TheMightyEthan

Ubisoft have already been heard complaining about the lack of power. The PS4 is already outperformed by a mid-range gaming PC. I honestly don't see how these consoles will compete in say 3 years when more intensive games are being designed. More intensive games just won't be designed, or at least not many of them, the same way games have been held back for the last several years by the PS360. Devs may grumble about it, but they're not going to move to PC in droves because PC games just can't support the same kinds of numbers that consoles do. I think the proof of this is that PS360 games are still being put out, even though they're far more underpowered than PS4/Xbone, because there are enough users to justify it. I also think you're discounting the optimizations possible one a console where everyone has the exact same hardware. Early games always look worse and perform worse than later games, because the devs haven't yet figured out how to eek out every last little bit of performance. The superior potential for optimization is what allows consoles to far outperform PC's with similar on-paper performance specs. *Edit* - I do agree that it's kind of baffling why companies continue to almost exclusively chase the huge blockbusters when there's only room for so many of those and if you try and fail it can bankrupt the company. I'm just hoping the industry will figure that out eventually.

One company collapsing != a crash. There's a lot of churn in the industry, and we're definitely undergoing a major shift in the way it's structured, but that doesn't mean it's a crash. A crash is a sudden bottom falling out, not a gradual decline.

I don't think you'll find many who disagree that game budgets need to come down, but the publishers could figure that out prior to it causing a collapse. More, smaller bets can (in theory) yield similar profits to a few huge bets, and you don't risk failure of the company due to any one product.

Scratch that, Amazon seller flaked out on me. Aaaand ordered it again from a different seller, this one with a well-established positive rating (the previous seller had never sold anything on Amazon before). It was even $0.01 cheaper! Yay!

I agree, but I think that if Sony really gets into trouble they'll spin off Playstation, which can continue as its own company. I think you're way overestimating the importance of "power". Also, I would point out that the period immediately post-launch (6 months - 1 year) is traditionally a slow time for consoles. They got all the hardcore people who were super excited right at launch, and then it takes time to build up enough of a library to draw in others. Typically sales keep accelerating for the first several years before finally plateauing.

I'm really enjoying it as well. I was kind of miffed though that you have to play through the story missions in order to unlock the multiplayer, I wanted to do like I did in the alpha and avoid the story missions because I wanted to experience those fresh at launch.

They may have taken out the "That wizard came from the moon!" line, and added a robo-filter, but Dinklage's acting is still terrible in this game:

I agree with a lot of the points you make, but think you're way off the deep end as far as how severe you predict the consequences are going to be. Also, one little quibble: you're right that Sony as a whole isn't doing so hot, but Playstation is one of its few profitable businesses.

Taken by metalcaveman.

Sigh.

Yeah, there's some inherent fuzziness in the idea of "directly".

Okay, I think we're mostly talking about different kinds of statistics here: people living in a city that's occupied are directly affected by the conflict, regardless of whether there are mass killings or anything like that. In terms of % of people killed I'm sure you're right.

The fact that we haven't had a major (direct) conflict between powers in 70 years though is pretty impressive I think.

Plus Project Morpheus support! And free blowjobs!

I could be wrong, but I thought that if you included WW1 and WW2 then the 20th century was one of the most violent in terms of % of population impacted.

lol, yeah, I just chalked it up to the writers strike and did my best to ignore it.

Oh yeah, WW3 could turn that number around real fast, but it's actually a trend that's held true since WW2.

Ooh damn that's tempting...

Actually I've read that even though it seems like there's a lot of conflicts, in terms of the percentage of the world population directly impacted by military conflict each year the 21st century has been the most peaceful century ever.

Gravity Rush 2!

What I mean is that Russia or the rebels, whoever's been shooting down Ukrainian planes, could have mistaken it for a Ukranian military plane, but it's unlikely Ukraine would have mistaken it for a rebel plane.

I've got an extra PS4 Destiny beta code for anyone who wants it. First to PM me gets it. *Edit* - Apparently it's Americas-only, FYI.

Why would Ukraine have done it? It's not like they could mistake it for a separatist aircraft, since AFAIA the separatists don't have an air force. I mean they could have done it to try to frame Russia/the separatists, but that seems like it would have way too big a potential for a backfire.