The PS4 is set to launch this holiday for $399, going up against the $499 Xbox One. With the PS4 set to be more powerful, the reason for the price discrepancy is mostly down to the lack of a bundled camera, while the XBO comes with the Kinect 2.
Addressing this issue, and skirting a chance to comment on the rumor that this was a last minute decision, SCEA’s Jack Tretton told IGN:
I feel like we’ve got more experience in motion gaming than anybody because back to the original PlayStation EyeToy on PlayStation 2, we brought a hands-free gaming experience in front of the camera and we found that we could do a lot of great things with it. But it didn’t apply to everything. So trying to do a one size fits all was really difficult, so we really feel like, for the development community and for the consumer it should be a choice. If you’re a developer who is excited about the camera and really think you can integrate that into making a great game, please do it – we’d love to have you on board, and if you’re a consumer, who is interested in buying the camera, we’d love to sell it to you for 60 bucks.
But to force every consumer to have one on day one, when some of them may be on a limited budget and don’t necessarily have the interest in it, or to mandate that the development community has to support it… ends up coming up a little bit short in terms of things of things that people can get excited about.
The PS Camera launches at the same time as the PS4 for $59.99, but Sony has yet to show any real support for the peripheral – DriveClub allows you to take pictures of yourself, and a tech demo of minigames was demoed.
Are you happy that the PS4 comes without a camera, or would you prefer that the PS4 was more expensive but that the Camera had a guaranteed audience developers could rely on? Let us know in the comments below.
