After the success of the Xbox 360 this was Microsoft's generation to lose. And they fucked it up in almost every way imaginable. Only recently has Phil Spencer begun righting the ship.
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John Riccitiello: "Sony f***ing nailed it, and they deserve the victory"
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After the success of the Xbox 360 this was Microsoft's generation to lose. And they fucked it up in almost every way imaginable. Only recently has Phil Spencer begun righting the ship.
He could have knocked the Earth off it's axis with that uncontrollable amount of spin.
Microsoft tripped over its own feet. I really expected the successor to the Xbox 360 to be selling like PS4 has been. But nope. MS team were too stupid. Sony lucked out getting 8GB of GDDR5, but MS fucked itself with that GPU. Let's see if MS learned anything if there's a console after XB1.
Sony needs to let us make the light stay blue when the machine is on. All those promo shots with the blue light... then I was greeted with a white light when I got home launch night.It also looks pretty darn sexy
qa_engineer
Member
Crimson_Gold
Member
In the US and UK, sure. The rest of the world was never so certain. This gen is more of a return to the norm than anything else.
tiredheadcrab
Member
Kind of like the competition for the console market. The problem with MS is that they over thought themselves this gen and they really didnt need to. If they had stuck to what made the 360 so great then it would be much closer. Thats really all they needed to do. But they thought to hard.
In the end i hope they stay in the console biz. When there is competition it keeps competitors in line. Thats why the ps3 was so great at the end of its lifecycle. Even before that in 2009 i think, Sony was flaunting its system as the system that does everything and that worked great for it. Seeing them turn around was a nice change and would keep MS on their toes but MS got a little to cocky.
Next round hopefully MS stays in and markets it like they did with the 360. MS is turning themselves around with the Windows 10 debut and i think they have it down. They seemed to have lost their way after awhile with Ballmer
In the end i hope they stay in the console biz. When there is competition it keeps competitors in line. Thats why the ps3 was so great at the end of its lifecycle. Even before that in 2009 i think, Sony was flaunting its system as the system that does everything and that worked great for it. Seeing them turn around was a nice change and would keep MS on their toes but MS got a little to cocky.
Next round hopefully MS stays in and markets it like they did with the 360. MS is turning themselves around with the Windows 10 debut and i think they have it down. They seemed to have lost their way after awhile with Ballmer
Thinking about it, Sony would have to fuck up even worse than Microsoft to not dominate next gen aswell.
They will have the marketshare, brand awareness, leader-status, third parties hanging on it's coattails, and everything going for it.
If they keep the course, they will probably take next gen aswell, that's if Xbox even belongs to Microsoft by then.
Gunslinger
Member
The reason ps4 succeeded is because they ditched gimmicks and made gaming focused console like ps1 and ps2. And didn't make the mistake of pricing it like a ps3 at release. Gimmicks helped wii first time around but consumers smartened up and wiiu failed miserably sales wise. 360 was a great gaming console but they tried to do too much with one and failed miserably also.
Zok310
Banned
God, I still cringe when I see this.
TV, sports, television, Halo, COD, usage restrictions........ Gamers rejoice, YAY!
DarkJedi24
Member
But one could say it was a brilliant head-fake that Sony pulled with announcing the PS4 well ahead of the Xbox. That gave PlayStation the lions share of the mind share, and set the tone for the generation.
The fact that Sony didn't reveal everything at once was just smart marketing, as they managed to keep people engaged throughout the entire year. All Microsoft garnered was an upset fan base and a healthy dose of negative PR. Sony wrested control from Microsoft, and Microsoft retaliated with a miss. They lost their lunch money and then embarrassed themselves.
ISee
Member
Oh do not get me wrong, there was for sure strategy involved. Still they had to make a bet if prices are going down enough (stable). and even if the probability was 70 % in their favor it was still a lucky bet.
The Artisan
Member
forbes thinks Ps4 can outdo Ps2.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidth...l-become-the-best-selling-console-in-history/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidth...l-become-the-best-selling-console-in-history/
qa_engineer
Member
The illusion of more?
FonkyByNature
Member
I don't know why some people say that Sony didn't do anything special with the PS4.
To me the console did a lot of things special. It's a beautiful little machine that is very well designed, the controller is amazing with the mic, touch pad, headphone jack, light that is kinda cool to use in some games like "Playroom". The OS is blazing fast and super nice to look at, they have remote play, a share button to make sharing easier, installs are super fast. + it has tons and tons of great games to play.
