This little blog entry is just a look back to the very first words spoken 6 months ago when opening the ps4 press conference in the context of today's Vita TV announcement. I'm not promising any cutting insight into what was said today or back then, just pointing out what I find interesting and, above all, highly reassuring as the PlayStation family expands.
With today's announcement of the rather surprising PlayStation Vita TV at SCEJA's press conference, once I'd gotten over the shock of what is essentially a new PlayStation home console/media device and had a little time to think about what we saw before us, I was reminded of some things Andrew House said back at the ps4 announce in February... something about Vita having power, potential and connectivity. Before today I'd assumed that simply meant remote play of ps4 on Vita - that just made sense. So I went back to check out what Mr. House actually said when he opened the presser just to settle my curiosity. I'll also point out that I also continued watching for a little while longer to re-live Mark Cerny's eloquent unveiling of the ps4 platform, the controller and the basics of the hardware design and ethos itself. Even though that has little relevance, it's interesting to see that again just 6 months on so see how rock-solid their messaging has been regarding ps4. However, the plan was to remind myself of how Andrew House opened proceedings February 20th in New York:
"Today marks a moment of truth and a bold step forward for PlayStation as a company, as creators and innovators and as industry leaders. At Sony we've always talked about our entire portfolio of technology and content, blockbuster titles and successful entertainment franchises. Today we'll show you how we're strengthening the PlayStation ecosystem through hardware, software and network capabilities that, when unified, create truly magical experiences that can only be found in our world."
So already, in the first few sentences, House was already beginning to tell us about a new and exciting connected PlayStation universe, at the time it just didn't promise to be as far-reaching as it is turning out to be. He continued:
"We'll show you how we're making access to our content and experiences, social interactions and titles, vastly more simplified and streamlined. We'll show you the many ways in which the living room is no longer the centre of the PlayStation ecosystem - the gamer is. With the gamer as the focal point for our efforts, we've created a platform attuned to consumer's changing behaviours and an evolving sense of play."
Along with many watching, these opening words maybe didn't really hit home at the time. It is interesting to note how PlayStation's focus was no longer a "battle for the living room" as many had claimed the 7th generation was - here we saw a focus shift to everything being all about and revolving around the gamer. This came in stark contrast to Microsoft's Xbox One reveal some time later, a device most definitely rooted and aiming to be central to all things "living room" with it's camera peripheral and cable box interactivity with perhaps too little emphasis paid to the gamer initially.
It seems that at this early point, way back in February, PlayStation was organised, focussed and filled with belief about the ways they saw console gaming going forward. Many commentators had said console gaming was done for and that there was only a niche future for such closed platforms, but with PlayStation's policies regarding indies and embracing true free-to-play games and their willingness to provide a platform that was much more developer-friendly compared with the obtuse ps3 architecture, it's clear they had their plan in place and believed in it. Sony's idea of an 8th generation machine wasn't simply about better graphics and more of everything. So if it wasn't just about more shiny and everything turned up to 11, what more was there to their vision? House continued...
"Ease of access, regardless of location or device, has been an absolute priority. With mobility and the ability to share content and experiences becoming an increasingly important part of the gaming experience, connectivity between devices and the ease with which they connect has been essential to meeting the demands of today's casual or core gamer. Our vision for the future is consumer-centric, developer-inspired, and characterised by an unwavering commitment to phenomenal play experiences. These experiences can happen on a console or hand-held device and we're meeting the demand for mobility with the most powerful hand-held gaming system ever created - PlayStation Vita."
Personally, I was awake late into the night and the last thing I wanted to hear about from PlayStation was more about the Vita. I owned one, it looked and played great and I believed how powerful they said it was because I'd already seen it first hand, but this social interactivity and connectivity stuff? We had remote play on ps3 with PSP and it wasn't all that great and smart phones and facebook are nothing I'm interested in - I just wanted to hear about the next home console! Not being a big fan of online multi-player I'd never considered the social aspects or potential for gaming and to be honest I didn't really want to hear about it now, it just seemed like the usual stuff these people say.
"In fact, the OS and chip-set inside PlayStation Vita is so powerful, we think it could bring significant value to gamers' living room experiences. We know the potential for expanding PlayStation Vita to the living room is real and promises to deliver amazing gameplay and multi-media. We'll be talking more about this exciting initiative later this year, but it's safe to say, we'll continue to unlock PlayStation Vita's potential."
I don't know how many people picked up on this at the time or dismissed it, as I did, as being nothing more than reiterating the hints of more remote play or cross-play possibilities of ps4 and Vita. Maybe they were simply hoping to sell a few more Vitas off the back of the ps4 somehow by reminding people of its existence in front of a huge captive audience?
But read that back now or watch the presentation again, in the context of today's reveal, and it all falls into place. It highlights how well Sony PlayStation have their act together - that this is and was their plan all along. That a delayed ps4 release in Japan due to localisation and producing territory-specific launch titles would require time but that something as amazing as Vita TV could offset this handily in a region that has taken to the Vita itself more than any other.
