The Epic Fail, that is Playstation 4

As a veteran gamer, the ps4 is, in my opinion, the biggest epic fail of Sony to date. Now it's important to keep in mind that I am, or perhaps the better way to say it is, I was the biggest Playstation fan once upon a time. Until the Playstation 4 happened. The ps4 is both ahead of it's time, yet as behind as it can be all at the same time. Let us count the ways the ps4 fails...

First off the ps4 is so ahead of itself it can't even deliver the majority of it's features and services well, if at all. That's because the devs failed to remember that most internet connections are below 20gb/ps in the U.S. So frankly the features that rely on the "cloud" and fast internet connections just plain won't work for most players. Even for those who do have large and in charge internet connections, at least half or more of those gamers have a maximum bandwidth usage cap or they get charged extra or throttled to a point where it's faster to watch paint dry than download anything. This means some gamers won't be doing updates or if they do they will take days, even possibly months to download. Now I realize that millions of isp monopolies that exist in American counties that sell crappy speeds at obnoxious prices aren't Sony's fault, but Sony does have to remember that they have to sell a product for their main target customers in the USA. Japan and even China has by far better speeds at better prices than the USA.

Let's be real most are kids or young adults who live at home with parents who pay for the internet. If they are lucky enough to get a good connection at a good price, that's great but most local counties have horrible over priced internet packages that can't deliver the speed and consistency needed for such huge online aspirations as the "share play" feature. Even something as simple as downloading a game update has become a two-day task at the fastest. This brings me to the next reason ps4 is an epic fail....games are waaaaay too big and so are the updates. In fact the games have gotten so large that the ps4's hard drive can barely hold a single RPG MMO and it's updates without being completely full. This wouldn't be a problem IF the games were stored on the discs they came on, and updates or downloadable games were stored and played directly from "the cloud" but of course they are not. So let's weed whack through this in two parts. The fact that I own a disc of Elder Scrolls and yet the entire game has downloaded to my hard drive is inexcusable, this business model will not last long. The games are to large to be stored on individual hard drives unless Sony is prepared to offer affordable 500 TB hard drives in the new models. Sony is never going to beat the second hand market forcing people to download the entire disc to storage. As far as download versions and updates, I ask myself exactly what is the point of my PS Plus membership?? Why is the game and updates not store-able on the cloud? Oh yeah Sony is cheap. Now to be honest even if they did store it all on their servers the slow internet speed of the US would make most games crash, if they even started in the first place. So actually in the future discs are actually Sonys only realistic option to sell and delivery these ginormous games, as soon as they get a ps5 that actually doesn't store the entire game on the hard drive, and cheap 500 TB hard drives. Otherwise gaming in the US my be dead in the water.

So aside from those enormous issues we could talk about the fact the ps4 was unfinished when it came out, now a couple of those issues were finally fixed, like the ability to use a theme and change your profile picture. Meh seriously? Or we can talk about the horrible battery life of the ps4 dual-shock controller with it's bedazzling lights draining power all day. Or we can talk about the horror that is the mic that came with the system and the fact until recently there were no Bluetooth mics available for the system and the mics offered now are terrible as usual. We can go over how the system can't even download an update in rest mode unless you PAY for plus, so now our system itself is locked to upgrades and premium fees, BOOOOOOOO!!!!! We can go on an on about how crummy ps Plus is and how all it's free games are junk no one wants, or how the discounts mean nothing since I can get the games for half the price of what's listed in the PS Store, new at Walmart. I could have a roast at their expense of the broken chat system and how all I want is a delete ALL messages button!!! But I digress, I'm sure there is more important things to mention like it's intentional lack of backwards compatibility. Did they actually think I would buy that game a second time??? So at this point all in all, the ps4 is too big for it's breeches and incapable of delivering the desired services and features it intended to. It is basically a hunk of almost useless junk that can work and has decent graphics when it does but won't last long with this delivery and business model, oh and nobody actually likes micro-transactions, they are old news and wont sustain these games, the episodic and subscription based model won't hold on either, it's too expensive and people hate it.

Now the saddest fail of all is Sony's inability to get good variety of games and genres on it's system, lack of decent kids games, and the lack of multiplayer story modes that aren't only split-screen, and also lack of split screen enabled games has just made all these expensive "interactive online social" gaming features, totally useless! Ugh. Step up the game Sony or my next machine will be a Steam machine.

So there you have it the epic fail that is the ps4.

I don't know what you are really talking about here, but I will try to make sense of it.