The PS4 does a lot of things right. It's a machine designed for gamers and even entertainment lovers. The console is just a classy looking beast !
Sony totally deserves the success. They came humble into this gen not thinking their customers are a bunch of idiots. They got my respect big fucking time and that doesn't stop with the PS4 either because even with the PS1, PS2 and even PS3, they made great consoles that are very, very well supported.
There's a reason why the PlayStation brand is strong worldwide, it's because Sony doesn't release a console and abandon it after 4 years with absolutely zero support after that. They have a solid track record with their consoles.
To me the console did a lot of things special. It's a beautiful little machine that is very well designed, the controller is amazing with the mic, touch pad, headphone jack, light that is kinda cool to use in some games like "Playroom". The OS is blazing fast and super nice to look at, they have remote play, a share button to make sharing easier, installs are super fast. + it has tons and tons of great games to play.
The PS4 does a lot of things right. It's a machine designed for gamers and even entertainment lovers. The console is just a classy looking beast !
Sony totally deserves the success. They came humble into this gen not thinking their customers are a bunch of idiots. They got my respect big fucking time and that doesn't stop with the PS4 either because even with the PS1, PS2 and even PS3, they made great consoles that are very, very well supported.
There's a reason why the PlayStation brand is strong worldwide, it's because Sony doesn't release a console and abandon it after 4 years with absolutely zero support after that. They have a solid track record with their consoles.
I switch between both consoles quite regularly, and have found the Sony hardware and openess of peripherals to absolutely blaze the trail on what is required from a next gen console.
However, on the flip side, I will say MS still have the most seemless experience and excellent update cadence that do slightly take a dent out of the hardware gap IMO..
I actually think this is superb position as a gamer, I feel the XB1 needs a quicker refresh, and I think MS will hopefully have had their fancy pants media pretentions shot to the point that they know what they need to do next time to make a success of it.
I have more hope because at the time the XB1 was dreamt up, MS where in a really bad place, looking at their 'app store' on windows 8, it was clear they really did not have a clue about building a market share and their lack of openess just killed the concept.. I'm glad to say they have almost done a 180 for Windows 10 and now they are bending to align more with IOS and Android to allow easier cross app development, something they should have done a long time ago.. That IMO is a small sign that MS have learnt a valuable lesson which I hope they carry on to the next gen..
However, on the flip side, I will say MS still have the most seemless experience and excellent update cadence that do slightly take a dent out of the hardware gap IMO..
I actually think this is superb position as a gamer, I feel the XB1 needs a quicker refresh, and I think MS will hopefully have had their fancy pants media pretentions shot to the point that they know what they need to do next time to make a success of it.
I have more hope because at the time the XB1 was dreamt up, MS where in a really bad place, looking at their 'app store' on windows 8, it was clear they really did not have a clue about building a market share and their lack of openess just killed the concept.. I'm glad to say they have almost done a 180 for Windows 10 and now they are bending to align more with IOS and Android to allow easier cross app development, something they should have done a long time ago.. That IMO is a small sign that MS have learnt a valuable lesson which I hope they carry on to the next gen..
Gotta drop that price for that.
PS2 was $199 a year and half after launching in NA. PS4 still sits at $399.
And that's just a contributor.
As others have mentioned, media/gaming focus has been steller, its where i want MS to continue, they really have the best entertainment hub and its amaingly biased to gaming, which i love. MS did mess up catastrophically with its messaging, pricing, intial focus (always online) and hardware, i believe thats undeniable. But the feature rich OS, the merging of entertainment and online eco system has been wonderful and it looks like they're pushing hard with Windows 10. I like this route, i hope next time they dont skimp on hardware. ITs not all bad as its still outpacing X360 and we've yet to see the big guns like Halo/Fable/Gears.
martino
Member
The two last gen will show the difference of fancore in numbers between the two.
PS3 recover
I doubt xbox will
Kssio_Aug
Member
I respect your opinion, but the lack of games on XB1 doesnt make Sony to "nail it" anyway. Also, comparing the exclusive AAA titles, the critics, if I'm not mistaken, appealed more to the XB1 titles overall. I understand that is subjective though.
However, neither sales means that Sony is "nailing it" for the gamer public. Wii, as you very well brought up, was a console that had questionable controls, low graphics resolution, lack of 3rd party support, and still sold astronomically well.
