Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox

[Deleted member 11852]

So you are saying that Sony PS decided on Blue-ray just because of the larger storage space then....

I don't know how the hell you got that from what I said But to answer your question, I've no doubt Kutaragi was strongly steered in the way of Blu-ray because it was the format that Sony helped develop. And yeah, even in 2007 DVDs were getting long in the tooth. I wonder if Uncharted, MGS4 and The Last of Us, would have looked at good if the developers had to make decision about using less/lower quality textures and geometry or splitting the games across multiple discs.

 

[Rangers]

The Crysis 1-2 games take like 7-9GB on PC and look better than those...

I think DVD proved fine for last gen, minus a few well publicized corner cases.

 

[-tkf-]

The Crysis 1-2 games take like 7-9GB on PC and look better than those...

I think DVD proved fine for last gen, minus a few well publicized corner cases.

Fuck fine, thanks to the success of the 360 so many games had to suffer to a ridiculous 7gb space and even more stupid 1disc policy.

 

[MrFox]

... and DVD drives that sounded like a helicopter taking off.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

The Crysis 1-2 games take like 7-9GB on PC and look better than those...

My Crysis install folder is almost 13Gb. Where did your numbers come from?

 

[Blazkowicz]

Console games are traditionally more linear? when you make corridor games you can more often use textures in only one scene or level.
For traditional disc-based consoles (as opposed to disk-based consoles ) you also have a major reason to "waste" storage space. Content may be replicated multiple times to minimize CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/BD seeks.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The extra storage clearly played a part. Sony did not expect their console to be artificially constrained by the 360.

I'm sure the royalty payments of BluRay if adopted by the industry was a much much larger factor in their choice. Otherwise there would have been no barrier in backing the much cheaper to implement HD-DVD (everything from manufacturing to reusing existing production lines versus having to revamp almost everything). Especially, when you factor that instead of BluRays being duplicated and authored on existing production lines it would be done primarily through Sony facilities (at least at the start).

Regards,
SB

 

[Dave Baumann]

Sony did not expect their console to be artificially constrained by the 360.

They were constrained far more by their system memory architecture & size.

 

[-tkf-]

I'm sure the royalty payments of BluRay if adopted by the industry was a much much larger factor in their choice. Otherwise there would have been no barrier in backing the much cheaper to implement HD-DVD (everything from manufacturing to reusing existing production lines versus having to revamp almost everything). Especially, when you factor that instead of BluRays being duplicated and authored on existing production lines it would be done primarily through Sony facilities (at least at the start).

Regards,
SB

Is this about Microsoft or Sony?

 

[Rangers]

So, an article claims Crytek are in a bit of trouble, but i found this bolded part interesting

Just junior member and don't know where to post but i thinks its quite interessting.

Gamestar, a german videogamesmagazine, published today a story named "Die Geier kreisen über Crytek" ("The vultures are circling over Crytek") => http://www.gamestar.de/specials/repo...tek_krise.html

Short info about it:

Crytek got financial problems
there are working over 800 employees
Microsoft and Crytek talked about Ryse 2, but yet it is not in development, because microsoft wants the trademark and crytek don't want to give it up
Reasons for the problems: Free-2-Play & Cryengine not work as well as expected, crysis 3 and ryse aren't big sellers etc.
they got saved for now but maybe not forever


The article is only for the gamestar subscription service. I think if homefront, hunt and the moba will fail, then its maybe game over for Crytek.

(sorry for my english, it's not my native language^^)

So maybe it's true Microsoft wants to own all it's IP going forward?

Again not sure I love this idea, it's pretty strict, and seems to preclude things like Gears of War series last gen. OTOH, I guess Microsoft feels the instability of franchises not being owned by them is a bigger problem? A case can be made for it I'm sure. Spencer seems like a get along kind of guy, so this hardline stance (presumably) from him is a bit odd to me.

 

[tuna]

Yoshida is the nicest guy in the business, but if Sony is going to publish something it will own everything.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Of course everyone wants to own the IP of their first party titles. MS may have dangled the ability to retain IP ownership in order to entice devs into partnerships at times, but it wasn't them being charitable. It gave them a competitive advantage in signing those games.

 

[Shortbread]

Random question...

Does anyone else believe backwards capability is a thing of the past for future consoles (permanently)? Especially, when Sony/MS can profit more by providing remakes/remastered games, and streaming services for previous generation games.

