Not sure about Amazon. Used Gamestop for mine to burn a ton of credit and save sales tax.

You'll find that there's a small but really cool group of PS players on the forum despite it being fairly dominated by 360 for multiplayer over the current generation. We played a ton of Warhawk, CoD, and Battlefield and a little bit of RDR, Burnout Paradise, Resistance co-op, Uncharted 2, and Red Faction. I'm guessing our group will grow a bit on PS4.

Prime members get free release date delivery. You can go back into your order and click on change shipping speed to see the other options/prices that are available for you.

The PS3 should be readily available all holiday season, considering that by that point it will be last-gen hardware.

As for the PS4, it's impossible to say. Even Sony can't gauge demand with 100% accuracy, and they're not sharing their predictions anyway.

If you definitely want it, pre-order it.

It doesn't have any advantages? this is spoken like someone who doesn't have a universal remote. It it were IR, you could control it more easily without having a stupid usb dongle. I'd more easily be able to use an IR extender. I had to buy that NYKO Blue Wave remote w/ dongle just so I could use my universal remote which is bullshit. It's obnoxious to use a proprietary technology for something like that. I mean, it doesn't surprise me since it is Sony and they are know for doing stupid proprietary things, but still.

Along this line of thinking : Do you think the massive availability of both the 3DS and the WiiU at and just after launch had more to do with increased production prior to launch (compared to previous generations) or a much lower-than-expected demand?

I think you're missing what I meant. I also want everything universal, and I don't understand why you always have to be so openly hostile.

I was just saying that I wish that standard were bluetooth so my electronics could live behind closed doors. IR, as a technology, has no inherent advantages over bluetooth, or at least none I can think of.

The latter. Very much the latter.

Nintendo didn't understand that people were over the Wii in the same way the MS doesn't get that people are over Kinect/Move.

I also think they overestimated how long they could milk the same franchises...and they really didn't deliver on those franchises at launch anyway.

I haven't had my coffee yet, so I'm still a bit groggy, I don't even remember which generation we're in. Thanks for the reply, it's been so long since I've bought a brand new console, that I don't know what to expect.

I'd argue "both". Bear in mind, though, that the Wii U did gangbuster numbers at launch, easily outselling the number of consoles the Wii did in its first week (400K vs. 300K in the U.S.), presumably due to increased availability rather than dramatically higher interest. It was January where things plummeted, with only 57K sales that month. I guess Nintendo was expecting the numbers to not just be high but to be stratospheric, which they weren't, and the early numbers they got might've been inflated by speculators. I remember seeing some press early on about the number of returns in December/January, presumably because there was so much stock available that the speculators couldn't pull a profit.

I'm not hostile. It's not hard to say "I wish bluetooth were the universal standard, since it's a superior technology." Instead, you question why someone would want IR as there is something wrong with that. The problem is Sony. They continually do stupid shit with proprietary technology and they have continued that trend w/ not including IR on the PS4.

I'd rather it be the same IR/RF combo used in the 360.

Maybe read again, this time giving me the benefit of the doubt?

And I did also say that I wish the PS4 had an IR receiver, as IR is clearly the industry standard. We don't disagree at all except that I might like the idea of bluetooth remotes a little bit more than you. Even RF would be better than IR in my opinion...as I want to put everything in a closet.

It's really this new IR Blaster tech in the S4 and HTC One that really makes me want an IR receiver on the PS4. It's like a free, fantastic Universal Remote for anyone with a new Android smartphone and it's wasted here.

It's interesting to me to see a bit of hype/excitement over the F2P games like Planetside 2 or War Thunder given that they're both PC games that seem to draw very little interest at this point in their life cycles (a year old game, and one in open beta). I'm probably a PC fanboy above anything, so i'm curious how the console audience reacts to the model since there's a slight disconnect between the communities, and if it will pave way for the big games out there in the PC space, like League of Legends, DotA 2, and other MMO's.

As for the IR stuff, I was annoyed having to buy the Logitech Harmony adapter for the PS3 I'd prefer IR since it's common everywhere.

Oh, and I got my Amazon pre-order update too. But i'm Prime, so when I click on the change Shipping Speed it just gives the 2 day or 3-5 day options.

As much as I know I'll regret going down the rabbit hole here, wouldn't bluetooth as the industry standard make all kinds of smartphone apps possible?

Purely speculation as I have a limited understanding of how bluetooth actually works...just that it does work...through walls...even in the shower.

I don't think there's much of a rabbit hole, apps should definitely be able to use bluetooth just fine to communicate with the PS4 (and other bluetooth enabled devices, which would be the bigger issue for other home theater devices for universal remote users). I'd be surprised if Sony doesn't have some sort of remote functionality, unless they avoid it just to be able to sell more physical remote accessories.

I've looked around, and I don't think it has an IR receiver, if that's what you mean (don't want to put words in your mouth).

I would be pretty surprised if the PS3 bluetooth remote didn't work though, given their level of flexibility on every other USB or bluetooth device.

Really good (and candid) interview with Mark Cerny from Gamescom:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/22/46...-gamescom-2013

I love that Sony is treating us with a little bit of respect in terms of how they present things like they are talking to savvy and intellegent people and that they are being so up front about correcting mistakes from the current gen.

One small comment that jumped out to me:

He sounds pretty confident in the hardware he put together.

Oops, I meant I'd be surprised if Sony didn't have some sort of remote app of their own. Looks like there are 3rd party ones out there that can do it.

So does Major Nelson.

Speaking of candid and truthful, Shu Yoshida apologizes for camera work on twitter:

@yosp: leaving Cologne for Tokyo, it was a lot of fun, thank you all (and sorry for the atrocious camera work in the stream)

I wonder if he wished the camera work was worse during this?

<iframe width="636" height="389" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tUY6qXiLFXA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://kotaku.com/sony-exec-falls-as...alk-1183804857

Nothing against Larry, as he's probably the best voice at MS right now, but Major Nelson =/= Mark Cerny.

It's possible, but it looks like it'll take some work. There's apps for iPhone and Android to control the PS3 via Bluetooth, but they require jailbreaking/rooting the phone.