#Gamers May end up bringing "Big Brother" into their homes... #XboxOne #PS4

I'm going to try and keep this fairly short, because i could go into this for hours and hours likely. Basically I've spotted something that i find a little bit disturbing about both the Xbox One and the PS4. They both (well at least one of them) seem to be adding cameras to their consoles (not built in obviously) but they seem like they may be necessary to actually use the console. Which i find just a little bit strange, i can understand that things move on and technology moves on, but what happened to the cameras being an accessory? Something you don't have to use if you don't want to? Now both Sony and Microsoft, at the same time, are almost making it compulsory to have a camera. (I can't say for sure about PS4 because it's yet to be revealed properly)

With the Xbox one, not only is it a necessary thing, the console itself seems to "require" an internet connection & it's been said that it needs to be connected to the internet at least once a day... WHY? Can we not just get updates as and when we need them? Why once a day? Not only that, but i've read that the camera doesn't actually go off, it's in a "standby" state waiting a command... I'm sure!

I'm not one of those people who think that absolutely everything is a conspiracy, i don't think reptiles are taking over the planet, but i do my research into things that really happen in the world and i know that it's a dark place.

 Has nobody else noticed that nowadays nearly EVERYONE is on Facebook or Twitter? All advertising their daily doings, their likes, dislikes, information is put on these sites either without realising or because it is necessary that people can gather about you and build a profile. Nowadays if the government want to find something out (or police), they'll probably look for you online first, see if they can build up a picture.

I find it funny just how many people have fallen into the trap of airing all their business to the world. All because most people are sheep.

You may be thinking "yeah but you have twitter" or "rich coming from someone who blogs" but i think you'll find I'm very careful about what i let people know about my private life. Funnily enough I have nothing to hide, i don't do drugs, i barely ever drink, i don't do anything illegal to my knowledge. But i still don't like the idea of people knowing more than i want/need them to know about me.

Now, with the mandatory cameras with the new consoles and at least for the Xbox, the mandatory internet connection, oh and just as i type that another thought about the PS4, a mode where you don't turn the console off and it "gets updates" while you're not using it... that just screams to me that someone wants the majority of households to have cameras, what is stopping Microsoft, Sony or whoever they're in league with from tapping into the cameras on our consoles, especially since they're aiming at our consoles being constantly connecting to the net...

I know I'm going to get called all sorts and people are going to think I'm just another conspiracy theorist, but just think about it for a little while, stop thinking stuff like that is impossible or stupid and just think about it... it's quite a creepy prospect.

Playstation 4 Announcement Last Night

So, the Playstation 4 was announced last night in a 2 hour meeting in New York. A meeting which explained the capabilities of this next gen console and showcased some of the developers and games that we can expect to see coming to the PS4.
It was a very interesting meeting but was awfully long so i thought i would write up some of the notes i took during the meeting, this means that if you don't get the chance to watch the full thing, you'll have a rough idea of what the new Playstation is offering.

These are some of the points i took from the meeting:

• The new controller features a touchpad as well as a share button, the share button allows you to broadcast your game live to your friends.
• The new Playstation will allow your friends to post comments to your screen if they are watching you playing a game, this allows you to either banter with them or more importantly they can offer you help or words of warning (for example if they think you hadn't noticed something)
• If you are stuck at something, there is a remote play option allowing your friend to take control of your game using their own controller, over the network. To help you at the bit you are stuck on.
• The actual console will come with a hard drive (pretty obvious) and features a x86 chipset. It also has a second processor to deal with any background downloading of games/updates and patches. Allowing for an uninterrupted gaming experience.
• The console will now incorporate a kind of "hibernation" setting allowing you to put off the Playstation and return to it later on at the exact point in the game you left it at, without losing the game progress.
• You'll be able to try most games before you actually commit to buying them.
• Eventually the Playstation will build up an idea of your favourite things and pre-load games and patches that it believes you will enjoy.
• It comes with a hefty 8gb of RAM.
• You'll be able to play games as you download them.
• There is a video capture option (which had already been talked about before the meeting)
• There was a mention of being able to customise your profile better.
• There's the ability to send your game to other devices such as your vita for remote play (for example if someone else wants to use the TV for a programme or film, you can send your game to your ps vita and continue playing it)
• They are trying to cut down waiting times, as much as possible things are going to be instant by the looks of things.

Some of the developers and games showcased were:

• The New Killzone game
• Drive Club (has been a concept for 9 years)
• inFamous - Second Son
• Witness (a mystery game which looks good)
• More defined characters, they mentioned they could make use of cg where it was more reserved for films before.
• Deep Down by Capcom using their new Panta Rhei engine.
• Square Enix showed a video i had already seen on youtube of the next gen Final Fatasy style graphics
• Watch Dogs by Ubisoft (looks pretty good)
• Blizzard Entertainment are now in partnership with Sony to bring some games to Playstation, the first mentioned is Diablo 3 (can't wait)
• Bungie are also now working with Activision and are bringing us a game called Destiny.

The only thing that seemed a bit crappy was that they mentioned PS3 games won't be compatible with the PS4, but they went on to mention something about the "Cloud" and wanting to make all Playstation games playable anywhere. So we'll have to keep our eyes on any further announcements for information about that.
My guess i that they'll just add them to the PSN like we're already seeing with ps2 games (where the slim ps3 doesn't play them usually).

So that's a roundup of what was in the meeting.
It looks good to me but we'll have to see what kind of rediculous pricetag they slap on it!