You mentioned a 20 Gbps connection... you obviously don't know what you are talking about because that is a ridiculously fast connection and most likely it is not even for consumer use (fastest consumer connection is usually around 300 Mbps to 500 Mbps). Anyways, all you need is 50 Mbps which you can usually get for around $50 or $60 a month. Mix that with a good router and a good modem and you are set. Just upgraded my internet and we have a 100 Mbps and it takes me an hour at most to download anything so unless you have a terrible connection, a 2 day download process simply isn't true.

Also I am confused about that bit where you complain about HDD space. Most PS4s (now) come with either a 500GB or a 1TB HDD. If you need more space than buy another HDD because the process of swapping out a HDD is extremely easy. I currently have a 2TB HDD that I got for $80 and I still have a bout 1.7TB of free space left.

You can claim that the PS4 is an "Epic Fail" all you want (which is a joke by the way), but it is actually leading this generation of gaming in sales. None of your complaints hold any water... if you don't like the PS4 then buy a Wii-U.

I think the complaints are ridiculous. I have slow internet and it doesn't take me days or months to do an update. What kind of internet service do you have where it takes days or months to update a game? AOL 1994? You also complain that the developers are making the games too large. You do realize that the games are more advanced than past gen games. Uncharted 3 was like 40gb for the ps3 and grand theft auto 5 was very large as well. More data is needed for advanced games with superior graphics. Impossible to make Uncharted 4 with low amount of GBs. Take your post to system wars, Mr Xbox troll.

so easy to flip out a hard drive on a PS4.....I not buy one those Seagate drives....total crap...you can upgrade up to 2TB 9 mm or larger if you host it outside the box via a sata power data cable....4TB.

and you can install a ssd I saw a 960 PNY for 200 ponys now...and a ssd is way better in terms of everything.

as for internet well a hard wire is allways the way to go.....I even lan cable my laptop ,desktop and ps4 even with a 300 dollar Linksys.

if you cant and some cant you can allways just add a cheap fix buy adding a cheap antenna.... or go buy a print server and lan it or use and old router.

in most cases it really about setting up a router to handle games and media,many people have game issues with ports......or devices in the home eat all the bandwidth ...that's also in a menu.

but all devices can have an issue depending on where it placed.....

on the xbox it allways on must have internet to even turn on and cant change hard drive makes an xbox and pure xbone..

I so cant wait to see that 6 TFLOPS 4K 60 fps XBONER 2 blow up in everyone face......lol

The US isn't the only country in the world, and thankfully, Sony couldn't give 2 fucks about it, move somewhere else if you don't like crappy internet.

well, go play ur ps2?

Sucks that you're not liking the PS4.

PSN has been running fairly well for me when it's not down during holidays. Perhaps it's a regional issue so can't recommend any action for you.

And for storage space. Delete the Installs of games you're not playing, it doesn't remove your save-data, so would recommend doing that.

Though overall what people tend to buy PlayStations for is the gaming library which has variety thank you, the PS4 has got a great selection. The reasons you listed haven't been an issue for me.

However, because internet speed and data storage is a deciding factor for you. Go P.C. or Nintendo. Because the Xbox 1 has those same negatives.

I don't agree.......PS4 is the best console of all time with the best games.PS4 dominate this gen.

The Epic Fail, that is this thread

Okay so lets pick this one apart..

First off the ps4 is so ahead of itself it can't even deliver the majority of it's features and services well, if at all.

This is false. All of the functions on the PS4 work as they're supposed to. With many of the services, it states that you need a minimum connection speed, and if you can't obtain that, then it's not Sony's fault, given that between 30 and 100 Mbps is standard these days.

...but Sony does have to remember that they have to sell a product for their main target customers in the USA

Let's also not forget about the huge chunk of their market here in the UK where we have great internet speeds, and no bandwidth caps.

Let's be real most are kids or young adults who live at home with parents who pay for the internet.

Sweeping statement and likely false.

If they are lucky enough to get a good connection at a good price, that's great but most local counties have horrible over priced internet packages that can't deliver the speed and consistency needed for such huge online aspirations as the "share play" feature.

Again, how is this Sony's fault? They do not control these ISP's, they simply offer the function obtainable by another service (Internet connection). It;s not their fault if said service is under-par.

This brings me to the next reason ps4 is an epic fail....games are waaaaay too big and so are the updates. In fact the games have gotten so large that the ps4's hard drive can barely hold a single RPG MMO and it's updates without being completely full.

