So What if PS4 and XBOX ONE Are Similar with their Camera Features (Google plus reupload from 2013)

Originally posted September 26th 2013. I made in response to this article: PlayStation 4 new camera, an xbox copycat?

Yeah... Thing is though, Sony is playing it cool. They're all "yeah, use it if you want to, but it's whatever." They've been like that since launch. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they dropped the mandatory inclusion, aka every PS4 ships with it, not "you must have this plugged in at all times," even before the xbox one announcement. They knew that gamers didn't really care about it, as shown by the playstation move. They made some games for it, but once they saw that no one was buying it, they were all "ok then, let's not care about it." Microsoft however, "man kinect is amazing. You need to get this for your xbox 360 to really improve your gaming experience. Just look at all these 'awesome' game's were making, like kinect adventures and kinectamals." Problem is, rather poorly received. Sold decently from what I heard, but no one was buying a third kinect game and devs weren't to thrilled to program for something people didn't really care for.
Now with this generation, there are 2 schools of thought with the camera control accessory; make it super technologically advanced and force it onto people, or make it super technologically advanced and say "yeah get it if you want but we don't care."
Initially, Microsoft was all "this is an amazing piece of tech. This IS XBOX ONE. We want to make sure you know that, so we're going to make it so that your XBOX won't work without it connected. But trust us, you'll love it just as much as us." They probably only dropped the required connection after some exec's cat chewed through the wire and said "hey guys, I have mine connected, but it doesn't work. My cat chewed through it. The guys on all the internet were right, this will be a problem if for people with cats and/or children, and since that's our target market, we don't want to lose them over this."
Sony on the other hand, "yeah we thought about including it, but then we remembered that you guys don't really care for motion controls. We'll have it do the whole voice controls and face recognition sign in thing if that's what you're in to, but we really don't care. Buy it if you want."
Sure, both consoles are quite similar as to what they can do, but so was the 360 and PS3, and to an extent, so was the PS2 and XBOX classic.
PS2 and XBOX classic; both could play music, both could play DVDs, both could do online multiplayer. The features were super similar with the only things separating them being exclusives and one having a payment wall for the online and DVD services.
PS360; both could do DVD, both could do HD video disk playback, both could download games through their online store, both could buy movies and TV shows through their online store, both have a web browser (though one got it much later than the other), both have a large number of streaming services, both have online multiplayer, etc. Main differences that separated the 2 consoles, exclusive games, one having a payment wall for services and HD video disk playback, and the same one with the payment wall adopting the failed HD video disk.
Later in their life, they both made motion control accessories, both of which got mixed to negative reviews from developers and consumers. Main difference, one shoehorned their motion control accessory and the other just kind of let it fade to not caring.
Now with PS4 XBOX ONE, there were a million differences. One made you check in every 24 hours and the other didn't, one made you stay online whenever you played it and the other didn't, one let you share games and the other didn't, one made you not only buy a motion control camera, it also made you use it all the time,  and the other one didn't even make you buy the motion control camera, like before, one locked close to everything behind a payment wall and the other didn't...the list goes on and on. The only thing that was similar was the multiplats, some streaming services, and both used blu-ray. Thing is, people didn't like the differences. People preferred one to the other 20 to 1. Spoilers, XBOX ONE did all the consumer unfriendly stuff and PS4 didn't. Only thing people didn't like about PS4 was that they made video capture a pain and super complicated while XBOX ONE didn't.
Well, Microsoft then changed their tone once they saw the numbers, releasing what I will call "XBOX 180." They dropped all their consumer unfriendly practices, making it "very similar to the PS4." They still make you buy the motion control camera, but you don't need to have it connected the all the time.
Now there were some things that XBOX got right, like voice commands and face sign in for their motion camera and allowing game capture. To make things better, PS4 allows game capture and motion camera things.
Once again, they're essentially the same, except for exclusives and one locking most of the features behind a payment wall, just like the past 2 generations. I don't get why people act surprised when the consoles are very similar to each other. Don't they know only Nintendo can do things differently?

