back to article Sony scoffs at the Microsoft EX-BOX: A MILLION PS4s sell in ONE day

Sony shifted one million Playstation 4s in the first day they went on sale in North America. Although some users reported hardware issues, Sony's spring off the blocks bodes well for the release of their latest console in Europe and Latin America, which will take place on November 29. The Japanese firm is hoping the …

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  1. returnmyjedi

    I'm sure they look lovely sat below a mammoth telly, but neither Sony's Betamax nor Microsoft's V2000 lookalikes actually appear to offer any compelling games to play at launch. Both the latest Killzone and Forza look mighty purdy, but bring nothing new to the table. At least when the 360 arrived it justified forking out a few extra notes to demonstrate how amazing the HD telly could be with Geometry Wars: RE and PGR3. All this new gen seems to demonstrate is how laughably partisan gamers still are.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      As pretty much all games these days are first person shooters of some variety or sports simulation games, I'd say that pretty much all games aren't interesting any more. I've still not felt the compulsion to play a game since Lemmings, Elite or Exile, possibly Doom/Doom2.

      1. h3

        Funny thing is the guy who made Lemmings came up with the original Grand Theft Auto.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          @MJI

          your TV was a W series bravia, and it cost 1500 for a 32 incher?

          Which model? Because as stated above, my £700 TV (brand new, not used) was also a sony bravia w series. and 40 inches. (£100 off because I traded in an old CRT, so technically it was £800 but shh)

          1. MJI Silver badge

            Re: @MJI

            32" CRT and a large screen LCD

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Fail.

      You looked at just the headline games, and didn't bother to look at things like the truly awesome Resogun ....

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: Resogun

        Wow that looks good!

        And it is free!

        Reminds me of a lot of older games like Defender, Andes Attack and a bit of Xenon2

        1. Moeluk

          Re: Resogun

          Well worth paying £440 for that game....oh wait....

          Seriously i'm not even enthused about COD: Ghosts at this point, and i genuinely think my days of console gaming are over.

          My friends will soldier on, but there are definitely better things to be doing these days probably.

          ..awaits the It's NOT £440 crowd....well no technically it isn't, but once you've bought COD, and PSN+ for online play, it kind of is.

          1. MJI Silver badge

            Re: COD

            We do not play COD.

            COD is for people who cannot handle more tactical shooters.

            Personally I am excited and nervous for Killzone Shadowfall.

            Excited because it is an FPS I can actually play.

            Nervous because I got into top 2000 using Move and they don't support it any more.

            As for PS+, already have that, and still wrking through the backlog of games.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: COD

              You have to ask the question why are you so interested in shooting people dead in realistic FP perspective?

              Violent games are nothing new, but it was cartoon violence not the realistic sick stuff they depict these days.

              1. MJI Silver badge

                Re: Shooting people

                Well I like SciFi setting ones!

                And to be honest even in games I do not like killing unarmed characters, if they are shooting me - OK

              2. MJI Silver badge

                Re: COD - killing

                Go play Dishono(u)red with a no kill run.

                Now that is an achievement

                1. Frumious Bandersnatch

                  Re: COD - killing

                  Go play Dishono(u)red with a no kill run.

                  Now that is an achievement

                  Pah. Go play Nethack as a Samurai, wear a blindfold right from the start and ascend without eating any food for the entire game. Now that's an achievement :)

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: COD

              "Nervous because I got into top 2000 using Move and they don't support it any more."

              I'm sure there must be alternative activities that involve playing with a glow-in-the-dark dildo?

              1. MJI Silver badge

                Re: COD

                Yes Resistance 3, Portal 2 and Bioshock Infinite

                Hmm just bought the DLC for BI

        2. Van

          Re: Resogun

          Purely eye candy to make use of that £400 TV on the £400 new console. I'd rather spend the money on an original Defender cabinet.

          1. MJI Silver badge

            Re: Resogun

            £400 on a TV

            For a main living room TV maybe 25 years ago.

            But prices are more since then.

            32" widescreen CRT IDTV was over £1000

            My LCD panel is over £1500

            Before you criticise I have owned a total of 5 TVs in my life including 2 portables

            1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

              Re: Resogun

              32" widescreen CRT IDTV was over £1000

              My LCD panel is over £1500

              They must have seen you coming!