I'm not saying that PS4 is a bad console. Neither that Sony did not, in fact, nailed at the E3 2013. But nowadays theyre not doing much for me to believe theyre still nailing anything. I'll see after this year E3 though.
Memorabilia
Member
Oddly enough, I agree. The Xbone is huge & obviously not as elegantly designed as the PS4, but it feels like a somewhat nicer device in terms of it's physical build quality.
In regards to the OP...Riccitiello has always struck me as a wind-bag with definite used car salesman qualities. He's somewhat right in his analysis, but stating what he said here is kind of like saying "water is wet" at this point.
IIRC, he actually predicted the Xbone to win this gen back before launch. So, he's basically jumping on the bandwagon here. He's also leaving out major aspects of why the Xbone launch was such a huge fail...namely the anti-consumer DRM bullshit...always online...always on Kinect being perceived as a NSA spy device...the perception they wanted to try to eliminate the used game market, etc....
MS's general strategy as a media box vs a "pure game console" of the PS4 had far less to do with negative perception than the aforementioned factors.
The numbers that are really meaningful are 5 billion transistors and 100 million zombies killed.
We all know this is what had Gates shook...
What is this? It has more than 2 buttons on the case. I want it!
This reads like a press release.
Apple Pippin.
Shpeshal Nick
aka Collingwood
Did Sony nail it? Or did Microsoft just fuck up real bad? Far more inclined to believe the latter. Sony technically just released a more powerful PS3 but started charging for multiplayer. That's hardly "nailing it".
Goodacre0081
Member
this post pretty much mirrors my own thoughts on where the division was going. it seems to have come about as the people who first envisioned, built and guided the 360 during the first 4 years were let go and more business minded people took over.
Rare creating a SMB, Minecraft, CoD like hit? you realize they haven't made anything relevant since their Nintendo days right?
since the XB1 has launched there have been quite a few hiccups in terms of outages. much more than the 6 years prior when the 360 was my main console, shit I only play Gears3 on the weekends now and it's very apparent with such little use.
Sony released a more powerful Xbox 360.
The Artisan
Member
NervousXtian
Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
I don't think Sony nailed it.. I think there's obvious problems with the PS4.. a lot with the UI, but lack of HDD space and lack of ability to just add to that instead of replace.. shitty controller life, lack of quality releases during release cycle and pretty shit support even since.
Nah, Sony won huge because MS fucked up huge.. not because Sony delivered the be-all-end-all console.. it's a decent console.. but we still deserved considerably better.. and there's still things MS did right that Sony didn't.. just MS went cheap on the power side, which is in the end the most important thing.
Nah, Sony won huge because MS fucked up huge.. not because Sony delivered the be-all-end-all console.. it's a decent console.. but we still deserved considerably better.. and there's still things MS did right that Sony didn't.. just MS went cheap on the power side, which is in the end the most important thing.
Shpeshal Nick
aka Collingwood
Not really. I know why you've said that but no. The PS4 OS was just as mind bogglingly barebones and useless as the PS3 one was and it has all the same "physical features" the launch PS3 had.
QuantumZebra
Member
Because Xbone is only doing work in the U.S. ... its DOA in pretty much every other region outside of Western Europe.
The PS3 on the other hand did pretty well worldwide and kept up with Xbox 360 just well enough to stay afloat in the U.S.
brownfedora
Member
They'll be sticking to x86 which means backwards compatibility. That will be a HUGE advantage next round and will make it difficult for Microsoft to regroup.
Think PS1 > PS2 transition.
FonkyByNature
Member
I think it's both. MS fucked up real bad but Sony also played the timing and the unveiling right. They did it in a very strategic manner and that helped. Isn't that nailing it ?!?
It's not like MS was gonna be the worldwide leader, other than US/UK, they're pretty much irrelevant. You gotta give credit where credit is due, Sony played their game right !
QuantumZebra
Member
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
PS4 controller is >>>>>>> all
PS4 party chat/functionality is >>>>>>>>>> all
PS4 OS (suspend/resume, in game spotify, etc..) is >>>>> all
so...
Both. The idea Sony were "just lucky" and didn't take what they learnt from previous gen and produce a console and marketing that was more irrelevant is just getting tiresome.
Of the previous three gens Sony won two with PS1 and PS2 and were more or less joint second with PS3/360 and look to be taking this gen which will give them 3 wins out of 4 generations.
