Console Discussion/E3/Tokyo Game Show Thread

[Neuqua]

Some people re-sell games after completing them, so that option is off the table.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Kodos

So, what are the downsides of downloading games versus buying them on discs the old-fashioned way?

In the case of Nintendo, you are locked into having the game on that system and that system alone. My Wii bricked up a few years ago and literally every single game I had ever bought from the store is now completely gone to me.

Most other outlets do not have this problem, but Nintendo sucks that way.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Kodos

So, what are the downsides of downloading games versus buying them on discs the old-fashioned way?

Hard drive space. You can upgrade to more space on both consoles, but of course you're paying more money to do it. Even on disc based games, some of them still download 20-40 GB of data just to speed up gameplay. It stacks up in a hurry.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Some people re-sell games after completing them, so that option is off the table.

No problem. I don't really sell games.

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

In the case of Nintendo, you are locked into having the game on that system and that system alone. My Wii bricked up a few years ago and literally every single game I had ever bought from the store is now completely gone to me.

Most other outlets do not have this problem, but Nintendo sucks that way.

No problem. This was more in reference to my PS4 than the Wii.

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Hard drive space. You can upgrade to more space on both consoles, but of course you're paying more money to do it. Even on disc based games, some of them still download 20-40 GB of data just to speed up gameplay. It stacks up in a hurry.

Yep. I think I'll mostly stick to discs, unless there is a huge price difference.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Hard drive space. You can upgrade to more space on both consoles, but of course you're paying more money to do it. Even on disc based games, some of them still download 20-40 GB of data just to speed up gameplay. It stacks up in a hurry.

This actually isn't terribly relevant to the PS4. On 360/PS3, yeah, hard drive space matters.

PS4 and Xbox One, you have to install disc-based games to the hard drive anyway, so you're taking up the same amount of space whether you go digital or optical.

The difference is that digital you don't have to swap discs, whereas optical if you want to play a different optical game, you obviously do.

Basically, the main benefit of digital is convenience, and the main drawback is that you will almost never get the best sale prices with digital. Look at Dragon Age: Inquisition as an example. Sony's Christmas week sale had the game for $45 digital, IIRC, while GameStop and Amazon both had it for $40. Sometimes, the difference is even greater. Digital is much more resistant to price drops than optical is, since the digital storefront never has to clear space for newer games.

The main benefit of optical is that you can pick games up at a discount more easily, whether that's brand new on sale, or preowned from a bevy of outlets. The main drawbacks are the inconvenience of switching discs and the physical space necessary to store games not currently in use.

[Kodos]

Thanks, Sack. That helps. Maybe I'll go digital for Madden 15.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Jaw-dropping if true. They simply cannot go back to $400 without multiple pack-ins to juice up the deal.

http://news.xbox.com/2014/12/xbox-on...medium=twitter

The holidays are almost over, but there’s still time to take advantage of the special, limited-time pricing of $50 off the Xbox One Assassin’s Creed Unity Bundle and Xbox One Assassin’s Creed Unity Bundle with Kinect. For one final week, fans can purchase Xbox One starting at $349 in the U.S. until this Saturday, Jan. 3 at most major national retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Microsoft Stores, Target, Toys ‘R Us and Walmart.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Free PS+ games for January are announced.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/...ys-free-games/

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Jaw-dropping if true. They simply cannot go back to $400 without multiple pack-ins to juice up the deal.

http://news.xbox.com/2014/12/xbox-on...medium=twitter

[SnowMan]

But didn't your jaw drop? Mine dropped! DROPPED, I TELL YOU.

[stevew]

Think I'm going New Egg, One, AssCreed's(May sell if anyone is interested), /free controller, free XBL for $350. Is there a better deal out there right now?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by mckerney

So you think it's a good idea?

[SackAttack]

I don't think going to back to $400 is going to hurt them, necessarily. I mean, it's sure not going to HELP sales, but the majority of consoles are sold in the Q4 and week or so after Christmas as people spend gift card money. There are birthdays and such the rest of the year, but it's not as concentrated.

There's nothing stopping them from doing another $349 special around dads-and-grads time, if they really want to. Or even Easter.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

So you think it's a good idea?

Going back to a more profitable price point now that the big sales season is over, getting some more sales this week before it goes back up, and being able to use $349 as a sale price point later on this year all seems like it could be a pretty good idea.

[stevew]

went ahead and did the NewEgg bundle. I figure it's always nice to have another controller and my live subscription is ending soon anyways. I'll just let my daughter keep the 360 upstairs until it dies.

