Console Corner: To see or not to see, that is the question

One of the many reasons cited for the outstanding success of the Playstation 4 – it has shipped more than 10 million units worldwide – is that 
unlike the Xbox One, consumers had a choice over whether they wanted the camera bundled in.
The Playstation 4 Playroom is good fun, especially for youngstersThe Playstation 4 Playroom is good fun, especially for youngsters
The Playstation 4 Playroom is good fun, especially for youngsters

That made a difference to the tune of £50 upwards in terms of price and would have swung many who were dithering over which console to spend their hard earned money on.

After all that is the price of a game.

But herein lies the biggest dilemma for the Playstation 4 camera’s future and success.

The Playstation 4 Playroom is good fun, especially for youngstersThe Playstation 4 Playroom is good fun, especially for youngsters
The Playstation 4 Playroom is good fun, especially for youngsters

To convince people to take the plunge and shell out for the camera, there has to be at least one outstanding game to make it worth their while.

But for game developers to spend time and a lot of money making that game, they want to know there is enough people with the cameras to make it worth their while.

It’s a bit of a no-win situation and in my opinion the only way it is going to change is if we get the outstanding game first.

At the moment there isn’t one.

The PS4’s Playroom offers some fun and free capers, perfect for the kids where you can shoot out the little bots (pictured above) “into your living room” and they wander around doing funny stuff.

You can play with them, they play with each other and you can suck them back into your controller like a hoover.

There are some neat add ons like Ninja training, which is like Temple Run, and a brilliant mini game where you draw things on the PS4 app on your smartphone and flick them at the screen and they are turned into real objects that the robots play with.

One of the main uses will be streaming your live play, which is really catching on in a big way.

But there is nothing on the horizon yet that I can justify saying ‘go out and buy the camera’. Kudos to Playstation for not forcing it on gamers, but it will be a shame if this neat gadget never realises its full potential.

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