              Several years ago, I bought my current 32" 1080p TV for around £300 and they threw in a DVD recorder with it. Why anyone needs to buy the 'top of the range' brand new massive and massively expensive TV is beyond me. If I had £1500 spare, I'd spend it on something more useful than a TV.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: Resogun

                Yeah, I bought my top end 42" bravia about 3-4 years ago (just before 3d hit) for under £700, £1500 for a 32inch just seems excessive.

                1. MJI Silver badge

                  Re: Resogun

                  The CRT was a Wega, the LCD a W series Bravia

                  And I have seen enough cheap LCD TVs to last me. I tested lots until I found the one I liked,

                  Want to see bad - S series Bravia - pretty shoddy

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Anonymous Coward

                    Re: Resogun

                    You're buying Sony, there's your mistake.

                    1. MJI Silver badge

                      Re: Sony TV

                      Why is it a mistake, I genuinely found the picture was better than other LCD TVs on multiple sources.

                      Other choice would have been a Pioneer plasma but they are too expensive.

                      My TV was getting ***** reviews!

              2. MJI Silver badge

                Re: Expensive TV

                I LIKE my TV, it gets a lot of use so may as well have one I like.

                Some people buy expensive cars (I do when they are cheap), some people go and spend a fortune on sports team tickets. I like a really good TV, put a really good film on - like the cinema.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Resogun

              That's because you bought high end. Give it a year and the mid-range sets have the features of last years top end.

              Flat screen technology is moving so fast it simply isn't worth spending a lot of money. My LCD from 2009 looks terribly dated now.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: Resogun

                They may have the features but not the quality. Some components, especially panels just don't come down in price and the only time you'll really see a high end panel in a mid-range price bracket is when a high end model has been reduced to clear because its been superceded by a newer model.

                My dad's £1,000+ LED TV he bought two years ago still knocks the spots off brand new £500-800 sets.

    3. 1Rafayal

      yes, because the social media interactivity is a complete waste of time. Plus the media centric design of the consoles also seems greatly out of place for the new generation.

      Oh, hang on....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "yes, because the social media interactivity is a complete waste of time. Plus the media centric design of the consoles also seems greatly out of place for the new generation"

        Yes - I can't wait to use Skype on my PS4 while also playing a game at the same time in split screen....Oh wait....

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      All the Xbox One has to do to win at this stage is actually work when people get them home.

      The PS4 has massive failure rates....

  2. Simon Harris

    "how laughably partisan gamers still are"

    You mean unlike PC vs Mac users, IOS vs Android users, 6502 vs Z80 users.....

    1. Richard 81

      Re: "how laughably partisan gamers still are"

      Quite true, although gamers seem to more frequently say things like "I hope [game X] doesn't come out on [platform I don't use]" for obvious reason beyond than spite. It may be because, other than the games that are exclusive to each platform, there really isn't much of a difference between them.

      If you play your games on the PC (like me) you get rather used to this nonsense.

      1. Goat Jam

        Re: "how laughably partisan gamers still are"

        "If you play your games on the PC (like me) you get rather used to this nonsense."

        I hear you brother. So sick of autoaim jockeys sneering at me because I choose to have a PC and some game or another is not available for it.

        Personally, I can't stand playing a FPS with a console controller. In one thread I bemoaned a decision to not release a game (whose name I cannot recall) on PC only to have some holier-than-though PS3 fanboy snootily suggest I was an idiot for not just buying a PS3 and sticking a mouse and keyboard on it. When I asked why I would want to do that when I already have a PC with a mouse and keyboard I got nothing back but the sound of crickets.

        There is no valid reason for so-called "exclusives" to exist. I understand why they exist, but I do not understand why many gamers not only accept this state of affairs, but actively encourage it in their juvenile attempts to in some way best people whose sole fault is having chosen a different console brand to them.

        Corporate marketing people must be overjoyed with the propensity of young people to attach themselves like limpets to corporate branding like they do. How else do you explain them putting corporate logos all over the rear windows of their vehicles?

    2. Not That Andrew
      Joke

      Re: "how laughably partisan gamers still are"

      You forgot GNU/Linux vs. The World

      1. Daniel B.
        Joke

        Re: "how laughably partisan gamers still are"

        Or the eternal fight over calling it Linux or "GNOO slash Leenuks"

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "how laughably partisan gamers still are"

      I for one have been anxiously awaiting the newest phase of the platform wars. iOS vs Android just isn't doing it for me anymore, the vitriol is still there, but the attacks and counters are so overused it's just not entertaining anymore.