I got COD:AW, figure I'll be up for a game if anyone wants to play early next week. It looks like I can use my same gold tag on both the XB1 and 360, does this mean simultaneously? I got a copy of COD:AW for the 360 and haven't opened it yet, but I may also use that one when I'm playing with my brother who hasn't upgraded yet if it's possible to play on different consoles.

[SirFozzie]

My price point on next gen is $299. So... I wait.

[Julio Riddols]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

My price point on next gen is $299. So... I wait.

Me too, man. I'm hoping we see $249 by next Xmas.. Not holding my breath though. $299 sounds logical, however.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Going back to a more profitable price point now that the big sales season is over, getting some more sales this week before it goes back up, and being able to use $349 as a sale price point later on this year all seems like it could be a pretty good idea.

Which brings up the question: if that's a 'good idea', are they interested at all in anything other than finishing a distant second? And I think that's a legitimate question (and possible also exactly what they're targeting at this point).

They had to make themselves at least a player in this generation and I think they did that by slashing prices. With that said, if they go back up, they're going to let the PS4 outsell them for another ten months in a row and Sony is going to significantly build their lead once again. Perhaps the profit that they can get as a distant second override any thoughts of slashing prices to go for that number one slot (which is likely going to be a very big number at the end of this generation).

[CU Tiger]

Profit and maximizing it is the only thing that matters.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks like both companies decided to do something stupid after the holidays. MS hikes the price back up. Sony decides to 1UP them by announcing a ridiculous subscription price for Playstation Now. $44.99 for 3 months (!) with no annual subscription available. No way this will fly.

PlayStation Now offers subscription service, available January 13 | Joystiq

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

dola

Sony announces 18.5M units sold worldwide at end of year. That's PS2-like numbers.

Guessing that the X1 will outsell the PS4 again in December in the US, but their problem is that they're currently getting absolutely crushed overseas. Not sure if there's much they can do about that.

[SackAttack]

The best part about the PlayStation Now pricing is that it doesn't even encompass all of the games that are part of Now. It's cherry-picked, and like the PlayStation Plus freebies, it's going to evolve over time. So people get the privilege of spending $15-20/month to stream a curated selection of PlayStation Now titles.

Um...nope.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Smart move to go to a bundle with X1 going back to full price. Not only that, but it's a bundle-in game that clearly targets the former X360 gamers that have made the PS4's first year so successful.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/...-99/#sf6891302

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

NPD numbers are out. No surprise that X1 won in North America in December given the discounts (Looks like rough totals were around 1.25M X1's sold and 1.05M PS4's sold). Not a huge win, but MS will take what it can get at this point.

Also, MS announced that they're going to continue at a lower price on the Assassin's Creed bundle, keeping it at $349. Not sure why they waited 10 days to do so after announcing the other deal would end, but better late than never. Will keep them competitive as long as the PS4 remains at $399.

[ISiddiqui]

Microsoft should just keep the lower price on the console, even if its losing some money on it - Microsoft can afford to lose money on XBox1 sales, while Sony can't afford to lose any money at this point.

[Mota]

I'm surprised they went back so quickly as well.

It's probably a budget thing. You probably need about 5,000 authorizations to reroute dollars and make it happen.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Mota

I'm surprised they went back so quickly as well.

It's probably a budget thing. You probably need about 5,000 authorizations to reroute dollars and make it happen.

My guess is that it has to do with the number of X1's still in the supply chains. There is some second and third hand info floating around that the retail channels are still stuffed full of X1's despite the big sales over the holidays. They've got to move those things.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

My guess is that it has to do with the number of X1's still in the supply chains. There is some second and third hand info floating around that the retail channels are still stuffed full of X1's despite the big sales over the holidays. They've got to move those things.

Please, just stop

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by cartman

Please, just stop

You talking about your ridiculous level of trolling at this point?

[mckerney]

[mckerney]

[mckerney]

[cartman]

Yeah, calling out bullshit is trolling. "Second and Third hand info"? Seriously? Give it a fucking break.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by cartman

Yeah, calling out bullshit is trolling. "Second and Third hand info"? Seriously? Give it a fucking break.

It isn't second and third hand when my cat just confirmed it.

[MizzouRah]

CNN just said now fourth hand and fifth hand info coming in.

[NobodyHere]

I agree with MBBF, I read the same thing on a college football fan website.

[SnowMan]

Wasn't this on sportsdigs weeks ago?

[cartman]

My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who heard that Sony was going to stop production of the PS4 last night. I guess it's pretty serious.

