I wasn’t arguing that the PS4 was really doing anything different that jumped out at consumers – just that the higher-priced Xbone didn’t seem to me to have a selling point that represented anything all that new. I suspect Microsoft is going to push it as a media center as much as anything. What would Microsoft market as being new and different about the Xbone gaming experience? What kind of game will I only be able to play on it and not the others?
This will be hard to market, but I’m hoping for more subtle Kinect implementation in games. In Skyrim the Kinect allows you to sort inventory by weight, setup several profiles of weapons combinations and other small things so that you can stay in the game-world and not have to be in the menus. Essentially you can use voice commands instead of going into menus while pausing the game, which really changes the game for me in a hugely positive and yet subtle way. Plus with the new Kinect being able to detect more subtle movements while you’re sitting there with the controller in your hand, it should lead to even more subtle changes that could enhance the experience without requiring you to flail around like an idiot.
But you’re right, that kind of change is hard to market to the consumer, and hard to get across in short adverts on TV.
Though sometimes the marketing department can come up with a brilliant ad even for a game with flailing around so maybe we’ll see more of that instead. :)
Joe_M
2909
To sort by name, weight, value, type, damage, armor in Skyrim I press RB. I’m so glad Bethesda still releases their RPGs on PC.
Well, like I said, the Vita does that now with up to 6 apps at once including 1 game and I expect the same from the PS4 OS.
Hmmm. I’m on my Vita now. I hit the PS button, which instantly takes me to the home screen and puts the game in a suspended state. I can then launch apps, but I also get a message saying that if I do, it will close the game. I wouldn’t call that true multi-tasking. Am I missing something?
That’s how it is for me too. It’s a bit annoying but not something I really care too much about. Though I can see why some people would.
It depends on the App on Vita. You can run the Twitter app, Facebook, any of the system apps, the music player or even the web browser without shutting the game down (many of them simultaneously, although the Facebook app is a memory hog). You can, for example, being playing background music from Sony’s Music Unlimited streaming app while you’re in game, pop out and skip to a different track, come back to the game, take a screenshot with the built in utility, pop out and launch the Twitter app, post that screenshot on twitter and then instantly switch back to the game right where you were.
And Vita is doing this with only about 128MB of RAM reserved for the system. PS4 will have at least 1GB to work with for the OS and apps alongside a running game. I don’t imagine Netflix or other media apps will have any issues.
I can’t imagine people not loving this, using it either regularly (people like me) or rarely, but appreciating the convenience when they do
It’s not remotely convenient for me. I constantly switch between inputs on my TV, but none of them is a cable box and besides I have a Harmony remote which means it’s all just a single “Watch TV” or “Play Game” button press away. If MS wants this functionality to be at all useful in the UK, it’s going to have to work with PVRs, including Freeview ones.
I was referring to true multitasking on the next generation of consoles, not just TV viewing. I get that not everyone has a cable box but it certainly seems that we are all increasingly using these boxes for more than just gaming - Netflix, music, downloadable tv shows and movies, blu-rays, the Internet, video chat and TV (for the Xbox One and the 360 if you use the media extender feature).
Now granted, you could do all of these things in the last generation. The difference for this generation will be how easily you can do it. Basically, consoles have an alt tab button now
One thing I used to do when the Wii was the only console with an Internet browser, I used to have a walkthrough of a game on the Wii, telling me where to find collectables in a game, while I played through the game on the 360, and I’d constantly switch inputs back and forth sometimes when I couldn’t find a certain collectable in a game. That will be a lot more convenient now if you can do it on the same console.
For general web browsing through, the current console options aren’t great, since they don’t support flash, and you can’t see embedded youtube videos, for example. For that you need to back out and go to the separate Youtube app, which is a pain in the ass. Hopefully the XBone and PS4 browsers support flash within their browsers.
Rock8man,
Sounds to me like you have a better use case for a tablet than for task switching or a browser console. Personally, I think it’s nice that the consoles will allow task switching. I use that on occasion on my Vita, but it’s not must have functionality by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, I usually have my Nexus 7 lying within reach of the couch.
Wendelius
Yes, it really is just that simple.
So, just don’t buy the games with long times between checkpoints? Some kind of long term boycott? It’s tough to tell that sort of thing in advance though. Like for Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, I love the concept and execution of the game. The reviews were all relatively positive too, and almost no one in reviews or on this board mentioned that I would never even be able to get to the first save point unless I could do an hour long session with the game, which I can’t do. I’m still not unhappy that I supported the game though. It might not support my style of play (short sessions) but at least it’s a budget title built on a AAA engine sold to us for a low price. I do want to support more of those kinds of releases.
Now granted, you could do all of these things in the last generation. The difference for this generation will be how easily you can do it. Basically, consoles have an alt tab button now
Sure, and I can just about see the convenience for a one device household. But I have something like six different ways to get Netflix and other services on my TV. If I want to alt-tab out of an Xbox game, I’ll still be using my remote to switch to my AppleTV because the Xbox app sucks (and I’d have to pay for Gold to use it). Multitasking between games I can see the value of, but as far as I know they’re not offering that. And my main multitasking use, switcing between web browsing and gaming/video watching, isn’t really an issue on the Xbox because there’s no way I’m browsing the web on my TV.
Different strokes for different folks. For me, as is often the case with technology, this is a convenience issue. In the same way, I could carry a dedicated MP3 player and a camera and a phone around, I’m glad I have a smartphone that does all three for me.
For me, as is often the case with technology, this is a convenience issue. In the same way, I could carry a dedicated MP3 player and a camera and a phone around, I’m glad I have a smartphone that does all three for me.
Of course it’s different strokes for different folks - I’m not saying it’s inherently useless. To use your example, I carry around a dedicated MP3 player (well, an iPod anyway) and a phone around (though no camera), because that’s more convenient for me than having my phone run out of battery because I’ve been playing games and listening to podcasts on it. I was responding to your comment about not being able to imagine people not loving it.
In principle, if it interacted with all my devices - if it effectively replaced and integrated my Harmony remote - then sure, it would be more convenient and I’d probably use it (assuming I bought an Xbone, which is looking unlikely). But as it stands, it’s not in the least convenient for me.
Curious to see how soon will MS and Sony actually show the launch interface, I say launch because is clear that there will be lot’s of updates to it. It’s possible that they may not even show it to the press until launch, the MS day one patch reason is not to revert the DRM policies it is that they are planning for the software to only be in a final state after the initial batch consoles is already produced and maybe shipped, so they seem to have a very close to line schedule. I have seen no information about that from Sony but given there stance they probably will have a more simple system ready for the initial console so it can operate without the day one patch that is going to exist for sure.
Even if MS is pushing all these UI experience and multitasking is clear that Sony will have some of them as well but is hard to do an informed choice about before launch, clearly most people today are saying they think PS4 is going to be there main system even if they are planning to buy both, it will be interesting to see how those people use the systems a few months after launch.
So why not just buy a pc if you give a damn about multi tasking?
Microsoft seems to be trying to make the xboner a pc where they get a cut of everything.
