I feel bad for some kids getting a PS4 this Christmas...

[stargate]

My girlfriend and I decided to get her 14 year old son a PS4 (Star Wars Battlefront bundle) for Christmas. This will be his first gaming system as his mom has historically been against them. He has been told he is definitely NOT getting one so he will be pretty psyched on Christmas morning.

The kid at Best Buy was smart enough to ask if this was a present and he recommended doing the set up and game install prior to giving him the gift. He pointed out that he could be sitting there for hours not being able to play the system. Wow, good point. I hope other retailers give the same advice! I unboxed it today and between the initial set up, creating a sub account for him, subscribing to PS Plus, all the verification processes, etc and finally the game download and install I am literally like 5 hours in. Gone are the plug and play days of old.

I would add that I am fairly tech savvy and already have a PSN account. I can't imagine some non tech parent having to go through all this nonsense on Christmas morning. Granted a lot of kids would know the drill, but certainly not all. I just imagine there will be a lot of kids sitting around on Christmas morning unable to play their new systems while mom or dad spends hours trying to figure out how to get everything set up. What a buzz kill.

[Niku-Sama]

I setup a ps4 at my store off line and it didn't take long. Granted if you have battle front you'll want to play online but we had no problems

[kupomogli]

Star Wars Battlefront probably took longer because of the online installs, but I'm sure off the disc the game took less than 10 minutes to install. If it was an offline game it wouldn't have taken long at all. I know when I first got a PS4, the first game I played was Infamous Second Son and I was playing the game within the first 10-20 minutes of hooking up the console. The Wii U on the other hand, minimum of two hours to set that up.

[CRTGAMER]

The kid at Best Buy was smart enough to ask if this was a present and he recommended doing the set up and game install prior to giving him the gift. He pointed out that he could be sitting there for hours not being able to play the system. I unboxed it today and between the initial set up, creating a sub account for him, subscribing to PS Plus, all the verification processes, etc and finally the game download and install I am literally like 5 hours in. Gone are the plug and play days of old.

A very good point, the servers on Christmas day will likely really bog down!

Sadly, modern consoles have gone the way of Steam requiring a huge download and random online authentication just to play a game. The sad part is the games purchased (make that rented) today may be locked out when the license expires or when the next round of consoles comes out in a few years.

[Aussie2B]

Systems are definitely more complicated than they used to be, but it wasn't always the easiest thing to get going in the past either. At least today's kids have parents who are generally more tech-savvy than my parents' generation. I've had to help them with things as simple as, say, hooking up a DVD player, so when I was little and needed help getting my new SNES hooked up, it seemed like something that took some work. By the time the N64 and PlayStation came around, I was a teen and could handle that myself, but then I ran into the problem of not having the accessories I needed. When I got my N64, I had to ask one of my parents to run me back to the store so that I could buy an RF adapter, since my TV then didn't support composite and I had no idea that the N64 wouldn't come with all the hookups I needed. I also had to run out the first time I bought a game that required a controller pak for saving.

[retroman]

Man do I miss the good old days. F..k all this download isht.

[Tanooki]

Did you run into problems? When I got mine it was like 15-30min tops. Stupid disc installs took longer and a new psn account can take probably ten minutes too.

I miss plug and play like the old days too. Even the blasted easy Nintendo stuff takes a little too now but nothing like the other guys. What's worse is if you're a keeper of stuff. Most games ship out as lame latte beta tests and get patches. Once those servers are gone the games likely could be partly broken or potentially useless. I didn't keep my ps3 games due to that and the PS4 titles will be the same I think too which to me is sick and makes it harder to ever justify paying full price so inrarely have as a result.

[stargate]

We got him the PS4 Battlefront bundle which does not come with a physical disc, just a download code. The download and install took about 8 hours which seems about average from what I have read online.

True that older systems had some complicating factors. Should the TV be on channel 3 or 4? Where does this plug into? What the hell does this switch do? I need a memory card? What the heck is a memory card? Etc. But I have been dealing with systems on Christmas morning since the days of Pong and it has never been this bad.

In addition to the basic connection and system set up, a PS4 involves creating a PSN account, then PS Plus if you want to play online (a must for some games). So you've got email confirmation, entering credit card and personal info (all with the damn controller), jumping back and forth to your computer to get everything activated. Then create sub account(s) if you want your kids to play without unrestricted access to your wallet. Then don't forget the system updates that will need to be installed. Oh and then Battlefront told me I need to go online and create an EA account if I want to play online. So another account, email, password. Then you download and install the game, then the updates, and OK now you can play. After the tutorial of course.

I am just venting. There is much to love about next gen gaming and the PS4 is an impressive system. It was just an all day event yesterday getting set up and actually playing and I am thankful I did not wait to do this until Christmas. Now we can give him the present and he will be playing immediately. Unless the PSN servers crash of course. But that's another story.