False. There isn't a single game out there that completely fills a 500GB hard drive including DLC and updates - By comparison, the Witcher 3 (regarded as one of the largest games available for the PS4) complete with updates and both DLC packages comes in at around ~50GB, so roughly 1/10 of the hard drive space (10%).

This wouldn't be a problem IF the games were stored on the discs they came on

This would be a huge problem. On the PS2 / PS3, games rarely exceeded several Gigabytes so it was easy to simply read the disc on the fly while playing a game as the amount of data the console had to store and read was far less. For PS4, with monumental games like the Witcher 3 with vast amounts of content, and various things going on at once, it's more efficient to store all content locally so it can access it much quicker reducing loading times and enabling a much more stable experience.

The fact that I own a disc of Elder Scrolls and yet the entire game has downloaded to my hard drive is inexcusable, this business model will not last long.

It's not a business model, it's a UX model. See explanation above. Forcing the user to install the game before playing ultimately provides a much more fluid game play experience. I have had my PS4 since launch, and i've only used about 60% of my HDD space - It's not an issue.

..unless Sony is prepared to offer affordable 500 TB hard drives in the new models.

I think you're getting your sizes mixed up. The PlayStation 10 may have a 500TB hard drive but I wouldn't hold your breath for it anytime soon.

Why is the game and updates not store-able on the cloud?

Didn't you just say that most internet connections in the states are useless / slow? So surely storing more things in the cloud which always require an internet connection would be worse for you?

- Or we can talk about the horrible battery life of the ps4 dual-shock controller with it's bedazzling lights draining power all day.

- We can go on an on about how crummy ps Plus is and how all it's free games are junk no one wants

I agree about the controller. The battery is really poor. You'll be surprised to know though that the LED has little effect on the battery life itself. Saying the free games on PS Plus are ''crummy'' is completely subjective and only your opinion. PS Plus is actually really good value for money taking into account the amount of games you get for free and the amount of discounts you get.

Now the saddest fail of all is Sony's inability to get good variety of games and genres on it's system..

There is plenty of variety on the PS4 platform. People always use this argument to try and justify their view on how poor a platform is, and it's entirely without merit in this instance. You'd be forgiven if you created this thread a few weeks after the PS4 launch, but we are a ways into it's cycle now with a plethora of varied titles - Over 1000 in fact...So just how many games do you need to be able to choose from before you'll be satisfied it's giving you variety?

And ... who cares what you think?

I do, I like hearing peoples opinions. Its why I visit forums.

I guess this one:

Bad trolling attempt OP, really lame.

the PS4 is a great system. the only down side for me is that I have one and Sony is planning to release another version which is more powerful.

Average state side is 12Mbs, which really isn't that bad, and just enough to download updates and PSN games without taking days. An for most places that aren't the boonies, you can upgrade. I've lived all over WA and TX, and the only thing that's changed was my provider.

Here's mine now:

Are you sure you have a ps4? Are you sure you don't have a toaster?

My PS4 has excellent internet speed - even over wifi with a sh#tty router and scammy Comcast that is nowhere near as fast as I pay for. I can't imagine making a claim about it taking days to do anything involving the internet on it. It's by far the best console I have ever owned, with the exception of nostalgia for certain systems' libraries over others

i'm getting a strong sense of deja vu

edit: http://www.gamespot.com/forums/playstation-nation-1000002/1-year-later-and-ps4-is-still-as-disappointing-wha-32704249/ link for anyone not using chrome

@mordant221: Actually those numbers are way off (I am assuming you got them from this wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_connection_speeds).

In this article: http://bgr.com/2016/01/02/us-internet-speeds-average/ which was published in Jan of 2016, explains that according to the FCC, the average internet speed in the United States is around 31 Mbps. Currently my internet is 100 Mbps, but since my router is so good I usually get around 107-114 Mbps. I just setup internet in my new place and I am paying $64 a month for speeds at 150 Mbps. Internet connection should not be a problem unless like you said, are living in the boonies.

Hm, good spot...

To the OP: sell the damn thing and move on if you still hate it so much. It's just a toy in the grand scheme of things.

The PS4 is still going strong and the OP is still a dweeb.

I'm also a veteran gamer and do have all Sony's consol. The PS4 isn't bad but it isn't the best they've done.

I know online gaming now cost something but if you are like me, you won't need to pay because you never want to play online. PS Store is interesting to me.

Also the PS4 doesn't use that much internet if you don't play online. The problem I see is some game require huge update like Witchers 3 20gb update.

I live in Canada and in my province the internet is fast enough but I'm limited to download/upload up to 60 gb per month so yeah it is a problem in this case, even buying digital is out of the question for me.

