Sony Gamescom 2013 conference

[Strange]

My memory is slowly coming back as I read more GAF.

So Sony have 2 live streaming partners now:

Twitch Joins Ustream On PS4, Will Be Freely Accessible For All Users
http://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/...-ps4-will-be-freely-accessible-for-all-users/



Perhaps they will add Nico Nico for Japanese gamers (like they did for Vita).

Niconico requires a paid account to stream on their channel (生放送).

I think It would probably be a gamechanger if we get to link PS+ accounts with niconico accounts to allow streaming though!

One can dream that it may be something announced @ 9/9 announcement.

 

[BRiT]

Niconico requires a paid account to stream on their channel (生放送).

I think It would probably be a gamechanger if we get to link PS+ accounts with niconico accounts to allow streaming though!

A gamechanger for what? For the region of Japan? I have not heard of Niconico until just now.

 

[temesgen]

watching conference now, here are some thoughts:

Vita

Really a nice little piece of hardware and the new Batman, Tearaway and Borderlands games for Vita are solid announcements - they really need more games to justify the cost to consumers of investing in the platform. The remote play feature is going to be really useful for some of us and its great that that functionality is largely standard. The price cuts to hardware and memory cards are positive but not enough.

Indie support

The amount of support is very cool but I am wondering how much of an impact it will ultimately have for these developers and gamers. I'd like to see how Sony plans to present these titles so consumers can sift thru a mountain of games and find the ones that truly would match for their interest. I'd hate to see Sony play the role of king maker here and back a couple small boutique firms with big personalities and turn them into rock stars if for no other reason than they are marketable. Ideally Sony puts these titles on PSN and based off some predictive model that perhaps utilizes your gaming history can recommend titles that might resonate with you.

Core/motion controls

The AAA PS4 titles look good if not somewhat derivative, so no surprises there. That is both good and bad. The camera as mentioned earlier really looks like an interesting offering but it's a shame it won't see more support. Ironically I think Sony has developers (Media Molecule for example) who could really come up with creative and interesting ways to integrate the camera into new game play scenarios. And its also somewhat sad that all of this indie support is likely not to focus on the camera even though they are far more likely than EA, Activision or UBIsoft to do something interesting with the tech.

conclusion

The fact that the preorder numbers are sitting at 1mm to date should remind everyone that console wars are not won at launch much less the first couple of years. Sony does seem to have some momentum but watching the show I couldn't help but feel they seemed a little unsure what to do next. And some of the positives (indie support) might resonate with journalist but I am not sure it will mean much to consumers. To put it another way Terminator 2 was not really a very good movie but as a company you were far better off making T2 than Europa Europa... Timed exclusives AAA titles and DLC could very well be the most important factor in the success of these platforms.

 

[messyman]

Niconico is HUGE in Japan.
They already got the niconico app on the Vita, but i don't think you can broadcast.

 

[patsu]

Niconico requires a paid account to stream on their channel (生放送).

I think It would probably be a gamechanger if we get to link PS+ accounts with niconico accounts to allow streaming though!

One can dream that it may be something announced @ 9/9 announcement.

A gamechanger for what? For the region of Japan? I have not heard of Niconico until just now.

It's a Japanese centric service:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niconico

Would be weird if Vita has a NicoNico client while PS4 only supports Twitch and Ustream streaming. Either Sony support Niconico servers, or we have a new live streaming client coming to Vita.

 

[Ryan Smith]

How much was Vita before the cut ? I forgot.

$249 for the WiFi model, $299 for the 3G model. And $99 for the 32GB memory card.

Now all models are $199 (indicating a possible discontinuation of the 3G model), and the 32GB memory card is $79.

 

[Rurouni]

for me, $79 is still too expensive. It should be no more than $60 and I'm being generous there. Basically my idea is to match the pricing with memory stick pro duo. $50 would be ideal. Based on micro sd price, it should be able to go even lower.

 

[baten]

I am very curious how he was controlling the pointer when he was selecting letters and words on the displayed keyboard. It looked like a mouse. Or was it just the analogue stick?

The touchpad on the DS4.

 

[patsu]

Some tidbits from GAF about the UI:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=77414585&postcount=144

PSN as a whole is linked to the UI. The game UI is called Live Tiles because they are dynamic akin to Windows 8 Live tile. They can show realtime game scores and infos as they happen in game, shared videos, screenshots and other things related to that specific game. The tiles are created using HTML5 and CSS/Javascript and they can feature animations and audio, each developer has to create one for their game like PS Vita Live Area. You can launch a specific event in game from the live tile just like how you can join multiplayer games from friends profile or from streaming games without having to boot the game and going through in game UI.

So our "XMB 2.0" here is running some sort of WebKit.

It should be possible for games to show web pages in-game too since they have a pageable heap.


Another (older) E3 UI leak video here:

 

[orangpelupa]

Niconico beta works in English and last season they stream nice anise shows

 

[Wynix]

for me, $79 is still too expensive. It should be no more than $60 and I'm being generous there. Basically my idea is to match the pricing with memory stick pro duo. $50 would be ideal. Based on micro sd price, it should be able to go even lower.

It's very disappointing, i got my 32GB card for $75 in dec 2012, cheaper then this "new" price.

 

[Billy Idol]

When he said 'significant' price reduction without mentioning the new price...I knew it isn't...significant.

 

[Gitaroo]

the "significant reduced price" on the memcards are not significant all all. Almost like a small reduction, basically what I got my 32 gigs for at launch. I have a feeling that the "significant discount" for PS4 games that you bought for PS3 is probably just 20 bucks. So If you bought BF4 on PS3, they probably ask for 39.99 for PS4 version.

 

[Xbat]

The touchpad on the DS4.

It was actually the motion controls. he tweeted about it

 

[Nesh]

It was actually the motion controls. he tweeted about it

Motion controls detected from the controller or was it hand gestures? Does it require a camera or are the gyroscopes in the controller adequate?

 

[JPT]

If I were Sony, I would organize a special October pre-launch for hundreds/thousands of lucky users in US and some part of EU.

Make it an invite-only PS+ closed beta.

Someone need to help them QA the launch network.

Yes, please, as a PS+ subscriber, that would be the best thing they could do to "reward" people that spend a ton of money on their consoles. I am thinking about pre-ordering, but I want to be 110% sure that I do get the console and not end up on a waiting list.

 

[Arwin]

Just find a place where you can pre-order without paying money ... that's what I did.

In fact, mediamarkt always allows us to pre-order, and for games for instance we always get an automatic 5% bonus, and sometimes a special edition. And prices generally are already as cheap or cheaper than the best online store.

I was number 21 on the list for the PS4 (ordered a few days after E3, Xbox One was at 6 at the time). All it took was writing down my name on the list, no deposit required.

 

[liolio]

AS a side note the Vita's price cut did not make it to the front page of a site like engadget, not really a good sign to me.

 

[JPT]

Arwin,

Well I have not found any place where I can order without putting down the deposit, yet, need to do proper research. But with a quick glance at the most popular sites, I did not find it.

 

[BoardBonobo]

So our "XMB 2.0" here is running some sort of WebKit.

It should be possible for games to show web pages in-game too since they have a pageable heap.

So we should be able to sit at a computer or use a device in game that lets us browse the internet, possibly even looking up how to complete the next level!

I can just imagine playing a game, deciding to take a break and pulling out a mobile from my inventory and loading up iPlayer...