The industry should thank Sony
Just as a spray of lighter fluid on a dwindling flame ignites it into a raging fire, restoring it to the brilliance and brightness of the past; Sony has done that with the reveal of the PlayStation 4 – and not only are Sony fanboys excited, everyone with any form of connection the gaming industry should be as well. It’s no secret that over the past few years the gaming industry has begun a downward slope, sales show that, but hopefully it can pull itself back up though only time will tell. With a console generation that has gone on long past what it should, the public has began to lose interest, and therefore taking their dollars else places. Add on top of that the exponentially growing plethora of mobile gaming capabilities and level of quality it is easily understandable why it has taken off and quickly is, and really already is, the dominate form of gaming.
Over the last five to six years we have seen a major shift in the way the gaming industry exists; the evolution of the mobile phone has brought a whole new and exciting frontier for developers to easily, quickly and cheaply make games for millions more people that a home console could ever provide. Our current pair of consoles were conceived and released before really anyone knew that this mobile gaming surge would come, and proof is in the way the current systems have taken a dive in popularity. Yes, there are multiple others reason to attribute the decline of the home console market, not just mobile phones, but they are by far one of the most influential contributor to this decline.
And then we started hearing about it; the next generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Excitement started to return to the industry that had been absent for the last 6+ years; gamers were excited for the unlimited potential of what could be in store for them during the next generation of consoles. Rumors were flying around the internet; the new PlayStation would have full backwards compatibility, the new Xbox would feature a far more robust and responsive Kinect. There was a ton of excitement and anticipation.
All things came to the forefront when Sony sent out invitations to the press for a gathering they were going to hold on Feb 20th in New York City to talk about the future of PlayStation. Almost immediately it was evident what this event was to be about though Sony never came out and said it; the PlayStation 4 – and the internet blew up. Comments, tweets, Facebook comments and statuses, major press websites, independent smaller websites, personal blogs and many other places ignited in talk about not only the next PlayStation system, but the next Xbox and the industry as a whole. There has not been this level of interest and conversation in the gaming world since the current generation of consoles were announced.
Now with the PlayStation 4 finally announced and we all know what Sony is bringing to the table, the debate focuses more on what Microsoft will do. Hopes and dreams of the next Xbox’s capabilities are popping up on almost every single gaming website with tons of comments from readers following. The great debate of which console has dominance over the other has just been rekindled and is stronger than ever.
As a gamer it is hard but not feel excited for what these two major companies have in store for us that will shape our gaming lives for the next 6 – 10 years. Though Microsoft is not to be forgotten, thank Sony for being brave enough to be the first to reveal what they have been working on. These are the times in the industry where it is by far the most exciting and I for one have been missing this feeling for many, many years.
Thank you Sony.
