The volume they print discs in, like the publishing books, means that it costs next to nothing, pennies, so there is no real savings in digital distribution. Also they don't want to undercut the shops and causing friction with the retail sector.
Will you be getting a PS4 or an Xbox One ?
- Thread starter Relayer1
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I'll almost certainly end up getting both systems, although neither at launch. I have a massive backlog of 360 and PS3 games that I've sworn to clear out before moving on to the next generation.
I'll probably wait until some time next year and I wouldn't be surprised if I pull the trigger on the PS4 first. I own a Vita and am very interested in the integrated functionality with the handheld.
I'll probably wait until some time next year and I wouldn't be surprised if I pull the trigger on the PS4 first. I own a Vita and am very interested in the integrated functionality with the handheld.
^^^ Agreed. If I were to get a new console (I'm not at this point, but if I were), I never get the first version of anything. Wait until all the bugs are worked out of the hardware and software for a few months to a year. By then it should be a relatively robust system.
I still remember the reveal press conference for the original XBox from many years ago. It got the blue screen of death in front of the whole world. And, IIRC, this was after MS publicly stated that XBox was not running a Windows kernel inside it. D'oh!
I still remember the reveal press conference for the original XBox from many years ago. It got the blue screen of death in front of the whole world. And, IIRC, this was after MS publicly stated that XBox was not running a Windows kernel inside it. D'oh!
Most of my gaming these days is done on the 360, but as it stands now I might switch to the PS4.
I'm in no real hurry to make the upgrade though. Most of the upcoming titles I'm interested in are either current gen or both. I'll probably give it a year. If Microsoft comes to their senses and backs off on their creepy assed big brother nonsense, I'll reconsider.
I'm in no real hurry to make the upgrade though. Most of the upcoming titles I'm interested in are either current gen or both. I'll probably give it a year. If Microsoft comes to their senses and backs off on their creepy assed big brother nonsense, I'll reconsider.
That's how it works on Steam. And that's how it should work on the Xbox One, but it won't.
Well, as Sony has demonstrated in the past, even the big guys fall. It happened to Sony when they had been big the previous generation, and it can happen to MS. There's no such thing in an industry as too big to fail. It all comes down to how they market them, the PR, and word of mouth. Even Nintendo got a little too confident with their Wii U after the success of the Wii. They didn't market it properly and look at what happened. The winds can change swiftly.
Third-console-itis. Sega did it with the Saturn, Nintendo did it with the 64, Sony with the PS3 now MS with the Xbox One.
Hah, I hadn't even looked at it that way, but you're right. Interesting how they've all been 3rd generation.
Famicom was just the original name for the NES. SNES was Super Famicom.
Odd, most references I've found differentiate the two. That makes the N64 the third, which was also a pretty solid console.
Decent console, so is the PS3 but they got over confident and insisted on cartridges which drove up costs and limited storage space, drive up production costs and alienating customers and developers.
Famicom was the Japanese version of the NES, they were promoted more as a family computer, when it became the NES for western audiences it was advertise as a games machine mostly for kids, which is where the distinction probably comes in.
What is Xbox One doing with DRM that Steam (the only choice for playing most major games on PC nowadays thanks to Steamworks) isn't already doing as restrictive or more so?PPS: you should have another poll option: "I'm a PC Gamer"
Yeah technically the 64 was second place for that generation. Nintendo's decline was less catastrophic and more gradual so they didn't hit their nadir til the 'cube.
Overconfidence seems to totally screw over whoever is on top. Without Microsoft we'd be screwed over big time by Sony. Now Sony is the underdog, and the underdog always tries harder and delivers more.I think MS is gonna hurt hugely from this move. It's their "599 US Dollars" moment.
I voted switching to PS4 as my primary(Have PS3 but 360 is my primary console for non-exclusives). However most of Sony's exclusives never interested me, and I may just never upgrade. I've got every major console since the NES and ebay has plenty of games for me to buy still.
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I'm a Sony supporter all the way, and will eventually pick up the PS4, although I won't trade in my PS3 in order to do so, as I still have a HUGE amount of games to experience on the console. The first game I get once I DO pick up a PS4 is probably going to be FFXV, BTW, as I'm a huge fan of that series and the game looks freaking awesome.
I also still have a PS2, which I'll never get rid of either, even though I don't actually play it much any more (although I really ought to).
I also still have a PS2, which I'll never get rid of either, even though I don't actually play it much any more (although I really ought to).
Again, I'm not saying that the N64 was a bad console, nor the PS3. Just that it seems on their third consoles all console makers seem to get over-confident and do something stupid.
Put yourself in the CEO seat of any company in the world that can distribute their product digitally and ohysically (most likely video, software, music and such). Would you lower the prices to the exact same amount you save on producing the physical product?
If you did you'd be fired by the board of directors.. period. Any company is solely in the market to maximize its profits and it's an art form the find the sweet spot between price and sold volume.. charge too much and customers will leave so you end up with less revenue. Charge too little and you may get a flood of new customers but you will still not make enough profit because of the low price (and raise prises and customers might leave again).
With videogames the market is even smaller.. you have 2 (if you count Nintendo 3) major companies and prices have settled to a rough equivalent. Why would you lower prices when you know the customer can't switch easily to the competitor because he would need his specialized equipment first (and only a small fraction of gamers really own both consoles). So he'll either quit gaming (very unrealistic) or pay your prices through clenched teeth.
A simple equation and you'd need put in active work to drive away your customer once you have him.
Sony didn't fall.. they just got a competitor with very deep pockets and the will to make it in the videogaming indústry because it is a huge business. MS too deep hits to their pockets in the first and second generation of Xbox (first was to establish itself in the market and the 360 because of the insane volume of RROD problems).
Sony also gambled and fumbled the ball a bit during the PS3 generation.. very high initial price and the uncertainty where the HD race would end up (luckily it went Blu Ray or the PS3 might have tanked hard). However Sony was protected to a degree by market recognition.. Playstation is a brand name even so far that some people who have absolutely no idea abiut videogaming refer to any console as a Playstation. This built in audience helped Sony keep up with Microsoft who admittedly rolled out some pretty good games for their Xbox franchise and quickly caught uo with Sony who had 2 generations of console experience before MS started.
Steam has an offline mode, the Xbox One effectively doesn't. The Xbox One is also region-locked and apparently will not function outside of the 21 countries supported at launch. This is particularly absurd in Europe where only 12 EU states are supported, so if I were to purchase an XBO and bring it with me to Portugal for whatever reason, the games would no longer work.
Some of the stuff on the XBO sounds like an improvement over the likes of Steam, particularly the family sharing stuff, but I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop on that. MS have been so vague on how that would work that it's hard not to conclude that there's some major restrictions that will go along with that, or they're still trying to figure out how to implement it themselves. Either way, I would like the ability to share my Steam library somehow, so I hope Value get pressured into doing something like that.
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I hear Valve have been working on a trade-in system for Steam, where effectively you give up a license to a game for a discount or gift your license to someone else. Haven't heard anything about it in a while though. Right now it seems you can only trade if you have more than one copy of a game.
