ANALYSIS: Sony gets its swagger back with PS4

March 4th, 2013, 22:20 Posted By: wraggster

‘But what did the console look like?’
That was the frequently asked question in the wake of last week’s PS4 press conference. For some critics, ten new games, a new controller, a Kinect-style camera, the full specs and an abundance of cloud services wasn’t quite enough.
“There seems to be a disproportionate amount of noise about the lack of a box and I really don’t get it,” a perplexed Jim Ryan, who heads up PlayStation in Europe, told MCV the day after the New York reveal.
“It was more important to describe what the device is capable of, rather than what it looks like.”
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot – who revealed the Watch Dogs for PS4 live on stage – was sympathetic to Sony’s decision to hold the design back. “Sony can’t show everything on the first day or they won’t have anything else for later on,” he tells us.
But despite the omission, Sony’s New York show offered us plenty to dissect, discuss and debate.
From the off Sony pitched PS4 as a games machine. This was about the ‘future of play.’ Movie and music services were relegated to a fleeting reference. Compare that to Microsoft’s ‘entertainment’ message, where Xbox now stands for music and video, plus games.
“That was a very conscious decision,” Ryan says. “There will be a comprehensive suite of non-game services for music and video.
“But the emphasis is on PS4 as a gaming device. And that philosophy has gone into the heart of how we designed the machine.”
The more Sony’s press conference went on, the more PS4 revealed itself as more like a PC than your typical home console.
It is built using PC components, boasts indie developer support, has a wealth of cloud features and social options, and can host free-to-play and episodic games. PS4 is so much like a PC that even Blizzard is making games for it.
“PS4 has taken everything that the PC and mobile has,” says Guillemot. “Social is possible, we can update, we can have user-generated content, we can have people seeing other people playing, you can have eSports. All those elements are what we wanted to see on the new consoles, on-top of better graphics and so forth.
“But it’s more than a PC under the TV. It’s a machine that will be the same for everyone. The software is well adapted to your machine, and it’s easy to use and it won’t be too expensive.”

There are 1 comments - Join In and Discuss Here