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PlayStation 4 Released
Today marks the launch of the latest entrant to the next-gen console race: Sony's PlayStation 4. A number of reviews for the system have already gone up, but many outlets are waiting for next Friday's Xbox One launch before passing final judgment. With regard to the PS4's hardware and UI, Digital Foundry praises the DualShock 4 controller design and the improvements to background downloading, while worrying about fan noise in warmer environments. iFixit provides a step-by-step teardown of the device, giving it an 8/10 repairability score. Ars has many good things to say, but many bad things as well: "The PlayStation 4 has an excellent controller, decently powerful hardware, some intriguing, well-executed new features, and an interface that shows belated acknowledgment of some of Sony's most user-unfriendly past designs. It also has a lot of features that are half-assed, missing, or downright bewildering at this point." Polygon's review is more visually oriented, filled with pictures, videos, and drawings. They conclude, "[T]he PlayStation 4's focus on gaming — and only gaming — is undermined by a distinct lack of compelling software. That failing is sure to improve — better games and more of them will appear on the PlayStation 4 — but right now, this is a game console without a game to recommend it." Eurogamer's coverage includes has a round-up of launch title reviews and gameplay videos. IGN has coverage of the roughly 0.4% of PS4s that arrive broken out of the box, and Kotaku explains how they fixed theirs.
Not this again.
I've got better machines to run Linux on
Agree. But I *PAID* for running Linux, and then they *REMOVED* such feature, unless you kept your console out of date, without playing new games (last firmware with "Other OS" enabled is 3.15).
After removing the "Other OS" feature in the Playstation 3, which enabled running Linux, I'm no longer interested in your devices.
well you should be happy then that they're this time releasing it with zero features they can drop and instead are to gradually insert them..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I used my ps3 for media as well as occasional gaming. PS4 lack of streaming media support that does not originate from Sony's pay sites is a real minus for me. At least with the ps4 released, I can snap up used PS3 for media consoles in the bedrooms now.
^ My sentiment exactly.
Sony has repeatedly engaged in anti-consumer activity, so I see no reason to support them. I own all the last gen consoles, but I've had it with MS and Sony (and Nintendo's showing this round is not really compelling, IMHO).
I'm going to hold out for a really powerful Steam machine for the living room. Valve seems like a friendlier company, and most of us here probably already own over a hundred titles via Steam.
Why cant we get both loosing?
Liar liar pants on fire. You never used it. If you had, you'd know it was totally unusable as a Linux machine.
To me it's very disturbing that you have to require a Internet connection just to enable features such the Blu-ray player on the console. It SHOULD have it feature already in the box. What if a kid who wants this console don't have Internet in their home. Believe it or not, there are some families who do NOT have Internet because it's not worth the money to invest what their getting out of the connection.
That plus their network being horribly hacked, plus the root kits they used to do on their CD's, plus every other horrible thing sony has done is enough reason to never buy anything with a sony label.
I thought we all agreed on the SteamBox so we can play games together!
Plus in SteamBox doesn't need "other OS" feature as it already is the other OS.
Actually, I was a Xbox fanboy for the previous two generations. But I'm heavily leaning toward the PS4 this time. With the exception of not including a IR input (damn you blutooth-only remote!!) Sony seems to be making all the right moves this time, and MS seems to be making all the wrong ones.
Sony is $100 cheaper, has better hardware muscle for games (allowing for higher resolution and framerates), has a nice new controller, has that GREAT new "Share" feature, and is focused heavily on the games.
MS has an annoying overlay for my cable box which I will never use (an IR blaster, seriously??), still requires a $60/year Live membership to access even basic stuff like Netflix and Hulu (no thanks, MS, my Roku lets me do it for free and it's quieter and has a better interface), a mandatory always-on camera and mic that creeps me the fuck out, and seems to treat gaming as an afterthought. Plus I've gotten more and more annoyed by their add-heavy interface in recent years.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
At the time the ps3 debuted, there were not cheaper options (better, yes) for muti-core processing. Even the US military used PS3s as nodes for a compute cluster (running Linux, btw).
There is a mandatory day-one firmware update, which is just north of 300 MB. If you have an internet connection and a USB drive (aka, if you are reading this) go to PSN to pre-download.
Why not? Is it not okay to hold a grudge for perceived betrayal? That's pretty much #1 on good reasons to hold a grudge.
I bought both the previous Xboxen myself, and I just stopped caring once the homepage advertisements crossed my threshold for tolerance. I am not your damned captive audience.
