Today (February 20, 2013) Sony unveiled their new console, the PS4 coming Holiday 2013. Just in time for the Christmas rush be expected to see in the news of someone getting shot at the front door of a Best Buy. Surely online is the best option to go this year if you want to get your hands on the new Sony home console. As I watched the announcement meeting, one thing was going through my head, “Why should I care?” To be honest, I shouldn’t be caring, and neither should the gaming consumer. With the Wii U being out and gaining mixed reviews and the Xbox 360 having no leg to stand on, the PS3 still has at least 2 years of shelf life left. Not to mention the console is still relevant to gamers today. With exclusive AAA IP’s being developed for the 2006 console should Sony be focusing on the PS4? The answer is no.
Surely some would call the premature given the amount of information that was released but I will stand by my view on this. People should not be caring about the PS4 right now. Games like infamous: Second Son and Knack look like they are worth it; there are factors really need to be taken into account this holiday season. These factors involve taking a look back at the launch of the PS3. Think about it for a few minutes, there were plenty of games being announced during the time of the PS3, but how many of the real blockbusters they announced were released during the launch window? Not many, and even then, the game that really made the PS3 today was God of War 3 just like how Halo 3 made the 360.
Chances are games like Watch Dogs and Second Son will not be launch titles and as of right now, what else can companies make right now? More first person shooters? The market for new games right now in regards to Sony is a bit low. Final Fantasy Versus XIII and The Last Guardian are just two examples of games that have the PS3 owners clamoring for something new. Sure, Sony has been upping the ante with their indie titles but that only goes so far. The PS3 has that shelf life for 3 years as Sony said it would have a shelf life of 10 years. Sony needs to finish out the PS3 before they just have simple ports of everything like the PS2 did for the last 3 years of that age.
Quite frankly, Sony is jumping the gun on this PS4 thing. I understand why they are doing it, but I still think it is a terrible idea. They are going to rush this console, have a possible lack of launch titles, and it will be a preemptive disaster just like the PS3 launch. We saw this same rushed process from Microsoft and the 360 and it resulted in a 33% failure rate for launch consoles. Not to mention Microsoft bit off more than they could chew when they were announcing all the features the 360 would have, some coming out years after the features were announced.
All Sony is doing is getting people hyped up for the graphical power of the PS4, which is the only smart part about their marketing plan at this point. People no longer care about the quality of games, as long as Activision publishes it with Call of Duty as the prefix it will sell like hotcakes. This is an age where graphics mean everything and gameplay is last on the list. I will not lie, those graphics were pretty impressive, but playing a game for the graphics is like watching porn for the story. It is the actual experience that counts…(in hindsight maybe the porn comparison was not the best)
As of right now, there is no reason to be excited for the PS4, I am sure more will be revealed during E3 and PAX but people, contain your excitement. There is honestly nothing to be excited about. Maybe I am reading too much into the announcement, but the purpose of this article was to rant and rave about how preemptive the announcement was. The Electronic Entertainment Expo exists for a reason. Feel free to vent your thoughts in the comments if you feel the need to.
Comments