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

Corto said:
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.
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True, but there's still so much more to show before launch. I still think showing the actual box would have given all of the media outlets a nice visual to use in their post-meeting articles.
 
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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Considering how many tech demos and multi-platform games were shown, what Sony showed could be easily cut down to a hour or less.

The vision for their online services was really good, I thought, but that also could have had about 10 minutes shaved off the time spent on it.
 
I've been listening to BBC Radio 1's reports on the radio all day today (forced to listen to it at work), and all they ever talk about is how everyone was disappointed by the lack of price, release date, and that they didn't show the physical box.

I know everyone on NeoGAF never expected those things, but what were the mainstream press thinking was going to be announced? It's way too early for those specific details.
 
I felt although some of the bordered ridiculousness their was some good points being made further reinforce by the sessler video
 
"Wired:
Talk is the cheapest thing there is. And that's basically what Sony did today: It espoused a philosophy, said the names of a lot of popular games, but didn't give us any real, concrete information in an age where it's more important than ever."

I'm puzzled over this statement. Sony showed real games running, they showed the OS (at least a small part of it) and features that will be available, they showed the controller and gave specific info about the hardware (X86 architecture, 8GB GDDR5 RAM etc.). How is this "talk is cheap" and "no concrete information"?
 
ashbash159 said:
I've been listening to BBC Radio 1's reports on the radio all day today (forced to listen to it at work), and all they ever talk about is how everyone was disappointed by the lack of price, release date, and that they didn't show the physical box.

I know everyone on NeoGAF never expected those things, but what were the mainstream press thinking was going to be announced? It's way too early for those specific details.
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Honestly this is all mainstream people care about in an announcement. This was really just for the core gamer and developers.
 
test_account said:
"Wired:
Talk is the cheapest thing there is. And that's basically what Sony did today: It espoused a philosophy, said the names of a lot of popular games, but didn't give us any real, concrete information in an age where it's more important than ever."

I'm puzzled over this statement. Sony showed real games running, they showed the OS (at least a small part of it) and features that will be available, they showed the controller and gave specific info about the hardware (X86 architecture, 8GB GDDR5 RAM etc.). How is this "talk is cheap" and "no concrete information"?
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They're talking release date and price point. No one outside of the hardcore really cares about the architecture.
 
While it is true that smartphones and tablets may cannibalize parts of the traditional console market, it is clear that most of these articles are merely trying to show how in the know they are, spouting the "well-known" fact that mobile gaming will kill traditional gaming.

It is something they can write that no one will contest, because "everybody knows" it's true.
Just like everybody knows PC gaming died in 2006...
 
meta4 said:
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.
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Personally I don't own an iOS device of any kind. I still have a flip phone. I still buy CDs for the sound quality and when I watch DVDs I make sure they aren't upscaled. But I am not joe average consumer.

That said I am a big fan of using the Wii U tablet in bed or while at my computer or while using my TV for something else. If the PS4 came with a similar tablet but went back to having 4 gigs of RAM and lost 0.2 tflops or something I'd be all for that.

Having a semi-portable system fits into my lifestyle better. That doesn't mean I want to play fucking Angry Birds on my new $500 console.

Integrating with mobile device companion apps is a pointless gimmick. Having the device itself be somewhat portable is boss. I can do without a few particles in my Killzone retread.
 
reaction is mixed for good reason

the games lineup was pretty rubbish and the jump in visuals wasn't too big. details on stuff like bc/online/price were not given and the controller was very gamer focused and traditional (albeit excellent)
 
Asriel said:
They're talking release date and price point. No one outside of the hardcore really cares about the architecture.
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It doesnt really matter if other people dont care about the architecture though, it is still concret info about the system that was given. But i see, i thought it was referring to the "invisible console". If they're only talking about lacking price and a concrete release date, then it makes more sense. I'm not sure why they expect to see it this early though, it is not common that price and concrete release dates are given when a new gaming system is showed off for the first time.
 
It would have been great to see the ps4 console shell but even without it the conference was a good one, it had enough talk but not way too much and it showed off plenty of games, they should have made a new rubber duckie tech demo however.
 
I kinda wish Apple would crash and burn, just for the fact that journalists stop comparing everything and anything media with Apple.
 
Its kinda amazing that Sony showed what, 10 different games, and yet nobody even bothers to talk about them because they were simply not impressive.


But yeah, the New York Times one was disgusting. Please journalism, stop with this "APPLE IS GOD THE MOBILE MARKET IS THE FUTURE" talk. It is just a fad and it wont replace home game systems
 
antonz said:
Shame the gaming press wasn't as trollish as it was with the WiiU.

Afterall all Sony showed us was a controller and eyetoy. Isn't it just a PS3 addon?
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Really that's all they showed? They didn't talk about specs, social capabilities, cloud gaming, OS level abilities, games, etc? The things that make up what's in the box, are a helluva lot more important than a form factor that would most likely end up being a shiny black box.
 
I'm so confused as to what seeing a box does for someone. It will have six sides, an HDMI port, and some USB ports. And probably be black. I understand a phone conference would have to have that, but for a VG console that sits in one spot how it looks is the least important part of the whole equation.
 
Coen said:
I kinda wish Apple would crash and burn, just for the fact that journalists stop comparing everything and anything media with Apple.
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But people will just start comparing them to Facebook gaming

Facebook has billions of users against PS3's paltry ~70 million!
 
