Gamer's Outpost Press (archived)

by Christopher Morris

Despite leading this console generation Sony will already be considering its next video gaming move

While it hasn’t been the best time for Sony Corp financially, with its mobile phone division posting massive losses, one crumb of comfort for the Japanese corporation has been the success of its PlayStation 4 video games console. Sony seems to have hugely benefited from really listening to what consumers wanted with this eighth-generation video games console, and has been rewarded by outselling Microsoft Corporation’s Xbox One system by a ratio of nearly 2-to-1 worldwide.

PlayStation 5: Staying ahead of the curve

But Sony will not be sitting on his laurels, and in a marketplace which is as fast-moving as video games, staying ahead of the curve is always absolutely essential. Just ask Sega; within a matter of a few years the now video games developer went from being an absolutely major player in the video games console manufacturing market, to being eliminated from it completely due to the failure of the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast consoles.

Thus, Sony will already be thinking about when it will introduce the PlayStation 5. In the video games market, whether or not you produce a sequel to an existing console is pretty much dependent on market forces. But the success of the PlayStation 4 guarantees that there will be a PlayStation 5. Although cloud-based gaming and other technology such as Valve’s Steam Box has suggested that the console’s days may ultimately be numbered, at this point in time it doesn’t look as if this will develop fast enough for the eighth-generation to be the death knell for consoles.

PlayStation 5: Death of the disc

Additionally, both Sony and Microsoft appear to have plans for the next generation of video games consoles which will enable their devices to remain relevant. There is already speculation that both the PlayStation 5 and whatever Microsoft decides to name the next Xbox in its range, will ship without a disc drive. The death of physical media has of course been predicted for many years, and usually prematurely! But with Internet speeds increasing, and obvious incentives for video game developers to phase out the old-fashioned disc, it is possible that the PlayStation 4 might be the last Sony console to accept physical media.

In-line with this, Sony might be looking to develop and improve its online services, including its PlayStation Now technology. At this point in time, broadband speeds don’t really seem to be sufficient to support cloud-based gaming, or any form of gaming which is completely reliant on streaming over a server. But these will actually increase in the near future, and eventually it does seem inevitable that disks will be defunct.

It is also thought that the PlayStation 5 will launch in a relatively short period of time into the future compared with previous console generations. There are several reasons for this, not least the disk dilemma, but another major consideration is the fact that both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One just aren’t all that powerful.

Unquestionably, the Sony PlayStation 4 provides a significantly improved gaming experienced over the PlayStation 3. It can quite simply slickly carry out all of the tasks that the PlayStation 3 used to struggle to deal with. But its spec and capabilities don’t really compare to a high-end PC, and of course computers will develop further in terms of internal specifications in the coming years.

PlayStation 5: Dealing with 4K

Although the PlayStation 4 is theoretically able to deal with 4K video, in reality this is a physical impossibility. There is no way that the processor in the PS4 will ever be able to render 4K content in an acceptable fashion. So as this becomes a more prominent resolution, it is possible that content produced by the PS4 will look increasingly dated.

Additionally, the ability of the PS4 to deal with the Project Morpheus virtual reality technology that Sony is currently developing will obviously be considerably less than that of PCs. The Oculus Rift project could leave Morpheus looking rather pale by comparison, and this will be a major consideration if virtual reality gaming takes off in the next few years.

So when we consider the make-up of the PS5, these trends and issues will be strongly reflected in its portfolio of features and specifications. Firstly, we can expect the PS5 to launch in around 2020. It is possible that the device may even hit the stores before then, but this generation of consoles can expect to be replaced in around 5 to 6 years.

Features in the PlayStation 5 will very much reflect the world it will be coming into. This could be a cloud storage-based console with no disc drive, which is APU driven. The ability of the PlayStation 5 to deal with 4K video will be absolutely key, and thus the dedicated graphics chips and processor included in the device will be mega-powerful. This will also assist the ability of the console to deal with virtual reality.

By the time 2020 comes round, gaming and consoles could be very different beast from what we’re accustomed to.

by Ben Kuchera

The idea that Ubisoft somehow didn’t know the condition of Assassin’s Creed Unity doesn’t just strain credulity, it snaps it in two and then sets the pieces on fire. The game’s issues are blatant, and extensive. The manipulation of review embargoes adds an extra layer of shady behavior to the situation.

So that’s the context of the “free” DLC that’s being offered, or a free game if you purchased a season pass. A company shipped a broken product, it used the embargo system to delay the news hitting, and are now offering more content for that game as a sort of apology. And that free game? It costs them next to nothing to open up their catalog as a way to try to make good on the horrific launch of Unity. The worse Ubisoft will suffer is a few lost Far Cry sales.

