are we looking at the return of a sony-dominated generation?

[Seracen]

Speaking as one who (currently) prefers PS4 to the competition, I must still say "no," probably.

1) Nintendo still has 3DS, and if they ever realize they can make money by allowing crossplay on Wii-U, they might have a goldmine yet again with their console (also if they woo the 3rd Parties that fear "HD budgets," as expectations on Wii-U are lower, right or wrong).

2) Tablet gaming is a thing as well, although it won't really sate the "hardcore" audience nearly as well.

3) For such enthusiasts, PC gaming remains king. Considering most Indy hits start off on PC, not to mention the sheer volume and awareness, I can see more people wading through the learning curve to take advantage of PC. Let's not forget, it wasn't just convenience that made console back in the day; they were a lot cheaper than PC's as well (no longer the case, barring UBER-rigs).


Point 2 doesn't really help my argument, and Point 1 has too many "ifs." However, I firmly believe Point 3 will come into play now, more than even previous generations. By no means am I a PC elitist, yet business practices and sheer value must come into play.

It still amazes me how many people use a PS3 as their sole domestic internet browser, and PC's have an opportunity here as well. Short of having productivity software, there is just no way a console will be able to be as multi-functional as PC. As bloated as Windows 8 is, it is still a proper OS, and I'd rather browse the internet on that, as opposed to a console.

Then again, tablets could just as easily help console as hurt. Between tablet and console, one doesn't NEED a PC. Still, I couldn't get by without a laptop, at the very least. As I said, in the current market, I can see a lot of converts, potentially as many as PC's heyday for gaming, back during the Origin (proper), Sierra, and Westwood eras...back when Bioware was known only for Baldur's Gate.

As for consoles...I never thought I'd say this, but I feel the 3DS, a handheld, is probably the strongest current platform, with a myriad of titles. It saddens me, b/c I prefer gaming on my flatscreen, just shy of detesting mobile gaming. Still, this becomes an issue every generation switch. In a year, PS4/XBONE will have a fuller library. Until then, Nintendo and PC have time to grow into that market.

 

[Wasted]

It seems the big three are so extremely short sided in regards to their new system launches that it boggles my mind.

-Sony dominates with the PS2
-Launches PS3 with the infamous "$599 US DOLLARS!" presentation
-Launch developers complain about difficult to develop architecture causing poor library for a few years
-Sony shocked that the 360 gains incredible ground in the console race

-Microsoft hails the 360 as the hardcore gaming machine, where hardcore games thrive
-Promotes XBO as a TV recorder and touts archaic always-online DRM, rarely mentions its gaming capabilities
-Refuses to elaborate how these features benefits games or the users
-Shocked by pushback from the gaming community, stating that gamers "Just don't get it!"
-Completely back-peddles and remove said touted features, likely costing them hundreds of millions

-Nintendo killed it with the surprise success of the Wii
-Taps in to the "Casual Market" making it a family friendly console
-Unveils WiiU with minimal information confusing press if it's a controller add-on to the Wii or a new console
-WiiU has a one year head start to the new Sony and Microsoft consoles but does little to capitalize their head start
-Non-gamer consumers unaware that WiiU is a new console
-Continuous changes in sales estimates leaves a lot of uncertainty to the Nintendo Corporate structure

I'm sure whoever wins this gaming generation will undoubtedly promote their new console at:
-$1000
-always online and bricks the system the moment it goes offline
-monthly $50 online subscriptions + Mountain Dew/Dorito advertisements
-mandatory always on camera that refuses to turn on if it sees more than one person in the room
-explodes if it reads a used/rented game

And be surprised that people are not throwing their money at them.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I don't really see a domination of any console, hell even PC (as some users are already stating).

All I see is some numbers of people that enjoy a product they like, doesn't mean we get to make up a competition flag race and already declare the winner before it's even over.

All I know is I'm wanting to grab a Wii U sometime this year for SSB,W101,Bayonetta 2 and more, eventually I'll grab a PS4 down the line and lastly an XB1 since they aren't going anywhere and thus leaves me with time to save for each.

