It shows in the environment. Excitement. People comment on it on the street, at work, at the gym… I myself was stopped by a neighbor who knows that I write in Extra Life to ask me, excited, about the PS4. Somehow a wave of overwhelming and unusual optimism has been generated by the latest Sony console and of course, the Japanese company has to take advantage of it.
Some interested voices are already beginning to be heard who do not hesitate to compare the new Sony console with the most successful console in history, the mythical and unrepeatable PS2. And it is that we want it or not, we chose it as a great console at the time or we opted for another platform, no one can deny that PS2 has been a difficultly repeatable milestone and that it hooked thousands of users of all ages. So, will PS4 be the new PS2?
That wonderful PS2 launch
It was the year 2000 and we were all thanking Odin that the world had not ended. You know, turn of the century, the machines will stop working, technological rebellion, your Pentium III will come to life due to the 2000 effect and it will take your eyes out … come on, everything that was feared at that time and that then did not end up happening.
At that time Sega was playing its last cartridges with the wonderful DreamCast. A console that although it arrived in the sixth generation aimed much higher. It was a look to the future that, sadly, did not find the support it was looking for among users.
And that during its first weeks of life it managed to sell half a million units. But of course, at that time the power and respect that the PlayStation name instilled was something that SEGA could not fight against. The first PlayStation had given the bell and everyone assumed that the future PS2 would sweep again.
So it was. Sony revealed what would eventually become one of the best-selling consoles in history: PlayStation 2 cost $ 299 at the time, it would go on sale in Japan on March 3, 2000, Europe would not arrive until November (ready for Christmas of that same year) and confirmed almost all the rumors that had originated in April of the previous year. It was Sony’s answer to the future that Sega planned with its DreamCast.
The public embraced the Sony console like never before. We have been able to find news from the time in which there is talk of more than 40,000 reservations of the machine in Spain and Sony’s intention to place a total of 70,000 units on the shelves for the Christmas season. A campaign that was marked by the shortage of units since 400,000 of the 500,000 promised ended up arriving in Europe. The success was such that on eBay, at that time taking its first steps, units were auctioned for more than $ 1,000 .
There weren’t enough PS2s for everyone and it was a global situation. In Japan it had managed to sell almost 1 million units in just one day, in the United States more than half a million and in Sony’s plans the figure of 100,000 PS2 a week was considered safe until after Christmas. A real savagery worthy of the moments of euphoria that were lived at that time. But on what account?
PS2 arrived not only with all the fame that its predecessor had brought it, but also with several goodies under its arm. It was compatible with all the games of the original PSX and incorporated a DVD player capable of playing movies in the, then, new format, thus becoming the cheapest player of the moment. A definitive strategy to enter the homes of hundreds of thousands of people in a time when digital downloads were not an option.
But it also had a fairly decent line of releases (considering what consoles are currently launching with), with good titles that instantly became classics and that covered almost all genres and tastes of potential buyers. ‘Tekken Tag Tournament’ , ‘DOA 2’, ‘Ridge Racer V’, ‘Time Splitters’, ‘SSX’, ‘Midnight Club: Street Racing’ … in short, the stars seemed to align to make up the final release. And also almost without competition.
DreamCast was annulled and just a few months later Sega declared bankruptcy and gave up on continuing to compete. So PS2 was left alone in the market and with everything to win.
“The PS4 release reminds me of the PS2 release …”
Those were the words of John Koller, Sony’s vice president of marketing, a few days ago (the same enlightened one who said that PSP was the introductory drug to the world of consoles). Of course, he talks about sensations, that the public is overwhelmed, that the demand for the console can exceed the rate of manufacture … and also, in a very intelligent way, he is trying to link the two machines in the collective memory. PS2 has been Sony’s great success, selling almost twice as many units as PS3 during its commercial life. So it is not strange that, appealing to that great console that we all know it was, they try to link to PS4.
And it is true that expectations are through the roof but it is also true that the situation is very different. Sony has delivered some excellent, almost manual, public presentations of the console, focusing on showing what gamers want and shrewdly hiding those darker parts of the matter. And then there’s Microsoft, who has unwittingly become Sony’s best ad creative.
In these months she has done a Froilan, she has shot herself in the foot, in both feet, she has gone out of town, she has hit her cousins, she has insulted journalists and she has seen how all the criticism fell on her. And it is that in a boast of how things should not be made easy for the rival, he has eaten all the tricky issues with his Xbox One. Privacy policy, restrictions on the second-hand market, sharing games … and Sony has taken advantage of the time to make a difference. Logical.
Of course, Microsoft has managed to straighten the course by showing that it knows how to change the dynamics of situations and react in time, but that is another story. The fact is that PS4 has had it really easy during these months and without having to demonstrate practically anything.
But, things are like this. PS4 had millionaire reserves a few days after being announced and although it has only been released in the United States, it has already passed one million units sold. In Spain it has depleted reserves and possibly we will experience a shortage of units again for all those who did not reserve it at the time. As John Koller said in that interview, “the reserves of the console go through the ceiling, we do not give enough to manufacture so many” .
In Spain, according to James Armstrong, some 25,000 PS4 will arrive to release the reserves although they will try to get several thousand more for all those who decide that same day. And then there’s the collection of launch titles that will accompany the console. Sony defends it saying that it is a selection of key titles, the best that has accompanied a PlayStation at its launch. But the critics do not think the same.
Publisher titles with very little difference from their PS3 versions and few exclusives that argue the purchase by themselves. Neither ‘Killzone: Shadow Fall’ nor ‘Knack’ are a definitive incentive for the doubtful buyer and the rest of the features of the console are not different from what Xbox One offers.
And then there is the issue of backward compatibility . PS4 is not compatible with PS3 games, at least for now and it remains to be seen if it will be in the future since the promise of the cloud is in the air (pun intended). And it may seem silly but someone who has invested money in a catalog of games as powerful as the one that PS3 has may want to wait for a while and see if PS4 offers a valid alternative. And of course, it is better not to talk about piracy, although unfortunately it is not necessary to take away its leading role in this party.
PS2 and PS4, two very different moments and little to see …
So in short, PS2 offered a series of exclusive and decisive incentives on its competition (when it had it) that PS4 does not offer. It was compatible with the games of its predecessor console, it was the cheapest DVD player on the market and with more options, the competition was strong but in decline, it came with a fairly decent collection of launch games (although Ruben I know he hates the ‘Fantavision ‘) and also represented a brutal leap at a technological level from PSX .
Can PS4 say the same about PS3? I think not. Neither the moment nor the situation are comparable. PS4 is being a great sales success, sure, and it is logical that Sony wants to link it with PS2 after the difficult start that PS3 had. But is PS4 being a success on its own merits or on the demerits of others? Is that border clear? Are the proposals of Microsoft and Sony really so different as to think that a PS2-style situation can be repeated? And how does the mobile market influence?
Perhaps in the long run if the price policy is logical and if this supposed opening to the independent world is confirmed and strengthened … they will achieve a differential factor with respect to the competition, I do not know. Who knows if PS4 in a few years will be a worthy heir to PS2 but for now, and although the sales figures accompany as they did in their day with PS2 and as much as Koller insists, they will be two very different launches. The world has changed too much to compare them. The world has changed too much to repeat the success of a PS2. Don’t you think?
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