A new show called "Powers" just launched today. Fans of the comic book were excited to hear that Sony had teamed up to publish the show, and members of Playstation Plus were excited to hear that they would be receiving the entire season free. Excited by this show and the hype around the comic series I hop on my PS4 this morning and watched the first three episodes, sadly I have to wait weekly to see the next 7. Given that Sony was publishing this show it's natural to assume we would see some product placement (the overall amount of product placement was almost laughably over the top. Sony phones, tablets, computers, tv, PS4, Sony Headphones, you name it, they make it, it was there.) however one piece of product placement caught my eye.
In the second episode at around 20 minutes in you see a teenager playing a PS4 and a version of Infamous Second Sons. I say a version because he is playing as a character, or skin more likely, of one of the heroes from the show, Diamond, which could possibly hint at future skin DLC for Infamous. I'll explain why in a minute. During that time his screen shifts to the right and a window pops up in the bottom left saying incoming call. Pressing the button in his Sony headset he answers a video chat with some girl named Chaotic Chic, as seen in the picture, http://i.imgur.com/R0d1ECm.... He proceeds to chat with her until the end of the scene.
While I understand this is a fictional show and the creative director can make whatever they want happen there is a tricky bit of business with product placement. If they show something in a product placement and it turns out to not be true that can become grounds for a false advertisement lawsuit, something no company really wants. Which hopefully means Sony is planning on releasing a video chat feature like this soon, maybe with update 2.5? The show made no subtleties about showing that he was playing on a PS4 and there are no Sony T.V.s that I have found that allow picture in picture calling of that nature. There are some Bravia models that allow the use of Skype but the video chat used in this scene was definitely not a Skype video. This leads me to believe one of three possibilities. Either Sony is planning on releasing a feature like this soon on PS4, they are planning on releasing a T.V. that supports this feature, or they are willing to take the possible lawsuit (which seems least likely to me).
Let me know what you think. Is it likely we'll see this feature in the coming months? Would you like/use a feature like this? Have you watched Powers? If you have what did you think? If you haven't you should. First episode is free for everyone, the entire season is free for Playstation Plus Members.
EDIT: I was informed via comments of this video: https://www.youtube.com/wat... where the ooVoo developer, Brian Lebler, discuses video chat on the PS4. He says "hopefully in Q2 2015." With the video calling feature being prominently displayed in "Powers" and the rapidly approaching Q2 start (March 21) we can hopefully see this soon. Thanks to mushroomwig for the find.
Mountains can be moved, opinions too… paradise has never been so presidential in Tropico 7.
Starting today, Game Pass Ultimate drops from $29.99 to $22.99 a month. PC Game Pass will also drop from $16.49 to $13.99 a month. Prices may vary by region.
Beginning this year, future Call of Duty titles won’t join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. New Call of Duty games will be added to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass during the following holiday season (about a year later), while existing Call of Duty titles already in the library will continue to be available.
Its nice there is some kind of drop... but is that all they really value CoD to be, a lousy $7 a month?
I was hoping it would drop by $10.
Can’t wait to hear how this will be spun extremely positive. 🤣
I wonder why knowing Microsoft thick head something must has happened in the background in the levels of Xbox one and Kinect 🤷🏿
Well, they're removing their biggest game from being Day 1 on the service so GamePass users can buy it instead. That's the intention.
They increased the price to $30, then removed COD and dropped it to still be above the old price.
It's an understandable compromise but the consumer Ultimately is getting less.
Think the calculation is that *most* COD users don't play that many games and aren't interested in GamePass. The GamePass users who do like COD would just buy it anyway. MS reportedly lost out a lot of money last year putting COD on GamePass.
Well Call of duty could just be the beginning. What other games can they trim from the service to get the price down? How long before it's just the Xbox core first party studio games and not the one to everquired?
Create an interesting scenario with Call of duty as well. Will people wait a year to play it? Does that split the fan base? Will it hurt to Call of duty more than a benefits Game pass? These are all legitimate questions which we will find the answers to in the coming years
And I don't consider my post negative spin just realistic observation. At the very least this backtracking can be seen as an admittance that the previous strategy of gamepass was not sustainable as most of us said.
They’ll say no one is buying game pass so they had to drop the price , even though it’s been extremely profitable.
In my region, it’s still more expensive than it was before the last price hike, but it’s a far more viable price point.
Losing Call of Duty from the service, honestly, has zero effect on me, and given they chose to make it so, it’s probably not the big seller they originally thought. Overall, it’s really good news, but I still think they have work to do on the tier structure, having Premium and PC at the same price point with different features feels odd.
Yep take COD out. Them waiting a year is interesting but it make sense. They don't want certain ppl waiting 4 to 6 months they want fomo and maximum sales. Wait a year while the new one releases.
Ok so far so good.
Today, Team Coreupt officially announced its next title in development, an action and hack-and-slash game called Kirk Mephisto.
I was surprised to find that this was not working on ps4.
On ps3 it was working good with the pseye. Not sure what is blocking it.
Apparently video chat is coming to the PS4, it was announced almost a year ago;
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Late Q2 this year.
This was a great blog post! Wow, nice eye! Good job!
If the feature comes to PS4 I hope they implement it without the blue banner. Just give me the video feed box & let me select where I want to put it on screen.
I have been watching Powers as it's released & it's decent. Not sure where the story is heading as I haven't read the graphic novel. The actor that plays Wolf is great. I saw him in the Hannibal show.
The Netflix Daredevil is the one I've been waiting for. Looks incredible.