Board 8 > Would buying a PS4 now be dumb?

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Im not sure when the next gen is coming out but Ive been wanting a PS4 for a while but now Im not sure. Should I wait? Surely there has to be a massive price drop before or soon after the PS5. I thought theyd be cheaper by now but its still 300-400$. Unless somebody knows where I can get a cheaper one.

Next gen is ~5 months away so it's probably not the best time. You could either get a PS5 then and enjoy the backwards compatibility and future proofing or likely get a PS4 for significantly cheaper.

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Unless you can buy one from someone trying to sell theirs cheap to pay off a PS5 pre-order? Yeah tbh

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Has Sony confirmed backwards compatibility? I remember them saying they were thinking about it, but the "we believe in generations" speech makes me wonder if they won't have it at all.

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beavis666x2 posted...

Has Sony confirmed backwards compatibility? I remember them saying they were thinking about it, but the "we believe in generations" speech makes me wonder if they won't have it at all.

They've outright said that "an overwhelming majority of titles" will be ultimately be backwards compatible. Which comes off to me as "we'll have full BC but please don't sue us if The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 causes the PS5 to crap itself for some reason"

Worth noting, of course, that they've also said that on launch only a selection of the top PS4 games will work and the rest will come later.

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Do you want to play games on the PS4 that aren't on the XBOX/PC?

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Dang. Ive been saving up to justify the expense for a while and this is the perfect window but it had to come within the shadow of the next gen. I didnt think I was that far behind. Thanks for the information. Maybe Ill see a price drop when Im too busy to play it again.

I think if theres a decent chunk of backwards compatibility at launch its worth just waiting on a PS5. Itll be more expensive, but a lot of the PS4 games are in the 10-20 dollar range right now so itll be easy to stock up while simultaneously getting in on next gen.

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Xiahou Shake posted...

Worth noting, of course, that they've also said that on launch only a selection of the top PS4 games will work and the rest will come later.

That selection's going to be pretty big though. Over 1000 games, IIRC.
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LiquidOshawott posted...

I think if theres a decent chunk of backwards compatibility at launch its worth just waiting on a PS5. Itll be more expensive, but a lot of the PS4 games are in the 10-20 dollar range right now so itll be easy to stock up while simultaneously getting in on next gen.

Do we know how BC will work? Only digital or will you be able to play your ps4 discs?

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I guess technically we don't know, but it'd be weird if it were one and not the other.

(Not counting the digital-only version of the PS5, of course.)

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that's probably how Sony will justify a bigger price difference between the two versions is I'm betting the digital only PS5 will have no BC at all

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There is 0 chance the digital PS5 won't have BC.
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well how else are they going to justify the $100 difference between the two. I don't know if they get there on storage space alone.

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Usually the idea behind all-digital stuff being cheaper is that you make more money from digital games. Like, you buy a $60 third party game from Target and Sony makes $6. You buy a $60 third party game on PSN and Sony makes $18-$24 (not sure exactly what is is), so Sony makes more money by getting more digital consoles in people's hands.
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I'd never buy a system this late into the cycle. After around the 3 year mark if i don't own it i pretty much never will.

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Yeah I bought a PS4 Pro a few months ago even though my regular PS4 still works fine.

I regret my decision, I shoulda waited for the PS5. Don't be like me.

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i dont think sony WANTS to justify the eventual price gap between models to be honest

i think this is a move where they will be clearly offering more "value" to the digital edition, to try to further funnel the playerbase into digital game purchases (from which sony makes more money)

You might be able to find a cheap one at a used game store, but I would wait and either buy the PS5 or wait for a sale on the 4.

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What games from this gen are you interested in?

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I got one from a pawn shop, it was a great deal. I paid somewhere between 200-250 dolllars (can't remember)... there was somehow a forgotten copy of nba 2k(something) in the disk drive (whatever the current year was at the time) as well as The Last Of Us downloaded onto the system already. so I basically got two games for free in addition to getting the console for much cheaper than the regular price.

it still runs just fine although it can be a bit loud at times. don't regret it at all, although I know if I was unlucky it would have been one of those situations where you buy it from a pawn shop and then it stops working after a few weeks and you're screwed. I definitely got lucky, especially with the "free" games.


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on topic... I agree that buying one right now is probably a bad move. if you've waited this long you may as well just wait a bit longer. if you need something to do in the meantime there's like a million free games on PC you can play to keep yourself busy.

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I was thinking of picking up Red Dead Redemption 2, games like that which are too advanced for my computer. After I got one Im sure there are a million games I could find that I wanted.

What free computer games?

well, first you want to narrow it down. what kind of games do you like and what can your computer run?

the most low effort way to find something is to just go on steam and check the free-to-play games category. sort by user reviews. narrow it down to specific genre or tags if you'd like. it's pretty easy to find the things that are universally agreed upon to be worth at least trying.

after that you get into more niche 'free gaming' areas like checking game development forums and community forums for specific development software. it's harder to measure what is actually good out of places like this, but trying a bunch of games just to give them a chance can be a fun waste of time. sure, there's a lot of garbage to sift through -- it's the same on steam, it's just that steam is better at sorting it for you.

also there are some gems that you won't find on steam or anywhere else. stuff like yume nikki, the witch's house, and ib are just examples of games that were made in RPG Maker and gained cult following through this method. although yume nikki is on steam now, I wouldn't really trust the company that put the game there (there's been rumors for years of the original creator of the game committing suicide after they disappeared from the internet, and if this is true than anyone who is claiming rights to the game and putting it on steam is INCREDIBLY scummy in my opinion)

at the end of the day, although this is more of a gray area, there's also just the reality that you can play almost every NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, PS1, PSP and many other console games for free on your computer. I won't go into anymore detail there, since I assume we all know what I'm talking about and at the very least you should try to play some actually good, actually free games before you resort to illegal activities.


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