The Official PS4 Thread

[Wingznut]

Seems to me that the biggest advantage (for the end user) of digital downloads is the fact that you don't have to deal with swapping discs.

 

[007ELmO]

Actually wingznut, every PS4 game must be installed (or have the capability to be installed?).

Can someone confirm that, can you play just off the disc - or MUST it be installed?

 

[Wingznut]

Actually wingznut, every PS4 game must be installed (or have the capability to be installed?).

Can someone confirm that, can you play just off the disc - or MUST it be installed?

I believe every game must be installed. And even installed to the hard drive, you still need to put the disc in the drive to play that particular game.

 

[exdeath]

Seems to me that the biggest advantage (for the end user) of digital downloads is the fact that you don't have to deal with swapping discs.

No, just swapping out one of 5 games with 100 GB installs...

Guess who sells proprietary 2-3x overpriced memory cards (vita) or hard drives (Xbox) to solve that problem and threatens to cancel your account and nullify your $10,000 in games if you dont buy their approved overpriced branded one?

 

[mmntech]

Seems to me that the biggest advantage (for the end user) of digital downloads is the fact that you don't have to deal with swapping discs.

Pretty much. The games load faster too without the disc. Nor do you have to leave the house to to go buy it, or wait several days for an Amazon delivery. Also, it will give more longevity to more obscure titles that tend to go out of print quickly.

My issue with downloads though is what happens to my games in a few years. How long will they be available for re-download if they get deleted or the hard drive craps out? At least with Steam you can create backup install discs.

I do think the old days of having an Atari cartridge and still being able to play it 35 years later are coming to an end.

 

[Doppel]

As long as digital games cost the same as physical games, have more restrictions, and are non transferable, no dice.

$10-15 per game tops if they expect me to just walk away from my investment and treat it as disposable like a movie ticket. I won't pay $60 for something that is intangible and worth $0 the instant I check out.

Its laughable how greedy the industry has become with their push for digital and expecting people to shell out thousands of dollars to build a full price digital game library that they are just supposed to walk away from if they sell their system or don't renew their account.

This.

How in the world are people paying full retail for a digital copy? It is so damn insane. I buy new and resell, most games cost me thus $20-25 to play. I would buy a digital non transferable copy but only at half the price, otherwise no thanks.

 

[Doppel]

Outside of the very few rare titles, most games releases these days are in such high supply there is no market for them. Nobody is going to want to buy AC:Black Flag or the latest COD in 5 or 6 years from you because there will be 5 or 6 newer versions out and the games won't be particularly good.

If a game is truly stellar (to the point of something like Chrono Trigger; how I wish any game would be that good), they are produced in such numbers they are no longer rare.

Agreed, most old games are worth absolutely nothing, but this is why to need to sell after finishing before it loses value.

 

[exdeath]

I do think the old days of having an Atari cartridge and still being able to play it 35 years later are coming to an end.

And if consumers get the raw end of the deal and publishers aren't willing to compromise and err on the side of consumer rights and respect for the doctrine of private property ownership, piracy and hacking will grow far more rampant than they ever feared possible.

 

[Wingznut]

How in the world are people paying full retail for a digital copy? It is so damn insane. I buy new and resell, most games cost me thus $20-25 to play. I would buy a digital non transferable copy but only at half the price, otherwise no thanks.

I guess it depends on your gaming habits. I play a lot of sports games, and a lot of multiplayer games. And by the time I have finished playing them, they are practically worthless to trade in, and nearly impossible to sell.

If it's a single player game, where you finish the game in 10 hours (or whatever) and never plan on playing again, then there would be some value in resale.

 

[KaOTiK]

Oh god, the COD Ghosts saga still gives more laughs

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=719501

You know those reports of the PS4 version dropping in FPS? Well Digital Foundry found it to be the exact opposite, the PS4 version was running above 60 FPS in some situations that is giving it the same feel of it dropping in fps.

There seems to be some hiccup in the game engine when it goes over 60 fps and Infinite Ward is showing just how much more sloppy this game is than we already thought it was.

 

[Anteaus]

why can't we own the digital copies, once we "own" them we can then "sell" it

Because you license software, not buy it. With a physical copy you actually own the disc, but you still don't own the software on it. The DMCA protects you as the owner of the physical media with the right to resell the physical media, since it is a tangeable good. For real world evidence, look at how they treat "activated" software. If you buy a physical copy of a Steamworks game, you can sell the disc if you want, but the software on it is worthless to anyone once the code is used up. A hybrid direction was taken by some companies like EA where they didn't require activation of the main title but did require activation for any DLC use, therefore making activation a defacto requirement much like the "voluntary" day one update for the PS4. There were a small number of console titles from last gen that actually did this.