[MizzouRah]

MBBF is right.. I saw this today.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Pretty thorough review of Playstation Now......

With PlayStation Now, Sony proves that game streaming works | Ars Technica

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Microsoft financials in.

1. Reported game division revenue down 20%. Likely that's due to the slashed prices over the holidays.

2. MS reported 6.6M SHIPPED of X1/360 combined. Looks like X1 has sold through roughly 11M units (PS4 is close to hitting 20M at this point).

[cartman]

So, the Xbox One outsold the PS4 in November and December but, according to your 'figures', Sony still managed to extend their lead? Impressive. I guess your second and third hand sources helped you out there?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Hadn't been posted yet, but January 2015 sales figures are in.

PS4: 601K
X1: 317K
WiiU: 165K

Overall, the PS4 still holds 48% of the current gen market, with over 19M units sold. Amazing to see any console sell 601K units in January, the month after the holiday season ends.

[cthomer5000]

At this point Microsoft is only concerned with USA I would imagine. Absolutely incredible that they managed to so throughly flush that lead down the toiled this generation. I'm one of the 360 diehards who now only owns a PS4, and all my friends are the same way. Before the new consoles announced, we all talked about how we only expected to buy the new MS platform, and not both.

They seriously did incredible amounts of PR damage in their first few months. And then once that tide has turned, it's hard to reverse it. Once a few of my friends bought PS4s, that was the only system I was going to buy.

It's got to be incredibly difficult to overcome losing big-time in early adoption, especially when you expect your product to last 6-10 years.

[RainMaker]

The E3 where they announced everything just destroyed them. But all that negative publicity changed the game and set people's minds up that PS4 is good and Xbox One is bad.

I mean both systems are nearly identical. They mainly play the same games. It's a manufactured competition that only weirdos get caught up in. It should be hard for either company to fall that far behind.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

The E3 where they announced everything just destroyed them. But all that negative publicity changed the game and set people's minds up that PS4 is good and Xbox One is bad.

I mean both systems are nearly identical. They mainly play the same games. It's a manufactured competition that only weirdos get caught up in. It should be hard for either company to fall that far behind.

Perhaps if there was some perfect flow of information.

Instead, when they literally announced their plans to the world, not only was he XBOX One $100 more expensive, but it had insanely restrictive DRM.

I don't think it's a surprise that they've been fighting to change people's minds since then, even as the product has dropped to $50 cheaper than the PS4.

I'm sure that there is an incredible documentary to be made about the launch of this generation from both sides. I'm still curious as to whether Sony was sitting on 2 different plans, and only rolled one out once Microsoft had announced theirs.

The Sony announcement of the launch price, combined with no restriction on the re-sale of games was basically the biggest "mic drop" moment of video games in a decade.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

I'm sure that there is an incredible documentary to be made about the launch of this generation from both sides. I'm still curious as to whether Sony was sitting on 2 different plans, and only rolled one out once Microsoft had announced theirs.

The Sony announcement of the launch price, combined with no restriction on the re-sale of games was basically the biggest "mic drop" moment of video games in a decade.

FWIW, Andrew House stated that they did rewrite their E3 presentation, but that decision was made a week before E3 when MS's plans were leaked and received heavy negative feedback.

Microsoft's PR blunders caused Sony to re-write E3 PlayStation 4 script • Eurogamer.net

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

It's got to be incredibly difficult to overcome losing big-time in early adoption, especially when you expect your product to last 6-10 years.

I sort of think the extended console lifetimes of these past two generations actually help out the trailer. As you said earlier in your post, once your friends all went PS4 so did you. My group of friends were all the same and also did the same with the 360 last gen. But looking back at last gen, after a few years one or two of the more hard-core guys ended up picking up PS3's. Then they start talking up those games and lo-and-behold another 1 or 2 guys did the same. The longer there is between generations I think the more likely it is that even more casual gamers pick up a 2nd system.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Interesting PS4 bundle at Best Buy next week. Buy a TLOU PS4 bundle, get a Playstation TV free. Basically allows you to play your PS4 in two different locations in your house along with access to the Vita library on the PSTV.

[BillJasper]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Interesting PS4 bundle at Best Buy next week. Buy a TLOU PS4 bundle, get a Playstation TV free. Basically allows you to play your PS4 in two different locations in your house along with access to the Vita library on the PSTV.

The reviews make it sound like the PlayStation TV doesn't work very well with the PS4 and has a limited amount of PS Vita games that work with it. Doesn't seem like much of a bonus.