  3. Tom_

    PS2 introduced DVD to the masses when dedicated players cost more than the games machine. PS3 did similar with Blu-ray and also introduced a platform that could be updated with new apps, adding things like iPlayer and Netflix over time. PS4 offers a hardware upgrade that will make the games look better (and potentially run smoother), but adds nothing as obvious beyond that as the previous two generations.

    I hope it does well, but I think it might see a more gradual uptake than the PS2 and PS3, despite Sony having managed to reign in the cost compared to the last iteration, which had a huge launch price.

    The day one sales are impressive, but possibly more indicative of efficient logistics than mid to long term demand for the machine. I'm just saying it's early days and probably too early to draw any conclusions.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hardware non-issues

    Whilst there are always sites desperate for sensationalist news stories, the real story is, with 1m units shifted, there will always be stories of hardware issues, and always users keen to shout about them, and always sites willing to report on them.

    Back in the real world, the failure rate in context is 0.4%, which is pretty good for a new product launch.

    Can't wait to get my hands on one in a couple of weeks. Another million in Europe is a great start for Sony. They seem to have converted ALOT of disgruntled Xbox owners over from last-gen.

    1. TheVogon

      Re: Hardware non-issues

      "Back in the real world, the failure rate in context is 0.4%, which is pretty good for a new product launch."

      It is much higher than that. Sony are of course only counting fault calls they receive directly. Not the many more items being returned via retailers that havn't hit them yet...

      Plus loads of consoles will be unopened until Christmas...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hardware non-issues

        Whatever makes you feel better.

        All I know is Sony have a track record of making decent hardware, and they know how to make a games console with specs that push the limits, meaning it's still cranking out top notch content 10 years on.

        Microsoft, they suck at both of these. the Xbox360 was a steaming turd from a reliability point of view, and graphics wise, it ran out of stream after about 4 years. The Xbox One looks set to be gimped from the outset (which may account for the FUD storm that's currently going on against the PS4, when Microsoft have nothing else to play, this is what they do)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Hardware non-issues

          "Microsoft, they suck at both of these. the Xbox360 was a steaming turd from a reliability point of view, and graphics wise, it ran out of stream after about 4 years."

          Can't argue with Xbox 360 reliability - but that was a long term issue that mostly took at least a year to emerge (heat damage to BGA chip mountings) - and they extended warranty to cover most of it. The PS3 had plenty of hardware issues too.

          Graphics wise the Xbox 360 always outperformed the PS3 and still does - the vast majority of games on both consoles are better on the Xbox, and the best console in game graphics award of all time to date is Halo 4 - an exclusive....This is due to the more powerful Xbox GPU with on chip frame buffer and hardware scaler - features that the PS3 didn't have...

          1. MJI Silver badge

            Re: Hardware non-issues - Graphics

            Actually it depends on the studio.

            RSX is quick but limited in power, but to make up for the power difference it is able to communicate with the Cell using a high speed bus.

            So Xenos is more powerful but slower than the RSX, the Cell more powerful than the Xenon, but PS3 uses a high speed parallel bus to link them.

            Since the SPUs can be used for graphics, it means that it is possible for PS3 to pump out better graphics. But 360 is easier to code for.

            I still find the quality amazing on such games as Uncharted 2 & 3, The Last Of Us and Killzone 3.

            Also not many multiplatforms are that different, usually it is a bit here a bit there, draw distances to one and textures to the other.

      2. Daniel B.
        Boffin

        Re: Hardware non-issues

        Yadda yadda yadda. The MS shill machine fires up again. Remember that the dudes that pay you to spread FUD also downplayed the infamous RROD. And given failure rates with modern electronics, I wouldn't be surprised if the X-Bone ends up having similar and/or worse failure rates anyway! The real test will be if the failure rates stay as they currently are after a couple of months, which would mean there is a real problem with the devices.

  5. Oh Homer
    Childcatcher

    A fool and his money...

    Actually, that should probably be "a child and his foolish parent's money..."

    Also, I think they've got the product name wrong. This is the PS2.5, Shirley, given that apparently it does even less than the PS3.

    (No, not an XBone fanboi either.)

    1. Pypes

      Re: A fool and his money...

      Welcome to the year 2013. All those kids who were playing sonic and mario in the 90's are now grown up and have jobs. To quote (a quote) from wikipedia:

      "The average gamer is 30 years old and has been playing for 12 years. Eighty-two percent of gamers are 18 years of age or older."

