MS gave Sony a little push in the right direction....

People have been asking for it since before the PlayStation 4 launch and the response was "not at launch" or "sorry, we don't know yet", suggesting that it was going to be added at a later date. No actual date was given until now.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-13-playstation-4-doesnt-support-3d-blu-rays

http://www.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk/2014/01/21/when-will-ps4-play-blu-rays-sorry-we-do-not-know-yet-says-sonys-shu/

https://twitter.com/yosp/status/425320102645350400

Got it...they had no clue when....must be a coincidence.

How the **** can you compare a disc format to Kinect?

Don't even bother with the mindless lemming assertation that Steam is anything like what MS had planned, we debunked that shit a year ago. If the PS5 has the same shit the Xbone tried, I'm not getting it. Simple as that.

in terms of relatively non-gaming related additions that resulted in the respective consoles costing $100-$200 more than their direct competition, Bluray and Kinect are directly comparable..

the PS3 didn't need to use the Bluray format.. Sony could have made a PS3 with a DVD drive just like the Xbox 360 an saved gamers an extra $200.. But beating out HD-DVD in the movie format wars was more important to Sony than the needs of core gamers..

the Xbox One didn't need to include the Kinect in every box.. Microsoft could have made an Xbox One with the camera as an optional add-on just like the PS4 an saved gamers an extra $100.. But beating out Google and Apple in the war for your living room was more important to Microsoft than the needs of core gamers..

This is a direct and parallel occurrence.. I'm not trying to apologize for Microsoft's mistakes.. I just simply recognize that Sony made those exact same mistakes last-gen with the PS3, so all this fake fanboy outrage at Microsoft without pointing that same finger at Sony is ridiculous.. like I said, BOTH these companies have other agendas beyond gaming.. Microsoft sold everyone on the "pure gaming console" for a lower price mantra last gen and now Sony is using that same song and dance this gen.. there's nothing wrong with that, but fair is fair..

and as far as Steam is concerned, i'm just pointing out the fact that "DRM", "restricted used games sales", and etc are not inherently bad ideals.. if done correctly, ala Steam, they can be good ideals.. unfortunately, we'll never know how those ideals would have played out for consoles until the next Xbox and the PS5..

In terms of strategy, yes. In terms of storage capacity, blu-ray destroys DVD. MS's half-assed attempts with HD-DVD on its rushed console still makes me laugh. I guess Sony should have just stuck with CD on the PS2.

The issues were with MS trying to impose DIGITAL rights management on PHYSICAL discs. Steam doesn't do that. The first sale doctrine doesn't apply to digital content either. It didn't fly last time and it won't fly next time.

@GrenadeLauncher: So in terms of strategy, they both made the same mistakes.. I'm glad we can at least agree on that much.. In terms of storage capacity, who cares?.. the Xbox 360 proved that DVDs performed just fine for the entirety of last generation.. the PS3 could have used DVDs too and still provided tons of great gaming content just like the 360 did but for a much lower price point, providing the cheaper and simpler "pure gaming machine" from day one that PS4 fanboys all claim is so important these days.. bottom line: Bluray was not needed for gaming.. anything beyond that was just Sony PR hype to justify the mandatory extra $200 inclusion of Bluray "for gaming" but in reality it was their ace-in-the-hole to win out against HD-DVD..

and btw, Microsoft had no stake in HD-DVD.. they just backed HD-DVD in order to prolong the format wars long enough for digital movie distribution to catch on further.. Microsoft is all about digital movies sales via their Xbox Video service.. they have no reason to care about HD-DVD.. physical media is dying my friend.. when was the last time you bought a music CD?.. how often do you carry around 3 or 4 physical books on vacation instead of just loading them on an e-reader or Kindle app?.. DVD and Bluray movies are next on the chopping block, followed by video game discs once the price point and distribution hit the sweet spot for consumers..

I agree, imposing DRM on physical discs was a very controversial move but with that, there was the benefit of being able to buy a game from Gamestop, load that game to your HDD, and then not have to ever put the disc back in the console ever again.. it was the best of both worlds.. you get the physical ownership of the disc but you also get the convenience of a cloud based digital copy.. plus you get to carry your entire physical video game collection with you everywhere you go via the cloud.. got a physical copy of Battlefield 4 at home but want to play it at your buddy's house on his Xbox One?.. no problem, just log in to your account and your game is there ready to be played.. and don't get me started on the family sharing features where you could digitally share that copy of the game with 10 people of your choosing.. once you take the fanboy goggles off and look at the details of what they were planning on doing objectively, these are actually some really cool ideas.. unfortunately, Microsoft totally messed up the messaging and decided to backpedal on everything rather than try to combat all the negative press, the PR nightmare, and massive PS4 preorders that were based upon the DRM backlash.. in my opinion, that's our loss.. I prefer the convenience of digital distribution and these ideas would have drove that market further.. but I can also respect those that prefer physical discs and their viewpoints on the issue as well.. Microsoft just messed up, plain and simple.. hopefully they've figured out a way to reach a middle ground in the future because there were some really neat ideas being brought forth once you tune out all the fanboy noise.. again, "DRM" isn't a bad thing if done correctly.. unfortunately, we wont know anytime soon what the true results would have been..

Guess we shouldn't have moved away from cartridges either, using that crap logic. Hell, we should have stuck with tape!

Don't listen to music much often, don't have a Kindle, still buy DVDs and I'll stop buying videogames if they wind up going exclusively digital. The all-digital future can kiss my ass.

There were no benefits to what MS hurriedly cooked up with their frankly malignant plans. You didn't own it because MS would have forced you into whatever physical trading program they had (with the publisher's approval, of course). Yeah, that's right, I'm gonna pop over to my mate's house for the afternoon. I can play some Wolfenstein with him. Oh wait! It's a 50GB game and his Internet sucks ass. So much for that. Or, I could just take the very small disc to his house and put it in his console. And if you genuinely think that Family Sharing guff would have taken off, I'm laughing. Publishers were not going to accept nine potentially lost sales per customer.

It had nothing to do with the messaging, no matter what Yusuf or Spencer or Penello or the lemmings tell themselves. They were just crap policies. You can't polish a turd.

@GrenadeLauncher: i'll just have to agree to disagree, sir..