We have to stop giving them a free pass

The system has become exceedingly stacked against the early buyer. We’ve passed the point anyone is trying to hide it. The fact that Ubisoft thinks it can get out of this situation so cheaply isn’t a contrite apology, it’s a victory lap. It’s up to consumers to figure out how badly this behavior will hurt companies in the future, and free DLC is a woefully inadequate first step to making this right.

Here’s an apology that would matter: A way to return the game for a full refund, and a direct apology to players along with an explanation for how and why this happened.

That’s not going to happen however, because money. Refunds would mean dealing with retailers and Uplay, Ubisoft’s own digital distribution platform, states its rule simply: “All sales on PSN, Mac and PC digital content are final.”

It would cost time and money, and it would have to note that it shipped a broken game on notes to investors, and then describe the cost involved in actually treating its customers with respect. These things are unacceptable to a business focused on the bottom line.

Instead of taking steps that would matter, Ubisoft is going to offer warm platitudes and free content for people who paid $60 or more for a game that everyone but the purchaser knew wasn’t likely to work. If you want to know why players and the press don’t often trust big publishers, this could be exhibits A through Z. The entire system has been manipulated to hide the fact the game was broken, and Ubisoft is trying to make up for that dishonesty in the least expensive ways possible.

If there’s any silver lining in this situation, the free game selection is pretty great, including Far Cry 4 and The Crew.

Publishers need to stop tip-toeing around their own failures, and offering for-pay content for a broken game for free isn’t a great way to repair the relationship.

Video games are the only business where you’ll often hear industry insiders talking about how buying at launch is a good way to support the studios behind the games. This leaves out the fact that returning an opened game is all but impossible, and broken games at launch is close to becoming the rule rather than the exception.

This isn’t about Ubisoft, it’s about an industry that’s becoming increasingly comfortable selling non-working products to buyers with little to no recourse. Read Ubisoft’s post about the free content, they describe this issue as if it something that happened to them, rather than the result of the company’s own actions.

I’m also looking at you, Microsoft. The Halo situation remains unacceptable.

If anything, this is another painful reminder to stop pre-ordering games, stop buying games at launch, and for the love of god don’t buy season passes for content that may or may not be worth your money. Ubisoft needs to stop treating its customers with this level of disrespect, and it needs to start now.

by Tero Kuittinen

The end of November period brought just about the worst possible news for Nintendo: The latest Pokemon games sold a dazzling 1.5 million units in Japan during launch week.

It’s a massive number in a market where few titles manage to crack the 100,000 unit barrier during their debuts. The hot Pokemon rollout helped once again revive the aging 3DS portable console sales, boosting the weekly unit sales number to 83,000. This is more than seven times higher than weekly sales of Sony’s flagship PS4 console in Japan.

This toxic triumph was precisely what Nintendo did not need. The company requires shock therapy to force its hidebound executives to abandon their preposterous opposition to launching Nintendo’s beloved franchises on iPad. Instead, the ancient Nintendo properties from its ’80s and ’90s halcyon days keep performing well enough to enable the company to keep its head in the sand.

Nintendo is not crashing fast enough. The core device franchise, the 3DS, has now sold nearly 2.4 million units in Japan so far this year, which is substantially below the 4 million units it sold in the same period last year. But the erosion is simply too slow to force the company to change its mind about getting into the mobile app market. The strong Pokemon sales numbers from its home market just gave the reactionary wing of Nintendo’s management a new argument to stay the course and keep hanging onto its slowly sinking game console platforms.

While Nintendo’s console sales slide, the mobile game market is about to hit $22 billion in 2014 and is poised to balloon to $30 billion in 2016. So many of the most famous and lucrative game franchises are sitting out the tablet and smartphone game explosion completely – Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Pokemon, etc.

Animal Crossing would be a perfect fit for the iPad and the monetization potential of its item collection system boggles the mind. Dr. Mario and other puzzle gems Nintendo has created could challenge the billion-dollar Candy Crush Saga empire so easily. F-Zero and Mario Kart are precisely the kind of rally games that fit the tablet format.

What could possibly be more delicious than Advance Wars for iPad? An insanely addictive, turn-based strategy game that begs for a connected, touchscreen-based device with a micro-payment system. Who amongst us would not pay $1.99 for new AW campaigns every damn month?

Nintendo is missing out on billions of dollars in totally new revenue with development costs that would be substantially below of what the Wii U requires. But with every passing quarter, Nintendo’s brand power becomes a little less valuable and relevant to younger consumers. Franchises like Castlevania and Metroid are already unknown to the new generation.

The sweet elixir of Pokemon 3DS profits are a slow venom dripping into Nintendo’s veins, numbing the mind of the company that needs to embrace change right now.