PlayStation 4: Web reaction to Sony's 'invisible' console

Margalis said:
Just throwing the words "social" and "connectivity" around doesn't make something broadly appealing.

You can watch and record video of gameplay sessions. That's "connectivity" but it's hardly a feature with broad mainstream appeal.
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One more thing that was hard not to notice was that they just namechecked some of the features, but gave no details about them. For instance, they mentioned you'll be able to connect your tablet or your mobile phone to PS4, also mentioning a companion app, but gave no details whatsoever about this functionality.
 
If an average doctor was as good at his job as some of those journalists are at theirs…half of us would be dead already…
I’m not saying they have some hidden agendas…but the level of incompetence is truly staggering.
And to think that, not so long ago, NYT used to mean something even in Europe...
 
Interesting to read how the 'outside world' viewed the even.
Sometimes I think we all get too caught up in our little GAF bubble.
 
I'm somewhat suprised by the large amount of journalists within the gamingpress that are scrounging to find something negative to say about the PS4 - when such a large group of people and journalists here in Europe (and i bet Asia is pretty positive as well) are really excited, positive and looking forward to the next generations of consoles - and the PS4. America? They hate it. It's a Playstation, it's not an american product, of course they hate it.
 
HollovVpo1nt said:
No. Our last national elections showed that. The media had more influence on the elections then the parties themselves. And when it comes to tech, when a big blog writes a positive article about a turd, people will buy it.
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I agree that the media needs to be held more to account over outright lies propagated to support or injure political parties... but getting pissy and wanting to eliminate the free press because many of them wrote unfavourable opinions about a toy you're going to buy seems, again, an overreaction.
 
There was no way Sony was going to give price, form factor, etc. at this point. Too risky with so much unknown from MS side. Worldwide they seem to be drawing with different regional "wins" - I fully expect a piecemeal approach to info from both as they see what each other offer and leave room for final adjustments (I don't mean major stuff in terms of tech design that would be hard to change at this point with release later this year but price, final console form factors, etc)
 
Sony yesterday showed just enough to plant the flag before Microsoft and not much more. The nitty gritty was saved for other venues. Microsoft and Sony are in a standoff concerning price of the console, online services pricing and their scope. It felt to me that Sony only showed yesterday what it was confident to be an advantage to their competitor and saved the rest so it can react accordingly. But Microsoft or Sony sooner or latter need to tell us what the pricing will be, what business models they have planned for online, software and other content delivery, and what's the form factor of their device. In that regard yesterdays event was a no-show. But for me personally, it was a great show that enticed me just enough to start making arrangements to buy one day 0. They are trickling the reveal news feed, expecting to unbalance Microsoft to react hastily, reveal their hand and so they can then unveil the whole picture.
 
WTF do people want a video game console like the PS4 to do more than what it has stated its objectives are. Do you want the PS4 to make your breakfast, do your work and tuck you to your bed. Apple this Apple that, smart phones this that... Go fk yourselves and play angry birds on your effing tablet and stop expecting video game consoles to do every fking thing for every device on this planet.

These morons who complained should be unemployed for their absolute ignorant understanding of what makes a home console different from other devices.
 
REMEMBER CITADEL said:
One more thing that was hard not to notice was that they just namechecked some of the features, but gave no details about them. For instance, they mentioned you'll be able to connect your tablet or your mobile phone to PS4, also mentioning a companion app, but gave no details whatsoever about this functionality.
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You can use it to watch someone streaming PS4 gameplay, use it for a second screen (like Wii U), and shcedule purchases and downloads.

http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/130221a_e.pdf


And you can remotely issue challenges and stuff for Driveclub.
 
Corto said:
Sony yesterday showed just enough to plant the flag before Microsoft and not much more. The nitty gritty was saved for other venues. Microsoft and Sony are in a standoff concerning price of the console, online services pricing and their scope. It felt to me that Sony only showed yesterday what it was confident to be an advantage to their competitor and saved the rest so it can react accordingly.
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This is the major thing people are overlooking.