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: A fool and his money...

        Or even older.

        I had a pong type game when I was small.

  6. Jerky Jerk face

    If it was released with GTA V available on it - id buy one for sure.

    If only to play the heck out of GTA V and sell the console a few months later, one more PS4 over xbox' LAUGHABLE spy bullshit and TV crap at every turn.

    Go sony!

  7. GitMeMyShootinIrons

    Badly misread headline...

    I nearly spat out my coffee when I misread the headline as "PS4 tries to turn it's enemy into an X-BOY". Sony in the sex-change market?

    1. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: Badly misread headline...

      Sony in the sex-change market?

      I read it as XXY, so I can totally see the confusion.

  8. Tom 260

    Supply rules

    If Sony can keep up the supply of PS4s they'll probably steal an early march in sales, if only because it sounds like Microsoft can't make XOnes as fast as they'd like. Mind you, this was probably more of a problem last gen, when only 300k of each console were available per region (NA/EU) at launch.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Supply rules

      In the US at least. PS4 launches a week after xbox one in Europe.

  9. ColonelClaw

    Sympathy for Sony

    I can't help feeling slightly sorry for Sony when it comes to their profit margins. Owing to accountancy shenanigans, Microsoft rolls the cash they make from Android royalties into their Xbox division, which makes them look pretty profitable. The reality is that no-one knows for sure if they've ever made a single dollar's profit from their Xbox/360 business, with many analysts claiming they've only ever made a loss.

    That's what Sony (traditionally an entertainment-driven company) has to compete against (a business software giant who got into gaming).

    1. Van

      Re: Sympathy for Sony

      and some say Bill Gates was a crook to boot....

      Unfortunately the console buyer is a finicky so and so. They wouldn't pay the price for the Dreamcast and it's extra features, and listened to Sony's over hyping of the PS2. Now Sony have no choice but to subsidise and rely purely on brand loyalty. Nintendo and Sega could trounce this lot if they were as open as the big 2.

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: Dreamcast & Nintendo/Sony

        Dreamcast was pretty good, but was a bit gimmicky.

        Could have done with twin sticks, the plug in cartridge is a bit weird, GDROM is limited compared to DVD.

        Was good graphics, definately same generation as PS2.

        Sony entered the market after Nintendo went Philips for the CD drive and Sony had developed one for Nintendo.

        I think MS entered partly due to the Dreamcast running Windows CE.

    2. Mark .

      Sympathy for Sega

      It's not as if Sony are some small company, or a console-only company - they're a massive multinational with a presence in many markets (indeed I'd argue that Sony have a broader presence than MS, when you consider all the different hardware products they make - yes you can label it all "entertainment", but you could label Microsoft as "technology").

      Sony themselves were a giant who got into gaming in 1995, where the existing companies Nintendo and Sega were primarily doing games consoles, so Sony did just the same thing that you accuse MS of (not to mention that this is what loads of big companies do). Microsoft got into gaming just 6 years later - by 2013, they've both been in it a long time.

      Nintendo were a card company that got into computer gaming...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Sympathy for Sega

        Sony are trying to jettison all of those other businesses as they're losing huge amounts on stuff like TVs as people aren't buying them.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bored

    They're both lacklustre re-badged versions of their previous generation, nothing new here move along please. Might as well game on an iPhone or PC.

    1. Van

      Re: Bored

      or the Xbox 360 or the PS3

    2. MJI Silver badge

      Re: Bored

      Phone gaming, no we want buttons.

      1. silent_count
        Holmes

        Re: Bored

        I'm kind of curious about what will happen to the console market when phones reach the processing and graphics power to compete (if they haven't already).

        Plug in the charging cable, the USB-to-HDMI into a TV. Pick up the bluetooth game controller(s). And away you go.

        Sure, it will never be as good as a dedicated console, the same way a console will never be as good as a gaming PC, but I suspect it'd be good enough for enough people to make a serious dent in the console market.

        1. Mark .

          Re: Bored

          We can answer that question today with laptops - why not plug into a TV and pick up the bluetooth controller?

          As someone who prefers PC games anyway, I do wonder this. I think the answer falls into:

          1. Can't be bothered to plug it into TV, want something just sitting there already plugged in.

          2. Like the kind of games released on consoles.

          3. Prefer that you can buy a specific console and be guaranteed to have games run on it for years, rather than having to worry about specs and upgrading.

