Isn't this basically the same concept as the original Xbox? That is, a small gaming PC with decent graphics you hook up to your TV? (I ask, because it makes me chuckle to think it might have come full circle and swapped companies.)
diablo 3... hope it'll be better than Diablo 1 on ps1... also no backward compatibility? this. sucks. donkey balls
Backwards compatibility will eventually come...sort of. The purchase of Gaikai will eventually bring a streaming service. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see the entire Sony console catalog eventually come to the service. It's the "backward compatibility" of the future.
And thank for the video Thrax, I don't know anybody with a decent gaming rig, and I've been stuck in Wii land for the last few years. I've seen screenshots of Crysis 3 but not bothered with any video.
One of the biggest things for me is that people move much more realistically now.
I have to admit the CPU and GPU are far more modern than I had expected them to be. This is actually close to a current gaming PC, with the exception of the absurd 8gb of unified GDDR5 RAM. That's insane.
Worth noting that the native 1080p support from current gen consoles was somewhat lackluster, IMO. Though, I think what you're getting at is more the idea of pushing a new standard, which I agree and have no problem with.
With regard to exclusivity - from an outside perspective - it seems less and less likely that a developer would want to move in that route if for nothing else but the general idea that competitors seem to be more likely to be able to create a noteworthy 'competitor' or alternative to their game, these days.
A good example from the PS3 perspective is GT v. Forza.
Easy to think of it as Publisher X notices Publisher Y's got great success with Title A, begins seeking and bankrolling publisher Z to develop Title B, which is very similar. However, there are some great PS3 exclusives that I cannot see Sony allowing to move to other consoles - still a bit of a stalemate.
4K is sweet, but it will not gain acceptance at home during the PS4's life cycle. It's current application is going to be huge screens in public venues digital movie theater projection. 1080P will be perfectly fine for home consumers for the foreseeable future. (FYI, I'm always right about consumer electronics, seriously, don't argue, I'll just come back to this thread five years from now and laugh at you).
People are choosing convenience over quality. HDTV took off when light easy to move flat screens with multiple HDMI hook ups became affordable. Smaller footprint, less wires, that's what consumers see as value. More resolution? It will be impossible to sell at home. I know guys that will tell you they can't tell the difference between DVD and Blu Ray, and they are being sincere, they just don't get it. Trust me 99.5% of the market will continue to be perfectly pleased with 1080P beaming into their homes. People will not replace current models for more resolution on a 42" screen. What might work? Good wireless connectivity to all your devices. That's a convenience feature, people will understand the value and pay for that. More HD than HD? Not gonna sell. It has it's place, it's just not at home, not anytime in the PS4's life-cycle anyway.
Nobody knows exactly what will happen but my opinion is that soon as h265 is well adopted 4k will absolutely be in everyone's living rooms. My guess is we are about 2 years away from seeing 4k tvs in the stores. I'll come back on this thread in 2 years and check.
Originally I thought 4K support would be mandatory for success, but I've changed my mind. 4K will be in the homes of enthusiasts with big wallets over the next five years, and big demand for that resolution of console gaming won't happen for a few years after that. I'd expect 4K gaming out of the PS5 with a very small number of 4K games for the PS4.
@PirateNinja - Flawless track record on consumer electronics predictions. I am the oracle. Seriously, my resume, flawless, if it's going to succeed or fail, I always get it right. I may be a geek, but I understand the every-man. 4K will not widely accepted in homes until the PS4 is on it's last leg.
See, here is the thing, you give people far too much credit if you think they actually value quality. That's why people cram a bunch of crappy Tailor Swift and Ke$ha .mp3 files onto their players. It's why McDonalds is the #1 fast food chain in the world. Quality does not matter, it's whatever people can get fast, cheap and easy. If a TV comes along that makes it easier to deliver a movie without getting up, bingo, you catered to the consumers desire for laziness. It's how people think. 4K, it won't matter, people won't care, it's just more HD than HD, what's it do for them, why will the spend more money for it? It's not going to happen, too many perfectly good 1080P TV's that have several years left on em. People are not going to replace them for quality. Now, you deliver a convenience feature, a feature that keeps fat asses from leaving the couch, a feature that makes it easier to hook up, people will be all over that.
4K will take off when all the first generation plasma and LCD's are ready to hit the landfills in about a decade.
As in "software and hardware products that have been announced and advertised but are not yet available" nor will be imminently. I'm sure Sony will release the PS4, but clearly they don't have an actual product yet but rather a draft of one.