Frankly on the evidence Sony are by far and away the most reliable reader of the market vs MS or Nintendo.
MS fucked up but Sony weren't standing there surprised. They had a good plan and were flexible enough to then jump all over MS's mistakes.
Ah the more you know. Now I wish Apple would really join the console business. Maybe replace MS ? But would that be better or worse for gamers ? Who knows
Mr. Giggles
Member
Eh, some prefer the minimalist UI look.
Or did you mean the OS functionality like share play and stuff?
Pachter makes Youtube Q&As?
RedSparrows
Member
Brilliance, or 'we screwed up a bit on PS3, let's do what 360 did, but with more oomph and even more focus on getting every game we can'? MS fucked up, Sony just played a sensible game.
kamineko
Does his best thinking in the flying car
I agree with Riccitiello's assessment. Last generation, 360 was my main, and I had a PS3 for exclusives. I really, really, liked my 360.
The philosophy behind X1 just wasn't cultivated with consumers like me in mind. I don't want to talk to my television, or wave my arms around, or manage my media. I'm sure others do, and that's fine, but such things hold zero appeal for me.
Sony's priorities (performance, gaming) were aligned with mine. MS had my business, they were the shoe-in, really, but they messed it up. That reveal was just so, so bad. Just amazing.
The philosophy behind X1 just wasn't cultivated with consumers like me in mind. I don't want to talk to my television, or wave my arms around, or manage my media. I'm sure others do, and that's fine, but such things hold zero appeal for me.
Sony's priorities (performance, gaming) were aligned with mine. MS had my business, they were the shoe-in, really, but they messed it up. That reveal was just so, so bad. Just amazing.
Can you think of a scenario where the XBOX one outsells the PS4 outside the US at this point? What game or IP does MS have right now that could trigger this? Hololens maybe? I just don't see it happening. ....
RedSparrows
Member
This is why I should avoid these threads.
In your head, anything remotely positive about X1 is PR.
Love the bit where you mention features found on other consoles as reason why PS4 is better than all.
Goodacre0081
Member
I think people aren't giving enough credit to what Cerny and Co. did to try and court developers. a huge R&D focus was based on their feedback, ranging from the architecture all the way down to the controller. it was quite a 180 from the stubborn PS3 mindset
again after launch another big checkmark was how they viewed the indie scene and made a huge push for those games. it's now the de-facto console if you like those games.
Crimson_Gold
Member
Yea, opinions are like that. People tend to have different ones and then we are left to decide who is crazy and who knows what they're talking about. So much work.
I would have preferred another Kutaragi-designed machine over the budget-line PS4 we got any day of the week. But I recognise that the times have changed.
GeordieMark
Member
Exactly.
Sony played it completely safe, whereas Microsoft took a gamble and lost. I don't agree that Sony deserve huge amounts of credit for anything they did. They took the obvious action. They built a console that is architecturally very similar to the Xbox, but with more fast memory, and a slightly better GPU.
MS attempted to make the XBone a machine with broader appeal than the 360 had, but only really managed to put off some of their existing customers, rather than win new ones.
The result being that now Sony are considered business geniuses, and Cerny some sort of visionary, when in reality they showed less ambition and boldness than they ever have. I'm not knocking it, as it has undoubtedly worked out fantastically well for them, and sometimes they have been too ambitious for their own good, but they owe their success as much to MS fucking up, as to anything Sony themselves did.
Glendemonium
Member
Considering they get the best from both sides of the gaming dev hemispheres (Western + Eastern) they really don't have to. And with all these spinoff studios popping up in the last two years, I hope they fill in the gaps between big releases.
There's a lot more to the interview than just the part about Microsoft and Sony. The discussion about versatile development platforms like Unity is interesting because he goes both over the pros and cons of it (more devs able to target wide audiences with their products because they're not as limited by hardware restrictions, more imitation rather than innovation).
As for the Microsoft and Sony part, I still think price is the big factor there. For two consoles with very similar game libraries, the average person is going to choose the one that's 100 dollars cheaper. They don't need any of the extra features, they already have entertainment systems for that other stuff, they just want to play games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty at the cheapest price they can.
As for the Microsoft and Sony part, I still think price is the big factor there. For two consoles with very similar game libraries, the average person is going to choose the one that's 100 dollars cheaper. They don't need any of the extra features, they already have entertainment systems for that other stuff, they just want to play games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty at the cheapest price they can.
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