Kevin VanOrd and Martin Gaston go head to head on whether or not the PlayStation 4 announcement was a success.
"Cautious optimism." It's a phrase I believe in, and it's the state of mind I embraced in anticipation of Sony's PlayStation 4 announcement. Assume the worst, and you risk being cynical; assume the best, and you lose your critical eye and risk sycophancy. And so I tried to shed any expectation and let Sony say its piece--and happily, my optimism regarding the PS4 continues. The PlayStation Meeting was a winner, presenting relevant information, announcing important games and partnerships, and making me anxious to learn more about the console. Let's break down what made the PlayStation Meeting such a success.
The Witness is a launch game for the PlayStation 4--and, Sony hopes, an example of how committed the company is to independent voices.
We've all rolled our eyes at one time or another when a major console manufacturer takes the stage, only to talk about features that seem least relevant to our interests as game players. Sony and Microsoft both have positioned their current consoles as general entertainment machines. Netflix, ESPN, YouTube, Twitter, Bing--all of these products have taken center stage at presentations, prompting many of us to ask: what about the games?
Certainly Sony didn't abolish all talk of peripheral functionality; Netflix was name-dropped a few minutes into the conference, after all, and there was discussion of music and movie services. But the features receiving the lion's share of attention were about the games, the way we access and interact with them, and the way we share the gaming experience with others.
I am not prepared to call motion controls a fad--and certainly, Sony isn't either; Media Molecule's Move-focused presentation was proof enough of that. But Sony's most interesting announcements were about features that, for me, make games more enjoyable and more social. "Social" is a scary word: it brings to mind Facebook walls and Twitter feeds loaded with extraneous information on people's gaming habits--habits I don't really care about. Sony's proposed PS4 features, however, appeal greatly to me. As someone who enjoys live-streaming games and sharing the play experience with others, being able to share live game video directly from the console is an enormous step forward, and it's a feature I dreamed of years ago. And if I'm having trouble with a difficult boss (perhaps in Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes?), I love the idea of inviting a friend to watch, offer tips, and take over and try it for himself if I feel particularly stuck.
This is "social" that makes sense.
Beyond social, we heard about other intriguing features--features that meant fewer obstacles between you and the games you love, not more obstacles. Suspending and resuming a game right where you left off without having to load a save? Convenient and sensible. Playing a digital game shortly after beginning the download, while the rest downloads in the background? Wonderful. Remote Play is the icing on the cake, though of course, its value rests on whether you own a PlayStation Vita. But if Sony accomplishes its goal--to ultimately make every PS4 game playable on the Vita--the promise of curling up in bed with your favorite PS4 games in the palm of your hand might be difficult for many players to resist.
These aren't gimmicks. These are great uses of technology to make your gaming experience better and more convenient. The PlayStation 4 Eye and the controller touch screen are all variations on the more familiar "gimmicks" we practically take for granted in the current technological climate, but Sony didn't greatly elaborate on these features, choosing instead to showcase technology more interesting to the core market.
A new Killzone was inevitable. That it is gorgeous was also inevitable. But Killzone: Shadow Fall was also one of the most important games Sony presented, because we want to know: just how powerful is this console? Shadow Fall proved that it was pretty damn powerful, but if that game didn't convince you, DriveClub probably did. (Car porn at its finest, there.) The graphics enthusiasts among us saw what we needed: top-notch visual technology. The question remains: were these games actually running on PS4 development hardware? Console manufacturers are known to mislead, misdirect, and flat-out lie. Presuming what we saw was actual footage, I'm happy to see glimpses of next-generation visuals. And given how much progress we've seen during the current generation, what we saw is likely the tip of the iceberg.
Of course, many players would suggest that the current generation is already as visually advanced as is necessary. We want more than photorealism from our games, after all: we want them to be fun, or immersive, or emotionally stimulating, or thought-provoking, or all of the above. We're interested in different types of experiences, and Sony seems fully aware of that interest. Jonathan Blow's presentation was key, here: Sony wants indie developers as well as big-budget devs on board.
Game, creation tool, or both? Whatever Media Molecule's project is, it looks absolutely delightful.
Important, too, was Media Molecule's charming presentation, which garnered more than a few "What the hell was that?" reactions on my Twitter feed, but I felt in tune with what the Little Big Planet developer was doing: bringing us a vast suite of creation tools that utilized 3D space. The PlayStation 4 will have games like Bungie's always-connected shooter Destiny, Blizzard's action RPG Diablo III, Ubisoft's ambitious action/espionage game Watch_Dogs, and open-world superhero game inFamous: Second Son. The games we saw at the conference represent diversity, but the kind of diversity appealing to Sony's most loyal audience.
What was missing? Games and services core gamers don't care about. We didn't have to suffer through another Wonderbook-type presentation, or a kid-friendly minigame compilation showcased by impossibly happy, cleanly-scrubbed families wearing manufactured smiles. Sony knew who its audience was, and didn't ruminate on frivolities. The conference was long, but it didn't waste my time.
Well, maybe that's not entirely true. Square Enix certainly wasted my time by showing a tech demo they'd already presented at E3, and then announcing… that they would be announcing something at this year's E3. Square continually squanders its rapidly diminishing goodwill in every possible way, and this particular shenanigan was insulting.
Even beyond Square's lack of respect for its audience, there's something else troubling me: no backwards compatibility. I expect that this could change, particularly given the Gaikai partnership. The hardware may not be backwards compatible, but if the console could identify my PS3/PS2/PS1 discs, perhaps those games could be streamed via Gaikai. Ultimately, I still own a PS3 and PS2; a lack of backwards compatibility doesn't prevent me from playing and accessing the games I already own. But Sony is making decisions meant to improve player convenience--and what could be more convenient than playing all of my PlayStation products on a single machine?
Then again, we can't have all of the things, all of the time, and I remain skeptical that Sony can deliver on every promise they made--not because I believe they aren't capable, but because features often get canceled or delayed in advance of a hardware launch. But I sincerely hope the PlayStation 4 we receive is the same PlayStation 4 we heard about on Wednesday, because it seems loaded with smart ideas that make me excited for the future.
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