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"Consumer centric and developer inspired." We heard those five words a lot last night, as Sony finally broke its silence and announced PlayStation 4 at a glitzy launch event in freezing New York City. I heard those five words so much that at one point the notes I was taking on my laptop descend into a paragraph of that one phrase copied and pasted about 15 times in succession. They are interesting words. And they are words that transmit so much of what is right about PlayStation 4 - but also what is wrong about it.Let's start with some background, because it can be easy to lose perspective when you have your face pressed up against the glass of a console unveiling, as I know only too well from experience. In my view, the great challenge for PlayStation 4 is that, on the one hand, it no longer has the advantages that existed in previous generations, while on the other it is simultaneously coming under extraordinary pressure by external forces that didn't even exist then.
In the days of PS2, nobody else was making consumer electronics that made you feel cool and counter-cultural; now even your fridge probably had a walk-on role in Blade Runner. In the days of PS2 and PS3, DVD and Blu-ray movie players were cutting edge right at the point consumers started to look for them at attractive price points; these days physical media barely warrants a mention at a console launch press conference (although PS4 does have a Blu-ray drive - I checked), leaving PS4 without a technological killer app. And while DLC exclusivity is still there to be fought over, nobody - not even Microsoft - can afford to buy up top franchises like Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty exclusively in a way platform holders once did.
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