Topic: PlayStation4 - News/Rumor/Speculation - Over 1 Million Sold on Day 1

[BranDonk Kong]

"The PS4 is selling terribly." - people on these forums

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11/14/playstation-4-continues-to-outpace-ps2-challenging-wii-for-fastest-selling-console

[Ceric]

Who said the PS4 was selling bad, except in Japan?

[BranDonk Kong]

People. Don't look for evidence, just assume it's true.

[Ian Sane]

The IGN article mentions analysts predicting the end of the console.  Like we have tablets and phones now so what do you need videogame consoles for?  That's such a non-gamer perspective.  The reality is that non-gaming machines aside from PCs are only suitable for casual fare.  The videogame market existed for decades before the blue ocean crowd came in so why can it not sustain itself on that pre-existing audience that was already buying games before Wii Sports and Angry Birds came around?  Try to play a GOOD game on a tablet and then try to argue we don't need consoles.

I think that's a big part of the PS4's success.  Consoles are for dedicated gamers.  Nintendo tried to recreate the Wii's mainstream success while MS is backpedaling off of a previously mandatory Kinect purchase, an accessory that only impressed casuals.  The casuals are gone.  They have their phones.  Sony saw that, the other guys didn't.  The PS4 really hasn't impressed me yet.  It doesn't turn me off either though.  It reminds me a lot of the PS1 era where Sony succeeded by simply being competent during a time the other guys were screwing up.

Here's something that's quite impressive: Sony has now bounced back from a screw up and could claim to be the only videogame company to truly do that.  They beat the old guard with the PS1, stayed on top with the PS2, slipped big time with the PS3 but managed to slowly rebuild their credibility by the end of the generation and appear to have made a complete comeback with the PS4.  Nintendo thinks they came back with the Wii but really just temporarily found a new audience while further destroying the flimsy standing they had with the traditional audience.  Sony has regained their old target audience after losing a fair chunk of them to Microsoft.  They actually learned from their mistakes, a concept that sounds simple and obvious in theory but is rarely executed correctly.  Of course the overall company of Sony is run by idiots but maybe that makes the PlayStation division's continued success all the more impressive.

[Ceric]

I'm still surprised by the strong selling of the PS4.  I've owned one from launch and now that they broke the perfectly functional Share Play I'm back to not really being able to recommend the PS4 over a PS3.

[RedBlue]

The IGN article mentions analysts predicting the end of the console.  Like we have tablets and phones now so what do you need videogame consoles for?  That's such a non-gamer perspective.  The reality is that non-gaming machines aside from PCs are only suitable for casual fare.  The videogame market existed for decades before the blue ocean crowd came in so why can it not sustain itself on that pre-existing audience that was already buying games before Wii Sports and Angry Birds came around?  Try to play a GOOD game on a tablet and then try to argue we don't need consoles.

I think that's a big part of the PS4's success.  Consoles are for dedicated gamers.  Nintendo tried to recreate the Wii's mainstream success while MS is backpedaling off of a previously mandatory Kinect purchase, an accessory that only impressed casuals.  The casuals are gone.  They have their phones.  Sony saw that, the other guys didn't.  The PS4 really hasn't impressed me yet.  It doesn't turn me off either though.  It reminds me a lot of the PS1 era where Sony succeeded by simply being competent during a time the other guys were screwing up.

Here's something that's quite impressive: Sony has now bounced back from a screw up and could claim to be the only videogame company to truly do that.  They beat the old guard with the PS1, stayed on top with the PS2, slipped big time with the PS3 but managed to slowly rebuild their credibility by the end of the generation and appear to have made a complete comeback with the PS4.  Nintendo thinks they came back with the Wii but really just temporarily found a new audience while further destroying the flimsy standing they had with the traditional audience.  Sony has regained their old target audience after losing a fair chunk of them to Microsoft.  They actually learned from their mistakes, a concept that sounds simple and obvious in theory but is rarely executed correctly.  Of course the overall company of Sony is run by idiots but maybe that makes the PlayStation division's continued success all the more impressive.

