Sony brags: We've hit over 2 MEELLION PS4 console 'sales' worldwide Proud-as-Punch PlayStation purveyor Sony has cheerfully revealed it has sold more than two million PS4s around the globe. The new-generation console went on sale in the States and Canada on 15 November, and in Europe and Australasia this past Friday. The first 24 hours saw “more than one million gamers” pick up one of the …
I'm still a bit puzzled as to what either console bring to the gaming table over their ageing forebears. At least with the 360 and PS3 they offered HD visuals aways from a PC, and the latter had a Blu Ray drive. Aside from a motion camera that appear to actually notice human beings and a touch pad on a controller, neither of the monolithic slabs of plastic are particularly compelling.
So huge congrats to both companies for selling such a large number of machines despite all of this.
The UI i more fluid, and ability to suspend games and do something else, then resume from where you left off is very neat. Voice control works well enough, but like the Xbox, ultimately a gimmick (although Sony didn't need to push this ability as much as Microsoft needed to).
Sony got the hardware and built spot on, they just need to work on the software some more. Missing DLNA and MP3 support is due in the next update according to Sony.
I hope that also includes a way to share videos to something other than Facebook (which I don't use).
They could also do with fixing the very buggy HDMI audio capabilities detection. 5.1 doesn't work over HDMI for me, the PS4 thinks it's connected to a 2CH amp, not a 7.1CH one. Had to use an optical lead to get that to work. Aside form that niggle, which will get sorted quickly I suspect, the whole experience is amazing. The free games from PS+ are a nice touch if you don't want to jump aboard the launch lineup.
I bought now, simply because it's not going to see a price drop until late into 2014, so I may as well pay £350 now, rather than £350 later and have an extra year's ownership of it. All game purchases are now PS4 only for me. I might fire up PS3 to use PS+ game freebies, but it now makes no sense to buy PS3 versions of games.
Also the PS4 can now install far more of the game on the hard disk for faster loading times.
Any updates can be applied while you're not using the console, so no more waiting to play while you watch the progress bar crawl across the screen.
Also as i understand it, downloads from the online store are like Blizzard's game installer - it only needs to install a set percentage of the game before it lets you start going. So while you're working your way through the first level, it's taking the time to download the rest of teh graphics textures, movies, sounds, etc etc.
so yeah, nothing OHWOWOMGAMAZBALLS, but lots of small things that'll make the experience more enjoyable. or less annoying, if you like.
plus - Uncharted 4 ffs!!!
The install times on PS4 are simply amazing. 48 seconds before the game can be played. Typically 10+ minutes on the Xbone.... Kotaku have some timings.
The Xbone is going to really suffer in sales this gen, and the snowball effect will really kill them. People buy the console their mates have, and right now, most people have opted to go the PS4 route.
Yet more bad news for Microsoft who thought they had brainwashed gamers enough that they could charge a premium price for a product stuffed full of inferior components.
So you bought something that is missing bits and broken in some areas, but you are happy because you own it? Did you bump your head or something, or maybe you missed a round of pills?
So buying broken stuff now is a bargain as Sony 'promise' to fix it later. I've got a house to sell you, it is on a cliff, I promise to add bricks and mortar, running water and 'leccy in the next update. Enjoy!!
The really minor quirks are all in software and all non-gaming related, most are already confirmed for the next update. I'm glad Sony focused on getting gaming and hardware spot on, and followed up the other non-gaming software bits post-launch.
Compare that to the Xbox One hardware spec disaster, where they skimped by going DDR3 and a cheapo-GPU with 40% less pipelines than the PS4, and that' something that can't be fixed for the entire generation. Whatever gamers Microsoft are left with will be living in that house on a cliff for the next decade.
You house analogy is actually an Xbox One you are referring to.
Didn't Sony have a number of issues with the hardware and build, to an extent that it didn't actually do anything aside from look black and angular? I know all hardware launches have issues, but the mere presence of failures doesn't align with getting the hardware "spot on".
half a percent is next to nothing. It took PS3 a year and a half to get down to that rate. Seems like someone has trouble taking things they read on the internet into context...
With 2.5m consoles in consumers hands, even half a percent is a number of units that will generate enough Internet noise to keep any journalist in sensational media stories for a while.
You can bet alot of that noise is actually from Microsoft's viral armies anyway. I know plenty of PS4 gamers, and not one single report of a quirk.
What the iPhone was to smartphones. i.e., a run of the mill computing device with artificial restrictions and a huge marketing budget, aimed squarely at the type of consumer who looks for the 'any' key on the keyboard when they see the message 'press any key to continue'. It doesn't have to actually bring any technological advancements to the table, as long as the marketing drones keep saying that it is shinier, resolutionary, best device they have ever made, etc, the masses will line up to buy it.
