By now we’re all certain that the PlayStation Meeting on February 20th is going to be the announcement of the PS4. While Sony did try to be fairly mysterious in their teaser trailer for the event, they did a good job of making it obvious they’re ready to talk about their next piece of hardware without ever explicitly saying so. With their iconic face buttons on show what else could it be?
I’m sure the event has many salivating at the prospect of something genuinely new to sink their teeth into, Twitter and conversations with other writers have made that very clear. Personally, though, I’m feeling a bit cold on the event. Maybe they’ll excite me when 6pm EST on the 20th arrives, but for now I’m just not buzzing at the prospect.
[videoyoutube]I think that may well be because the actual, physical hardware doesn’t interest me all that much. Although we’re hearing some strange rumours about adding a touchpad to the console’s controller, something I’m not convinced by, in all likelihood what we’re going to see will be a box that’s more powerful than the box we have right now. And that’s it.There’s nothing wrong with that at all, hardware developers are allowed to go in whatever direction they want, but it’s also not terribly exciting. Before Nintendo announced the Wii U I was excited. They’d taken a different approach with the Wii and brought something genuinely new to gaming, I wanted to see what they had up their sleeve to come next. We knew it probably wasn’t going to be an immense bundle of processing power, but the general suspicion was that they were going to do something new and interesting again.
With Sony I don’t get that feeling, and I don’t really get it from Microsoft either. Certainly they’re going to give developers more power to play with and that unlocks new possibilities for future games, new innovations in graphics and gameplay, more powerful physics engines and AIs. However, it doesn’t make the console in and of itself exciting or interesting, it’s what people can do with it. The same is true of the Wii U I suppose, but at least there you can see the new possibilities that the GamePad presents.
Obviously Sony won’t just unveil the new physical hardware, that would be exceptionally strange, they’ll probably have some tech demos and some early concept videos of upcoming stuff to show just how much more powerful the PS4 is than the PS3. Of course if you remember in the past Sony have had tech demos that feature rubber ducks, and while I like rubber ducks, they also aren’t going to make me fall head over heels in love with a bit of hardware.
[drop]I am, perhaps, being rather unfair to Sony, we probably will see a few bits and pieces about some first-party games for the platform, although they almost certainly aren’t going to be the main focus for this event.Now if you want to talk to me about what Sony are going to have going on at E3 then I will admit to being almost worryingly excited (what if there’s a new Syphon Filter game?!), and that’s because it’s easy to get excited for games. Games are somehow more tangible than the hardware itself, they’re the product that the hardware exists to power.
I’d love for Sony to blow me away though, I really would. I’d love them to reveal the next console, show me a few big games running live on stage and looking absolutely stunning, and then just drop the mic as they walk off stage. While we might get some of that, I honestly believe they’re going to focus fairly tightly on the hardware itself, with a few trailers for games instead of live demos.
Although I don’t find that nearly as exciting, I can’t blame them if they take that approach. It lets them build to a big showing at E3 and a trailer is much safer than a live demo of a game, particularly when you’re trying to pull of the perfect reveal of your flagship product for the next five to ten years.
But personally I’m counting the days till E3. Just 124 to go.
Deathbrin
Oh, i do have that game. I think it’s called Super Rubber Duck, it’s SIXAXIS-controlled.
ron_mcphatty
It’s Super Rub-a-dub, I’ve still got it installed and it’s still an amazing puzzler!
kjkg
But Kris, you are missing a point here. The new box will be shinier, blacker and bigger than the one we have. That’s why everyone is excited ;)
I’m really up for the event. I remember constantly going to the PS3 reveal page and looking at all the launch games. Meticulously poring over screenshots and summaries to make sure I made the right decision.
Setlled on Resistance FOM and Motorstorm btw. Right decision I think.
Mike
Bigger and blacker? Oh, Matron ;)
kjkg
Hmm should have rephrased that.
Kris Lipscombe
Blacker?! Fuck, I didn’t realise.
Kevatron400
I heard it will reflect zero light, rendering it the darkest object on earth. I asked them, but they just said they don’t comment on rumour and speculation.
mugsybalone
“Playstation 4 – Where Light Goes To Die”. That’s a hell of a tag line, though the associated ad campaign would make that “This is Living” advert seem sensible.
