Rigged for Epic

I am a PC gamer and when the chips are down the health of PC gaming will always be my priority, however, I do own a PS4 and I am frankly shocked at how Sony seems to have derailed their own train. While commenting on the new PlayStation 4 Pro in my recent blog I got onto two paragraphs and decided to make it into its own article. Events in recent months have me worried for my console brethren and after watching the Sony unveil of the PlayStation 'Pro' last week I am genuinely concerned.

It is true that in the last few years PC gaming has seen a massive resurgence in popularity and with the gap in performance between PC and console becoming palpable - Microsoft and Sony have been forced into action. Perhaps it's not surprising that both of these tech giants have decided to break form by releasing new hardware and then attempt to justify it to their customers who just invested in this console cycle. Sony is really trying to push the idea that the Pro will still be a PlayStation 4 but twice as powerful. First of all I don't buy this bullshit, the Pro is a new console and is certainly priced as one. Saying 'well you don't have to buy it' is like asking your dog not to chew that juicy bone you got for him. Sony has sold a ridiculous amount if PS4's, which is great, except all those gamers, are now looking at another £350 if they want to keep on par with the best-looking games. I do find it baffling that the Pro doesn't even include a 4K Blueray player, something Sony own the patent on. What makes matters considerably worse is that after talking about 4K in the conference the Pro can't even manage 4K visuals, instead it's almost 4K as long as some sacrifices are made to framerate.

The other problem Sony have is that 2017 is fast approaching and it won't be long before the Scorpio joins the party, which we already know will be considerably more powerful than the Pro (over two teraflops more powerful). Now I for one am going to be really interested to see how Microsoft get true 4K gaming to run on a system that will be priced as a console: but for now, let's assume they do. This creates a real problem for Sony and one which Nintendo have fallen foul of with the Wii U: console developers really don't like to develop their games for systems with vastly different capabilities. That is one of the strengths of console, that it's closed architecture always developers to drain every last drop of power from it. Next year Microsoft may very well dominate console gaming for the first time in years and there isn't a damn thing Sony can do about it. If they release an equal to match the Scorpio they will be crucified for asking fans to invest in yet another system. If they stick with the Pro they will be trapped under a huge disadvantage to Microsoft and I see the PS4 range being dead in the water by the end of 2018. What really shows how deluded Sony are is a comment made after the Pro unveiling by CEO Andrew House, stating that Microsoft wasn't their main completion but is actually PC. Indeed he thinks the Pro will make gamers think twice about moving over to PC gaming. No amount of refining can change the fact that the specs of the Pro lineup with a PC rig from years ago and as we know: raw power isn't the only advantage PC gaming has.

As I sat and listened to Mark Cerny very eloquently explain how 4K works it occurred to me that most 4K televisions are not even ready for 4K gaming. Gaming is not like watching a film, sure you can pick up a cheap 4K Television for less than £500 these days but gaming is a totally different kettle of fish. Long story short if you want to play games on a 4K TV you really want to be around the 40ms or less: to get this right now you are talking about a £2500-3000 TV. I just don't think that outside PC gaming the world is ready for 4K gaming, yet this problem doesn't seem to be getting addressed anywhere. To justify this new system Sony had to make a big enough jump, but in an attempt to appear part of the same generation this half step may just cost them the race. Sony seems painfully unaware that console owners do not want to be paying for new systems every two/three years and certainly not when the competition is already so far ahead of the curve. Indeed one of the huge advantages of past console cycles was that once you had invested in a system, that was you set for the next seven or so years. In the scramble to keep up with PC gaming, console manufacturers are running the risk of becoming irrelevant and I worry it's their customers who will end up paying the price (literally).