Revisiting the PS4 presentation - Mark Cerny

Cerny was genuinely excited and proud about the PS4.

Mattrick has a concerned fake smile completely devoid of enthusiasm during his entire intro.
xbox-one-mattrick-top630.jpg
 
PS4 presentation was very to the point. They actually told us the specs and they made it very clear to developers what they have to look forward to with how the system functions for them.

MS presentation was so full of buzz words and product placement I'm still not even really sure what I watched. It all felt very forced and uninspiring. Such a huge focus on Kinect being the biggest downfall. The name of the system makes little sense, the look of the hardware is very boring, and if you're going to reveal your new system, show some damn games.

I think Sony realized that chasing the multimedia all-in-one dream isn't the direction they want to go, which makes sense as there are already a ton of devices that achieve these kinds of things. They know they can sell 150 million consoles because there is a huge gaming audience out there, so why not market completely to them?

Sony just seems to get it. MS seemed to understand around '07, '08. But they drooled over the Wii and mobile audience, developed Kinect, and have since lost direction.
 
Still a little too aspirational and "airy" but I appreciated the personal touch. I mean he really did talk too damn much.
 
I like how PS4 is a gaming console again.

Remember when it just did everything? The center of the living room? Glad that's over.

"The PS3 is not a game machine. We've never once called it a game machine...With the PS3, our intentions have been to create a machine with supercomputer calculation capabilities for home entertainment."
 
No details about pricing, anti-consumer shit that everyone is bemoaning the Xbox One for, no details about the potential price associated w/ online, and the lack of threads about everything from the look of the dashboard to "doesn't the Wii U already do that?" They have gotten a pass so far; I would love to know their strategy in relation to what was announced for Xbox One.
 
Reasons why I liked Cerny:

  • He is not a typical suit like character
  • He represents transparency
  • His speech embodied Sony's mea culpa for PS3
  • He focussed on what gamers and developers wanted to know
  • He didn't hide behind PR double speak
  • His disposition effused passion that felt natural
  • He is great at oration (tone control)
  • After the conference there was nowhere near as much confusion as there is with X-bone pertaining to its features

I'd be disappointed if he didn't reprise his role on stage during E3.
 
cerny and the rest of the sony presenters were far more prepared and organized

why the fuck did they show wireframed polygon shit at the xbone conference
 
All the integration stuff is cool as long as your console isn't on lock down. If getting all that shit means I can't play borrowed/rented games, have to be connected, and need specific peripherals like a camera just to play the damn thing then I'm out. At least until there is a price drop. What about soldiers who are deployed and only have electricity but no internet? Fuck them I guess.
 
The first 5 minutes (montage) of the PS4 conference was more exciting that MS fake cheers, awkward smiles/claps and just... cringe.

The PS4 conference could easily have been condensed to be shorter, but jeez oh, from a gaming point of view it was no contest between the two. MS seemed soulless compared to Cerny.
 
"Our platform is about games: here's how it's good for developers to create for it, here's how it's good for games to run on it, here's how it's good for the end user." Was Sony's presentation.

It speaks volumes, especially now after seeing MS' approach.
 
Reasons why I liked Cerny:

  • He is not a typical suit like character
  • He represents transparency
  • His speech embodied Sony's mea culpa for PS3
  • He focussed on what gamers and developers wanted to know
  • He didn't hide behind PR double speak
  • His disposition effused passion that felt natural
  • He is great at oration (tone control)
  • After the conference there was nowhere near as much confusion as there is with X-bone pertaining to its features

I'd be disappointed if he didn't reprise his role on stage during E3.

THIS.

The real difference between Cerny and other presentation guys is that he knows what he's talking about. He is a gamer, a game designer, a game director, a programmer, a system architect. he's talking about his own work, something he dedicated his life to.
Other guys simply don't know how to design a console or a game at all, that's not their job. It's Cerny's. And this makes a tremendous difference, because the Chef can surely talk about cooking better than the restaurant's manager.
 
They really should have Phil Harrison replace Mattrick. Infinitely more likeable.

True, but neither will ever replace Peter. I was honestly devastated when Microsoft lost him. You can actually see a stark decline in the quality of their conferences once he departed as well.
 
Fucking This

why is Mattrick presenting ANYTHING. This guy Oozes with fakeness and "im bullshitting you"...

This! At least with Peter Moore, he seemed genuinely interested in gaming, and appeared excited when announcing exclusives such as GTA IV DLC.

There is something unlikable about Don Mattrick that I can't put my finger on - he just seems so fake, distant, and completed devoid of any interest in gaming.

I miss the old Xbox management - at least they seemingly cared.

Yusuf Medhi, Don Mattrick, and Steve Balmer seem to be intentionally destroying the Xbox brand - c'mon Bill, step in and fix this nightmare.
 
The man was integral to the creation of Sonic 2. Once I learned that it was over, Cerny can do no wrong.

f30aef312ce917062a0f6a7067005c64.jpg


I'm a gamer, the PS4 is a game-centric console. That's what I fucking want.
 
The thing about Cerny's presentation that sticks out even more after Microsofts, is that it felt genuine.