Kris Lipscombe
Oh man well now I’m super excited.
blast71
It’s The Monolith from 2001 ;P
igotmy9milli
New console launches are always exciting, personally looking forward to seeing what the first party titles for all the consoles will be. Sony has had some excellent titles recently and Microsoft had loads nearer the begining of the console life cycle. Hopefully the new control methods will be used intelligently and not just as gimmicks, but I guess only time will tell. Even if Sony only release what the console looks like, I think that will be exciting….
avengerrr
I think we may only get live demo’s if there is something unique to how we may play a ps4 game, so maybe if they are thinking of a new controller, showing off the features of that with a game.
This event could also be to get some devs that are wider a field to start developing for the PS4 in ready for a E3/gamescom/TGS unveiling of a game. I am just personally intrigued (nothing more) as to what will be so special about PS4. As I have said before, I like this generation so far, so I’d only be excited if new hardware meant a new level of game design.
manky_
If the Vita announcement is anything to go by, the first half of the meeting will be about Gaikai, with the second half starting with ‘oh, and you’ll need a new black box to stream these games to’.
For me the announcement is just the start, from that point on any publisher can let the cat out of the bag about what they’ve been working on.
Bilbo_bobbins
I’m not that excited, but I do want to see what new stuff Sony are looking to bring to the PS4. If it’s just a touch pad controller and better hardware than it will be a pretty boring meeting. I hope to see new games on the hardware, but I guess that will be saved for E3.
Germanos
The only people excited about this are probably hardware freaks with the only desire of better graphics. I will not be very happy if the coming meeting is a PS4 announcement. I think the current gen console has much more potential, but the game industry just is to lazy to make it shine.
How I miss the times when I was playing a console and I never even a had a conversation about graphics with other platform users (mainly PC players). Everyone knew that the PC is better a graphics and we console freaks knew who had the lead when it came to gameplay or gaming overall.
Looking forward to see the meeting, but with a bit of stomach ache :P
plutoniumdragon
It’s not just the graphics, the PS3 is dog-slow, it takes longer to boot than my laptop does and the XMB is so bogged down it’s a pain to use. Some games take so long to load it’s become a joke. It didn’t start out like like, unless nostalgia is clouding my memory, but it’s certainly showing its age now.
plutoniumdragon
*like that* obviously, and no it’s not my hard drive because all the PS3s I’ve tried are just as bad :(
Germanos
Don’t really see that as an problem. The newer games loading times are getting better and better, while if they are slow it’s a matter of the devs creating the game.
The only XMB problem I have is when I try to see my trophies, no matter if playing a game or not, it’s a real “pain” to use (while that’s a “feature” and another great idea of someone in SONY).
What I’m trying to say: it’s too soon for a hardware based generation change. The change will not be as efficient as it was when the PS1 changed to PS2, PS2 to PS3….at least if SONY manages to create a console which will overpower current gamePCs, which is unlikely.
Germanos
*I think I messed up the last sentence, but you should get the idea :P
djhsecondnature
@Germanos – It’s more than that. Physics engines, A.I., dynamic instances, environmental factors, and so much more. More processing power opens huge doors for what games are capable of.
As for stating that it’s “too soon for a hardware based generation change”, it can’t come soon enough – it’s been going on for two years too long.
If you don’t believe that the change won’t be as efficient you are in for a bit of a surprise.
plutoniumdragon
It’s doesn’t make the PS3 unplayable or anything, it just annoys and frustrates me. Like using an old PC ;)
djhsecondnature
It’s because you’re an Xbox fanboy Kris :-p
Or maybe just because you don’t enjoy fun things?
Or that you’re ankle has turned evil and is turning you evil as well?
Any of those three really.
Kris Lipscombe
Third one.
djhsecondnature
I thought so.
Nate
Classic evil ankle syndrome really, we should have seen it coming. Oh well, *revs chainsaw.
Moshbag
Nintendo will always pull out the most interesting stuff. The map used to be on the select button, now it’s ON MY CONTROLLER!
Jas-n
“Done!” *drops mic, walks off stage*
Kris Lipscombe
Someone really needs to end a press event like that.