@goodgamesguy: Oh, if the article says it then it must be true. The truth is that multiplayer gamers actually could see a divide, depending on how developers choose to handle the situation. Bungie didn't allow PS3/PS4 crossover in PvP because the PS4 users increased clarity would give them a leg up and it wouldn't be a level playing field. That was a smart decision. But now you're looking at a situation where PS4.5 users could have a leg up on PS4 users. That's not something console gamers are used to and could earn Sony a lot of backlash. The article should read that "it's unlikely to cause a divide in single player games."
@cboye18: The sad thing is this is all being done for VR, and VR right now hasn't amounted to being anything more than a techie fad. The sales sure haven't being stellar for the 21st century's Virtual Boy. If Sony pisses off their fan base just to push the failing VR experiment then this move will only hurt them in the long run.
@masonshoemocker: It is inevitable, but NOT in the foreseeable future. Half the US would struggle with 50gig downloads for every major release. MS can't afford for people to cut back on buying games because either their bandwidth is capped or their speed isn't good enough. Maybe when google fiber is running to everyone's house... maybe.
I can only imagine how pissed off the developers must be. After finally getting out from under the PS3's horrible-to-design-for architecture, Sony tells all these guys that they've now basically got to develop two different versions of the same game. Oh well... just add multiple season passes to make up the costs. It worked for Destiny.
"Bungie engineer Roger Wolfson explained that it decided to cordon off new-gen from last-gen players for gameplay reasons and not due to technical limitations.
“I’ll speak for the hypothetical player,” Wolfson said. “[On PS3], I have a disadvantage sniping across the map because [my opponent with a new-gen console] is only two pixels on my screen, and I’m four pixels on his. You see that in the world of PC gaming, where people are always racing to the best video card to give themselves the advantage.”
Sounds like Sony is about to force developers to do what they don't want to do. That should go down well.
@dmblum1799: And that's fine for early adopters and tech geeks, but it's dangerous to run a business aimed at your minority. Especially when they're a console business and your minority typically gravitates toward PC.
@heydink: No, not if you're going to damage consumer confidence in your brand. Over saturation of hardware doomed Sega. Sony runs the risk of repeating history. The fact is that the majority of console gamers buy in with the expectation that the console they're buying is going to be it for the foreseeable future. Sony isn't just selling a new console, they're asking their customers to change the way they think about console hardware. Which is fine, except that Sony hasn't even managed to convince all it's customers to upgrade to the current gen yet. So now you're talking about Sony selling three different consoles on store shelves plus their accompanying attachments. That is NOT a good place for them to be. Just ask Sega.
@ditronus: Actually over saturation of questionable hardware is what helped kill Sega. There's a great channel on youtube called Gaming Historian which documents the whole thing. There's always going to be early adopters like yourself who jump on the newest thing. But that doesn't mean it's in a company's best interest to turn out more hardware if the majority of it's customers aren't interested in it. Sony hasn't even managed to convince all of it's customers to move up to current gen yet (PS3 sales still make up a good chunk of their profits). And a lot of people just jumped on current gen in the last year with an expectation that this was going to be it for awhile. Now you're talking about having three different Sony consoles on the store shelves at the same time. That's a dangerous path to go down, just ask Sega.
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