After removing the "Other OS" feature in the Playstation 3, which enabled running Linux, I'm no longer interested in your devices.
well you should be happy then that they're this time releasing it with zero features they can drop and instead are to gradually insert them..
You don't know how true this is. Bluray and DVD movie playback don't work out of the box, you need a Day 1 patch...
But the growing dependence of the XBox on paying a recurring subscription fee really does bother me. I don't enjoy online gaming because you waste too much time in matchmaking, too many people are too good, and a lot of people are jerks online. It would help if they would at least agree not to raise the price of the subscription during the life of the device.
I don't think you should speak for "the majority of us." My impression is it's a vocal minority upset over things most of Slashdot doesn't particularly care about - they got rid of the Linux OS nobody was actually using, and they purchased BMG right after BMG added anti-piracy rootkits to CDs, 10 years ago.
I don't think PS4 will fuck over the user. Sony sells it as a game device and it seems to do just that.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
It is typical of their behaviour though. Basically it shows that you can't trust any feature they advertise to remain.
Can't we get an article for Playstation that does not refer to Xbox or vice versa?
More to the point: OtherOS, Sony Rootkit fiasco, being slow/less than 100% honest about the PSN hack.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
That was the point at which I decided that the internet connection wasn't benefiting me, but them. I just disconnected it from the network.
My XBox 360 is happily still working without an internet connection. But from the sounds of it both new consoles are still mostly going to demand an always-on connection (and if they're not at launch, they will I assume).
I'm more likely to buy a spare 360 at this point that consider either of the newer offerings from Sony or Microsoft.
I have no desire to play on-line, give these guys a marketing channel, or provide them with my usage data and a camera in my living room. If game consoles stop being something you can run completely off-line, well, I'll stop having game consoles.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Considering I'm usually anti DRM anything, I'm surprisingly ok with Steam DRM. Steam itself is fast, convenient and I've never had the DRM get in the way of me playing a game when I wanted to. They maintain my collection of purchased games which I can re-download without hassle as needed. -- After struggling in the past to find old CD keys and media this is the main reason I love Steam. Your mileage may vary, and I don't care. ;)
Sigs are bad for you...
I'm sorry, but I have seen nothing in the history of Sony and their behavior to believe you'll see anything different from Sony on this front.
Sony is a HUGE content provider, and is absolutely going to want to monetize everything they can. They're going to be trying very hard to lock you in, get you buying stuff from them, ensuring their DRM is enforced, and generally treating it like it's still their console and not yours.
For me, both of these consoles fall squarely in the "If they're not screwing you now, they will be soon" category.
I don't see Sony beating Microsoft in this generation of consoles being any better for consumers in the long run. In the end, they're all going to be trying to do the same thing.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Valve is a friendlier company, but a really powerful Steam machine isn't going to do you much good. You still need a powerful Windows machine to run most of the AAA games, which will then stream to the Steam Machine thin client.
If Linux gaming gains traction due to the Steam Machine, and I hope it does, a powerful one would become useful at that time. One you buy now will be out of date and worth much less than you paid by the time it's actually useful.
Is it not okay to hold a grudge for perceived betrayal?
Methinks you're being overly defensive. I don't think the GP is telling you to drop your grudge. That's your freedom. Other people however have moved on, and they're also free to be tired of hearing you grumble about your lawn.
> If it keeps the fuckwits off the service then maybe its not such a bad thing?
I take it you've never been on XBox Live... I know you said you've been a PlayStation person all these years, but if you've ever been over at a friend's house while they are on a multiplayer game, it can be quite horrific.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Well, if you put it that way there is zero reason to ever buy a console during initial release. All have problems and all have few titles. You could just do what I do and wait until the next gen is out and buy up the old consoles then. Yes, I bought my first 360 in July 3013, 200gb special edition with 40 games for $250, and yes, I bought my first original xbox in 2006 with similar extras. No, I don't care if "all my friends" are playing the new system, because no one comes to my house to play console games and I don't play console games online with my friends.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
It was easy for a lot of people to move on, the ones not using the feature that was removed.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Please look up the bathtub model of hardware failure - most failures will happen right at the beginning of a product's lifespan, or after a period of time where failure rates are very low.
On the other hand 0.4% failure on the first day doesn't look great. 0.4% failure in the first month is good. 0.4% failure in the first year is excellent.
It looks like a dodgy HDMI connector is a common issue.