We got a TWO HOUR insight to the Playstation 4 yesterday, games and the ideas behind the console itself. If Microsoft chooses to wait until E3 to reveal all they are fundamentally "two hours" behind Sony in terms of what they can show.

Sony can have a much more E3-focused event now in theory where as Microsoft(at the moment) still has to show what Sony showed yesterday. The fluff etc behind the console.

It's an interesting position Sony has currently put Microsoft in and one that is being highly overlooked by a lot of people.

Sony can match Microsoft at E3 with ease, where as Microsoft is in a position where it has to match Sony now.
 
That comment about Sony not showing stuff to make it a "more broadly appealing device" cracks me up. What exactly are they expecting it to do?
 
EGM1966 said:
There was no way Sony was going to give price, form factor, etc. at this point. Too risky with so much unknown from MS side. Worldwide they seem to be drawing with different regional "wins" - I fully expect a piecemeal approach to info from both as they see what each other offer and leave room for final adjustments (I don't mean major stuff in terms of tech design that would be hard to change at this point with release later this year but price, final console form factors, etc)
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Didn't they show an early version of the PS3 box well over a year before launch?
 
i always laugh when i hear these so called experts talk about cell phone games eating into the market of these brand new $400ish consoles.

ive got a galaxy s3, will get a S4 the day it hits ..and i haven't played a mobile game in literally months ... wheni have five mins spare .. it's twitter or facebook.

if i'm home ... sure i can beam my cell phone screen to my tv, i do for movies, but i don't for games, have not even considered it for a second, i just don't want to because my console gives a far richer experinece ...and ... if get a freaking phone call ... or wanna txt while i'm gaming ...yeh ..get the picture?
 
I do think they should have shown the actual box. When you unveil a product, show the product. It makes it look much more tangible.

Every article about the PS4 would have featured the picture of the actual console if it had been shown, and I do think that's important in terms of people's mindshare.
 
I'm sure people have already mentioned this, but most of those impressions make it seem that the writers haven't actually seen the presentation.

I mean, no concrete data? What about the 8GB DDR5 RAM, the new remote? Falling back on graphics? Sony showed the new UI, talked extensively about new and interesting features and social capabilities.

Maybe what was shown wasn't what they wanted to see, and I'll admit that they could have shown more stuff (especially the actual console), but to say stuff like that is ridiculous.
 
Impeccable said:
This is the major thing people are overlooking.

We got a TWO HOUR insight to the Playstation 4 yesterday, games and the ideas behind the console itself. If Microsoft chooses to wait until E3 to reveal all they are fundamentally "two hours" behind Sony in terms of what they can show.

Sony can have a much more E3-focused event now in theory where as Microsoft(at the moment) still has to show what Sony showed yesterday. The fluff etc behind the console.

It's an interesting position Sony has currently put Microsoft in and one that is being highly overlooked by a lot of people.

Sony can match Microsoft at E3 with ease, where as Microsoft is in a position where it has to match Sony now.
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I'm fully expecting MS to have their own event before May. maybe as early as next month. And it's for the reason you mention. to put them on the same footing as Sony at E3.
 
mocoworm said:
New York Times:
New features cannot hide the fact that PlayStation 4 is still a console, a way of playing games on compact discs that was cool when cellphones were not smart.
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I'm surprised the writer even had the attention span to write this sentence up. What are you doing man you could have finished 8 ios games by now!
 
NutJobJim said:
Interesting to read how the 'outside world' viewed the even.
Sometimes I think we all get too caught up in our little GAF bubble.
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This is the truest thing I've read since the event.

People want to be wowed. They want that Apple magic. We got a bunch of glossy shit like Killzone that nobody bought last gen either.

The only game I saw yesterday that looked semi interesting was The Witness, which I assume I will just play on PC.
 
wow, it just makes me want to fast forward to E3 even more now.. oh and screw the NY Times, they are horrible in every aspect of their publication, so biased and untrustworthy...
 
