Seven years ago, Sony put Mark Cerny up on stage to talk about the road to the PlayStation 4. It was a fascinating presentation that delved into the nitty gritty of designing the company’s uber-popular platform – the only difference is that it was publicly published several weeks after the full official reveal of the system itself.
The Japanese giant appears to have played an unforced error with the PlayStation 5, publishing a deep dive intended for developers, and sharing it with fans. There were almost 600k people watching the lead architect earlier today, and we’d hazard that less than one per cent of viewers understood the intricacies of what the industry veteran had to say.
And it’s already showing on YouTube, where the video was hosted. While the presentation has, surprisingly, had 170k upvotes – over 72k have voted it down at the time of writing. This is not the kind of response you want for your next-gen console’s reveal, and while it may all be forgotten once the manufacturer eventually showcases some software, it’s clear that this was a blunder of epic proportions.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 65
It was literally what they TOLD us it would be. 🤨
I don’t really take something like YouTube likes as concrete evidence of how fans feel about something. There are Xbox fans who’ll thumb down based on principle. That being said, I’m neither excited nor disappointed over the reveal. I already know I’m getting the console regardless.
@viciousarcanum It was but they had 600k people watching this thing and it didn't meet expectations.
Yes i know this is what it was meant to be and nothing more but end of the day Sony have been silent for months and MS have been an open book, they needed to tell and show more then this and we don't even know what the console looks like yet. Its also concerning they haven't revealed if 4K 60FPS will be more standard or if it supports 120fps, this is important stuff yet Sony felt like talking about 3D audio for 20 mins is more important something what won't appeal to many, The fact only some PS4 games will be playable on it if a f**king joke frankly, they should be matching MS with this not doing something what seems worse then what the X1 does with Xbox and 360 games. Look i'm getting the PS5 in the end and Sony know they can put out anything and know it will sell especially when an announcement of Horizon 2 and Spider-Man 2 will sell it alone but i'm very disappointed in this, i'm actually tempted to wait until the PS5 Pro gets released and get the Series X at launch because base PS5 feels like Sony putting in little effort to what people actually want, hey though it has good audio though so yay.
Side note did anyone feel like Cerny was trying really hard to justify the choices they made? It almost felt like Sony and Cerny knew MS has the far better console and that their console just doesn't cut it, its interesting how they focused more on what it does differently to Series X rather then all the big stuff MS has been boasting about.
The down voters are idiots thinking it was a reveal of the console but it wasn't anything like that. It was a deep dive into the architecture of the system and what it could do like his presentation of the PS4 a few years back. In fact I've been watching that old PS4 video on YT and I found it interesting again the ones that are mad are probably annoyed because it wasn't what they was expecting a E3 type reveal
@AhmadSumadi I'm a huge Playstation fan and I down voted it.
It was hugely disappointing, with a format like that why even bother showing it to the public? They must have know fans were excited for any information but this clearly wasn't intended for them. Compare this with Microsoft who basically had John Linneman and Richard Leadbetter who were excited like children on Christmas day, as they got to play with the console and even build one whilst having as much information as they could possibly want. Absolutely night and day reveals for the 2 consoles and nobody can honestly believe that Sony had the better one
Sony's best State of Play got a lot of dislikes as well so no change there.
There must be some kind of quota on negative PlayStation articles today. Certainly feels like it.
Sony are in the business of selling consoles. As it stands tonight, their current approach doesn’t seem to be the best way to achieve that goal.
It’s as simple as that.
Fans Show Displeasure
Non-news
/fixed
It was better than the road to PS4.
It was not a reveal but PS should have put it was the GDC presentation in the tweets.
@carlos82 But then that's kinda what MS want, to look good on DF articles because power seems to be what their more concerned with.
The general intelligence of the average gamer is disappointing. They literally said it will be a deep dive into the architecture, mark in the first minute said games will be showed later and people still cry. E3 2017, Sony said they will show 4 games, and people still got upset that there were no surprises. This community can be extremely weird.
@AdamNovice it wasn't just power though, they showed off some impressive features, including potentially amazing backwards compatibility adding HDR to any game, rendering Xbox one games in 4K without patches from the developers. They made it look like an all round better games console than Sony has
@Cutmastavictory, Agree, was interesting how much research was put into all aspects they revealed to be a proper next gen system in all areas. But people just want to see higher numbers on paper and think that equals great games, while these same thinking people are stock piling toilet rolls! Idiots
They should have skipped the “deep dive” and waited for the full reveal. People wanted a reveal. Even though this was in no way marketed as a reveal, people on the internet are... people on the internet.
@carlos82 That's because right now they have to do all the shouting because there desperate to get any decent user base back. What you mentioned aren't real reasons to buy a console. Only games do that, right now it's just numbers on spreadsheets with people overracting.
Between the months-long silence on the PS5, the crunch accusations against their top developer, the overblown outcry about Horizon coming to PC (which admittedly, as it stands right now - had horrible timing) and the negative reaction to the first big talk on the PS5 this year, it must be real fun being in the shoes of SIE's leadership rn. /s
@Shirayuki how can u have legitimate grievance of something u dont even own. If u dont like what u see dont buy it. Problem solved.
