My buying strategy: I know I’m getting both but it’s a question of whether I’m getting both on launch or staggered. Currently, I’m thinking I’ll get one on launch and the other once games are out for it that I want to play.
So for me, I’m getting the Xbox One on launch because I do like the TV/voice control/smartglass features and more importantly (for me at least) I know I like Xbox games. I will want to play the next Crackdown, Dead Rising and Halo. I will probably get the PS4 a few months later once there are games I really want to play on it. If the reviews for Killzone are glowing (or their other games - the Order is obviously a new IP), I’m positive I’ll crack right away and just get one.
I don’t think they need to. The PS4 preorders are still selling like hotcakes and Sony still owns the hearts and minds of the very early adopters (Microsoft mitigated some of the damage with the DRM reversal, but my very anecdotal canvassing suggests PS4 is still the early adopter preorder of choice). If the PS4 games do look better you can bet that all of the gaming media out there will be tripping over themselves to report this fact come launch title review time, so I think Sony is fine to just sit on this for now.
I’m the same way. I know I’ll have all 3 consoles eventually. But even though I agree that voice control and the Microsoft published exclusives are more appealing to me than Sony ones, I think I’m still going for Sony’s console anyway. The biggest motivator for me is the $100 price difference.
I’ll even have the WiiU eventually because I can’t resist Nintendo first party games like Super Mario Galaxy. But there’s no time pressure on Nintendo products. A Super Mario Galaxy 3 on WiiU is going to be the same whether I play it in 2015 or 2020. There won’t be achievements or friends who will be playing it who I can compare against, or any other time pressures or social pressures to get the game sooner rather than later. Not a good thing for Nintendo necessarily, but great for consumers looking to get their consoles and games for a bargain later.
Haha, yup. I’m sure I’ll play Skyward Sword…eventually.
So we can reply “yeah it’ll look better on dedicated pc’s?”
Canuck
2832
I’m not sure how people can say that specs don’t matter. A large part of the reason why I pre-ordered a PS4 was because of the superior specs. Am I an anomaly or something?
People are saying that historically specs haven’t mattered, last gen or the one prior. PS2 moped the floor with Xbox, which was quite a bit more powerful.
Canuck
2834
That’s absolutely true but it’s hardly a comparable situation. The Xbox was a new upstart whereas Sony was on there second console. The PS2 released (I believe) much earlier than the xbox did. The PS2 had a shit ton of exclusive games. The xbone one will have none of those advantages this go around. This may be the first gen (in recent memory) where two consoles are starting out in equal terms with the exception of a hardware power differential. (Of course, there’s also the difference in the price but honestly I expect that to change too. I expect to see MS do a complete reversal this gen including price and making things easy for indies to publish games.)
As someone else already said all the reviews will comment on which version of the games look better and for nonexclusives people will choose the best looking version. And I expect that to translate into console sales as well.
Sure, that’s all true. What’s also true: specs don’t matter.
And to some people, they do in fact matter.
Sure. Some people care about what color the console is. Some people care how noisy it is. Some people care how many horse racing sims are available for it. Not terribly statistically significant populations, much like people who base their console purchases on hardware specs.
Specs don’t matter.
Sales matter.
Game companies will put lead SKU’s on whichever console is the best seller (or best seller for that genre of game) regardless of console specs or development difficulty.
Specs absolutely matter, but they don’t override all other factors. Price, release window, software, and brand loyalty are also important. The PS2 had a year and a half lead over the Xbox, so Xbox had to beat out a lot of other factors. PS3 v. 360 you see this reversed a bit.
Moore
2840
Specs matter to me, I dont give a shit how well they sell. I had more fun with my xbox1 (a poor seller) than my ps2, which I think I even gave away once I got my xbox1.
But WTF do I know? I like SATURN games for fucks sake.
Sure, that’s what I am saying. Specs are a factor among quite a lot of factors, some carrying more weight than others. And I don’t doubt you’ll hear someone say, wait the Xbox is less powerful? Then I don’t want it anymore! But I bet you won’t find many. They’re going to be persuaded by price, games library, friendliness to indie debs maybe. I can’t imagine they would drop this preference if MS magically found a way to double the XB1’s power tomorrow.
garin
2842
Aleck
2843
It would be even better if the headline was “Microsoft Not Charging Developers Other Than Phil Fish for Xbox Updates”
HRose
2844
Yes, but a product works best when the teams work together, not against each other. There are lots of decisions going on here.
History is replete with superior products that failed to sell well and were overtaken by other standards (heck, Sony is famous for betamax, a technology superior in every way to VHS and one which was, at the outset, price competitive). Marketing (in all its forms, including generating buzz, social marketing, traditional mass market advertising, etc.) is critical to informing consumers
You are talking of an ancient past. Today marketing can’t control people’s opinions because EVERYONE shares his own opinion. You don’t have anymore a tight control and filter on what people hear, hence the manipulation is much harder (or pointless).
- If your argument is that companies should listen to consumers, that totally ignores the value of leadership.
Yes. I don’t believe in leadership.
- If your argument is that companies should listen to consumers, you should be extolling Microsoft’s virtues for the 180 they pulled on DRM. Consumers spoke, they listened –
Yes, the problem is that they listened after. First they made their product, then the was backlash, and then they backpedaled.
Listening to your customers means that BEFORE you plan your product you listen FIRST to what people (and developers, indie or otherwise) want.
Otherwise you don’t “listen”, you merely retreat under the assault of deserved negativity.
Microsoft is no longer requiring developers to pay a fee to patch Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade games, after dropping their earlier policy that placed a hefty sum on game updates, Eurogamer reports.
I don’t read any mention of them changing the policy for Xbox One, but Xbox 360 is stated specifically multiple times throughout that article.
Oh no, definitely not. Console makers trumpet their specs to the skies every generation. Remember the emotion engine, and the cell, and xbox360’s triple-core 3Ghz CPUs? Heck, remember “The first 32bit console”? Lots of people base their buying decision upon the tech specs. Thing is, those people are wrong.
Well, not for the Wii and WiiU, but those are special cases.
