There’s not a whole lot of news this week. The big story is simply the release of Sony’s PlayStation 4 on Friday. Microsoft’s XBox One follows a week later. If you need trailers or unboxing videos there are lots of those going around the internet this week. Then again, who really needs an unboxing video? When Proletariatron was doing them for his mystery boxes it was cool. When someone’s doing it for a video game console we’re just seeing the stuff we’ve been seeing for months. There’s nothing surprising in it. Frankly, I’d rather see someone unwrap the box when it comes as a surprise gift. At least there’s some unadulterated joy in that. Anyway, NEWS:
The PlayStation 4 Terms of Use (TOS) has started to be circulated and there are a few paragraphs that could raise an eyebrow. Section 14, “Are we monitoring PSN?” states:
Yes but we can’t monitor all PSN activity and we make no commitment to do so. However, we reserve the right in our sole discretion to monitor and record any or all of your PSN activity and to remove any of your UGM at our sole discretion, without further notice to you.
Your use of PSN and our community features may be recorded and collected by us or sent to us by other users as described in 13.1. Any information collected in this way, for example, your UGM, the content of your voice and text communications, video of your gameplay, the time and location of your activities, and your name, your PSN Online ID and IP address, may be used by us or our affiliated companies to enforce these Terms and the SEN Terms of Service, to comply with the law, to protect our rights and those of our licensors and users, and to protect the personal safety of our employees and users.
This information may be passed to the police or other appropriate authorities. By accepting these Software Usage Terms, you expressly consent to this.
To summarize, Sony can monitor PSN, but can’t monitor all of it all the time. What they do monitor, including voice and text messages, is theirs to do with as they will. If a third party wants to know what people say after being killed in Call of Duty, Sony can sell them your conversation. Did you send a chat message admitting to murder? Sony can (and probably will) turn it over to the police. Honestly, this may look shady, but you’ve probably already agreed to that and more when you use Gmail.
Another paragraph spells out that software (including a retail copy on a disc) is “licensed, not sold.” I thought we all knew this, but it may still come as a shock to some. I haven’t seen the XB1 TOS yet, but it’s a safe bet it will read almost identically. Further reading has some concerned that Sony has backtracked on their policy of being able to resell your PS4 games. The TOS states “You must not resell either Disc-based Software or Software Downloads, unless expressly authorized by us and, if the publisher is another company, additionally by the publisher.” It certainly sounds problematic. Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida reassures “We have no DRM, no new DRM at all. It’s just a legal thing. People can sell PS4 disc games like we’ve been saying publicly… Legal people come up with these things.”The way I’m interpreting this is that you have to have permission to sell your game, and that permission is implied by having it published on Sony’s console.
While we’re on the subject of PS4, this week’s PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection sees our first additions for the new console. As previously announced, Resogun and Contrast will be free for members starting Friday when the console launches. Of course, all PS4 buyers will get the 30 day free trial, so these are pretty much free for every PS4 buyer. If you aren’t making that day one buy, don’t forget to go to the PSN online store and “buy” them anyway. As long as you have Plus when you eventually make the leap those games will be available for you to download, even if they’re no longer on the offer. PS3 users will also be getting ibb & obb in their IGC on Tuesday.
On a related note, Sony normally reveals the new titles for the Instant Game Collection at the beginning of the month when they’ll hit. In a bit of a surprise move, they have confirmed two titles will be free for members when they launch next year. Klei Entertainment’s Don’t Starve is coming to PS4 in January 2014. The Binding of Isaac is scheduled for “early 2014.” Both are already available on PC but this will be their console debut. Future versions for the Vita are planned, but a Remote Play option will be available in the meantime.
Sithbot reported last week that there would be some incredibly large install sizes for PS4 games. The data is now rolling in for XBox One and you shouldn’t expect anything different. The smallest install size I’ve seen is 246 MB for XBox Fitness. That one’s an outlier by far. The mean average was about 18GB. The largest I saw was NBA 2K14 at 43GB, which may have actually been the full digital copy, not an installed retail version.
Amongst the next-gen launches and all the top shelf AAA games coming, it’s a little too easy to forget about Peggle 2. The first game is a ridiculous amount of fun for such a simple game so I have high hopes for the next. It’s a timed exclusive to XBox One (starting in December) and PopCap has now announced the price tag of $11.99. While it seems full retail titles are not moving up from the $60 mark, the early information I’m getting on downloadable titles seems to be following the $12-20 range on next-gen rather than the typical $5-15 of the current generation. Regardless, if you’re an Achievement Hunter, you’ll be happy to know this twelve dollar game will come with a full 1,000 Gamerscore potential.
Speaking of Achievements, their rival Trophies on PS4 have been confirmed to generally follow the same structure for grading as the PS3 and Vita versions. This isn’t really news, but it is confirmation that should please fans that put a lot of importance on them. Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum trophies will still be guided by difficulty. There will now also be second level of categorization for rarity (common, rare, very rare, and ultra rare). This level is dynamically calculated based on how many people have earned that trophy. The rarity could be influenced by difficulty or by sheer number of people who played the game. For instance, compare the Platinum trophies on Assassin’s Creed II versus Dragon Fantasy Book II. The AC II trophy is certainly more difficult to obtain. However, it was (and probably still is) the most common Platinum trophy on PSN. In contrast, far too many of you didn’t even play Dragon Fantasy Book II (or Book I for that matter). I can’t forgive you for that but it will make my Platinum, which wasn’t difficult to earn, more of a rarity. The new ranking system will make that information more readily available to everyone.
Screenshots aren’t actually news, and I have no story to go with these, but I have to share them. I can’t really describe my building excitement for next year’s inFAMOUS Second Son.
There definitely seems to be a lack of scale between PS4 and XB1 in this edition of VGQH. I assure you this is not an intentional bias (though I do lean Sony) but a result of their console being the more imminent story this week. I imagine there will be some launch hype for Microsoft’s console next week, though they will likely share the spotlight with follow up stories on the PS4 launch. There should be a Friday edition this week so be sure to check back. Fair warning though, I’m hitting up a midnight launch Thursday. The column could be a little loopy as I am a very old robot that is normally in bed long before the witching hour.