          4. Games are far more likely to be written to support controllers, that every console ships with.

          1 would still apply. 2 would apply far more so - whilst there are plenty of fun games for phones, these tend to be a very different style than those on consoles. And although there are more free games, there are also fewer games made with large budgets.

          For 3, whilst phones don't have the widly different specs of customisable PCs, there are large numbers of different models, as well as an upgrade cycle far faster than even PCs.

          4 would apply even more so - how many games are written for bluetooth controllers, as opposed to written for pure touch that the majority of people will be using on a phone?

          We might see that the technology delivered by the phone market could be used by manufacturers to create their own competing consoles, without having to roll their own technology and OS - e.g., as seen with the Ouya. Potentially this could lead to the market increasing in size (more choice, lower costs) rather than reducing.

        2. Van

          Re: Bored

          Excuse me silent_count, but consoles came with custom graphics and sound chips before the PC. You say never? PC build costs will rise as PC gaming declines and becomes the expensive niche like in the 90s when PS1 and Dreamcast were the better gaming machines for 1/5 of the cost .

          Custom hardware will always be better, the target price point will hold them back though. Walk into Nintendo R&D with a memo targetting a 1500 USD price point then see how good the PC looks as a gaming machine.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Bored

            Consoles haven't used proper custom chips for years. Just PC tech adapted to work with UMA or other performance boosting tricks.

            1. MJI Silver badge

              Re: Custom Chips

              Here are 4 custom console chips which are well known, Cell, RSX, Xenon, Xenos

          2. Levente Szileszky

            Re: Bored

            "PC build costs will rise as PC gaming declines and becomes the expensive niche "

            Err, no, actually PC gaming is one of the FASTEST GROWING SEGMENT, thanks to digital delivery services like Steam. PC is also ALWAYS far ahead of any console and the lack of kb+mouse for console games pretty much leaves us, original FPS players (age 40+) with no choice but staying on PC...

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Keyboard mouse yawn

              "PC is also ALWAYS far ahead of any console and the lack of kb+mouse for console games pretty much leaves us, original FPS players (age 40+) with no choice but staying on PC..."

              You're still living in the tech demo twitch shooting era. Firstly, ever since the year dot there has been more to consoles than pushing x amount of polygons, and for Platformers and arcade games PCs were a joke. Second, Keyboard and mouse is the worst possible tool to feel involved in a shooting game.It is unrealistic, zero feedback,no analogue movement, and too accurate.

              Today's shooters deserve a new controller like driving games have steering wheel and pedals with force feedback. It's people like you holding the genre back.

              Goldeneye on the N64 is held in very high regard for good reason, it wasn't until HalfLife that the PC had something that could be classed as ground braking, after the Quake yawn fests and tech demos that followed.

              1. Goat Jam

                Re: Keyboard mouse yawn

                "You're still living in the tech demo twitch shooting era."

                Whereas you are living in the lazy-ass auto-aim shooting era.

                If you don't believe me then ask yourself what would happen if Battlefield servers weren't divided between console's and PC's.

                The answer is that if you mixed them up then the console kids would get their arses handed to them by the PC players (probably even if they were allowed to keep their godawlful autoaim assist, which on PC would (rightly so) open you up to accusations of hacking").

                "no analogue movement"

                Are you trying to suggest that using a mouse does not provide analog movement?

                Why do juvenile console people always have to get on the interwebs and go around belittleing PC gamers? Don't you think that having been playing PC and console games since the 1980's we might already know how to suck eggs and that your puerile brand loyalty is really not going to do much to impress us?

                "Second, Keyboard and mouse is the worst possible tool to feel involved in a shooting game"

                Now you are just being ridiculous. As if moving a cursor with a thumbstick to the approximate position of a target and letting autoaim do the rest is the pinnacle of "involvement". 'tis but to larf

                1. MJI Silver badge

                  Re: Keyboard mouse yawn

                  Well after playing KBM & controller then have their plus and minus points.

                  Mouse better to aim.

                  Controller better to move around.

                  Motion controls were a good idea with FPSs on Wii and PS3 with Move.

                  Pity they have been abandoned for the new generation and yes Guerilla Games I am pointing at you!

              2. Levente Szileszky

                Re: Keyboard mouse yawn

                "You're still living in the tech demo twitch shooting era."

