Playstation 4: Some Assembly Required

I just bought a Playstation 4 on eBay. Why did I buy a Playstation 4 on eBay? 

Oh yeah, because support for the older consoles has just about dried up. Right, right.

Fun with parallelograms.
(image from some other eBay auction)

Anyway... this was a cheap system at $130, but it was also a, heh, slightly used system. There's no controller, no hard drive, and no working optical drive. On the other hand, the seller tells me that it can play downloaded games, which is about all I use with my current consoles anyway. I won't be playing anything on this Playstation 4 until I get those other two accessories, but I can always pick them up next month.

With E3 and the possibility of a smaller, cheaper Xbox One coming in about a week, maybe this wasn't such a great idea. Microsoft's next- er, current generation system is getting more tempting now that it's got backward compatibility and some tantalizing exclusives. However, the PS4's got its own killer apps, and it's currently the most powerful game machine on the market. (Until the PS4K is released. And the Xbox Scorpio. And maybe the NX too...) With all that in mind, I might as well hop aboard the Playstation 4 train while it's still chugging ahead. I'll let you know how that turns out.

This could ultimately turn out to be a dumb decision, but I can scarcely imagine how it could be any worse than what Microsoft plans to release in the near future. GameSpot and the Tampa Bay Review report that there are Xbox-branded streaming devices in development, including an "Xbox Mini" designed for less demanding games. Because we all know how well that worked out for Sony, right?

Oh wait, I take that back. I was just reminded that the Playstation TV had an extensive library of games at launch, including dozens of hits from the PSOne era. The Xbox Mini... won't. Maybe you want to rethink this one, Microsoft.