Progress! Turns out that what’s next is what’s now. After watching two big press conferences for two big consoles (Xbox One and PS4), it looks like the future is being decided by the present.
It’s still early, yes. But the knee jerk to Microsoft’s Xbox One, and all that it entails, is severe. Whether it’s the mandatory 24-hour online check in or the fee to sell used games, there’s much to churn a gamer’s stomach. It is all rather unsettling and unpleasant. Many don’t like the direction Microsoft is heading!
This isn’t about fanboys or fangirls. This is a very simple choice between the Xbox One and the PS4 that goes way beyond mere (and rather stupid) corporate allegiances. One console offers things many gamers want. The other offers stuff that many games do not want. That’s it in a duck press.
Here’s the funny thing: Two of the biggest things gamers want, they already have. You can sell and play used games, without registration or fees. You don’t need to play online, which is certainly a godsend for those with shit internet connections, whether they are at home or stationed abroad. Then, there’s the region free feature — something importers and expats very much care about.
So far, it sounds like the PS4 checks those boxes. But in most cases, those are boxes that the current gen already ticks. These are features we already have, and things we can already do. The future feels strangely like the present — or better yet, the past.
Gamers are a nostalgic lot. So many gaming memories are tied to one’s life. But this isn’t about nostalgia. This is about consumer rights, the ability to freely do what you want with the things you know, and not having a corporate body monitor what you are doing. I don’t want that. Do you?
When we look back on this generation of game consoles, hopefully we’ll realise how lucky we were. Until recently, we haven’t. We’ve taken things for granted. But let me tell you, we’ve had it good. Damn good.
Comments
20 responses to “Next-Gen Is So Far Being Won By Crap You Can Already Do”
According to this video I can type messages almost instantly with my mind:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/see-the-ps4s-game-swapping-share-button-menu-and-chat-in-action/
It’s about the games, not the hardware.
I’m a PC gamer through and through, and I hate most MMOs with the very notable exception of DayZ. Even for that, I will buy a PS4 for The Division if Ubisoft decides not to do a PC release. I think that says a lot about how amazing that game looks.
Ubisoft usually does PC releases for all their games…
I’m wondering how many games we wont get on PC in the first years or so….that in thease early days consoles are trying to get as many exclusives as possible (not sure how true that is)
I also hate the insinuation that PC gaming=WOW and farmvillie……sure those are the PC games unique features but it has pretty much everything else too (except the usual exclusives)
I agree. The PC does have all the “features” of the consoles, with plenty of more grunt. I think that in the years to come, the PC will be the place to go for people after that more traditional gaming experience. There will be the console exclusives, but as time goes on, I feel that concurrent releases on all platforms will be necessary to get as much revenue with these games as possible. By that time as well, the Hardware available for the PC will increase and their relative costs will reduce. Once the mist settles after these things launch, I think the PC will come out ahead for sure.
How many gamers will put their money where their mouth is and not actually go out and buy one?
People bitch and complain but are still more then happy for Microsoft to keep jumping on their heads.
it can;t be THAT hard not to buy a console can it? I mean its not like Diablo 3 or ME3 where you have to go without….you actually have CHOICES when it comes to a platform
Than*.
thought at first you were trying to say something else.
I definitely wont be getting Xbone thanks to the reveals and confirmation over the past few day.
I do own a 360. 2 in fact and am happy with them. Though looking at the release of 360 and ps3. The directions they’d been going I can say that ps4 will be my next console. it will take a lot to get me to buy a Xbone. All these offers are nothing than cover ups.
like with ea free game thing on SimCity ‘gift’ for being sorry, how many of those games had dlcs that people would purchase later? Seems like Ms is doing similar stuff.
This is it. Speak with your wallet. Do NOT give these guys the money. We as consumers CAN decide what we want and it will make them change if their profits change. I am a massive fan of the Xbox but have not even entertained the idea of getting a Xbone. I am doing my little bit. I can only hope others do the same.
I just hope there are more RPG games this generation, that’s all
I find this piece to be confusing. Is there even a point to it? It kind of felt like it was heading off in one direction, but then just turned around and sat down instead.
