D&D 4E Will 4E be the PS3 of D&D?

[Charwoman Gene]

Will 4E have a revised version with in the year like it predecessors? I think it will, so I personally will hold off on buying it for at least 6 months.

There were three years between 3.0 and 3.5.
PH2 has been out for a year, 2 years is a good run for it.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

everything so far i have heard of 4e sounds awsome. I wanted to hate it, i really did. But it seems to have ogl and i think its going to be really good.

 

[The Souljourner]

(sorry for the off topic post)

And has not every other month.

The PS3 is 2 years newer than the 360, of course the 360 has been outselling it. But you know what? The PS3 has sold more units than the 360 did at this point in the 360's lifetime, and the 360 was the only next-gen console at that time.

And is ridiculously expensive, compared to both its previous incarnation and its competitors.

This "ridiculously expensive" bit has got to end. The XBox elite is $450 (only just dropped in price) and the PS3 60gb is $499. I fail to see how $50 is ridiculously more than the XBox. Yes, you can get lower end version for $350 thanks to the very recent $50 price cut. It's a pretty good deal, I'll give you that, but it doesn't come with a wireless card (add $50 and an ugly dongle and say goodbye to a USB port), plus Live costs $8 a month or $50 a year, whereas the Playstation Network is free.

And that's not even to talk about the fact that the XBox 360 is horribly unreliable hardware (up to 33% return rate), whereas the PS3 is stupidly stable and robust (less than 1% return rate). I leave my PS3 running folding@home 24/7 and have for months, with no hiccups at all.

And is also overly complex and difficult to develop for, which has led third parties to focus development elsewhere

This has been refuted. Yes, the system is new, but several third party developers have come out and said it's not really any more difficult than anything else.

I won't even compare it to the Wii. The Wii is a completely different thing (and not in a good way, I think.... if you've played it more than once or twice, you get bored of it).

The PS3 is a great gaming machine with forward thinking hardware (the DVDs that games come on the XBox 360 hold a max of 9gigs of data, the blu-rays on PS3 hold a max of 50. There's a new game coming out for PS3 called Heavenly Sword that uses 10gigs just for the *audio*. Unreal Tournament 3 is coming out and won't be able to have all the maps on the 360 version, but will on the PS3 version.

So... robust, stable, forward thinking... I'll take that for 4e.

-Nate

 

[Vigilance]

Comparing 4e to the PS3 is a bad analogy.

In the first place, it's not OUT yet.

I think, like the PS3, judging it will require reading the anecdotes and opinions of lots of early adopters, then deciding if its right for you.

 

[Doug McCrae]

So, will this happen to 4E? IE it gets published but it turns out to be like PS3 a minor blip or the gamer list?

Maybe, no one can predict the future. It seems unlikely as historically D&D has been so overwhelmingly huge in the rpg field, and the current edition overwhelmingly popular. BUT if 4e is indeed teh suxxor, as some claim, and the customers end up going back to 3e, then yes 4e could be the PSP3, or New Coke, of roleplaying.

 

[hexgrid]

I dont mind 4E coming out, but with the dearth of really cool 3.5 supplements, I think this may have been bad timing, at the very least, WoTC should have given those with the DMG II and PHB II at a couple of years to play with those add on's.

I haven't noticed a dearth of really cool 3.5 supplements (except adventures, maybe)- to me it seems more like they've been scraping the bottom of the 3e barrel. I think the timing is perfect for 4e, especially since since several other d20 games have shown how the system can be dramatically improved. D&D has become outdated.

 

[crazy_cat]

everything so far i have heard of 4e sounds awsome. I wanted to hate it, i really did. But it seems to have ogl and i think its going to be really good.

Agreed.

I was very unhappy with WOTC when they pulled the Dungeon and Dragon licences - and I was all set to dislike 4e on general principle. What we've heard so far however, and what I've seen of SWSE have me confident that 4e is probably going to be a good thing.

 

[Xyxox]

I'd understand this thread a lot better if I had the manual dexterity to make game consoles worth the money.

But then again, if I had that sort of manual dexterity I'd be playing WoW instead of D&D and wouldn't still ahve copies of X-Com turn based computer games running in a DOS box on my computer, either.

 

[Anti-Sean]

The PS3 is 2 years newer than the 360, of course the 360 has been outselling it.

It's one year newer, and you're moving the goalposts. The poster you quoted was refuting the relevance of the PS3 outselling the 360 for one month out of the eight months since the former's release.

But you know what? The PS3 has sold more units than the 360 did at this point in the 360's lifetime, and the 360 was the only next-gen console at that time.

If current sales trends hold, the PS3 won't catch up. Since I can't predict the future, I'm not saying that these will trends will hold, but your comparison isn't really all that relevant.

I won't even compare it to the Wii. The Wii is a completely different thing (and not in a good way, I think.... if you've played it more than once or twice, you get bored of it).

Sales figures seem to be glaringly at odds with your personal opinion of the Wii.

<snark>The only valid comparison between 4E and the PS3 at the moment is that everything good about each of them seems to be coming at some point in the future.</snark>

Seriously though, I think it's far too early in this generation to declare the fate of any of the three consoles; thus, I don't really see a 4ES3 comparison as being all that meaningful.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Just wait until Home comes out for the PS3- then you'll see some shifting in that market. (Probably, anyway- I'm looking forward to it, at least.)

Which raises an interesting question, is the Digital Initiative going to be aimed at solely PC play, or is any thought being put into console interactivity? I know that they've poo-pooed the notion of Macs (at least right out of the box), but with there being so much crossover between consoles and gaming these days, I wonder if WotC has given any thought towards making the DI stuff being useable on the PS3 or 360 or whatnot (preferably cross-platform, as I can't stand the XBox or Wii myself.)