by Mike Williams
Over the past few days, I’ve enjoyed the hype building up for the PlayStation 4 announcement. We’ve had photos of a prototype controller in front of what appears to be a dev-box and rumours have been rife about what each new facet of its makeshift body might unleash. However, last night was time for much of this to be cleared up – for the conjecture to finish and the real anticipation to begin; for Sony to coerce us into the first class carriage on our own personalised hype train.
With Skype Instant Messenger open and a voice call in parallel, my friends and acquaintances were suitably excited to see what the next generation console had to offer.
Straight away it was obvious that Sony had listened to problems from this generation (and not just about its own console). Sharing looks to be a huge feature. Sure, it’s not for me but I definitely want to be able to make use of it. More importantly, I want it for everyone who’ll abuse it like I abused that mechanical bull last Summer. Not so horny now, are you.
Games were teased and trailers made us a little warmer in the trouser department. Conceptual pieces excited us with the possibilities of what this hardware can do in the hands of a studio like Media Molecule. Huge franchises leapt aboard, new Intellectual Properties (that’s IP to you and me) showed absolute promise.
Now, whilst the local police might tell you I was stone-cold sober, I was drunk on the lovely pitch that Sony had crafted. Images came and went. The new controller was discussed in more detail. Visit after visit on stage from developer boffins whipped our temperate gussets into a cotton-moistened party of endorphin-enriched happiness.
The show ended and I fell asleep thinking lovely things about the future of home console gaming. Sadly, reality decided to slap me around the face with its calloused hand on awaking. Not my reality but the reality that our culture appears to not only thrive on but breed at a contemptible rate. “No problem”, I thought. I’ll just see what BBC has to say about Sony’s gestating console. Imagine the horror where around 90% of the article was negative and full of stamina-destroying body punches to the midriff.
An entire first world, up in arms over the fact that we’d not seen the new console. An entire media-minded culture where things were damned just because they didn’t get a mention. Countless times I saw alleged professionals tearing several new posteriors because we didn’t have a fixed date of release.
I guess Holiday Season 2013 (near Christmas for us normal folk) wasn’t enough. Why? What has caused this effluent-like putrescence to flow faster than the warm custard on my fruits of the forest crumble? I truly expected to see the usual shenanigans in the comments section but to see nearly all of the press link arms and spout such nonsense was enough to make my blood boil.
I don’t want to know how cynical you are. I don’t want to know why you think PC gaming is better. I don’t want to know about how it all sounds completely out of touch with today’s society and why you not having a price or a sexy shot of the new Sony beast is tantamount to wishing a terminal illness on your loved ones. Step back for a moment and realise we live in a wonderful time where we can even potentially afford such luxuries. Breathe deeply and try to handle the fact that Sony overtook Microsoft (recently) in the sales stakes of home consoles and that they might be doing something resembling “right”.
I wish Microsoft the very best of luck with whatever they show but, just for once, I’d like to see some enthusiasm for the average person (cue: show of hands from TSA’s readership) where we are grown-up enough to realise it isn’t the answer to all of our gaming prayers but looks suitably enticing for us to part with a serious number of crisp banknotes.
I thank the stars that somewhere like TSA exists and that I’m still allowed to be thrilled by the PlayStation 4 hype train.
First class carriage? I want to be sitting on the driver’s lap and supping from his thermos!
JigsawPieces
Down with cynicism. Great post!
The Von Braun
As a long term EDGE reader :-) i’m used to the media’s ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ (Build it up, then knock the poor bas*ard down).
Maybe they’d have been more happy with the ‘god’ old Sony days, you know OMG PS2 is like, SOOO powerful, it’ll control Nuclear missiles, no way dude, it’ll like make it’s own nuclear missiles and it’s like been banned from China and shit, or it’ll output 1080P at 60 FPS to 2 TV sets, it’ll deliver real, honest to god, get on your knees and bawl, type emotions as it has an EMOTION engine type stuff.
Maybe Sony should have just had a bald, evil looking dude walk on stage, twidle his moustache and say:PS4 will render 10 Billion, squillion Polys per second, Bwahhhh Haaa Haaa (whilst offset someone stroked a pissed off looking white cat).