With digital copies you only have the single component, the licensed software. Your right to resell does not apply there. People like to say fair use would still apply, but you only have to look at the status quo to see that isn't the case.

I predict that over the next few years some companies will start requiring at least partial activation on PSN or XBL for titles, where the base game works fine with only the physical media but activation will be required for all online connectivity and DLC. It's PR doubletalk, but it wouldn't contradict either MS or Sonys stance on DRM while all the same restricting use of a title on a per account basis.

Removal of the EA Online Pass seems like a step away from this type of activity, but it actually just shifts the responsibiity to PSN/XBL should EA persue this type of thing in the future. They simply dropped their proprietary methods. My guess is that both companies (Sony/MS) want all games to eventually flow through PSN/XBL and will offer services to third party developers to support such activities, even if officially Sony/MS don't "require" it themselves.

 

[exdeath]

EA and Activision have been irrelevant to me for a long time.

 

[purbeast0]

EA and Activision have been irrelevant to me for a long time.

no way you serious? i never would have guessed! i mean you talk about them all the time still....

 

[avtek21]

This funny video by Ernie Berlin shows him being inundated by a flood of cherubic aliens like something out of Liliput!

Has everyone encountered these aliens in the virtual game?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB_RMxbGLz8

 

[ImpulsE69]

They made laws about that, but nothing has happened yet. Nobody is in compliance as far as I know. MS was trying to do something like that with the Xbox One, but having install discs that were nothing but meaningless data and requiring activation really seemed to annoy some people.


And anyone saying they refuse to pay the same for digital over physical, you had better get ready to stop buying media then. Physical media is going away and if you think ANY company producing content is going to give you a discount for the money they are saving, you're an idiot.

Yep...sad truth. Unless consumers fight back...but as is being shown, it isn't happening...

I suppose you could say it is happening on the PC side, and somewhat trickleing to the console side, but once physical media is completely gone...there will be no way to compare.

 

[Subyman]

I'd forgotten that the Xbox One doesn't allow HDD upgrades. Seems like a requirement with games being 50GB. Hopefully platter sizes continue to get smaller so we can eventually get cheap 2TB 2.5" drives.

 

[Pheran]

This funny video by Ernie Berlin shows him being inundated by a flood of cherubic aliens like something out of Liliput!

Has everyone encountered these aliens in the virtual game?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB_RMxbGLz8

I don't know why everyone is agog over this alien demo, this is the same kind of augmented reality stuff you've been able to do with Kinect on the 360 in titles like Kinect Party for a long time. One thing I like about Kinect - it was very cool to see what is clearly the primitive beginning of augmented reality gaming.

 

[Aikouka]

I'd forgotten that the Xbox One doesn't allow HDD upgrades. Seems like a requirement with games being 50GB. Hopefully platter sizes continue to get smaller so we can eventually get cheap 2TB 2.5" drives.

The XBOX One will eventually allow for external USB-3.0-based storage for games, but like many features on both consoles, it won't be available at launch. :\

Oh god, the COD Ghosts saga still gives more laughs

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=719501

You know those reports of the PS4 version dropping in FPS? Well Digital Foundry found it to be the exact opposite, the PS4 version was running above 60 FPS in some situations that is giving it the same feel of it dropping in fps.

There seems to be some hiccup in the game engine when it goes over 60 fps and Infinite Ward is showing just how much more sloppy this game is than we already thought it was.

I just assumed that the console developers were essentially implementing V-Sync at the desired refresh rate, but it sounds like that isn't the case?

Sort of related to weird developer snafus, have you seen the debacle over the PC version of Need for Speed: Rivals? Essentially, the game appears to be tying its simulation update rate to its refresh rate, which is hard-locked at 30Hz regardless of console vs. PC. Apparently, TotalBiscuit used a command line switch to raise it to 60 FPS, and the game just went bonkers. He was still traveling at 100-something MPH according to the game, but it definitely felt like V-Tec just kicked in, yo!

 

[Anteaus]

I'd forgotten that the Xbox One doesn't allow HDD upgrades. Seems like a requirement with games being 50GB. Hopefully platter sizes continue to get smaller so we can eventually get cheap 2TB 2.5" drives.