@AdamNovice it's not though, they are genuine reasons for me to choose one of the new consoles over the other at launch at least. Microsoft have shown glimpses of games and what the console is capable of, whilst Sony just has the spreadsheets at the moment. Things may well change over the coming months and games will ultimately be the deciding factor but Xbox is the front runner so far, I mean I'll likely end up with both anyway at some point.
@carlos82 "they showed off some impressive features"
Did they really "show them off" though, or just talk about them?
I can't think of 1 single thing they actually showed off. Now maybe they can't show off TEMPEST sound thru my tablet speaker, but they can show off all of those quick load times.
It could have been better if he at least had the parts in his hand. Hold up a HDD in 1 hand, an SSD in the other. Hold up how tiny the CPU is or how big the GPU is. Something.
This presentation was like going to see a movie and having a guy on stage reading a script.
How much different would this "presentation" have been if it was an audio only podcast. What would we have missed?
It might be a selling point to you but I guarantee it won't be for the huge casual crowd that only buy a few games a year. Price and big AAA games do that and right now it's doubtful whether MS can deliver on both early on.
@rjejr Cerny talking to a room filled with photo-shopped audience
@rjejr that comment was about the Xbox presentation through Digital Foundry which showed a lot including all the insides of the hardware
Does it really matter people? Let's wait until the thing is revealed. I'm personally going to wait six months after launch of both XB and PS5 and back the console I feel can deliever long term and with the best exclusives.
@Shirayuki im not disagreeing with ur point, just the wording u used.
@Shirayuki well ur doing great! My attempts at other languages have been pretty bad.
I am sure PS5 will be great but its prerelease marketing and build up has sucked.
@ellsworth004 (you getting FF7 or what?!)
I was actual quite fascinated by the technical aspects and the detailed explanations in it. But as a consumer wondering whether to buy a PS5, it wasn't so great.
I feel this video is very useful for game developers who don’t have the luxury of getting any info on PS5, especially very small devs.
Of course as an engineer myself I was incredibly interested in what Cerny had to say.
Of course the average gamer just wants to see the end result and how the controller looks like.
But this video was supposed to be shown at the Game “Developers” Conference. So of course this is not meant to the average gamer.
@kyleforrester87 yeah i preordered it, digitally thank god
@get2sammyb
It really was a deep(nose) dive😂😂.
@carlos82 Ah, big mea culpa from me then, sorry.
I didn't watch the Xbox thing, but from what I've read it did seem a whole lot more interesting than Cerny today. Which I unfortunately did watch, man I so wish I hadn't.
@carlos82 - digtal foundry already saw this PS5 presentation days ago, so it was obviously recorded before any MS announcement the other day, and they have since had an in-depth interview with cerny. there's a deeper article with more detail coming further down the road. even regarding the current presentation.. "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." meant little to vast majority of people, but the tech nerds seem excited.
Deep dives usually happen after a reveal not before. Take note of what Xbox is doing.
They deserve it.
Yes it was a dev-oriented keynote. But that's not how you "reaveal" your brand new product. They didnt show even de exterior look of the consoles and not even a practical demo of the "new" feature.
This should have being pesented AFTER you reveal the console, not before.
::clears throat:: games. That is all that will matter. Get your collective panties out of a bunch. If they trainspot the bed on games then OK- complain away. Until then maybe dont be so fickle?
I get all the disappointment with this presentation. I really do. But honestly I think it makes sense. They know a lot of people like us crave the raw specs. Stuff a lot of casual gamers have no interest in. People who don't even care about gaming news, but still enjoy their consoles very much. So, they give it to us. Granted very unceremoniously. But they do it, essentially to make us shut up 😅 now they can wait with the big reveal until people are no longer as occupied with the ongoing virus epidemic. They're not gonna do their grand reveal now. They want people to listen when it happens
@rjejr
The exciting power points for the 3d audio!😛😄
Nine months before a console launch is such a good time to get riled up about it. Make your purchase decision now people! Do not wait until closer to release before making an informed judgement. And most importantly, purchase your console based on specs, not on the games it has!!
This message was brought to you by the Ministry of Dumbassery
Come on people. If you genuinely think Sony did nothing wrong from a marketing perspective with this deep dive, I'm sorry to say you're in denial.
Here on a PlayStation enthusiast website some of us might not think it was too bad, but have you been on broader social media? Have you looked at the kind of things that are being said in more casual gaming circles? Sony's made a terrible first impression with this.
I'm not saying these people are right, but public consciousness is a fickle thing. First impressions, or early impressions, count for a lot. As soon as a notion is presented to a wider audience, most will follow it. And the notion here is that Sony is screwing up.
(For the record I found it really interesting, I just think it was a bad idea to promote and broadcast this before doing something more consumer-facing.)
