Thoughts on the PS4 Pro
The new Sony PS4 Pro can play 4K games! Amazing! Or is it?
I mean, yes it's an impressive technical achievement but let's take a few steps back. Do you have a 4K TV? I don't. In fact, I don't know anyone who does.
How about a TV that supports High Dynamic Range? You don't know do you? Neither do I.
So while it's all well and good releasing a console that supports 4K gaming, you're not actually going to get any benefit it from it unless your TV is compatible.
Are we all going to go out and by 4K TVs? No.
Why? Because 4K doesn't actually offer that much more. Yes it's beautiful but there aren't that many TV services around in 4K yet and small time producers hate it because the amount of computing power it takes to render it in an editor takes ages.
Netflix and other services offer 4K but come on, is 1080p now considered to be obsolete? No, not at all.
Also, you won't even be able to play 4K Blu Rays when Sony invented the Blu Ray.
"The PlayStation is primarily a gaming platform, and everything we do is to make the gaming experience as seamless as possible." Jim Ryan, head of PlayStation Europe, told the BBC.
"Bullshit." Matt Fisher, head of dicking about at Pomelo Retro told us.
The PlayStation has never been just about the gaming. I realise the word he used there was 'primarily' but it's still a cop-out. The original was a success not just because it was a great gaming console but because it was also aimed at a teenage and early twenties audience - being from Sony (who were renowned in the 90s for great audio products) the PSX doubled as a gaming system and a great CD player.
The reason the Playstation 2 was so successful was partly down to being a great console and partly down that it was cheaper than most DVD players on the market so why buy a fancy new DVD player when you could just get yourself a PS2 and get the best of both worlds.
Onto the Playstation 3, and it hardly had any good games on launch. Sure there were a few and there ended up being quite a good library in the end - but not to begin with. I actually sold my PS3 to my uni housemate within a few months of owning it because I only had two games I was interested in playing. However, it played Blu Rays out of the box - unlike with the Xbox 360 and its need to buy a peripheral in order to play HD DVDs.
HD DVDs died quite quickly. So much so that the discs have become standard for not only PS4 games but also Xbox One games as well. Sony make the fecking media so why is it that Mircosoft are now making hardware that can take advantage of it in a better way (at least when it comes to films)?
Yes the slim Xbox One is the opposite and can play 4K video but not 4K games - but it'll soon launch Project Scorpio that will support 4K and Virtual Reality. But then what happens with Playstation VR? What's the best choice then? Is the PS4 Pro best for VR?
"PS4 Pro is not intended the blur the lines between console generations," said Sony's Mark Cerny.
Well don't worry Mr Cerny, it doesn't do that. What it does do is fan the fires when it comes to the question: Why does anyone buy a console anymore?
Why are Microsoft making an Xbox One S when everyone knows something better is on the way? Why would anyone buy a PS4 Pro when everyone knows it's just a stopgap.
Modern gaming sucks. And that's why we Retro.