I'm curious to the reactions on the Xbox reveal now. I expect a sameish show, I wonder if the media will react different then just because it's not Sony but MS.
 
ashbash159 said:
I've been listening to BBC Radio 1's reports on the radio all day today (forced to listen to it at work), and all they ever talk about is how everyone was disappointed by the lack of price, release date, and that they didn't show the physical box.

I know everyone on NeoGAF never expected those things, but what were the mainstream press thinking was going to be announced? It's way too early for those specific details.
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System is coming out in November. I don't understand why this is needed now. Why do you need the price now? Why do you need the box? Why isn't holiday good enough? Good lord.
 
DMeisterJ said:
I'm so confused as to what seeing a box does for someone. It will have six sides, an HDMI port, and some USB ports. And probably be black. I understand a phone conference would have to have that, but for a VG console that sits in one spot how it looks is the least important part of the whole equation.
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You're selling a product, not a spec sheet. Every single article about the conference would have included the picture of the console if it had been shown. I think it matters a lot more than people seem to think. Nintendo showed the Revolution way before they even showed the Wii Remote. You can't unveil a console without unveiling the console.
 
Reactions from their perspective seem fine to me.

What they are asking is, what are you doing different to vow me?

The answer is, not much, based on what was shown.

It's a powerful gaming machine focused on core gamers. In many ways, its more of the same. Which is what the mainstream feedback seems to be.
 
toasty_T said:
It seems a lot of them are pissed because they don't have an accompanying picture for their articles.
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This is what I was getting at. And it may not be that important to people here, but it would have meant a lot more (and more positive) mainstream press last night if these outlets had that picture.
 
All of the best dates that I've ever had never gave it up on the first date. Maybe Sony is like this? Oh, wait a second.

Hey, maybe the thing is like ultralisk huge? They didn't want to have memes made of them holding it.
 
Seeing a physical console also gives people assurance that the entire presentation is not smoke and mirrors and lends credence to the supposed release date.

Does anyone here want to bet a large sum of money that all those games were actually running on PS4 hardware and not PCs configured to be similar to PS4 hardware? We already know Watch Dogs was running on a PC and I would be shocked if that was the only one. Does the PS4 hardware even really exist in a state that isn't just a PC built to some spec?

The fact that they showed nothing suggests they have nothing to show, due to stage of development or manufacturing issues or something.
 
Kind of surprised how many press outlets don't seem to understand the strategy behind revealing a console when your direct competitor hasn't announced anything. It would be incredibly foolish to lay all their cards out on the table, even if they had finalized the design 9 months out. There's more big platforms to come for announcements. The focus on the box unveiling itself is odd, feels almost antiquated - it's not like a phone or a handheld that you see and interact with constantly while it's in use. You tuck it away and forget about it.

The specs, controller and games matter, and the specs in particular are legitimately exciting and reflect a developer focused attitude. I consider myself a reasonably skeptical person and even I feel some of those quotes are insufferable. The Verge/Polygon's PS4 post-show reflected this attitude as well from a number of guests. Skimmed through and it's a pretty grating listen at times, hearing folks that don't play games speculating on what the medium needs to be and moping that their gadget lust wasn't fulfilled. Best part was easily Justin McElroy's incredulous "DOESN'T ANYBODY LIKE VIDEO GAMES?" ranting near the end.

toasty_T said:
It seems a lot of them are pissed because they don't have an accompanying picture for their articles.
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I would not be surprised if this plays a factor as well.
 
Seriously, the more I think about, the more I wonder. Are general tech websites also poo-pooing on new SLR camera's because they're not smartphones? Is a new GPS system shot down before it even releases just because it's not on iOS or Android? I'm an avid android user, even play some games on it now and then, but there's a time and a place for it, just like there is for consoles. This all-encompassing system most tech journalists seem to want, is my worst nightmare.
 
What is this fascination with seeing the console itself?

I am really not that interested in what it looks like as long as I know what it does. They could wait until a week before launch before showing it and I still wouldn't be bothered.
 
The reactions strike me being negative of core gamers and what they like honestly. Seems like guys that don't have the time for depth in gaming are gonna cling to Ios. Some people just want games to stay in their little place and be cheap mindless fun.They dont like Playstation hense the mentions of Ios or smartphones.
 
Coen said:
Seriously, the more I think about, the more I wonder. Are general tech websites also poo-pooing on new SLR camera's because they're not smartphones? Is a new GPS system shot down before it even releases just because it's not on iOS or Android? I'm an avid android user, even play some games on it now and then, but there's a time and a place for it, just like there is for consoles. This all-encompassing system most tech journalists seem to want, is my worst nightmare.
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Oh don't worry when (if) they get it, they'll just bitch that the device is a jack of all trades, master of none.
 
All of the game streaming stuff, which was probably the coolest concept they discussed, was still obviously very much a concept. They even used the phrase "long term plan" when discussing backwards compatibility. I don't think a healthy dose of skepticism is out of line, here.
 
megashock5 said:
True, but there's still so much more to show before launch. I still think showing the actual box would have given all of the media outlets a nice visual to use in their post-meeting articles.
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You also have to remember that the PS3 box they showed at E3 2005, was quite different in feature list to the console that was eventually released. People bitched hard about that, so why show something that isn't 100% finalised yet?
 
PS4 seems to be a dream machine for gamers and developers alike. Seems everyone else who do not fall into those categories are grumbling that its not a tablet, not a smartphone, or not from Apple.
 
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