News & Rumours: Playstation 4/ Orbis *spin*

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Nice. Has anyone had a chance to try it? I hear it doesn't support directplay in any fashion. Disappointing if true. I've used it on the X1 and it's lack of DTS decoding (currently a platform limitation since this is true of the media player app as well) is the only bummer. Want pass-thru for that and at best get stereo. DD works fine so not sure if/why the server side transcode is being forced to use stereo AAC. Please try and report back on PS4 if you can. Thanks!
 
So I've been a very critical and an unthankful member as of late.

But today, it's gonna be different.

And I shall start the day with a nice post to express my thankfullness and gratitude for something Sony seems to finally have got right with the PS4. :)

One of my biggest complaints during my PS3 ownership has been the localization of digital content and how Sony made it extremely difficult to solve. To explain; I live in Switzerland, the german speaking part (we have 4 official languages here, none of them english), and so, creating a correct PSN account forces me into a German-set PSN with the majority being German synched games. Doesn't matter what language I've set my PlayStation to, I don't even get a choice to decide which language I want the store to be displayed in. Even worse; There's a lot of content that is single language only, possibly to reduce install sizes. One of the prime examples are the Call of Duty games, which have been german synched (no english) - or Final Fantasy games that have english speach, but had forced german subtitles. For someone like me with an English speaking background and who likes to consume media in the original language this has been a huge setback. At the beginning of my PS3 ownership, I used to solve this issue by cheating my way through with a 'faked' US-PSN account so that I could get the native english content. After about a year, Sony closed that window by disabling foreign creditcards that don't correspond with the PSN-account country.

As a result, I was foced to import my games through retail copies from the UK - thank you Amazon! - which also had the benefit of being much cheaper than actually buying games at retail stores here.

Anyway - that was the problem during the PS3 days. Now on PS4 and despite my earlier skeptism, I am happy to admit that Sony seems to have been able to solve this issue. In every game so far (which I have purchased and downloaded exclusively from PSN, so DD all the way), the games seem to be split up in a modular kind of way, where the language specific stuff seems to be packaged seperately. As a result, despite still having to view and browse a German PSN store, the content I am downloading is actually, as per my PS4 language settings - English! Nice!

I've noticed in a couple of games so far (like the TLoU:Remaster) that switching the language from English to say German will result in the game in having to download and install additional files (probably the German language files). This may be a special case, since Sony games even during the PS3 days were better at solving the localization issues. I've also downloaded Call of Duty: Advanced ... and Ghosts and I'm happy to note that both games also are native english, despite the purchase in the German PSN store. Not sure if all games handle the localization the same way, but if it is indeed in a more modular way by completely seperating the language specific stuff into a seperate package, it's a good way and it seems to work great so far. This way would also ensure that download sizes are kept to a minumum and only increase if you want to make use of multiple language tracks.

My bet though is that it isn't exclusive to all the games. I.e. Diablo 3 (or just the latest one anyway) seemed to offer 2 different complete installs (all +10GB if I'm not mistaken), one for German and one for English. For some odd reason, after purchasing it, it downloaded both versions - but I was able to delete one and the other (the English one) still worked.

Main thing is; it seems to be working and I can at last enjoy PSN the legitimate way with a real account without having to worry about synched language tracks I don't want. Nice!
 
I have an option on Android apps in Unity to split the binary and have a data file. Google now hosts data files I think (they used to require you host them separately). Point being, it's down to me as a dev to implement content packages. I can provide different res assets for different screens, or language packs. From what you describe, Sony has a similar option that requires the devs to make use of. If it's not a system similar to other distribution platforms (XBL, Steam), it'll probably only be used for exclusives. So for Diablo that has the same build for PC and consoles, they won't want to code a build that uses an external data package just for Sony so do a full install for everyone.
 
Hm they say that AAC is required for direct streaming, but later mention that DTS can be transcoded to AC3 if capable receiver is available.
 