 

[3dilettante]

It's going to depend on how the current gen plays out, I think.

BC isn't a necessity, but eschewing it does present a drag on the adoption curve early on.
Some share of buyers will dislike having multiple devices taking up finite space or connections, and the reduced value proposition might make them wait for when the console is priced closer to what they perceive is appropriate for something that loses the accumulated investment they have in the earlier platform.
Remasters might keep some interest, for the subset of games that get that kind of attention.
Pricing is a touchy topic for something buyers may have paid full price for already, however.

If one platform feels it needs to work harder to retain existing users, or wants to play for more market share early on, it might be on the table.

The other question is how big the downloaded content and app situation plays out. In the case of applications, injecting a gap where users have utility in downloaded software until a new version is made, if at all, can hurt the cohesive platform the console makers are now going for.
Ongoing services and transactions are a big deal now, so anything that breaks continuity would have some cost.

Streaming may depend on how the telecom situation plays out.

 

[dobwal]

Does anyone else believe backwards capability is a thing of the past for future consoles (permanently)? Especially, when Sony/MS can profit more by providing remakes/remastered games, and streaming services for previous generation games.

I do. I don't think BC is worth its hardware cost to the platform provider. Plus, going forward, the consoles don't need BC per se. Local streaming should allow uncluttered entertainment centers. It just a matter of offering such a feature and making sure its available at each release of the next gen.

 

[MrFox]

I wonder how BC will play out next gen, isn't there an opportunity for a smoother transition if it's still x86 with a relatively standard CPU/GPU, with little or no hardware cost associated? Is this possible?

Microsoft will probably try again their transition to games-as-a-service, they really seem to want that exclusively. They'll bring back always online DRM in full force with no physical media available. That could make BC a part of the ongoing business model. BC wouldn't be a free candy given for early adoption as a compromise for the lack of games, which it was for PS1 to PS2 to early PS3 models. It would be monetizable this time.

Sony may or may not have an optical drive on PS5. If it does, BC would still be the usual transition which wasn't possible on the PS4 (too expensive), otherwise they'll do the microsoft way without drive. The percentage of BR versus Online sales at the end of the current generation will probably tell them if it's a mistake to go online-only.

I fear there will be more pressure from publishers next gen, hopefully they won't lobby that BC is piracy or something. Another noDRM campaign will be much more difficult to pull off, but certainly not impossible.

 

[joker454]

Does anyone else believe backwards capability is a thing of the past for future consoles (permanently)? Especially, when Sony/MS can profit more by providing remakes/remastered games, and streaming services for previous generation games.

They will have no choice but to offer bc/fc to appease publishers. Publishers will not continue to risk untold millions of dollars on brand new markets on the trust factor that people will buy into it. They will need to be able to guarantee a large audience to publishers from day 1. The console company that does that will massacre the other company that doesn't for the simple reason that devoting $50+ million to a new game with an audience of 100+ million is more palatable than devoting it to a "hopefully trust us" audience of 2 to 10 million.

 

[Shortbread]

They will have no choice but to offer bc/fc to appease publishers. Publishers will not continue to risk untold millions of dollars on brand new markets on the trust factor that people will buy into it. They will need to be able to guarantee a large audience to publishers from day 1. The console company that does that will massacre the other company that doesn't for the simple reason that devoting $50+ million to a new game with an audience of 100+ million is more palatable than devoting it to a "hopefully trust us" audience of 2 to 10 million.

Doesn't most cross-generational titles covers those worries ($$$$$$$), until the new system user-base is developed or established?

I mean, the current XB1/PS4 are doing ok, without b/c and we see most major development houses releasing established IPs (COD, BF, AC, etc...), from day 1.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Doesn't most cross-generational titles covers those worries ($$$$$$$), until the new system user-base is developed or established?

Yep. Plus as PS4 demonstrates, more money can be made from a small install base than an old, large install base. 5+ million launch owners is still a great market for the right title. Being a medium-sized fish in a small pond has merit. Not that I think bc/fc isn't on the cards, but I don't share Joker's view that it's essential and developers with snub a platform without bc/fc. Middleware tools should make cross-platform/cross-gen even easier.

 

[wco81]

Actually, in the last two generations, the remasters of old titles with higher resolution has become more common.

In fact, they're already doing it within one year of the launches of the current gen consoles.

So it's a chance for them to double-dip as they say about home video.