[Tanooki]

Oh no you're right it has become progressively far worse. The stuff in the 70s, 80s, and 90s were peon level problems that if you couldn't figure out how to line up Ch3/4 on your TV and the switch on your box or system you probably shouldn't be using it at all type stuff, or even worse, having no clue how a red, yellow and white cable could perhaps plug into the same colored plugs on the back of a TV...it was easy enough for a 5 year old to do.

The stuff now isn't. You have to unbox and setup all the stuff sometimes in somewhat of a particular order. Why? Synching up controllers at all let alone correctly with more than one. Then there's that whole mandatory internet settings issue most don't get lucky on just hitting the 'find it for me' type button, so then you have to know all your settings/passwords on that. Beyond that, what if your TV isn't what the system looks for stock, black screen or beeping, must hold buttons or something some way to get it to kick over. Then your games, most of them out of the box are broken, face it, if they weren't you wouldn't have so many games with day1-3 patches to fix up stuff that should have been pressed on the disc. That can take awhile. It gets worse if it's a huge update because of lots of foul ups, and as I said before if that server ever eats it your game is fubar in the future. And you hit the worst, the dozen gigabyte plus sized game download waiver sheet...might as well set it on autopilot and go to work for the day, maybe it'll be done when you're back home depending on your speeds. It's no longer fun nor a happy experience setting up a console because they've become bloated swiss army knives of harassment, computers are easier out of the box now to use immediately, once you get beyond that initial Windows or OSX startup bs for a few moments. Even if those need patching, they'll do it behind what you're messing with right off and nag you about it after the fact or have you reboot when convenient.

The least annoying I've dealt with was the WiiU and the 3DS, very few games Nintendo allows to slide through with problems, and it's legit accidents they tend to miss, not to pepper people with broken software in the box and their setup is typically shorter and less annoying but not by much.


Trust me I get you're venting and that PS4 you'll like. I got one on a weird bit of sorcery and luck 2 years back for $200 new. :P I don't game on it a huge amount but I do use it for that and movies and love it.

[kupomogli]

The least annoying I've dealt with was the WiiU and the 3DS, very few games Nintendo allows to slide through with problems, and it's legit accidents they tend to miss, not to pepper people with broken software in the box and their setup is typically shorter and less annoying but not by much.

The Wii U didn't seem fine with me. When I was setting it up, it took you step by step for literally everything using the Gamepad like the player is stupid. Some of the stuff that it brought the player through was kind of cool, but still, I think it was a minimum of two hours to get through it, and that's without downloading the Wii backwards compatibility(something I still haven't done.) Also had to figure out how to the Pro controller as the first player controller, having to connect it through gamepad and then finding out how to turn the gamepad screen off, just more trouble than it's worth. I've probably played my Wii U less than 20 hours. For what is just a few great games, the system is garbage. The biggest disappointment I've ever had with a console purchase.

[Tanooki]

I got it when it came out, so it setup fairly quick since the promised Wii support was like a year out, along with the lovely don't wait a minute for each menu to cycle garbage to be bugfixed out. It IS the biggest disappointment from Nintendo I paid for to, and I had a Virtual Boy, at least it worked out of the box and for its short life had more interesting support despite far less games. Between it and the Wii I don't trust their consoles anymore, so that NX is really going to have to sell me that they extracted their heads from their collective butts and learned how to get people to make games for them again or I don't know what I'll do. Perhaps I'll find one used so they don't get paid, wait on a deal like I did with PS4 that netted it for 50% off sticker, not sure.

Despite the slowness of the WiiU setup it was made easy enough for a peon to get through far more than the other two do.

[The 1 2 P]

That seems to be the norm these days. I can't remember how long it took to set up my Xbox One but it was less than a half hour since I was just transferring over my 360 account to my XBO. Updates are always pretty quick and most of the game installs too. Only the 50 gb and higher downloads take an hour or more but you always get the option to start playing while the install takes place. But in this day and age they should probably put some sort of disclaimers on these new consoles so that the recipients are better prepared for what the actual out-of-box set up entails. Although this is more for the benefit of those less tech-savvy than most of us.

[stargate]

That seems to be the norm these days. I can't remember how long it took to set up my Xbox One but it was less than a half hour since I was just transferring over my 360 account to my XBO. Updates are always pretty quick and most of the game installs too. Only the 50 gb and higher downloads take an hour or more but you always get the option to start playing while the install takes place. But in this day and age they should probably put some sort of disclaimers on these new consoles so that the recipients are better prepared for what the actual out-of-box set up entails. Although this is more for the benefit of those less tech-savvy than most of us.

I can't imagine downloading a 50 gig game in around an hour. It took me 8 hours to download Battlefront which I believe is around 20 Gigs. Of course this is dependent on the Internet connection, but mine is pretty decent at least for what we have in the US.

