Playstation 4 Announced!

[Specially Cork]

Well they just
- undercut XBone by $100
- announced no online DRM
- announced no restrictions on pre-owned games

Absolutely brilliant.

[DaMadFiddler]

Sony just did to the Xbox what they did to the Saturn 20 years ago.

Also, they took something I was ready to write off completely, and made it surprisingly compelling.

I'm still frustrated by the complete lack of backwards compatibility... after all, Eva and I have poured tons of money into PS1, PS2, and PS3 games for our PlayStation 3, and backwards compatibility *used* to be an important part of PlayStation branding. But I went from zero interest to actually considering it.

There actually looks to be quite a good lineup of games in the works. I still can't shake the feeling that the vast majority of them could be made to run quite acceptably on the PS3, though.

[DaMadFiddler]

[Specially Cork]

For me, a WiiU + PS4/XBox is my ideal eventual setup, but Microsoft's policies were so extreme I was pretty much certain Sony would be on the same boat. I just can't buy into that.

For Sony to stand up there and state they're not following any of that and they support customer's property rights...that's just great news for me and the decision's been made.

[Juan]

Well, that was unexpected.
I'm always inclined to think big changes on the media industries were coordinated behind the stages, but it seems Sony had the best timing to put all the gamers in their pocket, simply by bringing "features" that were always taken for granted.
Here's to hoping they rape this gen and execs give credit to more fair consumer policies.

[melancholy]

Oh, they also announced the PS4 will be region free. So that's kind of a big deal.

[DaMadFiddler]

The PS3 was region-free as well. I never actually took advantage of that (most of the import-only games I'd want are for older systems, or require translation), but there it is.

One caveat to the above: Sony *is* leaving the door open for third parties to impose reuse restrictions. They're just not designing or enforcing such a scheme, and won't be doing it with their first-party titles.

[Specially Cork]

The PS3 was region-free as well. I never actually took advantage of that (most of the import-only games I'd want are for older systems, or require translation), but there it is.

One caveat to the above: Sony *is* leaving the door open for third parties to impose reuse restrictions. They're just not designing or enforcing such a scheme, and won't be doing it with their first-party titles.

They left the door open this gen too though really. The online-pass thing probably being the most obvious example. These things trickle down from the top though. Sony is a big player in the industry and they have made a very firm and clear pro-consumer stance regarding their own products.