The main reason people call it a disastrous launch is because it was Sony, right after the best selling console on the world, the PS2.
If it was any other company, the launch would be considered a huge success despite the controversy but for it to go toe to toe to the successor of OG Xbox, which in your own words didn't do that great is a pretty big fall.
Have you played 'Vampire Survivors'?
Rounds last at maximum of 30 minutes
Easy to learn, but there's a lot of content to keep you occupied
It's $5 but it goes on sale often
I agree with your sentiment, after all what is a game console without games.
What I want isn't necessarily a unique architechture, rather I want a unique experience. I think looking at Smartphone landscape expresses my concerns much clearer. All phones today are basically just reskins of same phone in design, purpose and architechture. Sure there are some novelty phones with smaller audiences for the sake of novelty but what makes you choose a phone over the other is just marketing at this point. I'm afraid that's where we're headed with consoles. The difference is the home consoles are replaceable.
It's too early to decide if it was. Yes it was the safest bet, Even though PS4 had a great deal of success you also need to keep in mind, a lot of it was because of politics. Nintendo and MS made huge mistakes at that time and Sony basically ate their lunch.
The older generations were always innovative and pushed the envelop as far as possible, but now PS just a gaming PC that is not upgradable like an actual PC. if you don't recall, the most hyped thing about PS5 was the controller, which is not what you expect the main point of buying a new consol to be.
On the topic of exclusives, I personally hate them. I think it makes a false sense of value in modern consoles where in the past they were intentionally made to take advantage of the architecture to showcase the unique quirks (and ofc the power) of this machine in a tiny box. Now they are usually just political leverages even though the games can be ported to other platforms.
So to reiterate, I agree it definitely had positive net for Sony in the short run, we'll have to wait and see if it will payout in the long run.
Well you cut up monsters with a saw cleaver, inject yourself with blood vials to heal and hunt 'gods' for sport so I'd say it's pretty badass if you overlook ...
edit: the spoiler markdown doesn't seem to be working so I deleted it for now
I would argue they had to give it up to get the indie scene onboard as I heard many nightmare stories for indies from PS3 era. Was it worth it? I'm sure contributed a great deal to the success of PS4 but it made the PS into just a more affordable gaming PC.
I did.. 3 years ago