Don't know why I bothered to type this out though because I already know where this type of discussion is headed, maybe I thought for once the Escapist would possibly change their stance on things, I guess I'm wrong again, oh well.

 

[scorptatious]

Implying Sony has never dominated the competition.

/Sony fanboy.

In all seriousness, I really can't say. We'll just have to wait and see what kind of games everyone brings to the table in the next few years.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Only been 6 months, wait a year or two before wondering. Even PS3 had a shitty start and many years later they did really well, and this is when gamers bitched when they ripped backward compatibility from it. It will be likely that PS4 will sell more overall but i XB1 will still sell loads. The games will be the key factor and stuff that people dont like XB1 for now wont be an issue over the years. But still waiting for the games, there have been none that are PS4/XB1 only that are worth buying a new console for.

 

[Requia]

-Nintendo killed it with the surprise success of the Wii
-Taps in to the "Casual Market" making it a family friendly console
-Unveils WiiU with minimal information confusing press if it's a controller add-on to the Wii or a new console
-WiiU has a one year head start to the new Sony and Microsoft consoles but does little to capitalize their head start
-Non-gamer consumers unaware that WiiU is a new console
-Continuous changes in sales estimates leaves a lot of uncertainty to the Nintendo Corporate structure

It was even worse than this, the press and marketing was so mismanaged that even gamers were saying 'when is a new Wii coming out' months after the WiiU did.

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

My thoughts are ya'll fools got played.

Sony was going for EXACTLY the same thing MS was, which you can see from news reports on this very site, some of them hilariously having important bits in bold which everyone seems to have ignored.

They simply out waited the competition and grabbed the opportunity to fuck them, brutally.
So rather than cutting off used games right away you bought yourself a couple years before it becomes more profitable for publishers to stop making physical copies all together and you end up with an online requirement and Sony and MS coming out of it all innocent.

Endgame result's the same, only you got tricked you won. You didn't, Sony did.

 

[gorfias]

In the end PS3 has outsold the 360 despite the 360 being released a year earlier but game sales are going down.

And how many of those 360 buyers were getting a 2nd console after their existing 360 died? On the other hand, due to built in bluray player, I bought 2 PS3s for different parts of the house, doing my part in inflating their numbers.

I will write that 360 tended to do better in sales for very popular cross platform games like COD. Their Xbox Live added to their profits.

At the end of the xbone's life I expect the PS4 to be far more dominant because the xbone is reliant on cloud based tech to perform at it's best, while the PS4 stands on it's own. Basically, towards the end of the xbone's life microsoft are going to be looking at the cloud and how to fund it (expect lots more ads,) and I think that will turn off a lot of core gamers already invested in the xbone. After time Sony release their VR headset I expect the xbone to be dead in the water (and I suspect the VR thing is why Sony went for fast video memory - to help reduce latency.)

Having said that, I expect that the xbone will still do fairly well in sales terms - about three quarters of what the PS4 will sell world wide. However, the guys who designed the first xbox (Allard, Bach and co) were very much against adding stuff that didn't work and was untested; Ballmer wanted it to be a TV set-top box and he finally got his wish two generations later and it wouldn't surprise me to hear that he'd pushed for kinect to be bundled with the console too (he obviously didn't get the email I sent him that said "I'm a gamer - no time for ads or TV.")

I expect game sales totals to be much higher on PS4 eventually, and that's where the money is made.

PS4 has a pretty big lead so far. It cost less but is about 50% more powerful for gaming (doesn't have the added load of the camera). It is difficult to get people to pay more for a feature they do not want for a system that is less powerful AND have to pay more for Live vs. PS+. (PS+, by the way, is an amazing deal for someone like me: PS3, PS4 and Vita, all getting free to play games as long as I'm a $50 a year member).

