Its bizarre because I bought something from the PlayStation store on my PS4 and it took DAYS to download.
The strange part of the story is that it took so long to download that the next day I went and bought the game (Battlefield 4) from the shop and brought it back home and installed it and started playing it, all whilst the original purchase from the PlayStation store was still downloading.
I ask Sony if they would refund the game that I bought from the PlayStation store given that I had gone and bought it elsewhere from a physical store during the download and they said "no".
So I never want to buy from the PlayStation store again.
Why would Sony not care about this above just about everything else?
Because they are in a dominant market position. Honestly, it's your fault for buying a console - you knew you'd be at sony's mercy due to the monopolistic nature of consoles. The cost of switching to the one comparible console option is so great, most people will not bother unless sony's issues become too great - and network speed is presumably not a deal-breaker for enough people for sony to care.
So you will continue to suffer abominable download speeds on your PS4, because the cost of switching is too great for most. Basically, suck it up.
I hate to get all PCMR on you, but this is why everyone should game on PC. If my steam purchase downloaded super slow, I could simply get a refund on steam (an automated process) and purchase the same game on GOG, or on Humble Store. Sometimes Origin or Uplay. PC means freedom, or not being at the mercy of a single uncaring corporate entity.
I like to sit on the couch and I want my gaming device to be a black box that does its job and is dedicated to couch based entertainment (I use it for TV too).
PC gaming requires a...... PC... usually sitting at a desk, much more powerful than I need, lots of configuration etc etc to hard.... I'm a couch gamer in the evening after the programming is done.
I don't care much about the PlayStation download thing. I generally prefer to buy my games on DVD anyway.
Sony should care however.... despite not wanting to spend money on digital downloads I find I spend ever more with Apple App Store because despite my hesitations they make it easy and it works, whereas I don't want to buy digital with Sony and they make it easy not to do that.
>>>PC means freedom, or not being at the mercy of a single uncaring corporate entity
I just don't care about that stuff any more.. life's too short to worry about who our corporate overlords are.
I don't think you deserve downvotes here. I only buy physical copies of games, and the standard experience is to come home, insert the disc, and wait for a multi gigabyte patch to download and install before playing.
You also get the downside of having to maintain/upgrade the PC, which is one of the things I was happy to leave behind when I became a console-only gamer.
> You also get the downside of having to maintain/upgrade the PC, which is one of the things I was happy to leave behind when I became a console-only gamer.
Oh, you mean the 15 mins swap of a graphics card every 3 years?
On Linux driver upgrades are pretty easy and I have not recently experienced any game break related to drivers. Getting much better than before, thats for sure.
Go watch some of the major streamers on Twitch. They're constantly trying to figure out why they're dropping frames or why SLI is suddenly fucking up. The illusion that the PC-Master-Race folks like to push is that maintaining and building PCs is easy. Having built many, and owned a computer repair shop, I know that it simply isn't that easy for your average consumer to troubleshoot a computer.
> I know that it simply isn't that easy for your average consumer to troubleshoot a computer.
I don't see how you can state that it's any easier to troubleshoot a console. Usually your only feedback is a generic error code which if you Google refers to 20 different problems all with the same error, or an LED blink code which is equally vague.
Sure, PCs have their own unique problems that consoles don't suffer from (e.g. malware on Windows) but I find that PCs typically have much more descriptive error codes, and usually lack the kind of design flaws present in consoles (e.g. Xbox 360 RRoD due to insufficient cooling).
See that's the thing. I've been a console gamer since the NES and I don't remember ever really having to troubleshoot one.
And since the hardware is fixed games don't have incompatibilities. None of the "this version of the driver causes this but that version of the driver causes that" issues. No worrying about system requirements. If it sold for the system, it will play.
I can't remember that I ever had the problem of not having the right driver since windows 7 or so. Since Windows 10 drivers are also "automatically downloaded and installed through Windows Update" ("for many devices").
