PROBLEM 1
"Sony held a press conference to unveil a new system. After a coma-inducing two hour briefing, talking about social networking minutia and enough buzzwords to shake a stick at, THEY NEVER UNVEILED THE SYSTEM.
This may have never been done before in the history of marketing consumer electronics, and by itself destroys the credibility of the event. Major buzzkill."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Nintendo fail to show us the actual Wii U console itself when it first unveiled the controller and some games at E3 2012? I don't think any serious gamer is basing their purchase on the design of the console.
PROBLEM 2
Sony never said it wouldn't play used games. I think we owe it the benefit of the doubt until we know for sure. I don't know how you work saying it plays used games into a press conference introducing the console.
PROBLEM 3
"Sony failed to address the major “elephant in the room” – the fact that their online network is second-rate compared to Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Worse performance, worse features, worse everything."
So much for not being biased. XBL is considered better, but that doesn't necessarily make PSN bad. Besides, it's free, and many gamers will take the solid quality it provides for free over a paid service like XBL. I can't tell you the number of people I know that got a 360 and had no idea they'd have to pay at least $50 a year to be able to use Hulu or Netflix on it. And way to not even acknowledge Playstation +, the most awesome paid gaming service this side of Steam. I'm strictly a Nintendo gamer, and I'd love to have a service like that.
PROBLEM 4
"Sony attempted to disguise a lack of vision for the future with sheer quantity of content – a massive two-hour briefing. Way too long. Should’ve been an hour, at maximum. Two hours was disrespectful, honestly, to the gaming audience watching it.
Why? So much of this was hype, buzzwords, and non-exclusive titles. Horrible.
By the way, here’s a newsflash for all console makers, from here on out: DO NOT EVER WASTE PRESS CONFERENCE TIME TALKING ABOUT NON-EXCLUSIVE GAMES. They are on all the systems! Who cares! Tell us why the PS4 is a must-own, over everything else. Leave anything else out."
Would have agreed if it was E3 and Sony's press conference was going up against Microsoft's and Nintendo's, but this was an all-Sony conference. I quickly got bored and tuned out, but I'm sure the Sony fans ate up every second of it. It would have been vice-versa if it was a Nintendo conference. But like I said, this was an all-Sony event, so it needed to express the vision, direction and mission statement with the PS4. I'm sure it did that. And it's not like we didn't see any games or demos. Knack looked interesting (only game I saw), and I know there were others.
I almost agree with the last paragraph. I'd modify it to say, "DO NOT EVER WASTE PRESS CONFERENCE TIME TALKING ABOUT NON-EXCLUSIVE GAMES UNLESS THE VERSION ON YOUR CONSOLE IS UNIQUE AND SHOWS WHY IT IS THE ONE EVERYONE MUST BUY."
PROBLEM 5
Can't argue with that. There may still be an option to download them to your hard drive though. Such a feature could always be implemented.
PROBLEM 6
"Last, but not least, no press conference announcing a new system should ever occur without giving the public the bare minimum of what they came for: A LAUNCH DATE. “Holiday 2013″ doesn’t cut it. Tell us the exact launch date. Plant the flag on the calendar and go with it.
Having a press briefing, without giving a firm release date (and especially without even showing the system itself) is pathetic and amateurish."
Again, hardly new. I know this is what Nintendo does all the time, then tells the world a couple of months before launch. I'm sure this is what Sony did in the past with their previous launches. I'm sure this is what Microsoft will do. I guess this guy forgot we still have E3, Gamescom and other tradeshows long before "Holiday 2013" rolls around. It's like he thinks the PS4s have all been finalized and produced, and are just sitting in a wearhouse collecting dust.







