I Didn't Appreciate The Playstation 4

 

June will mark my one year anniversary for having Playstation Plus. Having Playstation Plus has completely revolutionized how I play games, and so I've been thinking about what I am going to say in that post. One of the more common knocks I've heard about the new Playstation Plus is that it has a lot of PS4 games. It is true that there are a lot of PS4 games. I think as the PS5 ages and more games become available, the library will shift towards PS5 games. Up to this point, probably 50% of the games I've played have been strictly PS4 games or PS4 games that have been upscaled to PS5 quality. What I've come to realize is that I really did not appreciate my PS4 when I had it.

I know I didn't get the PS4 at launch, but I can't remember exactly when I got the console. I do know that for the entire duration that I owned the console I played like 5 games on it. I've had my PS5 for a year and have probably played twice as many games on it already. When I had my PS4 I played a few blockbuster games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Uncharted 4, and Jedi: Fallen Order. And that's about it. I have since played a number of games from the PS4 era that are just great, such as God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn. In fact, I've probably played more PS4 games on the PS5 than I played on the actual PS4.

I have a couple of theories as to why this situation exists for me. The dominant theory actually involves the Nintendo Switch. I got the Switch in 2017, and it had a several year stretch where it released or re-released a number of first-party Nintendo games. A lot of these games were from the Wii U era and thus new to me. Quite honestly these games were safer purchases. I knew they would be great and I knew I would enjoy them (who doesn't enjoy a good Mario game?) and thus a lot of my video game attention went to the Switch during the PS4 era. My second theory is about Playstation Plus. Had Playstation Plus existed in its current form when I had my PS4, I would have tried a lot more games as there is no risk if you don't like the game. This is why Playstation Plus and the PS5's backwards compatibility has been such an amazing feature for the PS5. It really is quite great if you're a gamer, and since I largely ignored the PS4's great game library, this has given me a chance to catch up on some fantastic games from the previous console era.