| setsunatenshi said: Mark Cerny was the gift to Sony that keeps on giving, I don't know if he should get the full credit on this, but making sure the platform was as standard as it was (basically an X86 architecture easily upgradeable), made it impossible for backwards compatibility on one hand, but pretty much secured cheap and powerful hardware that should just carry an entire userbase over to the new consoles without having to reset to 0 everytime they implement an upgrade. The people you mentioned complaining at first are pretty much by now forced to get on with the program (since every other console manufacturer is releasing new hardware) and by the time the Neo is out they won't think too much about it. For people who bought it day one, probably enough time passed that they are ready for something shinier, and for those who bought a PS4 not that long ago they are still good with their system and won't be left behind. For developers what's more attractive? Creating a game for a userbase of 50M (by the time Neo is out probably) or launch some exclusive on a new platform that may or may not perform well in the long run? Sony might have the chance to lock their userbase in with this move, giving them all that PC Steam users have enjoyed for years and years. Upgrading your machine doesn't render your game library useless anymore, so what reason would those users have to switch sides? We will have to see how it plays out, but I think there was some high level 3-dimensional chess when they decided for this strategy. Bravo. |
Agreed. What keeps people locked into an ecosystem? Exclusives, and soon the XB1 won't have a single exclusive. I've always likened Sony's strategy to chess and Microsoft's strategy to poker. One is played with guile and patience while the other is played with money and bluffs.
The PS5 Exists.