I already have a PC, and Microsoft appears to be offering a system which brings all the negatives of PC gaming without providing many of the positive aspects. I own both consoles this generation, but Ill only be getting the PS4 this time around.
I tend to agree. This is the state of gaming right now. One of the things I find bewildering about the xbone is that many of it’s features are effectively installed in newer TV’s, which is why I think Sony isn’t talking about the TV stuff at all.
Microsoft pushed this so much over the last few months that it has become a factor in marketing. If Microsoft didn’t put forth that they are using this DRM system and online check ins, then you wouldn’t have seen word one from Sony about doing what they have done before. Microsoft dug themselves a grave, Sony just pushed them in and filled the grave with dirt.
If the future is digital distribution then you can’t trade in or lend games anyway. If the biggest competitive market lies in cheap digital games, they’ll all have DRM, Sony and MS both. But if the future stays rooted in disc games for a long whole that’ll change things too.
Although MS has some strict DRM and always online, there is the benefit of disc-less play, having day one digital downloads that share across consoles and accounts and you only need one gold subscription for an entire console (that’ll save me money). I’m not sure if Sony will match that. Sony absolutely caught MS right in the chin with the opening punch but there’s still so many punches to be swung in this fight and it’ll be going on for years to come.
Welp, i just did some research and found the xbox 360 controllers aren’t compatible with xbone.
So both of my $150+ arcade sticks, that talk to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 will NOT work with the new console. For no reason. It’s all USB connectors!
So I’m out. I’m just out. I’m a PC man for serious gaming from now on. I just can’t handle the console ‘new generation, so all new stuff needing to be purchased, that does exactly the same thing as the old stuff, just because we want you to buy more stuff’.
I mean, there’s getting screwed, and there’s getting screwed into the ground!
Here’s a point noone has considered. Jack Tretton has said that first party titles are not subject to a reselling fee. However, third party publishers have the ability to decide whether they want to charge retailers to resell their games. Which means that the mechanism for doing what Microsoft is doing with the Xbox One exists in the Playstation ‘ecosystem’, whether they’re inclined to use it or not.
Whatever, right? If it’s consumer rights you care about, it’s still an interesting situation. They could change this policy any time they like (subject to EULA). They could also monitor the habits of lending, buying and selling games and trade that information with whoever they like. If being told what to do is your concern, that’s no problem. If being monitored and watched is your concern, it might still be.
Yeah people seem to miss this. It’s the identical policy to Microsoft, the only exception being is they sold themselves better on stage, appearing to pander to the masses. When in reality they are effectively taking the same approach.
Sony do however tick the box by announcing that you are not required to go online every 24hrs. This in itself isn’t a big deal in my opinion. Microsoft from the start of the Xbox 360 made it clear that they always intended to make their box more then just a gaming machine. Which is fine as they showed in their presentation that they can still pull the games, but again it’s about how they communicate this to the people.
Microsofts core audience are gamers, yet their presentations are delivered to people outside this realm, and all they do is alienate gamers. Most mums and dads that don’t know about the wonderful things the xbone will be able to do, won’t go and buy one to have an entertainment box, they’ll by it for little Johnny who plays games. BUT it’s through little Johnny and other gamers (avg age is like 34) that their product will be endorsed and sold by word of mouth.
All companies that are genuinely against used games need to provide incentives to buy new physical and/or digital copies. Digital is the future, but that doesn’t mean you have to force it on people like DRM, give people options. Give price incentives on a digital product, or future proof a new game sale by offering free DLC outside of retail incentives. DRM isn’t the way.
I’m not down on MS because all they do is present their message wrong. What I can get upset about is that they seemly do this because they are arrogant about their position. But in saying that we feed them as a consumer, because we just buy their stuff anyway.
If neither had exclusives I’d stick with my PC, but I’m here for games.
This isn’t about “crap you can already do”, it’s about “crap you can do now, but soon you won’t”.
Sony doesn’t get points for doing what it already does. Sony gets points for not going down the DRM route, when there is clearly temptation to do so.
All that applause at E3 wasn’t for them doing something cool, it was for them NOT doing something terrible.
PC is the biggest winner here at the moment.
I don’t see the point of this article either. The reason why we don’t want change from the current-gen in terms of used games is because it doesn’t really need to be changed. Why change when it’s fine as it is?