                Ouch, you don't know much about FPS games, I can tell - twitch is typically popular among 16-20 years old people, they have much faster reflexes and they tend to not to think much; just look at Call of Dumb-series, it's all about them.

                No, the 40+ populace is quite the opposite, we rely on skillset and teamwork, thinking ahead. Some people I know actually went even further and now only fire up tactical shooters (Arma-series and alikes) but not all of us have hours and hours for one round so we stick with older, team-oriented games (eg older Battlefield-games - unfortunately DICE completely screwed us beginning with BF3 so it's over for BF.)

                "Second, Keyboard and mouse is the worst possible tool to feel involved in a shooting game.It is unrealistic, zero feedback,no analogue movement, and too accurate and too accurate."

                Hahaha, PRICELESS, it's really awesome - thanks for making my point about skilless console crowd whining cluelessly ("no analogue" - with a mouse! :D) about having to learn things in order to avoid becoming cannon fodder.... :)

                ...relax, just lay back on your couch and keep turning around with your controller without any hurry, no worries, they will never let us (older) PC gamers onto your server because you would quit playing games in tears after a few nights. :D

          3. silent_count

            Re: Bored

            @Van: I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at. I'm not aware of any stage where a console has had more, for the lack of a better description, 'polygon pushing ability' than a decent gaming PC of the same era.

            My point though is that, in terms of 'polygon pushing ability', consoles > phones the same way that PCs > consoles. But even though gaming PC are technically 'better' at running games, consoles are good enough for most people. I also thing were soon reaching the stage where phones will also be good enough at playing games for many people, and that will eat into console sales.

            @Mark: Regarding the "can't be arsed plugging it in" factor, you're surely right. I'd suggest something like Miracast to use the TV's screen to play games but the latency probably isn't low enough.

            As for the types of games, I wasn't thinking designed-for-phone games like angry birds, more something like MAME (I know there's a port for Android, I think iOS too).

            1. Van

              Re: Bored

              If a phone becomes better than a console at pushing polygons, then the phone ability inside the device will be stripped out of the device and you have a cheap small console that will probably insert directly into an HDMI port. Then we will also need console controllers, steering wheel pedals etc, as touch screen gaming is shit.

              Humans evolved to use tools, which is why some gamers will actually prefer using at least a stylus than poking and prodding with a finger.

            2. Van

              Re: Bored

              "Van: I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at. I'm not aware of any stage where a console has had more, for the lack of a better description, 'polygon pushing ability' than a decent gaming PC of the same era."

              @silent_count

              Which bit of 'consoles had custom graphics and sound chips before the PC' dont you understand?

              I think you're struggling because you either think PC gaming started in 2002 or you've only ever played games that needed to push a lot of polygons. Or perhaps youve confused the PCs higher resolutions available to meaning graphically superior? In which case I'll give you Arcade games, particularly the polygon shifters from Sega in 93, again with custom built boards designed to play games, not business applications.

              I remember when a PC had no output for sound and no PCI slots. The best upgrade was a 16 Bit sound card, it was pricey and plugged into the lone ISA slot. This was around the SNES era, there were no gaming PCs. Super Mario World and Super Tennis just couldn't be done on the PC.

              You've got to accept that microprocessor evolution wasn't exclusively designed to be used by the PC. In the mid 80s arcade boards, Sega were using 2 x 68000 CPUs, with a Z80 and an additional Yamaha chip for sound. in 1992 Sega went to Lockheed Martin for help with 3D. In 1993 they went to Intel for a 25MGHZ CPU and 5 graphics co-processors from Fujitsu.

              This was all before Doom appeared on the PC let alone PCI slots and 3D cards. At this time, Consoles were being designed with custom processors for graphics sound at a low price point for the mass consumer to play similar games to the arcades and they did a very good job.

              I'll reiterate for you, SNES, PS1, N64, Dreamcast all had games the PC couldn't touch at the time, yes they were all held back by the TV's low resolution, but that didn't stop them being good in areas that mattered.

              Nintendo even added a 3D accelerator, co developed with Argonaut , to each cartridge at the end of the SNEs era, again before PCi slots and 3D cards on the PC.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Take the figures with a pinch of salt

    1m sales in 24 hours makes a good headline but we are actually looking at over 3 months worth of sales due to the pre-ordering system.

    Also that 0.4% failure rate could be higher as there will be a significant number of PS4s that won't be opened until Christmas day.

    We won't really see how successful any console is until six months after release when the initial hype has dies down and there's good stock replenishment.

