So, obviously, the top story for today is Sony announcing their next gaming console, the PlayStation 4 (unexpected name?). However, some people are already concerned that this new console will be a bit lackluster, and not able to compete with the next round of Nintendo, X-Box, and the new and upcoming OUYA gaming console.
As predicted, they’re using their newly newly-acquired cloud-gaming company Gaikai, as a means of giving players the ability to play free trials, play remotely, spectate, etc. That one aspect of this next gaming console, is actually looking pretty good.
From a company that produces popular video games, as well as electronics, we got the theatrical, and flashy unveiling today that’s typical, and not too unexpected out of Sony especially.
Unfortunately, for Sony, sales of the PlayStayion 3, PSP, and PlayStation 2, all show to be down from last year, and overall they lost almost 5.75 BILLION dollars last year vs. their earnings in 2011, so they really need to step it up with the PS4, if they’d like to continue producing gaming consoles.
It seems the company may not be forward thinking enough however, as the trend that’s being set seems to be more leaning towards gamers wanting the full home media center experience with their console, as opposed to just “another gaming console”, that can do nothing but play video games, and while Microsoft is taking advantage of this, PlayStation seems to be lagging behind.
As far as how Sony plans to keep it’s “edge”? Well, according to the tech giant, they plan on putting the gamer in the “middle” of the gaming device, as opposed to just having players play in the living room, which has become the norm. As far as what they actually mean by that, seems to still be somewhat of a mystery.
Unfortunately, instead of trying to appeal to the logical gamers, by talking about the technical specifications of the device itself, they only quickly went over these aspects, and then dove right in to a bunch of over-hyped gaming demos to try to get their fans drooling over some new games coming to the console, another poor choice for an unveiling, as people really want to know what they’re getting with a new device, as opposed to just flashy little snippets of graphics from various games that we’ve mostly already played on previous consoles, or PC.
They showed off a new Killzone, which seems to be the same as the previous games, but with a facelift on graphics (again, nothing too unexpected). Then they showed off a racing simulator, a Diablo 3 port from Blizzard, among other things, but nothing to really write home about.
So, this whole unveiling really begs the question, is this the last PlayStation we’ll see out of Sony? Possibly. Still, we don’t really know what X-Box, and Nintendo have up their sleeves, nor do we really know whether the first launch of the upcoming OUYA will be a success, and take a significant part of the market share, but in an industry that demands evolution in its consoles if they’re to remain relevant, it seems that Sony has a lot of work to do, if they intend to not have to join Sega and Atari in console heaven.