I think you're conflating the word "vaporware" with simple PR nebulousness. Vaporware implies that the product will never actually exist, e.g. the Phantom console that was eternally mired in developmental hell, if not outright lies.
They have everything but a physical shell. The unit exists, it will absolutely be released, there are already games for it. It's not vaporware by any stretch. They haven't unveiled the (relatively unimportant) physical box yet. Would a mock-up plastic shell make all the difference in the world? Not at all.
Let's face it, an eight core X86 APU with 1.84 Tflops of graphics processing power is going to need a little room to breathe. Hopefully Sony is run by by the engineers and not the marketing dept or we will have another clusterfuck like the Xbox 360 launch.
I'm sure they are still arguing over the footprint, that's why you have not seen the shell yet.
The Xbox 360 launch was a clusterfuck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems - Put in simple terms, the marketing dept wanted a pretty little white box, and any hardware engineer with any sense knew it was not going to allow enough space for the hardware to get sufficient cooling. Subsequent die shrinks solved a huge problem that could have been avoided with a slightly bigger footprint. If you remember the 360's coming out party was a MTV special with Elijah Wood (I shit you not). They showed the console, bragged about it's sexy reduced footprint compared to the monstrosity that was the original xbox well before release. They painted themselves into a corner. Come on, we have all had at least one red ring on us, I had several fail. It was a shit design, in other-words, a complete clusterfuck.
Sony is smart to take it's time, if the shell needs to go a little bigger and uglier, let's test it and release something that actually works, rather than make it the pretty little marketers dream. I'm sure they debate is raging at Sony now about how small and pretty they can practically make the shell. Sony, don't be a Microsoft.
Comments
whew!
also no backward compatibility? this. sucks. donkey balls
And thank for the video Thrax, I don't know anybody with a decent gaming rig, and I've been stuck in Wii land for the last few years. I've seen screenshots of Crysis 3 but not bothered with any video.
One of the biggest things for me is that people move much more realistically now.
4k @ 30 fps? Maybe for some games.
With regard to exclusivity - from an outside perspective - it seems less and less likely that a developer would want to move in that route if for nothing else but the general idea that competitors seem to be more likely to be able to create a noteworthy 'competitor' or alternative to their game, these days.
A good example from the PS3 perspective is GT v. Forza.
Easy to think of it as Publisher X notices Publisher Y's got great success with Title A, begins seeking and bankrolling publisher Z to develop Title B, which is very similar. However, there are some great PS3 exclusives that I cannot see Sony allowing to move to other consoles - still a bit of a stalemate.
People are choosing convenience over quality. HDTV took off when light easy to move flat screens with multiple HDMI hook ups became affordable. Smaller footprint, less wires, that's what consumers see as value. More resolution? It will be impossible to sell at home. I know guys that will tell you they can't tell the difference between DVD and Blu Ray, and they are being sincere, they just don't get it. Trust me 99.5% of the market will continue to be perfectly pleased with 1080P beaming into their homes. People will not replace current models for more resolution on a 42" screen. What might work? Good wireless connectivity to all your devices. That's a convenience feature, people will understand the value and pay for that. More HD than HD? Not gonna sell. It has it's place, it's just not at home, not anytime in the PS4's life-cycle anyway.
See, here is the thing, you give people far too much credit if you think they actually value quality. That's why people cram a bunch of crappy Tailor Swift and Ke$ha .mp3 files onto their players. It's why McDonalds is the #1 fast food chain in the world. Quality does not matter, it's whatever people can get fast, cheap and easy. If a TV comes along that makes it easier to deliver a movie without getting up, bingo, you catered to the consumers desire for laziness. It's how people think. 4K, it won't matter, people won't care, it's just more HD than HD, what's it do for them, why will the spend more money for it? It's not going to happen, too many perfectly good 1080P TV's that have several years left on em. People are not going to replace them for quality. Now, you deliver a convenience feature, a feature that keeps fat asses from leaving the couch, a feature that makes it easier to hook up, people will be all over that.
4K will take off when all the first generation plasma and LCD's are ready to hit the landfills in about a decade.
I'm sure they are still arguing over the footprint, that's why you have not seen the shell yet.
Sony is smart to take it's time, if the shell needs to go a little bigger and uglier, let's test it and release something that actually works, rather than make it the pretty little marketers dream. I'm sure they debate is raging at Sony now about how small and pretty they can practically make the shell. Sony, don't be a Microsoft.