Playstation 4

    Hehe, some pretty big wins for Sony there. Destiny and Diablo 3. A bit disappointed that they didn't show the actual machine, but I guess it's too early, even if it launches up to the holidays.

    My highlights were probably The Witness and Watchdogs~

    Only watched the Killzone trailer but it's impossible to deny that looked fucking amazooooong. It's not so much these launch videos that excite me, but the fact that so much hardware power is going to be available to developers. I'm still reeling from the epic city vistas in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, so if that's what they can squeeze out of 2006 hardware I'm practically jizzing myself imagining how good a Deus Ex sequel could look. Watch Dogs looks about as close to that as we're getting for now though, although I've not seen the newer video.

    I'm also delighted to see that the controller matches the leaks. Still the classic shape we know and love, but with some ergonomic refinements and built-in Move.

    It's actually the Move stuff that excites me most of all, I think it's going to seriously change how accuracy-based games like shooters are experienced on consoles, as well as finally open up genres like RTS and simulations — genres I suspect would still be popular if they were actually playable on consoles. There's a distinct chunk of the gaming space that's disappeared due to consoles' stranglehold on which kinds of games get serious funding. Things like Black & White. Plus with people surely getting a certain degree of shooter fatigue it's a good time to do it.

    Disclaimer: I haven't watched the entire conference. I've watched the demos of Killzone 4, The Witness and Watchdogs - which was the only one of the three that got me a little excited (that is hardly SONY's accomplishment though). Everything I've seen and read so far is leaving me unimpressed. Too little has been said about how open the platform is actually going to be for developers who wish to self-publish, Gaikai seems to be more like an afterthought that won't be ready for quite a while, no specifics on free2play, just incremental improvements to the controller and a video-sharing functionality that is already a reality on mobile. But the graphics are gonna be amazing right?

    Good interview here:

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-…-yoshida-on-ps4

    Quote

    Eurogamer: One of the questions my readers really want an answer to is whether you're going to block the use of second-hand or 'used' games, because it's a huge concern for them.Shuhei Yoshida: Do you want us to do that?

    Eurogamer: No. I think if you buy something on a disc you have a kind of moral contract with the person you've bought it from that you retain some of that value and you can pass it on. Do you agree?

    Shuhei Yoshida: Yes. That's the general expectation by consumers. They purchase physical form, they want to use it everywhere, right? So that's my expectation.

    Eurogamer: So if someone buys a PlayStation 4 game, you're not going to stop them reselling it?

    Shuhei Yoshida Aaaah. [Asks PR adviser.] So what was our official answer to our internal question? [Consults adviser.] So, used games can play on PS4. How is that?

    Quote

    Eurogamer: [At this point I'm hassled to wrap things up, so I asked for one more question.] Recently a lot of small or medium sized developers have moved away from home consoles to Steam or iOS or Android. What are you doing to bring them back? Is the self-publishing thing an example of that?Shuhei Yoshida: Yes, that's a big part - a digital platform. There are many things we can do better to make it much more developer-friendly, instead of publishing on PlayStation Network, so it's more our focus - how we can make it easier for small developers to work with us to bring the content to PlayStation 4.

    Eurogamer: Have you defined how the self-publishing process will work? Do you need a developer kit to develop for PS4 if it's based on PC architecture?

    Shuhei Yoshida: So we are doing something like that with PlayStation Mobile and it's purely software development.

    Eurogamer: So it will be possible to develop for PS4 even if you don't have a developer kit as well?

    Shuhei Yoshida: Aaah, so we have to see... It depends on how we define the layer. The way we are approaching PS4 now is allowing developers to go really deep onto the metal, so Richard [Leadbetter of Digital Foundry] will know how that availability to the deeper hardware makes the console games way better than some PC or mobile approach. But if we do that, it will definitely require hardware to develop games.

    Quote from dux

    So a bad RPG and a generic FPS?

    You guys are easy.

    I think we're all seasoned enough to know that it's not really the launch titles that're important. They're rarely a good representation of what will come later, which in the PlayStation's case is almost certainly going to be awesome, creative IPs backed up by solid, high-quality hardware.

    In some ways I personally just wanted validation that Sony aren't going to jump the shark and do some retarded Nintendo-esque release. As usual they're prioritising a hard push forward in terms of technical capability, which of course leads to many things beyond shinier graphics. Plus a mouse-like pointer being built into the pad, which I find a much more tantalising prospect than the Kinect-based shit I'm expecting Microsoft to showcase.

    Those two things are more than enough to start an exciting new generation IMO, unlike Nintendo's attempt with the Wii U which is already starting to look hilariously misguided now we've seen what Sony's aiming for.

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