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Was it?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 2,185 69.7%
  • No.

    Votes: 948 30.3%

  • Total voters
    3,133

Acquiescence

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,257
Lake Titicaca
Sony sure has been fucking up the PlayStation brand a lot since Jim Ryan seized control.

When was the last time they had an actual good conference. The one that ended with the reveal of The Last of Us Pt 2? And that was back in 2016.
 

Dekim

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,301
It was a GDC talk that should not have be put out as a big reveal event for the PS5. The average person wouldn't make heads or tails of the technical jargon Cerny was talking about. They should have done a a proper digital event showcasing the games and what the PS5 is capable of. I really doubt this mixed reaction was what they wanted. I now fully expect Sony to go dark again and not say much about the PS5 until they can showcase what the thing can do. June or July would be my guess.
 

AniHawk

No Fear, Only Math
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,164
sony seems pretty key on presenting ps5 as a major consumer electronics product instead of a video game console. they didn't have a big gaming event reveal and they weren't planning on e3 even when e3 was a thing. they did some articles with wired, revealed the logo at ces, and had a (presumably gdc-focused?) tech talk. i think sony is trying to use the success of the ps4 to take the mainstream audience as granted while they focus on reaching a wider audience by not making it feel so explicitly like a gaming console from the onset.
 

RivalGT

Member
Dec 13, 2017
6,401
I think most of us tech nerds knew what we were getting ourselves in to, even then I doubt most of us understood what was said in the conference. So most will be disappointed since they have no clue what was being said. Others were expecting something else, for reasons they cant explain, others will make excuses and say the conference should never have been public. At the end of the day its not that big of a deal, we got the full specs that we wanted to know for months now.
 

G-X

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,346
If this was the 3rd time Sony had shown proper info about the system, then no. If we had say a early tech preview/demo and no not a wired article, visual medium we digest. Then the console shell/controller and maybe a tech demo or ps4 game running on ps5. Then this showcase, then it would sit a lot better with a lot of people.
 

Betty

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
17,604
To a degree yes.

This should've come after the console itself was revealed and before mentioning that a proper conference or online event will be had to show off games in the future.
 

Zojirushi

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,299
I think none of that stuff matters much. At the end of the day there will be boxes on shelves that say "PlayStation 5" Granting it won't be priced outrageously and the games are what people expect them to be it will sell.
 

Glio

Member
Oct 27, 2017
24,529
Spain
I think so. If I go to an electrical appliance store to buy a fridge, unless I am an engineer, I am not interested in being told how they designed it or very complex technical aspects. I want to know concise things like size, consumption, power, if it has anti-frost ...

The vast majority of people who have seen "The road to PS5" will have understood almost nothing of what was said and the only thing that will remain in ther brains will be with the data "PS5 numbers are smaller than those of Xbox"
 

Kyrios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,670
Won't make a difference in the grand scheme of things but it was a mistake to show this before a consumer facing presentation or event.
 

Legend J 858

Member
Oct 25, 2018
577
Sony revealed the PS4 the same way back in 2013 and it sure as hell didn't hurt it this current console gen
 

Tiago Rodrigues

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Nov 15, 2018
5,244
I think in the end this won't matter AS LONG AS price is good.
I'm still trying to think how they thought this was a good way to introduce the PS5 to an audience though.
It doesn't matter if it was directed to developers of consumers. As soon as this was on youtube, it became something for everyone.

Also...first impressions matter. And right now? The public knows this: "PS5 is weaker than the next Xbox console". This is where we are right now.
And narratives matter when you're about to release something. And it can be a bitch to get rid of.

Nothing is tragic for now though. It all depends on how they price this console, and the games that are released with it.

But yeah...i'd rather not have anything than...this.
 

Eoin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,103
Yes.

I think this is where we need to look past what we expected and what we knew was happening, and think about what most viewers would have expected, and I think that what most people were expecting was probably something along the lines of the PS4 reveal - some hardware talk, some games, and maybe some additional information about peripherals and such.

Instead they got an hour-long talk about bandwidths of storage devices, BVH, and 3D audio. They might care about what effects those things have on games, graphics and sound, but they won't have cared enough to want to hear someone talk about them extensively.

This kind of talk would have been fine as, say, the fourth video Sony released about the PS5 (if labelled and communicated properly), but not as the first substantial video about the system.
 

jviggy43

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
18,184
I mean, yeah. It was pretty dull for anyone who wasn't invested in listening to tech talk that wasn't helped at all by cerny's monotone narration. And being a tech discussion doesn't necessarily have to mean it has to be boring either, but this was. I think that in and of itself wouldnt be so bad but the way it was marketed to gamers along with the ambiguity of its features (BC) and no showcase to give us an idea of how this is going to play out made it a pretty poor showing of what people should be excited for.

Hopefully the full reveal is soon and they knock it out of the park.
 

Cordy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,352
Just a bump in the road. They'll be fine once they show the games and exact features.
 

Coolsambob

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,269
On its own, it wouldn't be at all. Had it happened as it was supposed to, then a few bits of info would have come out and it would have been reported on more positively.