This is conjecture, but after reading into what MS has said regarding external drives I'm thinking they will eventually allow their use for game installs. The XB1 shipped with with USB 3.0 ports (same as PS4) and there is plenty of bandwidth there for game installs and other things. The catch is that they will probably require any such drives to be keyed to the system that formats them so they won't be able to be moved system to system. If the XB1 hard drive can't be removed "officially then this is an obvious way to expand storage. Perhaps we will see Official XB1 external hard drives as accessories in the future. In some ways this is preferable if more than one can be connected at once.

Naturally this could just as easily be done with the PS4 down the road, though I'm thinking with the removable hard drive it won't be so critical.

Anyways, like I said it's conjecture so please don't look much into it. There is nothing official or unofficial regarding what I mentioned.

 

[purbeast0]

This is conjecture, but after reading into what MS has said regarding external drives I'm thinking they will eventually allow their use for game installs. The XB1 shipped with with USB 3.0 ports (same as PS4) and there is plenty of bandwidth there for game installs and other things. The catch is that they will probably require any such drives to be keyed to the system that formats them so they won't be able to be moved system to system. If the XB1 hard drive can't be removed "officially then this is an obvious way to expand storage. Perhaps we will see Official XB1 external hard drives as accessories in the future. In some ways this is preferable if more than one can be connected at once.

Naturally this could just as easily be done with the PS4 down the road, though I'm thinking with the removable hard drive it won't be so critical.

Anyways, like I said it's conjecture so please don't look much into it. There is nothing official or unofficial regarding what I mentioned.

they did this exact thing with the xbox360 and installing games to an external usb hard drive, i see absolutely no reason why this would be any different on the x1.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Oh god, the COD Ghosts saga still gives more laughs

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=719501

You know those reports of the PS4 version dropping in FPS? Well Digital Foundry found it to be the exact opposite, the PS4 version was running above 60 FPS in some situations that is giving it the same feel of it dropping in fps.

There seems to be some hiccup in the game engine when it goes over 60 fps and Infinite Ward is showing just how much more sloppy this game is than we already thought it was.

Oh wow lol...


Physical media is not dying. How do you stream 4k over the internet uncompressed? You can't. How do you stream 3D 1080p with 7.1 DTS-HD MA audio at full Bitrate? You can't. The quality difference between blu-ray and streams is totally apparent with the right setup.

 

[exdeath]

they did this exact thing with the xbox360 and installing games to an external usb hard drive, i see absolutely no reason why this would be any different on the x1.

Except its actually viable now instead of crippled by USB2.

 

[smackababy]

The XBOX One will eventually allow for external USB-3.0-based storage for games, but like many features on both consoles, it won't be available at launch. :\



I just assumed that the console developers were essentially implementing V-Sync at the desired refresh rate, but it sounds like that isn't the case?

Sort of related to weird developer snafus, have you seen the debacle over the PC version of Need for Speed: Rivals? Essentially, the game appears to be tying its simulation update rate to its refresh rate, which is hard-locked at 30Hz regardless of console vs. PC. Apparently, TotalBiscuit used a command line switch to raise it to 60 FPS, and the game just went bonkers. He was still traveling at 100-something MPH according to the game, but it definitely felt like V-Tec just kicked in, yo!

Dark Souls had a similar problem when you forced it to run at a higher FPS. It seems like everything in game was tied to 30FPS rate (and forcing it to run at 60 just double the speed of everything).

It is really strange that COD wasn't locked to only allow it to refresh every 60 seconds maximum. Definitely somebody forgot something. >_>

 

[ManBearPig]

Oh wow lol...


Physical media is not dying. How do you stream 4k over the internet uncompressed? You can't. How do you stream 3D 1080p with 7.1 DTS-HD MA audio at full Bitrate? You can't. The quality difference between blu-ray and streams is totally apparent with the right setup.

Yeah, this is my problem when people tell me I can just stream it. An hd stream and a blu ray are not even close.

 

[purbeast0]

Yeah, this is my problem when people tell me I can just stream it. An hd stream and a blu ray are not even close.

streamed the "1080p" version of crouching tiger hidden dragon on amazon prime on ps4 2 nights ago on my 120" screen. while it looked good, it was nowhere near as crisp as a 1080p bluray. but for what it was, it was pretty solid quality.