The two hour long live unveiling of Playstation 4 turned out to be a multi-layered cake; full of tasty presentations and delectable demonstrations, but unfortunately the main star of the event’s namesake remained hidden backstage.
Throughout the show, Sony Corp. affiliates redundantly, and seemingly subconsciously conveyed to the shareholders (and consumers) not to focus on aesthetics at this time; rather the focus of the unveiling was to demonstrate capability. A fitting move from the perspective of adviser and gaming analyst, Colin Sebastian of R.W. Baird & Company:
“Sony has to convince consumers that there is a compelling reason to upgrade to the new hardware.”
- MarketWatch
The CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Jack Tretton intentionally shunned questioning on the artistic principles of the PS4′s shell and user-interface (controllers/motion-sensing) during post-show interviews.
“I don’t know that the box is going to be something that’s going to have a dramatic impact on people’s feelings about the game. It will be a color and a size fairly comparable to previous consoles. There’s a big story to tell here, and it’s going to take between now and the holiday season to get all the details out there.”
Considering the current generation’s programming handicaps (among other tolerable issues), and various leaks that off-the-shelf chip components may be among the taproots of PS4 programming, it seems like a smart play by Sony; using the months ahead for bolstering its stockholders and publicly gaining more enthusiastic developers.
What good is the PS4 if nobody wants to make games for it, right?
Tretton also mentioned that PS3 technology works great, and if / when developers get past the learning curve “phenomenal things happen” (could be among many underlying reason why some titles during development simply just go MIA); “PS4 hopes to lower the barrier of entry that many devs encountered on Day One”, says Tretton.
Basically a turbo-charged PC; components by Advanced Micro Devices (better known simply as AMD) is the soul of PS4 programming, and since it also has [PC] chip integration, PS devotees should know that titles from older devices are not compatible and must be streamed to PS4.
A Forrester analyst, James McQuivey isn’t convinced that Sony is pioneering anything new. He says they’re “missing the point”, and the PS4 is nothing, but a simple upgrade. Dwindling hardware, software, and accessory sales (22 percent drop in sales to $13.3 billion in 2012) for PS3 may warrant such a reaction from those that have noticed a growing obsession towards mobile/PC platforming. It’s hard not to notice that these platforms are extremely developer friendly, but essentially this is what Sony wants to convey more than anything else while leading up to going gold.
As for the price, CEO Jack Tretton says we can expect to see the same price that the PS3 initially opened with (one for $499.00, and $599.00, respectively).
As this is only the first unveiling, and months away for the supposed E3 unveiling of the next-generation Xbox, who knows; by the time Sony does uncover that actual console and accessories, the icing on the cake will have been eaten, and momentum towards strategical marketing counters will have begun to take place.
Game On
P.S. It’s feels good to be back!