Nintendo's showing this round is not really compelling
Depends on your tastes. Sit down with some friends and play a round of Nintendo Land sometime, then form an opinion. Just because a game looks like a lot of fun doesn't mean that it isn't worth playing. :)
Why not? Is it not okay to hold a grudge for perceived betrayal? That's pretty much #1 on good reasons to hold a grudge.
Theoretically it is okay, but in this case a PlayStation running Linux is just not that important battle to fight. It is primarily a gaming console (and a media player) and it had bad hardware support under Linux anyway.
This is why BestBuy was a total nerdocalypse at midnight when I drove by it last night.
Also in practice.
You should know by now that it's not about running Linux on a Playstation at all. It's about a company deliberately removing functionality from a product they sold you. That's never okay, even theoretically. The fact that the feature did not enjoy widespread popularity does not justify it.
I also so far never had problem with Steam DRM and that's why I am OK with it.
And if/when Valve go bust or turn evil? (I'm aware Gabe said that if Valve go bust they'll unlock the Steam DRM. I don't believe it for a second - I doubt they're even legally in a position to make that call for other companies' games.)
I use Steam too, and yes it works fine now, but that's not to say that by going with Steam you've escaped all the downsides of DRM. They still hold the keys to your gaming locker.
Other people however have moved on
I have moved on, from Sony products that is. I'll consider moving back under either of two conditions: A. SCE reverses the decision and embraces hobbyist development of apps and games for PlayStation 4, or B. those in charge of SCE's decision are no longer with SCE. But incidentally, after Microsoft initially announced that only disc game publishers could publish download games for Xbox One, SCE publicly announced one step toward A, allowing indies to self-publish on PlayStation Store in much the same way as on mobile app stores, and got Microsoft to reverse this.
The customer initiated the removal of the feature. I still have a PS3 with otherOS. Noone has taken it from me.
This is blinging
I agree that those things Sony did are 100% bullshit. Me personally, I was most disappointed by their insistence upon using a proprietary memory stick that only worked on Sony devices.
fine...
but /. threads are going to be intolerable if we don't talk about **the alternative** while we bash Sony's dumb design choices...
**MICROSOFT ALSO SUCKS ASS**
if any random /.'er wants to vent about how 'Sony still sucks' I say fine, but let's not pretend we're having a productive discussion about which Next Gen system is better or will be more successful, or which one gamers should buy...
Thank you Dave Raggett
Less than honest? are you for real?
Sony were 100% honest, brutally honest in fact, when they didn't know how severe the hack was, they were 100% right to paint the worst case scenario, sadly the media raped them for doing this.
Microsoft on the other hand have been sweeping their Xbox Live account emptying problems under the carpet for the last two years.
Go figure.
Rootkits part of game installations
The rootkit fiasco was about Sony BMG music discs installing rootkits when you tried to play them on a computer and had nothing to do with games.
I say music discs because said discs lost the right to be called CDs and have the CD Audio logo due to intervention by Philips.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Which console are you talking about ;-)
All the dedicated consoles have been historically hostile to users who want to use or contribute to game mods. The only console not intentionally hostile to game modders is a living room PC. True, fewer than 50 percent of gamers install user-made mods, but it might not be a minority if consoles supported mods.
I'm one of the people who is still mad about the OtherOS removal. Yes, I'm aware that due to how the PS3 hypervisor limits the system that running Linux on a PS3 is comparable to running it on a Raspberry Pi. Heck, you've got more usable RAM on the current Pi than on the PS3. That's not the point.
The end result of the SCEA v. Hotz fiasco is that once the warranty period is up, Sony can do whatever the hell they want to your console. Any feature is fair game. Sony could legally push an update that turns it into a paperweight if they desired and you would have no recourse. As an addendum, the warranty isn't transferable so this could legally kill the used system market if they so desired.
The warranty time used to be a safe period at the beginning of a piece of consumer electronics usable life where if it broke you would be able to get a replacement. Now, it should be seen as the entirety of the devices usable life.
If you are planning on buying a PS4, make sure that you buy the extended (2yr) warranty. Make sure that you get your $450 worth over then next 3 years. Go into this with eyes wide open.
Yes, this doesn't just apply to Sony but they are the ones specifically have it in their warranty clause, went to court to confirm the legality of it, and are otherwise actively hostile to their customers.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/02/otheros-class-action-lawsuit-geohot-sony-now-share-same-charge/
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110218181557455