/post

Looking back, I find it kind of funny how people were going crazy about the motion controls, considering they're now dead 5 and a half years later.

Cross Platform Online is Good for Consumers, Bad for Platforms AKA Why I Own an XBOX360

Microsoft wants to do cross platform online with Sony, and that's a bad idea for them.

Hey there everyone, Happy Gamer hear and I heard that Microsoft is going to do cross platform online with the XBOX ONE and Windows 10 (not Steam, Windows 10 store), and they are trying to get Sony to do cross platform online with them, so if you have a PS4 and your friend has an XBOX ONE, both of you can play online so long as the game is on both consoles. This is something that online gamers have been dreaming about since online gaming became mainstream. However, this is a REALLY bad idea for Sony and Microsoft, and here's why.

First, lets go back to 2008; the XBOX 360 and PS3 were the current gen consoles. My brother and I were looking to get one of them (the Wii was off the table for reasons explained in numerous different posts). Since we were coming of the PS2, I said "hey let's get a PS3 because we liked the PS2 so much." He said "no let's get an XBOX 360 because that's what all my friends have and I want to play online with them," and while every online game he wanted was also available on PS3, he couldn't play with his friends on the PS3. Online didn't really matter to me since I prefer single player games, and since all I really cared about were multi-plats, we got an XBOX 360. Sure, I wanted the blu-ray and rumored Sly 4, but pretty much every game I wanted on the PS3 I could get on the 360. However, I didn't play it much because the 7th gen didn't do much for me since most games were shooters or sports (2 genres I don't care for). And even though I wanted to use the streaming services like Hulu Plus and Crackle, I couldn't because I needed Xbox Live Gold to do that, and by the time I got into streaming services neither my brother nor I wanted to pay for gold anymore.

Well in 2011 Wreck it Ralph came out and I said "I refuse to get this movie on DVD, I am getting a blu-ray player of some kind so I can watch this movie right." Since there was a killer deal on a black friday PS3, we bought a PS3. From then on, the PS3 was our primary gaming machine. Every multi-plat from then on we bought was for the PS3. We bought multiple exclusives like Last of Us and Sly 4. Once we bought the PS3, it became our primary gaming device with our XBOX 360 collecting dust. We bought maybe 3 XBOX360 games since buying the PS3, and those were exclusives I got for cheap at garage sales. Even after Microsoft dropped the whole "you need XBL Gold for streaming services" we prefer to use the PS3 for streaming. If it wasn't for platform locked online, we probably wouldn't have an XBOX 360. (Well, we wouldn't have an XBOX 360 as our 7th gen console. I'm a collector, I would have bought an XBOX 360 eventually because I want every console, but it wouldn't have been before I got a PS3).

And there you have it. My family wouldn't have bought an XBOX 360 if my brother could have played with his XBOX 360 friends from a PS3. It would have been great for us, but it would have cost Microsoft a sale. If I were an online gamer, I would be really happy about this because it is great for consumers. However, we honestly wouldn't have bought an XBOX 360 as our primary platform and bought all our games and live gold if cross platform online was an option in the 7th gen. Well, this has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and if I were Sony I wouldn't agree to cross platform online.

The PC is Old News and PC Gamers Need to get with the Times

(Disclaimer, I love retro games and collecting for older consoles. This is not from a consumer/collector stand-point, this is from a marketing and resource allocation standpoint).

We should be focusing on current gen, not last gen.

Hey everyone, happy gamer here and today I had an epiphany. First I noticed that of the 3 main console manufacturers, Nintendo is the most current and with it and Sony and Microsoft are living in the past. Here's why; 2 months after the release of the Wii U, Nintendo stopped making games for the Wii and focused all their attention on the Wii U. Sony and Microsoft on the other hand, are still making games for the PS3/XBOX360 over a year after the release of the PS4/XBOX ONE. Sony and Microsoft are lagging behind Nintendo. They'll never be able to remain competitive if they focus so much effort on last gen consoles. But then I realized, they aren't the worst offenders. The worst offender is the game console known as the PC.