Or even better, in mid presentation, the PS4 dev.kit to whir into life and declare:You have 20 seconds to comply, as twin gattling guns emerged from the casing and tracked a poor exec, as he ran like a whimpering kitten, whilst a team of lab coat wearing tech heads pulled the plug on it, open the boards etc then Budda Budda Budda etc.
Hell, Sony could have come on stage and said:’were are sorry to say we WON’T be annoucing PS4 as we’ve put the money into medical research and…CURED CANCER and as a knock on effect, discovered a clean, limitless fuel and solved world hunger’ and media would still chalk it up as a poor showing.
PS5 reveal Sony, my tips:
Dim the lighs, drum roll, then just say ‘You know what? f*ck it, why don’t you lot put on a show? that way you know it’ll be right!’, either that or strippers, a juggling midget and a talking dog.
Alex C
Bro fist.
The press conference was great. Put it this way: I didn’t hear anyone booing or moaning from where I was sat.
Jakster123x
I 100% agree with you. There was way too much negativity surrounding last night’s reveal about stuff that most people in the know knew would never happen. Revealing the price and release date of the console before Microsoft have even announced their console? Come on.
I’ll be surprised if the BBC and other mainstream media say the same things when Microsoft do show off their console (the ACTUAL console, oh how happy people will be) and there is no real price or release date which i’m assuming there won’t be, but who knows?
Either way, i won’t be trying to pick out the negatives, especially if the announcement is filled with so many exciting ideas.
Kennykazey
I thought the show was fantastic and outdid all my expectations! Haters gonna hate, I guess…
Foxhound_Solid
Awesome post. Awesome conference. Forever a Playstationist!
GreenMekon
Great post. People never seen satisfied these days. All these people moaning about this and that – let them try and release a new console and see how they get on. People should just enjoy it. I for one cant wait….
Takyu
Thank you so much for this article, it mirrors my thoughts on the matter completely! I admit that my reaction at the time of the actual console no show was one of knee-jerk annoyance, but once I had time to settle down from all the excitement and allowed calmer thoughts to prevail, I realised exactly why Sony decided not to show it. It seems most mainstream media outlets are rather clueless as to how things work in the gaming industry, and therefore such cynicism is almost inevitable.
One thing I can say for the masses is that, despite the assurances of a certain Microsoft executive, they certainly did know about the event. I would say that due to it’s media coverage and general hype, many people might have been expecting something akin to an E3 conference, which might go some way to explaining their discontent at what was actually shown.
bunimomike
Aww. Awesome! You ran my article. Thank god for that! I thought I’d woken in an alternate university when I saw what the press had to offer this morning. Everything felt so unfair and out of whack to anyone with the tiniest bit of common sense and love for gaming.
teflon
Negativity and scandal cause intrigue and get hits, especially from people who disagree with you.
I’ve seen a whole host of Apple-centric bloggers who are utterly flabbergasted as to why Sony announced this so far in advance, and it’s simply because they don’t understand the very different pacing to the market. You can’t simply announce a console 2 weeks before release, and rely on everybody to get on board.
Loxstokk
Totally agree – Apple produce products that sit at the top of their relavent tree for between 12-24 months. Sony are launching a product that they hope will be around for the next 8-10 years. The fact that a new iPad/iPhone is due to be released can’t be at the forefront of the consumers consciousness otherwise they would just hang on for the next tech, Apple need that kind of smash and grab cycle to keep people paying out for their incremental tech upgrades.
Unfortunately due to the massive rise in profile of Apple and their product launches, I think a lot of people have become accustomed to the Apple way it doing things and anything else is seen as incorrect or mistaken.
KeRaSh
Also, you KNOW there’s a new Apple device coming out every year for every category so they don’t need to announce it 3 month after the last device came out. Loxstokk is completely right. In Apple’s case people would rather wait for the next generation to come out because the lifecycles are so much shorter.
It’s very unprofessional journalism, if you ask me.
TSBonyman
Ha ha I knew this had to be written by you!
Great article, mirrors my thoughts while getting them across in a more eloquent way than i could muster. :)
bunimomike
Ah, Mister Bonyman. A pleasure, fella. Always. :-)
DividSmythe
I thought that was a great conference. I enjoyed with a few drinks. To me it felt like exciting conference. Ps4 is going to be part of my gaming future, I made this decision a while back, maybe when I bought Ps3 :D. The only slight negative being they didn’t show machine but I know that’s going to be a future hype type of thing. Bring on next gen.