Personally I would still stick to my computer to play any game at a decent resolution and would never buy a 'console' in a zillion years, but feel compelled to cheer Sony on this one simply because they seem to be giving M$ a run for their money.
"Personally I would still stick to my computer to play any game at a decent resolution and would never buy a 'console' in a zillion years"
This is the primary reason why many have 'upgraded' to the PS4 and whether its a PC or console, upping the resolution ain't what it used to be.
In the old days CRT TVs held the consoles back dramatically (Nintendo stubbornly held the Wii back with this excuse) but the graphical effects were still in there. I've just upgraded my PC and although I notice the difference being able to use AA on highest, the resolution jumps wern't worth the cost. Funnily enough, the new graphics card does come into its own emulating Wii games with enhanced visual quality. Some of the best rated games you've missed out on.
A friend recently bought a PS4. I asked him what the main USPs were, he said the menus were a bit faster.
Given that when I switch the PS3 or 360 on, the menus are usually the bit in between me booting and playing the game, I don't see them for more than a handful of seconds anyway. It wouldn't make me rush out and buy one.
However - Show me Fallout 4 with gorgeous textures at 1080i and I'll be first in the queue....
PS4 and XBone will probably not bring much new in terms of feature but the platforms needed a graphics bump anyway. Despite being marketed as HD consoles the PS3 and 360 were nothing of the sort - virtually all games were upscaled to proper 720p or 1080p resolutions from far lower resolutions and this made them look poor in comparison to PC versions. The new ones will, one would hope, be running games natively at 1920x1080 and should be able to maintain a decent FPS friendly framerate.
"In what is perhaps a tacit admission that its console isn’t finished product, House promised Sony will bring “new features and services to PS4 in the months and years ahead” and the device “will continue to evolve”."
I'm not sure it is an 'admission', as that implies something negative. It would perhaps be an admission if they were saying there will be no further development. Nobody realistically expects, or even desires, the initial product to be locked in to it's release spec. That these platforms are flexible enough to be developed considerably over time is a good thing I would think. Could they be more polished on release, sure, but this isn't a GameBoy we're talking about.
Was thinking about a PS4 but went for a PC upgrade instead seeing as PS+ has flooded my PS3 and Vita with more "free" games than I have time for. Don't need a 4th device clogged up with games I don't have time to play. Will get the PS4 when the price drops a bit more, but anyone with PS+ and no PS4 should make sure they "buy" the free PS4 games on the Playstation website so if/when you do get one, you will have a nice back catalogue of PS4 games built up.
"because they're essentially PCs now"
That's a bit unfair. PCs actually became more like consoles when they went to the PCI bus, opening the market for add-on custom 3D accelerated graphics. Custom gaming chips that Sega and Nintendo were already producing for consoles and arcade machines. Console makers are now just taking the cheap and easy options.
Consoles were initially a one-step affair. No Internet connection and no hard disk made for a very isolated console. The advantage of that situation was that there was no possibility for game makers to patch their games, so it had to be perfect on day one. Hard for the developer, but good for the consumer.
Now consoles are actually restricted PCs because they use the same hardware, have the same Internet connection and a hard disk, but they are restricted to only buying titles from the console maker's platform.
I read in these comments that people are really happy about the PS4 because now they can switch from the game to something else and go back to where they left off. In other words, they can now do what I've been doing on my PC since I bought XP. So consoles have finally caught up with practically 15 years of PC computing.
On top of that, I can get my games from anywhere. I am not beholden to EA, Origin, Steam or anyone in particular. I can play practically every game I have ever bought on my current PC - including many old, old games that now need an emulator because the hardware has changed so much since the original Populous.
Also, I can upgrade whatever portion of my PC I decide to. I can replace my 500GB with a 3TB disk now, and Windows will barely notice the difference. I have already slotted two SSDs, and my Windows performance - especially at boot time - has taken a bit kick in the rump.
Finally, I can game with a keyboard + mouse combo, something that is still alien to the limited world of consoles. I don't like console controllers. Left-Left-Up-Right-Down is a manipulation that holds absolutely no appeal to me compared to the smooth, controlled motion of the mouse.
I have really no inclination to go buy any console ever, and none of what I read about the latest generation has made the slightest dent in that fact.
Why should anyone be surprised Sony is promising new features in the coming months and years. What would be surprising if Sony said at launch "what you see is what you get, don't go whining for new stuff because we plan only fix bugs and never add any sort of additional functionality, no matter how the world changes over the next half decade".
The new features will likely be mostly/totally useless, as is always the case with anything that is or plugs into a TV - all of which are somehow required by law to at least do Netflix and Youtube, as near as I can tell, because if six ways to watch Netflix is good, nine ways is apparently better!
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