The question is will Sony still be around for the next gen.

[ObbyDent]

The question is will Sony still be around for the next gen.

ok sir

[Adrock]

Isn't Sony doing poorly in every division except video games? Barring an epic and historic collapse, Sony will most certainly be around next generation, but it better hope Nintendo and Microsoft don't suddenly figure out working strategies which doesn't seem terribly likely based on the way things stand currently, but I suppose you never know.

[NWR_insanolord]

Within the context of Ian's post it's a fair question. He said Nintendo came back with the Wii only to fall off again with the Wii U, while assuming Sony came back fully based on pretty much just a year. We don't know where Sony's going to be at this point next time around. A lot can happen in that span of time.

[RedBlue]

Yes, all the profit from the video game division was wiped out. They already sold their pc business and they announced they are making less TVs and less phones to try to loose less money.

[BranDonk Kong]

Next month's PS+ free games are pretty awesome. Actually every month it's pretty awesome. But anyway...

PS4:
Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition
Secret Ponchos
Titan Attacks!

PS3:
Hitman HD Trilogy
Deadly Promotion: Director's Cut
Titan Attacks!

Vita:
Final Horizon
Titan Attacks!

Next month PS4 gets Infamous: First Light and The Swapper for free.

[nickmitch]

Gheeze, why bother buying PS4 games at all?

[Khushrenada]

Gheeze, why bother buying PS4 games at all?

I know I don't! *Smile and JAZZ HANDS*

[RedBlue]

I wonder how much money the publisher gets for the "free"  games

[Ceric]

Gheeze, why bother buying PS4 games at all?

Destiny and Skylander Swap Force are the only PS4 games I actually own.  The rest are PS+ and I have a pretty sizeable collection.

[nickmitch]

Probably should've just waited a year for Destiny.

[Ceric]

Probably should've just waited a year for Destiny.

Probably.  I bought into the hype and then couldn't cancel my Pre-Order.

[NWR_insanolord]

I finally got around to installing the 2 TB drive I had sitting here for a while in my PS4. I'd already gone through the process once earlier this year, when I swapped out the stock 500 GB one for my old 1.5 TB. It's a relatively simple process, but it feels like it could be more streamlined. Backing up/restoring save files is definitely way more trouble than it needs to be.

This is as big as these drives come (at least right now), and once the long, long process of redownloading everything finishes it's going to be close to half full, just a year into the system's life. Sony's going to have to come up with something to extend it, ideally just letting me do what I do on Wii U and plug in an external drive.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm curious to see what your budget spent on digital media across all gaming systems since the Wii is.

It's gotta be someone yearly salary worth of downloadables at this point...

[NWR_insanolord]

I don't think I want to know that.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I don't think I want to know that.

you'd probably quit gaming if you saw the $$$ laid out like that in front of you.

[Spak-Spang]

I did quit gaming for that reason.  $400-500 a year...on a non console launch year, and that is just the bare minimum.  I know I have spent way more than that some years. 

[Ceric]

A long time ago I sat down, and I'm sure you can find me talking about this one the forums before, and I compared gaming to other hobbies.  What I found was with how I game it was very competitive and most of the time cheaper than most other hobbies.

[Spak-Spang]

I remember that conversation. 

It may be true for many people.  I have found that it isn't true for me.  But another cost to gaming you have to calculate is if the hobby enriches your life.  I wish I had realized that gaming does very little to better your life...I should have been more committed to a sport or reading, or theater, or programming, or language study...or basically anything.

[BlackNMild2k1]

It's part of the reason I stopped collecting comics all those years ago....
and then I quit smoking.... and then I quit drinking... and then I quit gaming...
and then I quit buying fucking lotto tickets...

all that hobby money just keeps getting funneled into something else.
I wonder what's next? gambling? hookers? gambling on hookers?