Still the PS4 has some very nice game like Bloodborne that I loved a lot, I even got the platinum trophy.

Ha, this post is a joke right? Like, you really aren't being serious are ya? Well, if you really are, then I feel sad for you. Cuz everything you just listed as being PS4's "downfalls" are complete speculation and not one shred of truth. The internet speed complaint is simple, you just got a shitty connection cuz my PS4 downloads updates, games and everything else at a very fast rate and my WI-FI isn't even the greatest. Oh and the memory is such an easy fix. If you are such a veteran gamer, then why haven't you did the extremely simple task of taking the old hardrive out and replaced it with a larger one? I got a 1 TB and a TON of content so again, this complaint of yours is more of a personal ignorance instead of an issue. Sorry dude, but this jut seems like a common troll post, and why is the PS4 dominating the competition vastly if it has done so much wrong? You would think ppl woulda caught on by now but no, PS4 continuously remains at the top of the charts.

The only thing I read that has any slice of truth to it is the bit about PSN needing more Multiplayer & Kid games. I agree with that much but only to a slight extent, as there is a little bit of something for everyone on PSN. PS4 is by far the best console on the market and if Sonys' next PS is anything remotely as remarkable then it will lead the 9th gen console years as well. I love my PS4 and I believe a lot of other ppl do too, so either sell yours and settle for an XBOX 1 (with all its glorious failures) or come back when you have a honest and rightful claim.

Playstation 4 ? an epic fail? haha...you have to be really dumb to say such a thing.

If I read the OP and boil it all down to one major problem area, it looks like your key gripe is that the best way to get full value out of the PS4 is with a good internet connection - and you basically cite this as a flaw with the PS4's design.

Let me just say, I have NBN where I live (NBN = National Broadband Network in Australia...high speed internet). Online gaming and stuff is fine and I can download games very fast and stream video, etc... but I can't do SharePlay with anyone who isn't on NBN. So, even for me, SharePlay is essentially a non-starter.

That said, PS4 is a brilliant platform. I've spent the most time on PS4 in this generation, by far. There's a huge variety of content, and some really stellar titles within the library. They finally got the controller right, and the PSN functionality is both great value and very feature-rich.

In my opinion, your complaint shouldn't be with Sony or the PS4 - your complaint is a more general one, about broadband infrastructure as well as the fact that modern games rely more and more heavily on internet connections.

Problem is, the first issue has no easy/quick fix. And the second point is just a reality of modern life. It's not just games; it's everything. If you want good TV and movies these days, you really need to have a good internet connection. More and more services are reliant on that. The trend will only continue.

So although I feel your pain (I only recently moved to a location with NBN, before that I had slow as hell ADSL), I don't think you can really blame Sony here. Even Nintendo, who has lagged behind with internet features (no pun intended), has been increasingly focused on internet-based experiences in this generation. We can all expect NX to have even more internet focus, I think.

@djura: Hi. I appreciate your respectful comment. Really my issue is three fold: undersurable business models including storing the contents of an entire disc on the hard drive , a lack of social gaming ability after repeatedly telling us we needed to pay more for our games and pay for plus because of all the social features that dont work or dont exist in most of the games, and shotty poorly thought out accessories.

@nirogol: Prey tell why you've cone to that conclusion? Everything i have said so far is true. Laser disc was popular but it was still a failure.

@Jimbowesker: No joke. Why i dont go buy another drive hmm let me think? Because the console shouldnt be downloading the entire disc and it should fit more than one game on it. My experience is NOT unique. The national average is 20mbps or less. It is by far not the best system made. It reminds me of the dreamcast back in the day. Full of features it was incapable of delivering.

@Coco_pierrot: Hello. Yeah thats somewhat my experience. I have Dragon age inqusition and eso they take up over 70gb a piece. Now im not limited to how much data i can download a month but it took me and my daughter 2 days to update eso. DAI is on disc so im unamused it took up 70gb of my hard drive.

@Mighty-Lu-Bu: Im not required to sell something we pay a grwat deal for.

@Mighty-Lu-Bu: No my source is the public broadcast stations statistics. I dont use wikipedia as a source.

@xantufrog: but you dis not specify your speed so that doesnt help much.

@putaspongeon: No it may function better as a toastet. Perhaps thats what they could market it for at the next E3.

@mordant221: 12 is not fast but its faster than what we get here. It takes 2 days on a 7mbps speed for 20gb. Part of the issue may also be the constant failure of the downloads to initialize or finish. Alot of times they start over.

