Maybe it's just me but this felt like a pure FUD announcement. Sony was last out of the gate last gen. Nintendo has released their console and I suspect when Microsoft announces a bit later this year it will be a full announcement with prices, ship dates and maybe even letting you see the actual console.
Sony basically showed a lot of movies of game footage and made promises.
In my opinion most consoles are screwed this generation. Nintendo is the only one interested in any sort of backward compatibility of both games or accessories. My going with a PC platform, they are basically saying go get a PC which at current pricing makes much more sense.
I suspect the PS4 will start at a minimum of $450. The new controllers will be a minimum of $60 each. Sony declared the new games will remain at $60 but of course everyone is now adding DLC for additional cost on many games. You are basically buying half the game for $60 and the extra "features" for another $25-40.
The model isn't sustainable. It's a dinosaur. Tablets and smartphones will kill it on the lower end and PC's will kill it on the higher end. People were able to stomach the prices last gen because a high end desktop gaming PC was well over a $1000 if done right and the consoles were largely moving to HD including blue-ray in the case of Sony.
Now, you can easily build/buy a desktop PC that will beat the specs for $500 and you can play any generation of PC games you want. On the low end the costs are a third or less of the consoles, you can play multiplayer via WIFI together and the games are $1-$5 each. Finally, even though the graphical jumps are supposed to be amazing, I don't think the typical layperson will be able to appreciate them. It feels like how Blue-ray has been caught between upconverting DVD players and streaming.
|