So that's a whole lot of text to allow me to basically just emphasise the point that Sony PlayStation seems to be in very safe hands. The way they are moving forward with such a connected and holistic over-arching framework of devices all tied together through PSN and ps+ - it's highly reassuring and promising when looking to the future. To know that there is a plan, that it makes sense, that it is being executed point by point and that we've probably not even seen the final pieces of the puzzle yet. All in stark contrast to back-tracking, reversals, ambiguity and frankly appalling messaging elsewhere.
We were expecting problems with mod support, but there are a lot of other issues.
This is why you get the GOG version on gog you can select the version of the game to download.
On pc fallout 4 fallout new vegas and skyrim are all broken on steam because they all got the same "next gen" update.
Skyrim dec 2023
https://www.pcgamer.com/sky...
Can not find new vegas but anyone that modded it knows the script extender there was also broken
Not accidental, they want modders to stop modding their older games to force them to mod Shitfield.
There doing the same on starfield with a mods store and blocking mods
There goal is like blizzard and what they did with fallout 76 you make mods they can sell and you become a slave.
On skyrim they have "trusted" mod devs now basically a badge that lets your mod on the store you get a crumb of the sale when someone buys it.
lol to the disagrees, the last Skyrim update broke mods too. They've been trying to kill mods to monetize them in creation club for years, it's not a stretch that they purposely put out patches just to break free mods.
The disagrees are from people who have common sense. They aren't trying to kill mods. Most mods for any game will break with a new update because they rely on files/code that have been changed. This isn't new. Even with Bethesda this would happen way before the creation club. Mod support is literally one of the things that got Bethesda to where they are, and they're one of the only devs that releases comprehensive mod tools for each of their games.
Over 14 GBs and doesn't change much at all? What? Taking up that much drive space for a pathetic 'remastering' is shameful.
Par for Bethesda.
LOL people are actually expecting massive improvements or something? From Bethesda?? the same people who released Skyrim multiple times and the all look like shit? THAT Bethesda? are people for real?
The ps5 version doesn't change a ton but from my small playtime it's enough to make me want to replay it just to have it running at 60.
A side note to this my PS4 version no longer boots after it's "update" so I guess that's what it feels like to own a Bethesda game on PC
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.
tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
A voice actor from The Coalition's third-person shooter series, Gears of War, has hinted at a new game announcement coming in June.
Hopefully Microsoft will go back to the original story line and get away from that woke nonsense from the last Gears game Gears of Woke! But were talking about Microsoft so all the betting money is on more of the same woke nonsense.
The Locust trilogy concluded with Gears of War 3. I don’t get how Gears 4 and 5 are “woke” .
This isn't just a good blog--this is REAL journalism. Good work! I like.
Excellent research. As you pointed these things out, I slowly but surely started to remember some of it and also remembered thinking the same thing..."this is just some more remote play stuff" and letting it casually drift to the far recesses of my mind. Now, as I read the transcript, I realized exactly what you did. Sony was ready...long before we knew we might be...Sony was ready. They were anticipating something that we couldn't really begin to imagine...Vita TV. Thus, providing the needed impetus for developers to commit to Vita long term and for consumers to commit to getting acquainted with the Vita at a very reasonable price. It's a win-win scenario. Say what you want to about Sony, but you'd be hard pressed to say that they lack a vision for this upcoming gen.
Nice bit of digging, it certainly does sound like Sony is doing a controlled roll out of a master plan.
Comparing this to Nintendo who seem a bit bumbling (but lovable) and MS who don't seem to know their arse from their elbow makes me confident that PS4 is the console to back next gen.
If I could give a "Well Said" or "Intelligent" bubble for a blog you would have it.
I remember re-watching the reveal about a month ago and listened to him say that. At the time I just thought they were going to focus a lot heavier on the Vita integration with the PS4, since it was predominate in the PS4 reveal.
Sony really planned things out pretty well for this console launch. Even in it's own history, they have never been this focused and determined, nor have they ever been so amazing in delivering their message. Even the PS1 and PS2 which recieved a lot of hype and positive reception didn't get to the level they have since announcing the PS4, and today they took it up another notch. This isn't the Sony of old anymore, this is a better Sony than I've ever seen.
I know a lot of people try to cast doubt on Sony, often referring to their PS3 launch, but how anyone can do so now after they've been on fire for the past 7 months, and then pulling off probably one of the biggest surprise announcements in console history next to Sega's changing the launch date of the Sega Saturn, is beyond me. Sony's message has been clear since day one. It's the naysayers who have muddied the waters.
Great Article. This is a well researched piece.
I have not been this excited for gaming in a long time. I have been loving my ps vita since day 1 and cannot wait to complete my playstation ecosystem with the amazing ps4 and psvita tv.