Here's a little background. Videogame consoles come out in generations; pong consoles were the first generation, Atari2600 was the second generation, NES was 3rd generation, so on and so forth. Well, the PC came out around the 2nd generation. It was a good console for the time. Well, when everyone else realized how technology was changing, they released brand new consoles to keep ahead of the competition, the PC made add-ons. Yeah, they took the same old PC and made an "upgrade" accessory. It gave you better gameplay, and they eventually came per-installed, but at the end of the day, it was still just a PC. Just like the 32X and SegaCD.

Now one would think that PC would eventually learn it's lesson and release the PC2 right? I mean Sega eventually wised up and stopped supporting the genesis and it's add-ons in favor of the Saturn. Wrong. Instead of releasing a PC2, PC just kept making add-ons to replace the old ones. And you know what, THEY'VE BEEN DOING IT FOR 30 YEARS!!! GAMING ON THE PC IS STUCK IN THE 1980's BECAUSE THE PC MAKERS THINK THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH RELEASING ADD-ONS INSTEAD OF JUST RELEASING A SECOND CONSOLE! Really, with all the effort you put into making add-ons, just release the PC2 already.

But you know what, I don't really blame the makers of the PC. They said "hey, instead of making an entirely new console, lets make an add-on to extend the life of our current console." It could extend the life long enough while they work on the next PC console. It was just supposed to be a band-aid. However, unlike the Sega gamers and the Genesis add-ons, PC gamers ate it up. They said "hey this is pretty awesome. If I install this on my PC I can keep it for 3 more years, and then I can just put the next add-on on? Most definitely." It's not the PC executives, it's the PC fans. They settle for mediocrity. They will accept the add-on bandage instead of the next-generation release medical treatment. Sure, they can get a PC with all the current add-ons, but they're just going to have to be replaced in a few years.

But here's the truly sad thing, they are stuck in an abusive relationship with the add-ons and their gaming habits. Since new add-ons are constantly coming out, there's no guarantee that a game will work properly with your set of add-ons. Unlike every other console where a game is developed to work specifically with that console, PC games are developed with the intent of working with a certain set of add-ons. PC gamers aren't guaranteed to get the best possible gaming experience out of their PC unless they have specific add-ons. So many games say "for PC," but then there's a list of the type of add-ons that are required. It's very confusing. When you buy a Wii U game, you know it will work on your Wii U. When you buy a PS4 game you know it will work on your PS4. When you buy an XBOX ONE game, you know it will work on your XBOX ONE. When you buy a PC game, you better make sure that you have the proper set of add-ons otherwise it's not going to work.

There's even more to it than just games working with the add-ons, there's also add-ons working with the add-ons. When a PC gamer gets a new add-on, he has to jump through all sorts of hoops to "install" the add-on. He has to make sure that the drivers for the add-on works with the drivers for all the other add-ons. While you can buy a PC with all the current add-ons, soon there will be a new add-on on the market, and you either have to figure out how to make the new add-on work with the old ones, or get an entirely new PC. With every other console, they just release a new console. Plug it in, connect it to the TV, and it's ready to go. No drivers, no compatibility, just simple plug and play.

Now if you're in the gaming world, you've probably heard people say "PC master race." I feel sorry for them. They have fallen into Stockholm Syndrome with the abusive PC console. PC showers them with cheap games and "options," but it's just a sad attempt to milk every last drop out of the 30 year old PC before releasing the PC2. PC gamers, you don't have to stand for this. Leave the 2nd generation and join us in the 8th generation.

Well, this has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and I hope you enjoyed my satire.

Shut-up About Specs/Price and Just Play Games

We all know the old talking points; "PC master race with my 60 fps at 1080p," and "yeah but that's because you dropped $2000 on a gaming rig that will last a year, whereas my $400 console will last me 8 years." "But you got little resolution, mine looks superior." "But yours costs so much more." "Well I have Steam sales." "Well I have used games." Back and forth back and forth. SHUT UP!!!!!!