LCfiner said:
I'm fully expecting MS to have their own event before May. maybe as early as next month. And it's for the reason you mention. to put them on the same footing as Sony at E3.
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It doesn't place them on equal footing because Sony can now play the role of the reactionary. Sony showed about half their cards during the presentation. If Microsoft shows their console and announces a price then they're spent.
 
Sir Fragula said:
I agree that the media needs to be held more to account over outright lies propagated to support or injure political parties... but getting pissy and wanting to eliminate the free press because many of them wrote unfavourable opinions about a toy you're going to buy seems, again, an overreaction.
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I don't want to eliminate free press. I want the press to realise how much power they have and handle their jobs responsibly. I'm oke with an idiot writing an idiotic article, but not an article for a major influential news corp. Bias also doesn't belong in journalism imo. A big example of bias is The Verge. I can't express my opinion about todays journalism without upsetting some, so I'll just leave it at this :)
 
I need to see more context on the NYT quote. That is bizarre. Consoles will never be popular in the same way multipurpose tablets are (and PCs were before that), but the casual dismissal of "compact discs" is kind of funny.

I think Sony showed that they're at least trying to absorb some of the lessons learned from the influence of mobile over the last few years (social, sharing, connected, other bullshit I hate) and I thought they did a pretty good job articulating that vision given the stage of the unveil, the console design, and the venue. That said, it's clear this is a gamer's game machine and it isn't going to be an all singing, all dancing lifestyle hub. I hope that doesn't make it less appealing to the mass public but I'm not really good at predicting what people want.
 
meta4 said:
WTF do people want a video game console like the PS4 to do more than what it has stated its objectives are. Do you want the PS4 to make your breakfast, do your work and tuck you to your bed. Apple this Apple that, smart phones this that... Go fk yourselves and play angry birds on your effing tablet and stop expecting video game consoles to do every fking thing for every device on this planet.
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How often do you still use your VCR, your 5-changer CD player or even your DVD player?

Times change. CDs sound better than MP3s but Discman still went out of fashion solely due to convenience and form factor reasons.

Edit: IMO the whole idea of a single set top box ruling the living room is outdated. People have been chasing that for so long they've failed to notice that the world is moving towards portable, distributed systems, not a monolithic all-in-one device tied to the TV.

The whole idea behind "owning the living room" is owning the TV. But with iPads and streaming video and the rest the TV is just another device.
 
Mainstream media has no idea what gamers want. The enthusiast gamers, for the most part, thought highly of the presentation. You have to remember that the mainstream media loved the Wii and Kinect. That's not to say that they were wrong, but hardcore gamers have completely different taste.
 
LCfiner said:
I'm still surprised at the negative reactions by some of the mainstream press when it was a mostly positive reaction from enthusiasts.

I thought they showed way more than they had to and I was impressed by a good chunk of it.

Anyone with common sense knew they weren't going to launch till fall so there's no need to show a plastic shell of the console. They showed plenty of software running in real time (plus some tech demo stuff which is more suspect), they showed OS functionality, they showed enough of the specs that mattered (8GB GDDR5!) and they showed one piece of hardware - the controller.

And they later confirmed that it will not be tied down with always online DRM nor will it restrict used games. But they talked enough about the convenience of digital releases to make it worthwhile for some people.
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Your surprised? Outside of the core gamer demographic the gaming world and perception is much different. Many Gaffers don't like the idea that things are really changing. Mass market gaming is much more price sensitive and does not care about tech nearly as much as the core audiece. They want stuff thats fun and they dont want to pay out the ass for it.

Unless Sony really prices this under $400, this will be a slow burner sales wise. I have a feeling MS is planning for this market shift and is going to come out swinging in regards to mass market value position. (lower price, more clear mass market appeal, etc.)
 
I don't know what press was expecting. For me as a gamer it was amazing conference. No shit only good things. No dance crap, no motion gaming crap all about core gaming and ease of use.

Most of them sound like:

"You know if Sony will have Angry Birds they will win"
or
"With new motion controlls they could win and shock market"

Same thing was said about WiiU and look where it is.
 
