can't do anything to close the gap?

Sony were at a worse condition than MS last gen and they still managed to recover and close the gap, so i wouldn't call it "victory" just yet.

If anything that shows you how strong the Playstation brand is.

 

[steinmc]

More like Sony is riding a wave of these points:
1. focusing on the core market = Games/Gamers since the PS Meeting / PS4 reveal
2. better/stronger/easier to develop for hardware = better running games / multiplats
3. new / innovative features like Share Button/Share Factory, Share Play, etc.etc.
4. focusing on the worldwide market = having/getting the biggest games library of them all EU/NA/JP
5. large/good group of 1st Party Studios in EU/NA/JP (see point No.4)
6. well known for supporting their consoles for ~10 years
7. PS+
.
.
.

And the list goes on and on. It's easy to see why they are succesful with their home consoles. If they don't make major mistakes again (see PS3 = launched 1 year too late, too expensive, complicated hardware architecture) they can't be beaten.
And with these three guys on top of SCE (House, Shu and SCE's BFF Cerny) + having Kaz as the big boss of Sony, I'm sure they won't make these major mistakes again.

And you must not forget, MS made several serious mistakes. The big Question is, wether the Xbox One would be selling better, if MS had made the Xbox One as powerful and as consumer friendly as the PS4.
My bet is, the PS4 would still be selling better, but both consoles would be closer in terms of sales.

 

[Cthulhu_Steev]

So I'm kind of up in the air when it comes to the success of the PS4, which really just feels like an extension of the Xbox 360 in all honesty. I think Nintendo and Microsoft have innovated more than Sony, and that Sony are just riding a wave of good will.

For fucks sake, reading this constantly (along with the 'Sony only did well because MS screwed up') is pretty annoying. Goodwill doesn't tempt people - especially those who invested in MS last gen - to make a five year investment in a games console.

ps4 has no bells and whistles

Detana!! TwinBee - I wish PS4 did have that game.

 

[hotandserious]

It's fun to go back and watch this video from the "D: Dive Into Media" conference with (everybody's favorite) Yusuf Mehdi and Nancy Tellem from February 2013, long before the announcement of Xbox One. They made it painfully clear where they were headed:

http://www.wsj.com/video/yusuf-mehd...dia/82951C3B-5BB9-4A7B-AACE-F97993244DD0.html

 

[Omni]

Sounds like being able to yell "Xbox On!!" is a game changer for you.

Innovation for innovations sake does not equate to future success.

Off topic, but I gotta be honest... being able to walk in your room, say "Xbox On" and having your system and tv turn on ready to go is really great. Likewise being able to control volume and stuff with your voice is super cool.

On paper it sounds pretty bleh. But once you go back to a console without that feature, you notice it. At least in my experience.

 

[spatenfloot]

Or sing Swedish songs about penis's and vulvas?

Why would you sing about Volvos? They are nice cars, but really.

 

[DustyVonEric]

"We’ve made the best fucking game system we could" - They made a system where they get profit from day 1, not the best gaming system they could offer (not having ssds its such a shame in the current consoles)

Also they just won because MS f***ed it up with their daily-online-ping and entertainment stuff, PS4 was hyped big time just because they just build a ps3 with better hardware. Their whole reveal event felt like "We dont do the things MS does"

Nah, I think Sony built the best machine they could realistically afford. They weren't in the position to spend more. I believe PS4 was "gamers first" for a few reasons.

One, again Sony couldn't afford to commit to much more upfront. The Xbox division could outspend them to add whatever multimedia functionality and obtain whatever entertainment media they wanted if MS let them and deemed it necessary. Sony would spread themselves too thin trying to keep up with a determined MS, so they seemed to have no better choice but to say they're going to focus on gaming first and foremost. That's Sony's built-in excuse if people questioned their lesser extras and features. Sony stripped away most of the bs and distractions and fell back to one of its core competences; making a game-focused console.

Two, Sony knew their PS3 era mistakes - from overly complicated design to the rumored arrogant approach Sony had towards some devs, pubs, and gaming media - could not be repeated. "Gamers first" meant the PS4 needed to be more accessible to everyone; from lower price of entry to a simpler design influenced by surveys of devs to give them tech they're already familiar with. And Sony themselves needed to be more accessible to everyone including courting of and better dealings with devs & pubs for the benefit of gamers and themselves.

Three, I see "gamers first" meaning Sony needs to invest heavily in gamers to survive they're financial struggles. Where MS wouldn't be hurt significantly by the loss of Xbox, one of Sony's pillars is the Playstation division. While MS was over-reaching with its original Xbox One plans, Sony was in survival mode. They needed PS4 to succeed and a lot of thought, self evaluation, learning from mistakes, and brilliant timing & execution went into the PS4 strategy and current success. I feel like saying "Sony didn't do anything, MS messed up" kind of undermines that.

Sony had the right idea and the right gameplan at the right time. Picking the right course of action and executing near-flawlessly with everything including your life on the line, like Sony's seemed to be, while also trumping your two main competitors who held the advantage is mighty impressive.

 

[Cthulhu_Steev]

Off topic, but I gotta be honest... being able to walk in your room, say "Xbox On" and having your system and tv turn on ready to go is really great.

I can do all that with one power button, and I can still talk to my cat while I'm doing it.

 

[Industrialist]

Not to mention that most 3rd party publishers are jumping on the Sony bandwagon as oppose to how they were in the xbox 360 camp last gen.

Yes, of course they are. That's why most third party publishers are releasing titles on both systems.

Name a huge, third-party published game that's coming out in the next year that is going to be available on PS4 and not on Xbox One.

 

[bombshell]

I can do all that with one power button, and I can still talk to my cat while I'm doing it.

You're missing an opportunity here. You just need to name your cat "Xbox On".

 

[wwm0nkey]

Off topic, but I gotta be honest... being able to walk in your room, say "Xbox On" and having your system and tv turn on ready to go is really great. Likewise being able to control volume and stuff with your voice is super cool.

On paper it sounds pretty bleh. But once you go back to a console without that feature, you notice it. At least in my experience.

Eh I don't really care for it honestly, I could just press a button.

Honestly haven't had my kinect plugged in in months due to never really using it or liking it's "features"

 

[gtj1092]

It's funny every generation Sony only wins because MS/Sega/Nintendo messed up. Crazy all these people keep buying playstation for 20 years because they haven't let the glory of Master Cheif and Mario into their life.

Maybe just maybe Sony offers a compelling product at a relatively good price and games and features to satisfy most people.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Sony did luck out with DDR5 memory becoming cheaper. Not sure if that alone really makes that much of a difference though. It's like MS forgot what made the 360 so popular, especially hardware-wise for developers.

 

[Ethelwulf]

It's funny every generation Sony only wins because MS/Sega/Nintendo messed up. Crazy all these people keep buying playstation for 20 years because they haven't let the glory of Master Cheif and Mario into their life.

Maybe just maybe Sony offers a compelling product at a relatively good price and games and features to satisfy most people.

Not sure about that to be honest.

 

[Kssio_Aug]

I agree that Sony did things right, and that now even the XB1 is better then it certainly would be if it wasnt E3 2013!

I just think, however, that PS4 is being a little overpraised nowadays. Sony nailed it at E3 but other then supporting indies and the japanese player base, I don't feel like theyre "nailing" it anymore. Their AAA exclusive titles were all quite disappointing until this date, except for Bloodborne.

 

[R3TRO]

Agreed tbh the Xb1 is a letdown gaming wise and my ps4 keeps surprising me with great games. I never would have thought that all I wanted in a gaming console is games.