Really, I am sick and tired of people battling over specs and price when it comes to PC and console gaming. As I said it before and I'll say it again, EVERY PLATFORM HAS IT'S POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES! (except steam machine :P, that sucks and everyone knows it). So yeah, I'm sick and tired of the constant battle between PC master racers and console gamers who argue with them. PC gaming is expensive, get over it. I have a $600 laptop that can't do gaming well, and it's cheaper than the consoles on the market. I could mess with the settings, or I could build a budget rig, but I have better things to do with my time then try to make my games work. If I wanted to get the convenience of a console, I would have to buy some super expensive per-built rig. I don't care if you enjoy building PCs, I don't and many console gamers don't either, that's why they're console gamers. PC gaming is also almost exclusively digital, and I don't care if digital is the future and physical media is a thing of the past, I like my wall of games not my hard drive of games, PC or console.

Console also has it's draw backs as well. We don't have steam sales, which are nice if you like digital games. We don't have as large of an indi scene, except for maybe on the Wii U from what I've heard. We aren't running at the best technology has to offer. We don't have the options of mouse and keyboard or controller. We have our drawbacks and you have yours. But when you compare PC gaming to console gaming, you're comparing apples and oranges. PC gaming and console gaming are inherently different. All this bickering over PC vs console is an apple saying "I'm better than the orange because I'm sweet and you're sour," then the orange saying "I'm better than the apple because I'm sour and you're sweet." They're both fruit but they are inherently different and one should base the comparison of the 2 based on the inherent differences.

So what should we base our bickering on smart guy? Duh, who has the better games. One of the best things about Nintendo is that they have great exclusives. Whenever I see a flame war between PC and console gamers over specs and price, there's always 1 or 2 Nintendo gamers that are like "I have Mario, I have Smash Bros, I have fun games." That's what I like about Nintendo consoles. You don't see anyone going "he he, Wii U underpowered, I'm so much better than you." Well you did at the beginning when Nintendo was dropping the ball on the 3rd party releases, but now with all the exclusives, people can still be "well Wii U is underpowered my PS4/XBOX ONE/PC is so superior," but all the Nintendo gamer has to do is hold up a copy of Smash Bros and say "no, this is why I'm better than you." There are exclusives out there on PS4, XBOX ONE, and PC (well I think there are some on PS4 and XBOX ONE, not sure yet really). But yeah, how about instead of fighting over specs, we fight over who has the best games. I mean, Yoshi Story 2 and Kirby's Canvas Curse 2 are the reason I bought my Wii U, and I'll probably buy Donkey Kong Tropic Freeze, Mario 3D World, and a bunch of the other exclusives on Wii U, because that's why I bought my Wii U, the games. I don't play graphics, I play games. I'll take Conker's Bad Fur Day played on a fuzzy CRT over some uber realistic war shooter at 4K 60FPS at max settings any day. Well this has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and fight over games, not graphics.

Oh and before I go, I'm not a PC gamer, but my brother is. He plays his steam games on his laptop that's about as good as mine when it comes to gaming. He's fidgeted with it to make the games work on his laptop. Like any brother, I like to have a little light hearten fun at his expense, and he the same for me. Nothing serious, just like the story I'm about to share. One day I'm looking over his shoulder as he's playing some real time strategy brawler and the settings are rather crap. I throw the PC master race talking points at him since they aren't being fulfilled. I'm like "Oh so this is what glorious PC gaming looks like, is this 1080p 60fps? My our PS3 looks better than that. Why are you wasting your time if you can't get an experience that's better than a last gen console?" I'm just being a smart ass and trying to get some kind of response. He's just like "Dude shut up, I PC game because I don't have a TV at school, all my friends are on steam, and there's a bunch of games on here I can't get on console (like the one I'm playing at the moment)." Now why can't we all have reasons like that?