@Star650: Yep because the old ps4 is a failed system.

@raugutcon: Trolling? Grow up please. It doesnt even sound like you know what that means.

@d_parker: You seem to care enough to comment.

@arcangelgold: What?

@seanh: Again wrong. The is little variety of games. Ps plus has little to no value to most people who comment about it. As far as hard drive space i was not joking and i am not confused and essentially you pointed the UK but left usa totally out. The stats show the average is 20mbs or LESS in the usa, not more. If the processor cany read a dusc then its time fot a processor that can, or as i said a 500tb hard drive.

@rosinmonkekyx17: No its not a failure it has dozens of comments which means people saw it. It was a great success.

@AtariKidX: its not hard to beat the wii mote. Im not sure it beats xbox but they are probably as bad as each other.

@RSM-HQ: nintendo is not an option because the kids hate the controllers as do I. Ps4 has no variety in games it has race cars, sport, first person shooter and mmo. Oh and first person shooter.

@MethodManFTW: it died

@GTR12: ahahahaha. You really belive that?

@arcangelgold: "No Variety"

Have you looked into Tearaway (3D platformer), Guilty Gear Xrd (Fighter), Disgaea 5 (SRPG), Ratchet and Clank(3D platformer), Gravity Rush(3D platformer), and Guacamelee(Beat em Up)?

None of them are MMOs, FPS,Sport, or RC sims. And are highly regarded scoring an average of 8/10.

Perhaps you just don't know how extensive the library is now. I'd recommend looking into the actual games post launch. It might enlighten your view on the console :)

All the same it's not my choice what you and your kids like. Can only give you good examples.

I actually don't think that is relevant - you started a thread going on about how much the PS4 sucks, but you want to include ISP problems in that? They have nothing to do with the PS4. To be clear, very slow internet is going to be very slow on a mega gaming rig and a Scorpio as well. The real talking point would be if you had super fast internet, but the PS4 could only handle 200kbps or something. This would be a "the network adapter is total crap in it" thing.

Now, I don't even know off the top of my head what my internet speed is "supposed to be" (I never get what Comcast claims I am paying for when I test it), but my PS4 downloads stuff from PSN, over wifi, faster than my PC does from Steam over WiFi. So not only is it experientially much better than your claim of stuff taking "Days or months", but it compares favorably to other devices I have on my network.

@arcangelgold: I actually wasn't referring to you, I was referring to mordant221. In any case, the national average of Internet speeds according to the FCC is 31 Mbps.

@arcangelgold: No worries. I try never to dismiss something out-of-hand where possible; after all, even if we disagree, I think you obviously have real feelings about the situation.

In terms of your three points, I'd like to drill down on them a bit more.

Storing contents of an entire disc on the hard drive

You make a fair point, but I believe that Sony is now enabling streaming on some games (I can't remember what the feature is actually called). Of course, the problem with streaming is that you need a very high-speed internet connection to make it work properly.

So, the only real solution to your gripe here is to buy physical copies of games. And you know, I think that's not really a bad solution. I personally feel a bit weird about having all my games be download-only, so I do buy some physical copies.

But also, my hard drive space is obviously not unlimited! :-)

I think there's room for both approaches though. I have some physical copies of certain games, and I download others.

Lack of social features in games

I'm honestly not quite sure what you mean by this. One thing I would say is that with the PS4 at least, you've got the idea of parties and other social elements that are embedded within the actual OS itself. The advantage is that you get some consistency of experience across all games, whether or not they have their own social features.

Aside from that, I think it also just depends on what games you play. Some games have a lot of social features and some don't. I'm definitely finding that in this generation - much more than the last one - I'm doing a lot more online interaction through console games.

So, unless you have a specific example, it's hard to really know how to respond to that point.

Poorly thought-out accessories

Like what? Admittedly I don't use many of them other than the standard controller. I suppose I'd just say that the one accessory I didn't like was the standard earpiece and microphone that came with the PS4 itself - it was pretty terrible. I replaced it with the official PS4 wireless headset, which has been really fantastic given the price.

@arcangelgold: LOL!! To even include Dreamcast & PS4 in the same sentence shows me how insane this topic even is. I know you have your opinion as we all do and are entitled to, but come the f*** on man, you know good and well the PS4 is light years ahead in EVERY category than the Dreamcast. I mean just say you hate PS4 or Sony or whatever, but that metaphor just don't work and is absurd.

I don't believe that, I know that, don't like your crappy internet, move.