Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Gamers in US snap up new PS4 console
ROCKVILLE, Maryland: Casey Karch queued overnight in order to get his hands on one of the first PlayStation 4 game consoles released in the US yesterday.
Karch, a Washington resident, was number 21 in the queue of those having preordered the first 100 of the new Sony consoles delivered to GameStop, a retailer in Rockville, Maryland.
“There is a first-day magic about it,” Karch said. “It’s always great to be one of the first.”
“I’m going to go home and play (the new edition of the game) Killzone and then sleep a few hours,” he said.
Sony is counting on fans like Karch to help win over gamers in its battle with Microsoft, set to release its updated Xbox One console next week.
Some buyers in Rockville are loyal PlayStation gamers, concerned that the console may sell out during the busy holiday shopping season.
“I’ve had the PS1, the PS2 and the PS3,” said Bethesda, Maryland resident Jesse Rosario, who was number 31 on the list and had purchased a new Call of Duty game and a basketball game for the PS4.
“I grew up with it, so I love the experience.”
Asked why he ordered for the first day, Rosario said, “It’s the PlayStation 4, it’s going to sell out.”
Others chose PlayStation over Xbox amid concern about an always-on internet connection and camera, although Microsoft has reassured buyers they would not be monitored.
“I don’t want a camera on me. I’m not into that,” said Washington resident Chris Jones, one of the PS4 buyers.
With a small child at home, Jones said he would only play games loaded from a disc, not online. “Not everyone is friendly online,” he said.
The successor to
the PlayStation 3 made its debut in North America and will hit Europe later in the month.
It comes amid intense competition among console makers and with gamers also turning to smartphones, tablets, free-toplay, social and online games.
The PS4 is being released seven years after its predecessor and a week ahead of the release of a new- generation Xbox One. The PS4 is priced at $399 (R4 050), while Xbox One will have a $499 price.
“With the PS4, we wanted to make a high- performance machine at a low price to put one in every living room across the world,” Sony Computer Entertainment America vice president Adam Boyes said.
Along with building more powerful computing engines into consoles for cinematic graphics, engineers built in social features and took lessons from smartphone and tablet games making inroads.
A forecast by the research firm Gartner shows game console sales are likely to grow to $44 billion (R440bn) worldwide this year from $37bn last year, helped in part by the new consoles. – Sapa-AFP