PlayStation and Xbox are basically the same thing and it took a console with a crank to prove it

From VG247: "Firewatch publisher Panic has announced Playdate, a bright yellow handheld with a tiny black and white screen.

The console looks familiar enough at first glance, if nostalgic for a time of fewer controls – just a d-pad and two buttons on the front, like the Game Boy. But then you notice the… thing on its right-hand side. It’s a crank, the same device you might use to start up an old car, or to adjust the angle of a sail in the wind; a hipster-y addition that signals Playdate as a gently disruptive force in the console sphere."

[Malice-Flare]

oh, VG247. i can safely recommend this be ignored...

[Mr Pumblechook]

An entitled ‘journalist’ from VG247 makes a silly comment to signal that he is more informed than the gaming public, but ends up reminding people what an insufferable no-talented bore he is.

[Nyxus]

They're game consoles, what are they supposed to do? Make coffee?

[Knightofelemia]

The coffee maker option comes out with the PS5 pro standard PS5's have the slap chop built in

[The_Sage]

Lol. Your comment made me think of this.

https://youtu.be/UWRyj5cHIQ...

[Knushwood Butt]

Edit.

[Tross]

Well, next gen consoles had better make me iced caps in the summertime. That's one feature I'm missing from the current coffee-making consoles. I look forward to the improved bean-capacity that next-gen consoles will have. I also think my PS4 sounds a tad too robotic when she serves me my coffee, and her apron doesn't really accent her ebony exterior all that well. Ok...this is silly and I'll stop. This article is just as silly, mind you.

[Profchaos]

My PS pro can fry an egg if you leave rdr2 online paused on the map

[SyntheticForm]

Honestly, if it could match my Keurig that would be great.

[PhoenixUp]

Not really

[gangsta_red]

Well the jokes on them because the next Xbox and PS5 will have a pulley

[OnlyThoseOnTheFence]

I heard PS6 will have rack & pinion

[Sgt_Slaughter]

"a hipster-y addition that signals Playdate as a gently disruptive force in the console sphere"

Did anyone at VG247 proofread this article for common sense?

[rainslacker]

Hush, we've been disrupted. Although I hadn't even heard of this thing until about a week ago when that one article popped up on N4G.

[4kgk76]

The exclusives games is what define a console not the hardware. that why the ps4 is killing the Xbox one in sales right now because the help of great exclusives games and marketing.

[chiefJohn117]

PS4 didn't have much for the first 2.5 years. Sony even admitted.

[LoveSpuds]

What many Xbox fans dont appreciate is that Sony have built up goodwill over 20+ years and even if exclusives are slow to arrive early on, Playstation fans know the games are coming as Sony have always delivered stellar exclusives titles.

Besides which, I was plenty happy with the exclusives in the first 2 years with the likes of Resogun, Killzone, Until Dawn, Bloodborne, Last of Us Remastered, Infamous Secon Son, Tear Away Unfolded, Little Big Planet 3 and personally, I enjoyed The Order 1886 and Knack too.

[Dragonscale]

And xbone had even less lol.

[notachance]

yeah and they released TLoU for PS3 in the same freaking year they released PS4

[chiefJohn117]

Lovespud I totally agree but people make hypocritical statements. It's contradictory

[phoenixwing]

from a collector's standpoint this handheld seems pretty cool but when it comes to actual gaming there's just going to be a lot to be desired

[Dom_Estos]

https://media.giphy.com/med...

[Magog]

Worst click bait I've seen in the history of n4g.

[Tross]

? I don't get the argument being made here. The PS4 and XB1 are the same because...they're both consoles? I've totally missed having a crank on my PS4. /s

[Segata]

Playdate is just a tech toy that a small amount of people will care about.

[rainslacker]

It seems like one of those things in the impulse buy sections at wal-mart. Cheap little games that attract the kids, and they cry until their parents buy them one. Not in price, but in everything else.

I'm not even sure what the point is of the device. it's not competing to take over the console market. The makers aren't trying to break into the console sphere and have a heavily supported device. They aren't some start up trying to make a name for themselves like all those Android based devices that were popular to try and make a thing 5-6 years ago.

It has some games. It's pretty low end tech. It's not really that classy looking. There is nothing about it which really screams that it's desirable for collecting. It's black and white, and the games are pretty basic, maybe a step above those LCD handheld things you see in the stores sometimes. It's way over priced. It has limited distribution channels to even get in front of the customers.

So, I'm really not sure where the author of this article even felt that this thing was disruptive to the console market. No one in the community even talks about it much except to mock it, or maybe call it a cool oddity. Maybe it has more popularity outside our hardcore gaming market, but it's not priced for the casual market. Hell, one could get a Vita still for half the price, and the 3DS is cheaper also.

[Cobra951]

I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would care. Oddly, there is some interest. Novelty? Nothing since the pet rock should surprise me. This did.

[EddieNX]

This doesn't make any sense.

You have PC,XB,PS which are all similar and then you have Nintendo who do things differently.

[madpuppy]

Nintendo...the company the "does things differently" by releasing the same pap, with the same characters with nearly the same gameplay every generation.....Nintendo fanboy fantasies.

[CrimsonWing69]

Wait what!?

[KwietStorm_BLM]

A tiny handheld with a black and white screen and a crank is a "disruptive force in the console sphere"? Why isn't this labeled satire?

[MetroidFREAK21]

The only difference to me is the name on the box

[AK91]

So does this mean PS4 can become the next water cooler?

[isarai]

Its an overpriced underpowered gameboy with a Sega Bass Fishing crank on it. The only thing that makes it remotely interesting is the developers making games for it. How does a crank some how make it far surpass the many features modern controllers have?

You silly willy

[blacktiger]

xbox and playstation is too important to be different and serve the best for gamers! It's called competition

[MadLad]

So essentially "The thing has a crank. Those other things don't have cranks. It wins because cranks".

jOuRnAlIsM

[Iltapalanyymi]

when you definitely aren't paid to make articles

[CobraKai]

I couldn’t give 2 shits about this Play date nonsense. It’s like a gaming machine for hipsters who don’t play video games

[william_cade]

Maybe this writer needs to find something else to do for awhile, then come back and write.

[WickedLester]

Oh FFS!

[Vanfernal]

Please ban VG247...

[esherwood]

Hipsters are going to eat this thing up lol

[secrettalkshowhost]

This thing is so inane. Its a collection of "quirks" that are so forced and cliched that it ends up feeling incredibly boring and obvious. Oh it has a crank. Of course it does because you've gotta have a really uninteresting input gimmick that isn't actually different from anything that's been done before (hello paddle controllers). Its black and white because of course it is. Making it low fi isn't enough: gotta get rid of color for that extra bit of hipsterness. It has a subscription model where you get games parceled out in a weird way because of course it does, selling games normally would be too normal. Looks like a Gameboy because of course it does, gotta throw in some nostalgia pandering. Its yellow because of course it is: any other color wouldn't be "different" enough.