Corto said:
And that was a mistake.
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How so? Sony had a lot of missteps at the beginning of PS3, but was showing the shape of the hardware case a big deal? Not trying to be facetious, I'm genuinely curious as to why that was a mistake (apart from the boomerang).
 
Cheech said:
This is the truest thing I've read since the event.

People want to be wowed. They want that Apple magic. We got a bunch of glossy shit like Killzone that nobody bought last gen either.
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Totally agreed. The mainstream press are not the same as GAFers and won' t ever be.
 
kadotsu said:
Looks like the mainstream articles were written before the conference started even if I agree with the general iOS juggernaut concern. I do think the "no concrete information" part is not justified. A tech sheet is far more concrete than a black plastic box with 2-3 USB ports.
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yes. yes it does...
 
megashock5 said:
How so? Sony had a lot of missteps at the beginning of PS3, but was showing the shape of the hardware case a big deal? Not trying to be facetious, I'm genuinely curious as to why that was a mistake (apart from the boomerang).
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Making a reveal of a device so far away from the launch deflated the hype around it. Reveal on February with generalities and core philosophies of the device (consumer and developer friendly, connected, powerful), trickling more objective info in major industry events during the year giving them wiggle room to react to their competition and finally launch in November of the same year will keep PS4 in the news feed wave more prominently. It's more effective.
 
Margalis said:
How often do you still use your VCR, your 5-changer CD player or even your DVD player?

Times change. CDs sound better than MP3s but Discman still went out of fashion solely due to convenience and form factor reasons.

Edit: IMO the whole idea of a single set top box ruling the living room is outdated. People have been chasing that for so long they've failed to notice that the world is moving towards portable, distributed systems, not a monolithic all-in-one device tied to the TV.

The whole idea behind "owning the living room" is owning the TV. But with iPads and streaming video and the rest the TV is just another device.
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Okay a question for you who I presume are a regular gamer - what did you want Sony to do that they did not in terms of the PS4 objectives. What functionality did you want compatible with your tablet, mobile etc that it did not deliver or talk about at the conference. How does that functionality enhance your experience etc.. I would really like to know.
 
The msm thinks that the future of gaming is Angry Birds: Champion Edition on the iPad 17, so there's no real fear to be had that they'll influence public opinion. People will see past their ineptitude and decide for themselves if they want the ps4.
 
NemesisPrime said:
Wait for Durango...
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What else can they conceivably offer? Motion controls and IPTV... I think Sony has that covered.

My point is that a games console/home entertainment hub is feature-wise hardly an unknown quantity. It just a box for watching/interacting/browsing with audio-visual content - activities that most of us have multiple devices for already.

I really don't buy this "one box to rule them all" mentality because although there is definitely value in synergizing all these devices, the core function of a games console is to play games.

There is a cost premium attached to that ability which is simply not worth paying unless you deem it worthwhile. If you just want a general purpose media device why not save yourself a few hundred dollars and get an Ouya or something similar?

Bottom line is that if you aren't into the software line-up, why would anyone choose to buy-in on that platform? When all's said and done anything beyond playing platform-exclusive software is just an added-value feature and likely to be available (multiple places) elsewhere.
 
"Sony's decision to not announce the price or a firm shipping date for the PlayStation 4 will no doubt give the company room to manoeuvre should it need to respond to any gaming announcements from Microsoft."
 
Interesting reactions to these press statements to say the least.

Right now people are jumping down their throats and calling the people writing less than glowing statements, full of shit.
Yet when similar things were being said about a certain other system, everyone was happy to jump on the bandwagon and call doom and gloom for the company.
 
That Nytimes article was written by someone who specializes in mobile reporting. They have good articles about politics and culture but every time they write about an area I have a little bit of knowledge about it's obvious the reporters are not experts (which makes me wonder about the areas I don't know any better about). They have a lot of articles that are supposed to translate for a general audience that are written by people who only have half a clue.
 
If the future of gaming is mobile gaming like the NYTimes seems to imply, then count me the fuck out.
 
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