None of this is good for PC gaming though (and I'm a PC gamer these days.) My rig costs a bit more than an xbone - not much more and it's components are like 2 years old now; it still outperforms both consoles on the games we tested and that's just sad. In two years time from now PC gaming should be way in front of both consoles in terms of raw power (and if Steam builds it's OS right it might even be more convenient than consoles too...I doubt that will happen though) so the black plastic doorstops will be holding gaming back - again :/

Not got one of this generation's consoles yet and doubt I'll bother. Might be tempted by the WiiU if Bayonetta turns out good but I don't see any value in the others over a PC at all.

I'm excited about the new consoles in that, the industry need not dumb down games visually, nearly as much as they did for consoles. This website reported developers stating that the 7 year old console tech. was holding PC games back. A year from now, I'll be really excited to see what PCs can do. You can credit consoles a bit for that.

The Wii U is so cheap and no extras you really have to buy. You owe it to yourself to get one just to mess around with it.

You mention Steam. If Sony doesn't dominate this gen (and is it a gen if it has no definable end to it?) it is because we're getting so many options now. A console game still cost $60. But indy developers pushing out stuff for our phones, tablets, Project Shield, Ouya, Amazon's TV box, etc. Defining anything as of a gen and dominant may never be doable again.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

i was talking about sales, everybody has different tastes when it comes to games

By the end of the last generation Sony were pretty much dominant, in the last four years they've gone from far behind the 360's total sales, to matching, to exceeding.

We'll have to see, but given Microsoft's obsession with FPS games and the US market at the expense of all else it certainly looks like the door is being left open for Sony again.

well last gen sony didnt really dominate, sales between xbox360 and ps3 were almost equal

 

[juggalosqueaks]

Dunno but I'm honestly rather curious to see where they go from here given the incredible success of the PS4 and the dismal failure in seemingly every other area, what with Sony reporting over a billion dollars in losses last fiscal year and Sony selling off assets left and right, most recently their stock in Square Enix. Imagine Sony getting bought out by Microsoft...

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

For what it's worth it's already dominating it so far but it's got a long way to go. It's too early to tell.

 

[Evonisia]

I reckon the PC is going to have dominance this generation. By the way the difference between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is not this big gaping chasm it's being made out to be. The Xbox One can gain easily with a Halo, Gears of War or Fable release, better if all even if I'd only benefit from the second series.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Too soon to say, remember when PS3 was supposedly doomed in its first few years? I can see Xbox coming back somehow, or PS4 may continue to dominate, you never know. It's a little silly to declare a winner when the systems have only been out for about 5 months or so. We'll be stuck with them for the next 7 to 8 years, a lot can happen in such a time frame.

And who knows, Nintendo could come up with a way to get a bunch of Wii Us sold. Granted it's a long shot, but again, ya never know how the market could change.

 

[Ieyke]

so the numbers are in, the PS4 has SOLD 7 million units, while the Xbox One has SHIPPED 5 million

the PS4 outsold the Xbox one last month despite the release of titanfall and theres not much else that could help the xbox one move more units on the horizon

with the wiiu realistically out of the game, could we be looking at something similar to the PS1/PS2 generation? sony well ahead in the first place with both nintendo and microsft in distant 2nd and 3rd places?


now before you comment let me make it clear im a PC guy, consoles dont really appeal to me anymore so id like to avoid the accusation of fanboism, second i dont believe one console selling truckloads make it objectively better, i dont think the wii was the best console last gen and im one of the many people who believe the dreamcast was underappreciated


so all this being said, what are your thoughts? is this the return of the sony-domination in the console scene? if so, what is the cause of it? are the scars left by the initial reveal of the xbox one still not healed or are the PS4 features/games more appealing? is it too early to declare any winners?

If we're lucky, yes, it'll be a Sony dominated. Quality dominating would be nice.

The cause is partially backlash against the Xbone, but mostly I think it's common sense that the PS4 is literally equal or superior in every way.
More powerful system, smaller, better looking, no giant power brick, better controller, better interface, no "free" features locked behind a paywall, better controller, better value in the online services subscription, no obnoxious ads, no anti-consumer policies, annnnnd to top it all off...it's $100 cheaper.

