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!
Blayney
I was shocked in work this morning by the negativity. I explained to my non-gaming colleagues and they all agreed it sounded good. Yet two of my gaming colleagues were full of negativity.
There were complaints of only streaming backwards compatability. I countered with “don’t sell your ps3”. It’s not as powerful as I expected, I countered with “it won’t be as expensive as a high end PC though”. The controller is £100, I countered with “haven’t seen that confirmed but they will bundle it with one so what’s the issue?”. They didn’t show what it looked like, I countered with “who cares?”.
By the end of the day both of them were working out how they were gonna save to get one. So I think that in a few weeks people will get off the “it’s new and therefore I can’t like it” bandwagon and realise that it is a proper generational shift, and will make next-gen gaming relatively affordable and IMO the sharing feature is very cool. How many times have you started a gaming conversation with “you should’ve seen what I did last night!”, now you can show people. Brilliant.
Fruitbat1919
Only a free console would please some people….some would even moan about that!
I agree whole heartedly with this article. I think Sony have done what it said on the tin….shown the intended direction of Playstation. For one, I am quite excited about the possibilities between the PS4 and my Vita. Loved the look of the new controller. Like what I hear about GaiKai, but will keep my excitement for that in check until we know more details and see how it runs…
KeRaSh
I really don’t understand the negativity. I personally think the conference was one of the best of the last few years. It brought back that feeling I had about videogames when I was a little boy. I’m totally hyped and ready to pre order a PS4 as soon as a price and release date are known.
Many German tech sites were unimpressed by Sony’s showing and judging by the comments, many agreed. Now I’m under the impression that the German market has a stong PC gamership but those reactions were still not what I’ve expected.
Even my brother complained about many things he picked up from such sites and when I told him what I saw during the stream he was psyched about it.
The gaming market got a little bitter over the last few years. Something changed… People complain about the smallest things. I’d say it’s about time we start being enthusiastic about our favorite hobby again!
Moshbag
Good post, the cynicism is completely unwarranted in my opinion. The PS4 looks Fruits of the Forest Crumble with custard to me. Not too keen on the blazer and jeans peripheral several of the devs seemed to be play testing though…
Dan Lee
I was thrilled to bits with what I saw. MS have a lot to do to stop me getting a PS4
teflon
Murder Squad Dispatched!
cam the man
Before the conference, which I thought was awesome, I was always going to buy a PS4 but was happy to stick with my PS3 until it came around. Now I cannot wait for it’s replacement.
MDL199
Seems to me non gaming tech sites and journalists are just dying to see consoles bite the dust. They are obsessed with tablets and smart phones and see consoles as yesterday’s gadgets.
ABlokeCalledDaz
I think it was great that Sony didn’t give away the price last night and that you still don’t quite know what the console looks like, they’d held a great card back for when Microsoft start to ramp up their campaign.
I was quite meh about PS4 but the conference last night gave me plenty to want to upgrade to a PS4.
Not bad Sony, not bad at all.
Temascos
I was impressed by what was shown, and can definitely see the future for the next few years gaming wise. They’ve been up front about what the system can do and their courting of developers compared to the PS3. Whilst I understand some sceptism and the games not appealing to people, many people got annoyed for some daft reason. When it comes to things like the BC concern, that’s fine, I’m concerned to see how its gonna work out, but when its things like having a Share button ruining everything it gets silly.
And of course, I know people who say that anything like Remote Play is a rip off the Wii U and therefore that makes Sony bad. And if they DIDN’T do it they’d say the opposite.
wonkey-willy
mmmm new console new era …..
rushing out a sub standard box of tricks which leans more towards an xbox 360 let alone an xbox 720… trying to gain some dollar and the edge on microsoft…
ha ha get ready for the biggest shock of your life sony.
.come E3 microsoft is about to ruin your life FOREVER..BIAAATCH!
Adam Garrett
You forgot to add “trolololol” ;)
wonkey-willy
dont think that was trollin’ mate it was more a statement o fact..
sony are in deep shit and thats no secret..
the ps4 is their obiwan kenobe (their last hope)..
why was the console not on show…how hard can it be to put a bunch of microchips and tera doobies into a black plastic box?
its game over man ps4 or bust for sony
Adam Garrett
I thought by the way it was written it may have been sarcasm or something as usually you’re quite balanced. I think the plastic casing over the console is the least important part so it hasn’t bothered me at all that they haven’t show it
bunimomike
Oh, it’s simple. Until they know what’s going in there they simply cannot have anything resembling a final design. They also knew that keeping a few cards close to their chest (for the likes of E3) will always help.
Sony are slowly getting their financial arses into better health but your sentiment is spot on. All eyes are on them to see what they can do. Then again, Microsoft need to make their core gamers feel like they’ll be looked after properly this generation as the last few years has been a bit “oh, we’re busy with Kinect now” which disappointed the hell out of me *points to Xbox 360 behind me*.
Although, I have to say, I cannot predict how the Wii U is going to sell next year when both Sony and Microsoft’s new consoles are released in the wild.
bunimomike
There’s a special place on IGN for these comments. Everywhere. :)
wonkey-willy
true mate but at least ign has got jessica chobot…
what have we got here at tsa lol
bunimomike
I’d happily give up some moistened bint over a decent comments section any day. I’m showing my age. :P
Airiaen
More ads! YAY!
KeRaSh
I hardly believe MS can top Sony on the Cloud front with Gaikai backing them up. The rest is just shinyer graphics and with the specs Sony announced, MS will have a hard time coming out on top.
That leaves Kinect… I’m sure the core gamers will go nut over that. ; )
MDL199
Maybe you should check out the Digital Foundry piece on the PS4 where it concluded that it will almost certainly be the most powerful console next gen.
To quote Digital Foundry
“So what does this mean for Sony and for next-gen gaming in general? First up, unless Microsoft has radically upgraded its graphics and memory configuration for Durango in the last nine months (an engineering nightmare unlikely to happen – it can’t really add more chips as Sony has done), the PlayStation makers have less to worry about in terms of any direct hardware comparisons with their competition. GDDR5 latency is higher than DDR3 but the bandwidth advantage is substantial, while confirmation of the impressive Radeon graphics core puts to bed the era of PS3 developers struggling with sub-par GPU hardware.”