Upgrading a PC is a one time thing you need to do once every few years. You'd be "upgrading" your console by putting it in the bin and buying a new one, so I'm not sure what the argument is against PC gaming here...
There is a convenience factor. You dont have to think if you will be able to play 'xxxx' game on your ps4, if its a ps4 game. That plays heavily in keeping me away from PC gaming. I just dont want to have to even consider can I play the game or not.
Until the Pro and One X have been out for a bit, then the question might come up. Or "Pro only games", which they've said won't happen, but I can see any way around that other than "well you'll just have to accept the awful performance".
Right. If I was using a PC all the time at home for something else it wouldn't be such a big deal, but given that I was only using it for gaming and most games I wanted to play were on the console it was just easier to give up.
Like you said, it's an appliance and I never have to think about it. You buy a game for the PS4 and it works on your PS4 and that's all there is to it.
> ...life's too short to worry about who our corporate overlords are
This is not what freedom of choice is about (to me). What I care about is the amount of power they yield over my experience. In Linux their power is low. Windows? Mac? Too high for my taste.
> If my steam purchase downloaded super slow, I could simply get a refund on steam (an automated process) and purchase the same game on GOG, or on Humble Store
I'm with you in general (PC Gamer here) but your example does not really work well. There are many games only available on Steam and not GOG, and while you get most Steam games (but not all) on Humble Bundle, Humble Bundle only gives you a Steam key so you are back to Steam and its potential issues.
Unfortunately, because of Steam's predominance in PC Gaming, you are more of less stuck with the same problems as the PS4, as in "if it does not work, suck it up". There is no other store platform on PC that has the breadth of choice of Steam.
When I read stories like this I'm bothered by the fact that the author didn't go to their credit card company and chargeback the unwanted purpose. Your credit card is a powerful tool to mitigate retailers not giving you what you expect, using it motivates bad actors quite well. Chargebacks are expensive and too many chargebacks leads to unfavorable terms with the credit card companies which are inescapable to the retailers. (just like PlayStation has a captive market, so does Visa)
On the other hand be careful with chargebacks especially against a retailer (Sony PlayStation store) that you would like to keep your account with. They could very easily just close your account and then your PlayStation is mostly worthless.
Sony bans your PlayStation Store account and you lose all your games when you do a chargeback[1]. Yet another reason to never buy digital downloads from Sony.
Edit: Steam puts your account in a restricted mode when you issue a chargeback[2].
Why is that even legal? Consumer protection laws are supposed to protect you from terrible retailers. But, if I issue a chargeback against Sony for recourse, but still lose, that defeats the purpose of a chargeback.
I bought Katamari on the PS4 store and had trouble getting it to work. I called them up and they just refunded my money instantly. I was hoping for tech support to help me get it working.
There is a problem with doing a chargeback to a console/platform exclusive service - they can give you your one refund then terminate your service and you lose access to the service. IIRC one of the big game services does this.
I got a PSTV a few years ago and was itching to play some old Metal Gear games one morning. The PSTV is advertised as being able to play Vita games, so I purchased them through the PS Store on my PSTV. The game downloaded and was ready to install and I got an error that said the game was unplayable in my region on that device. I was annoyed, but figured I would get my money back. I contacted customer service and they said games were not refundable. They allowed me to purchase and download a game on a device it was unplayable on and then refused to give me money back. I was never able to play the games I bought.
A few months ago, my account was hacked and someone charged $50 to my card. I contacted support and they told me "normally all sales are final, but they would do me a one time courtesy and refund the money since my account was indeed hacked." WOW THANKS FOR BEING SO KIND SINCE THIS WAS CLEARLY MY FAULT.
The strange part of the story is that it took so long to download that the next day I went and bought the game (Battlefield 4) from the shop and brought it back home and installed it and started playing it, all whilst the original purchase from the PlayStation store was still downloading.
I ask Sony if they would refund the game that I bought from the PlayStation store given that I had gone and bought it elsewhere from a physical store during the download and they said "no".
So I never want to buy from the PlayStation store again.
Why would Sony not care about this above just about everything else?