So, it'll pass through AC3 to your decoder/TV, if it supports the format it'll work. AAC is supported and played through the app.
 
The Live Casts from the PlayStation Experience are now up on YouTube. Here is the playlist and below are some brief thoughts on the videos I watched.
  • Shawn Layden Q&A -Typical PR fluffy non-responses.
  • A Look at Dying Light
  • A Look at No Man's Sky -20 minutes of Shawn Laden. You already know whether you want to watch this or not.
  • A Look at The Witness -If you're interested in The Witness take a look, shows the start of the game.
  • Adam Boyes Q&A -I found absolutely nothing of interest discussed.
  • Shuhei Yoshida Q&A -Another filler interview.
  • A Look at LittleBigPlanet 3
  • A Look at Tearaway Unfolded
  • The Making Of Tearaway
 
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this has been bugging me for a while.

Why PS need to have too many info screen and info on text?
For example,
- the 1st boot will show health warning
- PSN(sm) <--- cant they simply say PSN?
- Descriptions under "Rest Mode".

i never got something like that on xbox 360.
 
I dont see why this is material for discussion.
With the exception of the health warning that adds some time until the console is usable, the rest are just there
 
317987604
 
this has been bugging me for a while.

Why PS need to have too many info screen and info on text?
For example,
- the 1st boot will show health warning
- PSN(sm) <--- cant they simply say PSN?
- Descriptions under "Rest Mode".

i never got something like that on xbox 360.

I dont see why this is material for discussion.
With the exception of the health warning that adds some time until the console is usable, the rest are just there

Someone on GAF mentioned that it's because Sony was sued before for the missing health info.

I don't remember when I read it. It was the year before I think.
 
Someone on GAF mentioned that it's because Sony was sued before for the missing health info.

I don't remember when I read it. It was the year before I think.
Really? Curious.
Why this hasnt been applied by all console maker then is strange.
I wonder what was the exact case for Sony. Its been 3 generations and Sony didnt have this warning until during some years into the PS3's life cycle
 
Really? Curious.
Why this hasnt been applied by all console maker then is strange.
I wonder what was the exact case for Sony. Its been 3 generations and Sony didnt have this warning until during some years into the PS3's life cycle

Bethesda, Zenamax and SCE sued by (now former) Navy Pilot.
A former U.S. Navy pilot says that a video game gave him a grand mal seizure that caused him to lose his flight status. John Ryan McLaughlin says he was playing the game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion when "strobe lights" within the game (we assume he means bright multi-colored, flashing lights) gave him "a grand mal seizure for the first time in his life," causing excruciating pain and breaking a bone. The former F-18 pilot, says the seizures caused him to permanently lose his flying status.

Not sure if that fits timing wise, but my hazy memory thinks it does.
 
Could have happened anywhere and it's not like he'd have avoided playing the game on reading the warning when he had never had a seizure before. Like the rest of us, he'd have just skipped it. Those kinds of seizures are completely unpredictable and unavoidable unless one avoids visual entertainments altogether.
 
"you may die after drinking this bottled water".

some warning are unnecessary... and yeah, most just ignore the warnings.

btw just rebooted my Vita after months... it also have the health warning. Dunno it was added in recent FW or always like that.
 
Eurogamer has an interesting article on the Nyko's Data Bank, an adaptor that fits on to the PS4 and allows the insertion of a 3.5" HDD, meaning you can drop in a higher capacity drive like 4Tb or the new 6Tb drives.

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It looks wacky but I'm definitely interested.
 
Not bad, I think it looks great. It would be more useful if the PS4 was supporting local media storage, which hopefully is coming in a few months.

As it is, I have a hard time justifying the need for more than the 960GB I have (or even the 500GB stock drive) but again I'm buying mostly disc games, so local storage isn't an issue, and reinstalling games is very fast. Keeping only about 20 to 30 big AAA on cache seems adequate for the rest of the generation.
 
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