Also, the PS4 arguably has a stronger lineup of upcoming games than the Xbone.
But the Wii U is actually the dominator in the games department - it crushes the PS4 and Xbone combined.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Mass Effect 3 (talking Prothean DLC controversy, not end-game controversy), Diablo 3 and, Sim City proved the fact that people are willing to forgive and forget when it comes to companies being dickheads about how you play their game console. That being said though, I'm still kind of surprised the XBone has sold as well as it has. Kind Of surprised because at the moment I'd much rather play Dead Rising 3 than Killzone SF. Microsoft still has Halo in the future (probably going to make a real announcement during E3) and Sunset Overdrive but as for more exclusives, I have no idea what they could pull out next...I see The Kinect as being the big albatross around the XBone's neck at the moment. Ya just know more people will buy one when a no-Kinect model is launched.

As for Nintendo...I have no idea. They have the money to do just about any insane thing you can think of but it's a matter of how far they're willing to go to save the Wii U. At the moment, they have Smash and Mario Kart 8 coming soon and rumors of a new IP have me really curious.

 

[Ieyke]

Regarding Nintendo saving the Wii U:

 

[Atmos Duality]

My thoughts are ya'll fools got played.

Sony was going for EXACTLY the same thing MS was, which you can see from news reports on this very site, some of them hilariously having important bits in bold which everyone seems to have ignored.

They simply out waited the competition and grabbed the opportunity to fuck them, brutally.
So rather than cutting off used games right away you bought yourself a couple years before it becomes more profitable for publishers to stop making physical copies all together and you end up with an online requirement and Sony and MS coming out of it all innocent.

Endgame result's the same, only you got tricked you won. You didn't, Sony did.

My thoughts are that you should put your money where your mouth is before calling anyone a fool, let alone everyone.
If you have hard evidence (not just rumors), then lets see it.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

so the numbers are in, the PS4 has SOLD 7 million units, while the Xbox One has SHIPPED 5 million

the PS4 outsold the Xbox one last month despite the release of titanfall and theres not much else that could help the xbox one move more units on the horizon

with the wiiu realistically out of the game, could we be looking at something similar to the PS1/PS2 generation? sony well ahead in the first place with both nintendo and microsft in distant 2nd and 3rd places?


now before you comment let me make it clear im a PC guy, consoles dont really appeal to me anymore so id like to avoid the accusation of fanboism, second i dont believe one console selling truckloads make it objectively better, i dont think the wii was the best console last gen and im one of the many people who believe the dreamcast was underappreciated


so all this being said, what are your thoughts? is this the return of the sony-domination in the console scene? if so, what is the cause of it? are the scars left by the initial reveal of the xbox one still not healed or are the PS4 features/games more appealing? is it too early to declare any winners?

If we're lucky, yes, it'll be a Sony dominated. Quality dominating would be nice.

The cause is partially backlash against the Xbone, but mostly I think it's common sense that the PS4 is literally equal or superior in every way.
More powerful system, smaller, better looking, no giant power brick, better controller, better interface, no "free" features locked behind a paywall, better controller, better value in the online services subscription, no obnoxious ads, no anti-consumer policies, annnnnd to top it all off...it's $100 cheaper.

Also, the PS4 arguably has a stronger lineup of upcoming games than the Xbone.
But the Wii U is actually the dominator in the games department - it crushes the PS4 and Xbone combined.

well the wiiu has been out for a year longer, it would be unexcusable for it to have a worse game lineup

 

[Ieyke]

Aye. It would be inexcusable.
But the Wii U lineup isn't just "good enough", it's just one awesome thing after another.
And the Wii U's upcoming games list actually holds up easily against the upcoming games for the PS4 and Xbone too.

Nintendo is bad at marketing, but god damn are they good at games.

 

[Aesir23]

I wouldn't be surprised. My sister and I have actually resolved that we're going to be sticking with Sony's console from now on since we're now about to buy our third 360. I would like to just throw my hands up in the air and switch completely over to the PS3 but I don't think EB will let me exchange all of my 360 games for the same games on a PS3.