6.5/10

atta boy

Time will tell

They did the gen before this one, why can't they now? If Sony can win the US the Xbone will lag behind them. They key to this is launching closely with the Xbone and giving people a chance to look at both consoles without just seeing one ahead of time at launch. This is the first time every Microsoft and Sony are launching head to head. When Sony launched a year before MS they blew them away, when Microsoft launched a year ahead of Sony they beat them by ten million and then it dropped to eight million and they lost the lead by the end of the generation. Now its basically head to head with the PS3 and 360. 

The biggest deal in the US is having all the games available and a proper price. Americans wont care.

Well with that logic... the wiiU should be #1 since the xbox one has similar issues... Where ps4 fails the xbox one succeeds and where the xbox one fails the ps4 succeeds but the wiiU also succeeds where both of them fail such as free online multiplayer, actual backwards compatibility that doesn't need you to rebuy games to play the games you already own... A new type of a controller and in 2014... the wiiU is looking to get a respectable library of games where as the other two consoles have launch titles and ports...

Also you can arguably say that the wiiU deluxe promo is better than ps+ since the ps+ free games is only until you stop paying and then they are no longer free

https://p.nintendo.net/deluxe/

But who knows... games will sell more consoles than their gimmicks will

You're calling PS+ a gimmick? *Not bad*

It may fail if its memory cards cost $100.

While I realise this is a joke post, I did leave 3 points that might be of concern.  Again, not reasons Sony will fail, but concerns.

The first one, if your Sony's financial team.  

The second one, forces me to pay like I do with Microsoft.  Yet I think Microsoft is ahead in the overall online experience sector.  I hear that the freebies are better with Sony, though (not a ps+ memeber).  Still, at the end of the day you have to pay for either.  This didn't seem so bad when they snuck it in after the X1 DRM bullshit.  But with that reversal, hmmm.

Third point.  I think this is why Xbox 360 and PS3 split the market last gen.  Might be a similar outcome this gen.  If Microsoft were to lower the price of their console to 400, then they appear very similar to many people.

Sony will do fine.

As we all know, the PS4 is playing it dead safe. Safe specs, parts, disc format, size, and especially cost. Nothing revolutionary about it, but just a incremental improvement in all respects.

Sony is struggling to maintain profitability, and the PS4 is designed to safely guide them. If Sony recovers in the next 5 years, expect them to take more risks with their future products, like the PS5.