It plays blurays though. Not it's fault bluray didn't take off well
It's also a USB media player with the ability to play the sound through headphones via the controller. That to me is a big plus tbh. I use it to watch tv in bed late at night
That is not really where I was heading.
The PS2 was bought in fairly large numbers (and ultimately killed the dreamcast for many) because it played DVDs, and did so either cheaper or better than most alternatives at the time. That would explain a large amount of PS2s out there in the world, and the wii was a wii sports machine for many. The PS3 also had a minor bump for being a cheap blu ray player (indeed it might be one of the few early ones to have got all the firmware updates and whatever else) but as you say the format was not embraced as fully as DVD was before it, and people tell me streaming is where it is at nowadays, so that is a lesser bump. Not to mention today I can buy from from LG in town in 30 minutes time for £55.00.
I have no idea what the PS4 offers in that regard (could be streaming services but its offerings are not up to much compared to other things people can do for much less). The hardware failure rates and likely upgrade rates would also not explain much here.
As mentioned I don't have much idea what it offers as far as games compared to older systems -- sports games are floundering somewhat, cod and battlefield are not doing much, we have not got this generation's final fantasy 7 equivalent. While the xbone lost ground compared to the 360 where it was riding high throughout it it is not so much that it is an also ran that the PS4 took over its user base, and the PC has similarly not fallen off a cliff of anything. I don't know that it is much of a Wii60 a like setup going on (many once advocated a Wii and a 360 to get a nice rounded experience, this while the PS3 was floundering during those early years) with people owning a PS4 and xbone -- I guess the PS4 actually has a few exclusives (sad day really when it looked like exclusives were dropping in number on older devices (
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ps3-and-360-exclusives-a-discussion.360416/ )
This means there are either a lot more gamers* after a fairly mediocre experience (if they lack the frame of reference for a good generation, or it was so long/gradual that they all forgot was quality was like then maybe) or there was some non gamer draw factor that I missed out on, or that its mediocre streaming facilities are still enough of a draw for people (I am not seeing it in any of the tech rags doing set up a media centre on the cheap or lifestyle magazines so I doubt it). Game sales don't seem to be doing all that much, and the library is not so broad that you have radically different tribes (not like you have a DS a like setup with a few million traditional "gamers" and a few million housewives doing colour matching hidden object games that never meet and never speak).
*largely from the same markets too -- sure South Korea, Thailand, central and south America, maybe some of the middle east and Africa, and parts of Eastern Europe are on the up but surely not to this degree. It could be the little brother effect -- I meet enough families on limited incomes that still manage to stump up for each kid to have their own tablet before they hit double digits. Maybe more of those got a PS4 each where before it was more of a family machine setup.
The Switch has maybe 2 or 3 exclusives I like better than anything on PS4 and the DS4 battery life sucks, but I'd still probably say PS4 is the best all around console I've ever owned in the past 30 years.
I would make that claim for the 360 and if you actually liked the PS3 controller I could see making the claim for it as well as the libraries were so similar in the end (see link above for my discussion of that one). With the possible exception of the side scrolling beat em ups being a bit mediocre compared to the height of the 16 bit era I reckon they were some of the most well rounded consoles I have ever played.
Can not even get close for the PS4 (though the controller is better than the PS3 claw maker).
I don't know if it is just me being a super fan of somewhat experimental European games and local co-op, neither of which seem to still exist, but I am nowhere near being able to make that claim for the PS4.
