PlayStation 4 - The Art of War

Published July 3, 2017

The views contained in this article are that of the author and should not be taken as the opinion of Geek Node as a publication.

Playstation has been around for about 2 decades and is in my humble opinion the best console out there. It may be the fanboy in me that echoes these thoughts but sales figures prove that it is a sentiment I do not share alone. However, that dominance in the market is now hurting us as the consumer. See Sony brought a gun to knife fight, but has now run out of bullets and Microsoft with it double edged sword may end up being the winner after all. Let’s not count out Nintendo and their; against all odd breakout star, The Switch taking this battle went from vs. to a ménage trios.

See Microsoft has realised that in the console to console front lines they have lost the battle. But rather than simply raise the white flag until the next gen consoles release they have gone tactical. XBox Live is a similar subscription to PS Plus where the player pays a monthly fee for access to online features, online gaming and free games. Unlike the indie obsessed PS Plus , XBox Live actually offers up great games ever month. They seem to have a better grasp on what the mass market would enjoy. Sony, on the other hand, has been hit and misses for as long as I have been a subscriber.

This brings me to the next point, backwards compatibility. Xbox has gone out guns blazing with this and is really putting holes in Sony’s market share. See the truth is everybody wants the One S or Pro but not everyone can afford to splurge another 6k for a marginal upgrade. However, backwards compatibility on a console you already own or one that has a significantly reduced retail listing. That sounds rather tempting. The ability to play your old 360 games on your new device is priceless. I have said this before newer isn’t always better. Case in point, the USB port Nintendo NES sold out. Personally, some of my favourite games aren’t playable for me anymore. In fact, in order to play them, I must re-acquire my old PS2 and PS3 . In today’s world where our Smartphone can perform multiple functions, having 3 generations of consoles in your lounge is unnecessary clutter. Look I am no programmer or game designer, but I do understand that the coding may be different across the devices. But if you can port GTA 5 then you can port anything. In fact, this could be a revenue stream. I would happily pay a small fee for SSX 3 . XBox is light years ahead and is boosting its arsenal even as this article is being written. Retro is the new, new. Sony’s arrogance could hurt the empire it has maliciously crafted over these years, especially all the exclusives are experiencing constant delays ( hello GT Sport , I am looking at you ).

Sony isn’t all gloom and doom; it’s recent ( not so recent ) firmware update brought some much-needed relief to its current owners. The ability to add an external hard drive finally arrived. However, this was long overdue and many like me have had to delete games to create space in the arbitrary 500GB models. A feature as essential as this should have come along with the first major firmware update if not already enabled at launch. With games having massive install requirements it didn’t matter whether it was digital or a hard copy, space was going to run out fast. Sure you could open the bomb up and replace the original hard drive with a more nuclear one, but only at the minor cost of your warranty. But I suppose better late than never.

Apps, the little piece of software designed to do rudimentary functions have become a core part of society. The gaming community is no different. Sony brilliantly let us install YouTube and Netflix apps which made our lives so easy, then suddenly just stopped dead in the tracks. Ease of access is what the modern is all about. I don’t want to press one more button than absolutely necessary. Now I do understand that this is more an SA problem than a general problem but it’s a problem none the less. ShowMax and Amazon Prime need to be made accessible. Hell! Throw in Sony’s own streaming service. There is no better place to launch such a service.

In short, Sony needs to step up to rail gun plate and be prepared to return fire. XBox has declared all out war on the current console king. The king may be currently ruling all he surveys but the tide of the battle can change very quickly. The changes needed aren’t radical, rather giving in to the demands of the fans that have stayed loyal over 4 generations of consoles. E3 is almost upon us and maybe I have jumped the gun, maybe Sony has something up its sleeve. We may just see the boys at the Playstation division go nuclear and win this war… ONcE and 4 all.

What say you Nodians? Do agree with what I’ve said or do you have something further to say on the topic? Let us know down below in the comments.

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Entertainment / Gaming Author at Geek Node

The possible result of lab experiment gone horribly wrong, a real life Anti-Hero with all of the sarcasm/attitude and non-of-the superpowers. Still tears up each time he sees Arnie lowered into the molten metal. Thinks he is super funny… others beg to differ. Was going to live his life ¼ mile at a time until he converted it to the metric system… and would choose the red pill every time. Driven by Dreams and Fuelled by Passion.