PlayStation 4: Initial Thoughts

Sony had their PlayStation Event last night. Sony had live streams going; CNET and many others were doing the same. Hell, even Sony had some live (all be it horrible) live streaming on PlayStation Home. This was going to be a pretty big event.

That was yesterday and by now we all know that the PlayStation 4 is coming out later this year. It'll be the first time a console manufacturer has announced a system and will ship it the same year. We'll see how that goes. But regardless, here are my initial impressions.

Biggest Surprise

Social! Social! Social! That's the theme of the whole PlayStation 4. Did you just do something wicked cool and want to save that moment? Just press the Share button, go back to where it began, and let the world know. By far the best feature is the integration and social aspects of the system. Down to learning what games you tend to purchase, and downloading it for you so that it'll be ready to go when you purchase it. But nothing is more shocking as being able to start playing a game before it is completely downloaded. Genius!

Missing Piece

We saw the Dual Shock 4 (which simply looks comfortably refined), the new Eye, but no system? What? I wanted to see what this system will look like when its sitting in my living room. And how much is this gonna cost? Tell me how much this bad boy will cost and then I'll be paying more attention.

Biggest Disappointment

Backwards compatability is gone. Not even existing PSN games will work. So much for that idea. Guess I'll be keeping my PS3 around (along with my PS2) even when/if I get a PS4. Nothing has been said yet about Dual Shock 3 controllers being compatible...

Conclusion

Initial impressions may be spur of the moment, and it's true. But there's still a lot of unknowns about this system. At this time, it's a no buy for me for 2013. We'll see what information comes out at E3 to sway my decision.