Man, Sony was on such a tear this generation I hate to see them fall
I love Cerny. I enjoyed the presentation but what a bunch of bs. They could have at the very least unveiled some god damn features. 🤬 not off to a good start like at all.
@Bondi_Surfer well considering my situation of having a ps4 and an xbox one x, one of the company's says the game I bought works on both my old and new console, it seens like a good start for choosing.
I was busy all day so I missed the video and reading through the articles here on PushSquare is giving me all the info I need.
Thanks guys!
@TheNewButler ?? What i said has nothing to do with being loyal. If anything- the collective "rabble rabble!!" reaction that everyone is having tells me their insecurity about being brand loyal is the exact cause for the impulsive reactions. If PS5 games are legit WHO really cares about raw specs? MS has the most powerful console available and their 1st party offerings havent been plentiful or ambitious compared.
@ShogunRok what about those that feel like they didnt have to do anything in the first place? Just because one company does something doesnt mean you have to follow suit. I get your perspective 100% but at the same time feel like the "Xbox unveiled X and said Y" argument is moot. Sony delivered on lots of fun this gen plain and simple. Maybe the fickle bunch you speak of need to just relax and check their perspective. Nothing (or very little) they have done over the last 7 years has been bad for gaming/gamers collectively. I always have all 3 major consoles but maybe the people shaking their fists over a dry tech presentation should visit your newly resurrected sister site🤔
I think there are underlying issues with the ps5 making and production.... They r so focus this gen that they skip the bit for nxt gen I think
I thought it was a really interesting talk. People need to stop being such babies.
Look, guys, I understand the argument that they did what they said they would do, that this was not the official reveal.
But let's be real, everyone and their grandmas want to see the PS5 in action and Sony has been silent for so long. Everyone was home in quarantine. We wondered if among the architectural stuff, the console would be shown, maybe the controller or some tech demos to showcase its features. Sony didn't schedule this as a reveal. But this became the official reveal in the end. For the consumer, the player. Simple as that. They should have realized it and reviewed the presentation.
It's not that the average gamer is stupid. It's that Sony did not understand the context where it was sharing this.
@kohiba99 He should have drawn his HRFC charts in real time with a Spirograph set.
@Mince the point is, you can use the old one in another room, my xbox one x is moving to the bedroom when the new series x arrives. Can't say the same for my og ps4 unfortunately.
@rjejr yeah the Xbox one was pretty cool, they had a demo of how series X can run unpatched Xbox One games at 4K, a ray tracing demo using Minecraft, them playing on an actual console and showing how fast it switches between multiple games, finally they got to put one together, showing us all the components.
@leucocyte luckily I saw the tweet at the beginning of the video and just read the article instead, then flicked through to make sure I didn't miss anything, oh and to see if those people were real. I'm just staggered they didn't make a more consumer related video to go alongside this
@get2sammyb that's on those people then, not Sony.
@carlos82 That sounds a quadrillion times better, and I'm not even being sarcastic, that's just how bad Cerny was. Guy could have been reading porn and he would have turned me off sex for a week.
@WallyWest A DEVELOPER said one of their titles won't support backwards compatibility. It was in regards to a service title, which is expected tbh. The rest will likely follow suit. Sony is just covering their rears here.
The best gpu on the market can't maintain 60fps@4k in the more graphic heavy titles. You literally have to run dual $2,000 cards to get close to 120fps@4k. A modified $300 gpu will outperform expectation, especially given the modifications, but you're still going to see titles running at 30-60fps.
If MS claimed otherwise, they're lying through their teeth. I'd expect they might've used more vague language which could imply these things, but hopefully they're smarter than actually making easily disproven claims. I'd expect something like 'Our next console will be capable of full backwards compatibility day 1.' Which implies it can play all prior games w/o addressing that service titles will likely prevent next gen consoles access to the servers.
Sony: We're doing a system architecture video.
Fans: So, you're revealing the console?
Sony: No, we're only talking about specs for now.
> No reveal
Fans: WTF is this? Where's the reveal I was promised?
@seari84 PlayStation always did deep dives before reveal, what are you on about?
Conclusion: people are stupid and inpatient. Remember the time before leaks when they announced a product and you bought it? Yeah, those were the days.
How can you preorder something that's not even on the market yet?? That's not possible! Even digitally!!
For me, this deep dive was a reveal anyway 😅 All the key specs were provided. Only cherry on the top could be possible physical designs at the end of the stream they were "dreaming" about + some cooling solutions 😉👍
I'm getting it anyway 😅
@get2sammy what were peoples expectations? Because it met all mine.
I was initially very disappointed with this presentation. I was needing a positive escape from the awkwardness & weirdness of the Coronavirus situation, & instead I got a PS5 presentation that seemed awkward & weird. And artificial. It freaked me out. But Saturday morning, after sleeping well, I watched it carefully, just paying attention to the content, and I watched Digital Foundry's commentary on the reveal specs, and now I'm completely thrilled & stoked. This looks like an absolutely incredible system, beautifully thought out & developed.
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