However, having the gaming sites and official PlayStation accounts telling everyone to tune in with absolutely no changes to make it more consumer friendly was a weird step. A lot of technical talk with numbers smaller than Xbox's is definitely a weird way of showing off.
 

Nessii013

Member
May 31, 2019
711
I enjoy gdc talks immensely, but was astounded that they didn't show gameplay footage of even released games that were altered/updated to utilize all the new features of the PS5.

Like, if this asset streaming works as well as you say it does, at least show some prototype of Spiderman (I think they've shown this previously?) or God of War with measurable benefits, until these get shown it all just feels like theory.
 

CanisMajoris

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
890
Will not matter in the end, but I'm sure this was not the way Sony intended to discuss PS5 in detail for the first time.
 

Snake__

Member
Jan 8, 2020
2,450
I thought this talk was great
The problem is they don't have anything to go with it for consumers and they insist on acting like there is no reason for consumers to know anything about the PS5 yet
 

Plum

Member
May 31, 2018
17,304
Yes. The primary arguments I've seen for why it wasn't (outside of insults and calls to 'take the L') are "no, it's the children who are wrong," and "but marketing doesn't matter anyway," so I feel it's safe to say that this didn't really go that well.

I don't think it's going to be an 'automatic 2nd place' event like Microsoft's disastrous XB1 reveal was, but it's definitely going to harm the overall narrative surrounding the PS5 and that will have an effect on its final performance despite what we see in the coming months.
 

Tennis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,359
Absolutely it was. Made me less excited for the console although I will still most likely get PS5. You can't run the same story over and over again in different formats. I know this was supposed to be a gdc speech but Sony made us think otherwise.
 

Flame Lord

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,796
I got what I was expecting, but yeah it seems like a lot of people out there, probably cooped up in their houses, were expecting a bit more; probably would have been better to show after a reveal with the goods.
 
Oct 27, 2017
2,165
No? I think the biggest takeaway is that the console itself isn't as powerful as the new Xbox. Nothing they can really do about that I guess. As far as the presentation goes, people won't even be talking about in a week. It's irrelevant. You wanted specs, you got em.
 

Godzilla24

Member
Nov 12, 2017
3,371
Who at Sony thought revealing PS5 in greater detail (pretty much coming out party) to the world this way was a good idea?
 
Aug 23, 2018
2,379
Marketing blunder does not mean nail in the coffin for a product launch. Especially when there will probably be 2-3 more events like this before it even releases.

but doing this as your first real "reveal" of the PS5 was very fucking dumb. They had plenty of time to react to MS and they chose to basically put out a spec sheet showing how the product is inferior in almost every way, and then talk about a really shit BC program? Not the best we've seen from Sony that's for sure
 
Mar 23, 2018
2,654
Yes. Not doomed, of course.

They can and will try to turn it around in a few months at the next presentation, but this was an odd way of "wasting" the "silent hype" they had in hand. They'll have to show demos, games and prices next time, IMO... that is, if this is still launching 2020. Because yes, both could be delayed if all of this gets even worse by the summer.
 

IOTS

Member
Dec 13, 2019
805
Yes it was, but nothing too damaging. Price and Games are way more important.
 

Jeronimo

Member
Nov 16, 2017
2,377
It was a misstep, but it's not hard to recover from. You just release actual marketing on the hardware, price, and software to build momentum.
 

ABIC

Banned
Nov 19, 2017
1,170
Should've been branded as a Developer Showcase or Developer Presentation..

There's too much thirst from PS5 consumers, and Sony being super secretive combined with any small errors has an outsized effect
 
Oct 27, 2017
17,973
More like a (tera) flop amirite?

It was alright, the SSD stuff is kind of exciting. At least they had enough of an awareness to tell people not to buy an SSD for it right now.
 

Rizific

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,953
probably wasnt a video targeted to me. i thought it was boring, soulless, and like a budget asmr video. i ended up just skipping through it to see if it was all the same, and yeah it was. i wanted to see a reveal, gameplay examples, the "magic ssd" in action, stuff like that. pretty sure im not alone in that, but again, it was a video not targeting people like me.
 
Mar 29, 2018
7,078
It was just a GDC talk. Gave the same one with the same name the exact same way for the PS4.
People just be thirsty for news, I get it, but this info was more for developers than consumers
You're completely correct but that exact fact makes it a marketing blunder, because Joe Bloggs CoD Gamer expected a hype new console gaming presentation
 

NO!R

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
1,742
Nah. This quote from the Eurogamer article is spot on, and sums up my feelings going into this gen:
What's exciting about this presentation is that Sony presents a vision for next-gen that recaptures some of the pioneering spirit of its early consoles by delivering state-of-the-art, exotic custom silicon with a razor-sharp focus on taking the gaming experience to the next level. But at the same time, the design embraces the developer-friendly ethos that proved so successful with PlayStation 4.

Just because it's not flashy hype beast bullshit doesn't mean it's a blunder.