He admitted Sony's failings, told us how they had worked to rectify them, and showed us conclusive evidence of said efforts. We were told about the hardware, the tech, and most importantly, A SHITLOAD OF GAMES.

The Microsoft conference by comparison was a heavily produced diversion from all the bullshit that was uncovered right after. The entire thing felt deceptive and totally against what gaming is about.

Came to post something like this. Thanks so much.
 
I liked it the first time I saw it. I wasn't gushing about it though. I expected to be a little more "wowed" than what I was. But all in all I still really liked it.

Now, after seeing the Xbone conference though? I fucking love the Sony conference. The contrast between the two is night and god damn day, man....
 
PS4 is giving people what they want.

XboxOne is telling people what they want.




Started rewatching this and just reached the Knack trailer again... damn this game has a lot of character. It looks 10x more interesting than the first time I watched it.
 
Sony: "the living room is no longer the center of the Playstation ecosystem, the gamer is."

Microsoft: "the gamer is no longer the center of the Xbox ecosystem, the TV is"

I know which of these two is focusing on me, and which one sees me as an afterthought.
 
Cerny was genuinely excited and proud about the PS4.

This right here.

Had no idea who Cerny was before the PS4's reveal and kind of rolled my eyes thinking just another tech guy is coming out to throw out some numbers but his passion and sincerity quickly won me over.

Putting him in the presentation was the smartest thing Sony did.
 
Something that didn't feel like just a bug/feature fix to PS3 with prettier graphics. The only somewhat inspired bit was some of the Gaikai stuff, but they couldn't tell us when that would be implemented.

In that regard I mostly agree with Tom Bramwell from his today's Eurogamer article:

Having complained at the PlayStation 4 launch in New York in February that Sony's presentation was 1. too humble and reactive, it was a pleasant surprise to be sat listening to 2. smart Xbox engineers define a vision for the future of games and for it to be, well, 3. an actual vision of some sort, rather than mere amplification. 4. Computation in the cloud, 5. natural interfaces and 6. multiple devices: tools that will empower developers in ways they either haven't had or haven't been able to rely on in the past. I'll take that for now.

Someone was not paying attention or is misremembering what went on at PS Meeting.

1. Sony was too humble (you can never be too humble) because they made some mistakes on PS3. They were reactive as in they were trying to fix the mistakes they made on PS3, a sane person wouldn't find that as negative
2. Two brilliant minds took center stage, Cerny the hardware and software genius and Perry the network genius.

3. Here is an actual vision for gaming not TV as stated by Sony
  • PSN knows you and anticipates your needs.
  • Simple push of a button lets you stream your game session, Record video and Share screenshots.
  • Friends can take over your gameplay over the internet and virtually affect your games
  • Stream your games from PS4 to anywhere over the internet on PS Vita and companion devices.
  • Stream the entire playstation catalog on any device in your home.
  • Play games as they download
  • Suspend game state and multitask
  • Console is always on and always connected

4. Computation in the cloud is GAIKAI but they couldn't tell you when it will be implemented so that makes it not a vision.
5. Natural Interface: PS4Eye and gesture recognition, the console knows where you are sitting in the living room using the light bar, face recognition and sign in using PS4Eye
6. Connect with Smartphones, Tablets, PS Vita as companion devices and the start of the conference was about how they wanted to drop the Cell to use x86 to provide better software that will enable developers to create better games.
  • Unreal Engine 4 was demoed live on stage
  • Luminous Engine was showed
  • Panta Rhei engine was showed
  • Drive Club and their vision of persistent driving game where you can use a tablet to schedule an event, watch the event playout on your tablet or phone and take part in the game when you get home on your PS4.
  • their focus was on developers, small and large even mentioning allowing self publishing not TV and creating exclusive TV shows.

Tell me again what was Microsoft's vision of gaming that was showed which was better than Sony's. Watch the show again and represent it exactly how it was, don't embellish or reduce it to what it wasn't.
 

I'm watching the first one now, skipped to a random part in the middle and am watching. He's awesome.

I dunno why the PS4 reveal was the first time most of us have even heard of him (I'm assuming most hadn't heard of him before then, I didn't). He's a genius, a visionary, and has been in the biz for decades helping create some huge games.
 
Watched it again - was better that when I first wtached it. Cerny very pleasant to listen to.

That new EA Sports dude on the other hand makes me not want to buy Fifa this year.
 
Cerny and company spoke with enthusiasm and sometimes hilarious intensity. They all seemed extremely excited to finally show something they were proud of.

He does not keep repeating himself, he does not look extremely smug. There seem less marketing terms. It is more personal. Everything also seems well-argumented and everything seems to focus on game developers, gamers and games.

Also, we are not treated like a moron.

.

My main console was an xbox and a 360 too :(. Not completely sold on a ps4 yet but E3 will let me decide if I'm even jumping into the console scene again.
 
Sony sold PS4 to gamers and developers. It seemed like Microsoft was selling a voice remote to people that don't want to get up to change the TV or look at their phone to see who's calling. It felt as if Cerny was talking to me directly, where Microsoft was shoving TVTVTV down my throat.
 
Top Bottom