looking at the PS4.5 / Pro . The PS3 is, but did they change the subscription model for the PS4 ? One of the reasons i dumped the xbox a long time ago was due to its subscription service. Basically if i were to obtain a PS4pro would i need to do anything other than enter my account details and start buying games from the store ?
Yes a subscription is required to play almost all games online but there are exceptions such as free to play games and MMOs which don't require a subscription to play.
I answered this question a while back on the gaming StackExchange which goes into more detail:
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So it is not the same as the PS3 which was totally free, huh.. Think il stick with PC and get myself a cheap UHD blueray player with apps when they become more available.
Thanks.
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They scrapped it as the PS4 came out and said it is to "add value to and improve the service". When my subscription ran out I didn't renew it because I'm not paying £40 a year just to play games online, and when I say games I mean exclusively Destiny.
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Too right m8. Will not touch now, the lack of UHD player just rubs salt into the wounds. Guess PS3 really was my last console after all.
I really want to get a UHD player because I have 3 4K displays in my house but they are kind of expensive at the moment, the worse part is, the current PS4 "Can output 4K video" but the blu-ray player inside can't play 4K blu-rays and as far as I'm aware you can't get Netflix in 4K either, so they marketed the original PS4 as being able to do 4K video but it can't :( so sad.
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Even the new PS4pro cannot do 4k video from blueray. The new xboxone revision can :/
why Sony chose this when they it's pretty much their bread & butter and on the premier media station console is bizarre. It could signal the end of UHD-BD discs. They do advertise 4k streaming but It' s not like Netflix is actually delivering true HDR 4k at the moment. Due to compression the quality is level to Blueray 1080p or ever so slightly higher, which is great tbh and good enough for most.. but it's not true 4k.
So until really cheap super-market 4k players come out at under $£ 100 then il just stick with BD.
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It is a very strange move by Sony considering Sony Pictures would undoubtedly sell 4K Blu-Rays of movies they produce and why doesn't Sony want a piece of that market? Or is it so that people will have to buy a separate device for UHD video and they are hoping PS4 Pro owners are such big fanboys they'll buy a Sony UHD player.
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I don't know, considering the PS3 was seen as the device that saved Blueray and kept the format alive under increasing pressure from downloads and streaming services it can only signal that they are ditching the disc.
Which is kind of works for some but not others. I could not stream 4k Netflix @30mbps, let alone true 4k @ 70mpbs on my connection.
I hear you, I could technically stream 4K @ 70mpbs because my connection is 70/5 but it would saturate the download which isn't good and while 4K @ 30mbps is good I'd rather have the physical disc that I own than being locked to streaming services.
Even when i had a near 90mbps connection ( im on less than 10 now lol ) netflix would drop the quality occasionally which is quite jarring on a big screen. It could of been ISP throttling or just heavy traffic load in the area, or perhaps Netflix server load etc.. but it was fairly frequent and ruined the movies tbh. Just not knowing when it will go all '480p' like is kind of annoying.
As i said 4k netflix @30mbps is comparable to Blueray quality not UHD blueray quality. There was a review on it a while back where they compared shots. also the audio is 384kbps vs 3000kbps 24bit lossless. Im not knocking streaming its the future whether people like it or not and it will get better over time.
Another thing to consider also at the moment..
A lot of films are 2k digital and therefore will never be true 4k as unlike with analogue there is no hidden information.
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Yeah, Sony's PS2 was the most sold system of all time because it doubled as a really cheap DVD player back when it was new. Cause other than that and the vastly HUGE library the PS2 had, that system was outdone by the Gamecube. The PS3 eventually outsold the Xbox 360 and it had a Blu-Ray Player, was a relatively cheap Blu-Ray player too.
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That's why their decision is so odd. They could of just killed off their own format.
My take on it is that they lost sight of a big portion of their user base so as to clamor onto the 4k & VR hype train. The machine will struggle to do native 4k gaming and streaming 4k is at the moment Blueray 1080p quality. Its a fail, not a terrible machine of course, games will still be 1440p 60fps upscaled with some native 4k titles but its almost like a 0.5 revision rather than the real deal.
I would of still considered one if it was no subscription and they included a UHD player. But that's out of the window, by the time the PS5 comes along i will already own a $50 UHD supermarket player and an even faster gaming PC :)
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