Can you feel it? There’s electricity in the atmosphere. Something stirs on the horizon and the air grows thick with anticipation as sparks of excitement crackle here and there. A dull rumble echoes across the hills in the distance. It’s a sound some gamers haven’t heard in over seven years but it still manages to elicit the same passion, the same sense of expectation and the same sliver of anxiety that many have felt in times past. Every so often we can see the distant suggestive flashes that illuminate the coming clouds, which seem to whisper things like ‘redesigned controller’, ‘cloud gaming’ and then there’s that particularly dark and threatening one that seems to mumble ‘used game block’.
I am of course using a clichéd metaphor to describe the coming console generation and in particular Sony’s big Playstation event, which takes place just over 24 hours from now (at time of writing). If you’re a gamer, and you haven’t had your head buried in the sand for the past week, you will already know all there is to know about the New York extravaganza as it’s all that anyone is talking about. When I say “talking” I obviously mean wildly speculating, rumour mongering, fanboy baiting and just plain making crap up. Nonsense aside, this is a very big deal for the gaming industry and its fans as it signals (what some would consider) the first announcement of an 8th generation console (poor WiiU always overlooked).
Although there has been quite a lot of talk surrounding next generation recently it’s nothing compared to what is to come, if my experience is anything to go on that is. Very soon we could have some rock solid information on what we can actually expect to be entertaining us for the next 5+ years. The gaming press are going to go mad and, in all likelihood, it will also spill over into mainstream media. There’ll be analyses, comparisons, even more speculation and some things will end up being taken out of context, you know, the usual, just on a grander scale. We could be looking at the perfect storm and, in my opinion, it's just what this industry needs.
There are some who would give you the sagely advise to not get too excited and they’re right in a way but, personally, I enjoy giddy anticipation and I can manage very realistic expectations while I’m at it. It only happens once every 5-7ish years and I’m not ashamed to say I’m as twitchy as a Kinect avatars shoe doing massive damage to a giant enemy crab. Let’s hope hyper-negativity and fanboys don’t rain on the parade and Sony at least give us a good show.
Are you excited for the next generation? What do you think Sony will announce? Come on, we have so little time left to speculate might as well get some guess-work in now before facts get in the way. Give us some crazily optimistic predictions in the comments section, they will be appreciated, thanks.
Update: Looks like I was right about the next generation spilling over into the mainstream. Almost immediately after/during submitting this blog I notice this...
http://n4g.com/news/1177097...
Sony are going all out with this and it won't be long until everyone is clued up on their next-gen plans.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
The anticipation is definitely killing me. And I like that Sony is doing this. It's certainly a much better way to prep and hype up announcement this way. I will say this though, that whatever they have to show tomorrow better impress. Because it certainly has people talking. Disappointing us is the last thing they would want to do.
Wow this article is so cool man such original thoughts and ideas damn you're a genius shit so good can't take it.
Based on the 1001 articles and front page stories anyone would think that the news being talked about has never happened before in the entire history of mankind. A new console, oooooooooooooo.
I'll be glad when they finally announce it and confrim the specs, we can then move on from all these sh*tty assed articles to the extent of:
-Rumoured specs for PS4
-New joypad design for PS4?
-Rumoured price for PS4
-Rumoured release date for ps4
Yeah, i remember this being announced, when we got that teaser 3 weeks ago and it was like "3 weeks? Damn thats going to go slow" and wala, now we are here. But now the day itself stops to a grind.
Im the same as yourself and most gamers, giddy with excitement and anticipation, i love these things. The worse thing though is when its over, you know most things about it and then its waiting until the damn thing comes out. Sometimes the mystery is better. Anyway, cant wait, almost there.