ps4

The PlayStation 4 is the Dreamcast of 2013. The Sega Dreamcast suffered an early demise for a few reasons, the biggest being it came out to soon in a console cycle. The Dreamcast appeared a year before the PlayStation 2 and two years before the Nintendo GameCube. At the time of its release, the Dreamcast was better than the N64 or PS1 but the looming release of the next generation would crush it.

Now in 2013 the PS4 is going down the same road. The Xbox 360 still has years left in its life, some putting it as high as five more. Not only will Microsoft save on not having to produce new tech for another console, but developers can continue to use their current infrastructure for years to come. With the announcement of the PS4 Sony is making it so that developers need to pick a side and decide which console they would rather devote a majority of their effort to. Also consider that developers know that Xbox will be releasing newer tech in the near future allowing them to continue to work in their current format and hold out for an even better platform. Drawing these kinds of lines in the sand will only hurt the consumer and developer. The console wars have been a drain on gaming as a whole since the inception of video gaming. The teams working to make games want as many people to play them as possible. These console division are only separating their intended market for the benefit of retailers and console manufacturer while also punishing of the artists working on games.

In addition, this gives Microsoft a large amount of market information. Microsoft can see what mistakes Sony makes with this and then correct them, they can see how well users respond to a new console at this point in its lifespan, and they can see how well it does in this current economy. Sony is taking a huge risk by being the first out of the gate with its next console and judging by history it will pay for it.

The most important thing going into the press conference was the second-hand game debate, which Sony made no mention of during the event. Which is a strong indication that they do plan to deny any kind of used game market. This would kill GameStop and Gamefly fairly quickly if every console started to adapt this policy, which would mean higher overall costs for the consumer. Along those lines the PS4 also appears to not be backwards compatible with PS3 games. Sony will most likely cut support relatively quickly to anything on the PS3 in favor of the PS4 punishing users for not upgrading.

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5 Responses

  1. dude

    “The Xbox 360 still has years left in its life, some putting it as high as five more. Not only will Microsoft save on not having to produce new tech for another console, but developers can continue to use their current infrastructure for years to come.”

    Um, you are aware that microsoft is going to be unveiling their next-gen console very soon, right?

    Reply
  2. Mike

    Just where do you get your information from? The PS4 is almost definitely going to outsell the WiiU which is struggling. The new xbox will likely be less powerful, but cheaper, and will try to push kinect into every game. The 360 lasting 5 more years is impossible. As soon as they release the new xbox they will cut support for the 360. That’s what microsoft did with the original xbox when the 360 came out. A far as used games being blocked one of Sony’s executives said used games would work. If the xbox decides to block used games they lose this round of the console wars, hands down. Right now the most common rumours are the xbox requires an always on internet connection, to block used games, and requires kinect on at all times. The WiiU isn’t as original as the Wii and the new xbox will be forcing you to do things you might not want to. I believe the PS4 will be the best choice out of these 3 consoles by far. It has better graphics, more and better exclusive games, better 3rd party game quality, simple yet effective changes to the controller, and all types of new social features. They’re going with what works and not trying to reinvent the wheel.

    Reply
    • Copplestone8

      well mike to be truthful the playstation 4 is better gaming console than xb1 but xb1 is an ‘Entertainment console’ not mean’t to be only for gaming

      Reply
  3. Anukul64

    dont worry next xbox will launch near simultaneously with ps4 and yes, if xbox 360 have 5 more years which i don’t think then whats wrong with ps3?

    Reply
  4. Jim's Blog

    I’v got another point, Consumers don’t always want the best most powerful consoles, we gamers can’t always afford these consoles. what we look for are games and what console supports these games. during this generation I only liked 1 or 2 of the games that where exclusive to the PS3 and they didn’t even utilize PS3’s full power, and I couldn’t even afford the Console. so I got an Xbox and it paid off.

    Reply

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