    Just a side note, Sony have stated they lose money on each PS4 but are profitable if its bought with an additional game and controller so it may take a while before the PS4 helps Sony's profit line.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Take the figures with a pinch of salt

      They will surely sell alot of cameras too, the voice commands work properly (compared to the partially working Xbox system), and the PlayRoom demo on US TV recently was totally awesome.

      That's a system seller for many right there.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Take the figures with a pinch of salt

        Works properly? C'mon, it can open some apps not all of them, can't switch the machine on and can't navigate between menus, that's less functionality than the 360's kinect. The Playroom looks fun but all the major sites who've reviewed it have said its four tech demoes that gets boring quickly.

        At $60 with no games, no functionality outside of some token commands and a facial recognition system that wont recognise your face without a controller in your hand its a waste of money. Lets also not forget Sony's track record for supporting extra hardware, anything outside of an additional dual shock 4 is a wasted purchase.

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Re: Take the figures with a pinch of salt

          And the voice control is not that good on X1 either, turns off your TV when you ask it to turn on.

          Switches to another profile it they walk in front of the camera.

          Quits a game and does not save if it miss hears your TV channel name for a game name.

          None are perfect.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Take the figures with a pinch of salt

        "the voice commands work properly (compared to the partially working Xbox system"

        The Xbox One's voice control is far more sophisticated and effective than the PS4s - and it copes with varied accents and background noise far better. It has on Kinect processing too - so there is hardly any CPU load on the Xbox One for this functionality...

  12. John H Woods Silver badge

    MattEvansC3: "Also that 0.4% failure rate could be higher as there will be a significant number of PS4s that won't be opened until Christmas day."

    You might want to refresh that bit about sample sizes from Statistics 101. Even if 90% of those million PS4s are under the tree, the sample size tested would be 100k units, with 400 failures. Even that that gives you high confidence that the failure rate of the full 1M units will be 0.4% to 1 significant figure. (My maths is a bit rusty but I make the 99% confidence interval 0.351 to 0.449).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And you might want to apply real world distribution into your Statistics 101 class.

      DOA hardware faults aren't random throughout the units, faulty hardware or workmanship generally occurs within a batch. You will likely see no hardware faults in a few batches and then a high number of hardware faults in a single batch. Due to how products are distributed ahd shipped faulty batches stay together so it is very common to see faults constrained to chains instead of being evenly distributed.

      Now if those faulty units were sent to somewhere like GameStop that would have a higher number of day one users then the overall fault rate would be lower. If the faulty system were sent to Toys R Us which would have a larger number of parents buying PS4s to be opened on Christmas the overall fault rate would be higher.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Some faults will be cause by damage in transit.

        1. asdf

          >Some faults will be cause by damage in transit.

          ie. the six dollar an hour seasonal temp warehouse drone (even Walmart contracts this stuff out to avoid having more true employees) fresh out prison being his usual careful self with the man's stuff.

  13. Herby

    Recent Adverts on US TV...

    There is a company flogging "convertible" laptops that double as both touch and traditional laptops. The babe hawking them is posed as a paramedic, and admits to needing a laptop for homework, but uses the touch for "XBox and Twitter. I didn't know that you could use a normal laptop for "Xbox". Maybe if they can use a laptop for PS4 that might have something.

    It seems to me that as more and more things are going "portable", the need for dedicated game consoles is going down and down these days.

    So, slowly the game consoles will be less and less relevant. It is already happening to desktops. Maybe the folks at Sony could make up a special SD card that you could plug into a laptop and make it a PS5 or some such. Of course it would make them lose control of the $$$ stream they get for the games published that use their game console, but...

    p.s. I always thought gaming was a real poor thing to do on a computer. Then again I'm an old fashioned kinda guy (now where is that copy of Spacewar?).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Recent Adverts on US TV...

      Gaming in Windows8 and WP8 comes under the Xbox brand.

      1. Levente Szileszky

        Re: Recent Adverts on US TV...

        "Gaming in Windows8 and WP8 comes under the Xbox brand."

        Only if you are really high on the Ballmerian Kool-Aid - because nobody else considers gaming on a Pc running Windows 8 to have anything to do with Xbox, at least not a sane person.

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Re: Recent Adverts on US TV...

          Err PC gaming comes under Steam

  14. Sheep!

    1 million sold on day 1!!

    999,999 returned bricked on day 2...

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