At some point, I will probably write a more in-depth article about this, but I felt compelled while I had a few minutes this afternoon to at least say something about the PlayStation 4.

There was a lot of hype for a long time regarding what the PS4 could potentially be. The same is true regarding Microsoft’s new system. People were going on about augmented reality, the use of immersing glasses (almost like virtual reality), and other things that would revolutionize game-play. But, isn’t that the same pitch that people give to us every time a new console is on the horizon to be releasing soon? Everyone talks about the latest in touch or motion control, the advancement of the Kinect or similar products, or how incredibly realistic the graphics will be. Yet, at the end of the day, at least for this gamer, it always comes back to how fun the games are going to be. You can try to hide behind your Ultra HD graphics all you want, but if you don’t deliver quality games that are actually, you know, fun to play, then what’s the point?

To me, everything about the PS4 so far seems to speak of it being “just another system.” This is reinforced by their comments that they were using more mainstream computer components (like AMD chips) that would make development easier (understandable, of course), but this begs the question as to why you would need a PS4 instead of simply playing games on your PC or laptop. Moreover, this new hardware is supposed to make playing PS1, PS2, or PS3 games no longer a possibility, instead requiring you to stream them to your system. This would have been fine to me in regards to PS1 or PS2 titles, but what about your PS3 games? Maybe Sony will have a way for you to prove you do own the disc and therefore not require you to double-purchase a game just to play it on the newer hardware, but I wouldn’t be too terribly surprised if they didn’t bother.

I guess, just like all other systems, it’s going to come down to what games they can deliver at the end of the day (and especially those games being unique strictly to the PS4), but I can say that currently, as far as I am concerned, I’m not sure that I would bother to purchase one.

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