SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The days of seeing stories like 'PS4's outselling Xbox by almost 2-to-1' could be over as Microsoft looks to have called time on the console sales war.
Last week saw the Big M announce its quarterly results - yes, yes, fiscal announcements, yawn - but the interesting thing noted by Game Informer was the lack of Microsoft's usual hardware shipment metrics.
When quizzed on this a Microsoft source responded saying it was no longer using such figures as its measurement of success. Instead it would be focusing on user engagement, choosing Xbox Live figures as its leading stat. Essentially Microsoft has made a tacit announcement that, in terms of hardware sales at least, it has lost the sales war of this generation of machines.
Long-time industry analyst, Michael Pachter, told Fortune yesterday that he believes Sony's PS4 is set to have another excellent holiday period, outselling Microsoft's console, and would probably do so with or without the price cut which has given it price parity with the Xbox One.
"Microsoft should cut price only if it cares about how many consoles it sells," he went on to say.
And, given that it's both halted reporting on its own sales and refused calls for a price cut of its own, it sure looks like Microsoft has now stopped caring about such figures. Or at the very least wants everyone to stop talking about it...
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Monday October 26 2015, @11:44PM
Fable is about the only series I would need an Xbone to play, and that series is pretty meh. My PS3 does everything I want it to, and I suppose when I have to go to PS4 for Gran Turismo 7, it probably will as well. There's Netflix (not booting to Windows for this), remastered Silent Hill 2/3, Gran Turismo, Armored Core, all my favorite PS1 games (Silent Hill 1, Megaman X4-X6, Bloody Roar 1, sometimes I throw in Gran Turismo 1 for nostalgia). Speaking of Megaman, also Megaman 9-10.
Oh, I'm leaving out BlazBlue and Soul Calibur—don't have copies but occasionally play with friends. (My λ-11/μ-12/v-13 is feared even among people who can easily trounce me in Soul Calibur, but I'm sure I'd get my ass handed to me in a BlazBlu tournament. Nothing like being able to spam flying swords from all directions!)
Yeah, some of those are cross-platform, but the showstoppers for me are Gran Turismo and Armored Core. (They might as well call Armored Core a mech simulator like Gran Turismo calls itself a driving simulator.)
Hmm… looks like Xbone wins on the backward compatibility feature, but there are rumors [trustedreviews.com] at least of PS1 (and PS2) emulation in the works. Understandable if it's not possible to emulate PS3 on PS4 hardware, since the PS3 architecture was such an oddball, but PS1 is where the nostalgia is for me.
It's been a while since I've fired it up, though. Star Citizen is the Next Big Thing as far as I'm concerned. In the meantime, there's apparently a small community that's sprung up around a Freelancer mod, Discovery.
(Score: 2) by timbim on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:40AM
You don't play Street Fighter?
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:00PM
Nope. I've tried a few times, but I just can't get the hang of it. I find the story interesting, though.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Tuesday October 27 2015, @02:10AM
more like they'll just keep selling you all your old ps1-3 games that you already own again. if you have any interest in playing ps1-3 games, just install custom firmware on your ps3; even the slims "magically" have the same software ps2 emulation that the later phat ps3 models had (only first and second generation slims support CFW though, it has to predate OFW 3.55). if sony had any interest in releasing emulators to grant backwards compatibility you'd be able to purchase their cell-based PS2 emulator from PSN; instead you have to void your warranty or order one the old designed-to-fail (YLOD/laser failure) phat models. no, there's much more money in cashing in on your nostalgia by continuing to sell or rent you the games you already own but can't play on the latest model.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:01PM
I wasn't really into gaming during the PS2 era. I have original discs for most of my PS1 games, and those seem to work fine in my PS3.