[lendelin]

I don't feel sorry at all for kids who get a PS4 as a Christmas present. I wish someone would give ME such a nice Christmas gift.

A 14 yr old knows exactly what to expect when he gets a console. Even if he didn't have one so far, he knows from his friends what to do, how long it takes to set it up and he's used to it and doesn't question it. He didn't experience what we older folks experienced: cartridge based systems in which you plugged in a game and it played right away.

Don't feel sorry for them, envy them!

[stargate]

I don't feel sorry at all for kids who get a PS4 as a Christmas present. I wish someone would give ME such a nice Christmas gift.

A 14 yr old knows exactly what to expect when he gets a console. Even if he didn't have one so far, he knows from his friends what to do, how long it takes to set it up and he's used to it and doesn't question it. He didn't experience what we older folks experienced: cartridge based systems in which you plugged in a game and it played right away.

Don't feel sorry for them, envy them!

True! Maybe I should have said I feel bad for the parents who get stuck setting these things up. Honestly I think we are in a transitional stage with the technology. Once we all have hyper fast download speeds, hopefully it won't be as much of an issue.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I just imagine there will be a lot of kids sitting around on Christmas morning unable to play their new systems while mom or dad spends hours trying to figure out how to get everything set up. What a buzz kill.

This is really no different from how it was when we were all children. The only thing different is the form in which this situation is taking.

Did you ever get a gift that needed to be assembled? I sure did. Some toys and such come in compact boxes and require an adult to spend a significant amount of time to put together just so the little one can play with it for the first time.

This is just the digital version of that.

[FieryReign]

Fuck all that. My son is getting a 2DS. But even that comes with a MK7 download. Complete asineness. Just put the fucking cart in there, good lord! Do these rich bastards look at the numbers? 60% of us don't have a broadband connection, yet this modern garbage pretty much requires it? Great way to limit your user-base and alienate others less fortunate.

Cheapskate-ass companies will be the downfall. Another crash is coming. You wouldn't believe the complaints I was hearing at a local gameslop. It's hilarious and not even their fault. These rich white douches just make shit more confusing for the common low class working man.

[JSoup]

I was going to call bull on the entire thread, as it took me less than half an hour to set my PS4 up and be playing games, but I just got back from a five our adventure to set up a friends PS4, connect her account and then make an account for her girlfriend. At some point following mine, this all got way more complicated.

[stargate]

I was going to call bull on the entire thread, as it took me less than half an hour to set my PS4 up and be playing games, but I just got back from a five our adventure to set up a friends PS4, connect her account and then make an account for her girlfriend. At some point following mine, this all got way more complicated.

Ok I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[Tanooki]

Fuck all that. My son is getting a 2DS. But even that comes with a MK7 download. Complete asineness. Just put the fucking cart in there, good lord! Do these rich bastards look at the numbers? 60% of us don't have a broadband connection, yet this modern garbage pretty much requires it? Great way to limit your user-base and alienate others less fortunate.

Cheapskate-ass companies will be the downfall. Another crash is coming. You wouldn't believe the complaints I was hearing at a local gameslop. It's hilarious and not even their fault. These rich white douches just make shit more confusing for the common low class working man.

I know you're going for drama points, but you may not be that far off the mark if you look at the big picture of the future they will force upon us once they feel enough people have gigabit connections to get those downloads real fast. I already said on here enough times about what my game producer brother said what at least Sony and MS wish to do is remove all physical media but the slowness of what's there now forces them to minimize the disc releases to what you see now. Once they can drop the physical he said word was they'd drop prices by half not having to do any of the steps to make a physical game but why should they? If they removed the after market, they'd have a monopoly of sorts on game distribution. There would be zero motive since many would be trained to have download games. There would never be a reason for a clearance bin, ever. Why bother having mark downs that stick when you can do the random 10 or 20% off sale on a game for a few days here or there for an anniversary of it, bundle or whatever the idea is to validate it. It would be all the pad they claim they lose from us squatters buying cheap or buying used. Guarantee you if they start having 50GB game downloads and larger and them always being $50-60 they're going to get another crash of sorts, a high end console crash. With the tablets, the phones, and specifically android biting them in the ass for quality on the high end already now matching/barely passing PS3 stuff in appearance on tegra level processors why the hell should anyone take their shit? Get a Shield or whoever console, download those games for free to $15 on the most part. If you have a PC though, why bother with that when you can wait for rolling GoG and Steam sales making a $40 game maybe $15, 20 or $30 instead? Let them screw with people, it may take a decade but they'll pay for it.

I for one buy just a few games a year anymore on the console of choice I have, handheld gets more attention since it's more unique stuff and the price is 20-50% less at retail out the door and equally if not more interesting anyway. And I actively hit up GoG and here n' there Steam too. I see no reason to take the hit anymore since I can avoid it outside of exclusives.