Launch Day Blues.

It’s 2006, the clock minutes away from ticking over midnight and I’m sitting near my local games shop waiting for it to open. I’m here because I pre-ordered my PlayStation3 months in advance, even though I knew I was going to be slugged hard by the price, and tonight was the night, I was going to collect my prize. There wasn’t any bedlam to speak of, I think was maybe a total of 50 of us waiting there, and within half an hour I was walking out of the store cradling my latest acquisition. Notably absent from my collection however was any kind of title to play on it, meaning that all I did with it when I got home was create my account and get it ready for when my first game would arrive.

Whilst I didn’t repeat the same midnight launch experience this time around, instead I had the console delivered to my door on launch day, the experience once I powered it up was pretty much identical. My PlayStation4 now sits there, next to its previous generation brethren, however I have not a single title I can play on it. The simple fact behind this, one I’m begrudgingly admitting to because of my previously hard fought stance with a friend, is that there simply aren’t any titles that are worth playing on it right now. Sure there are a lot of good games available for it, and if this was the only platform you had then you’d be well advised to play them, however the majority of the good titles are cross platform with the exclusives just not being that attractive.

I was somewhat tempted to download a title just to test it out although there wasn’t anything free available (unless you used your free month of PlayStation Plus, but the current title is available on PC) and the prices were, to be frank, extortion. The only title I was semi-considering was Killzone: Shadow Fall however it retails for a smidge under $100 in the PlayStation Store when it can be had locally for $79. Anything else didn’t seem like it was worth getting to test the PlayStation4 out as they were all relatively simple games that would have been at home on the previous generation of consoles.

Indeed even the title that I was using as the exception to the shitty launch day titles rule, The Witness, has since been announced that it will be coming to the PC as well even though it was going to be something of a PlayStation4 exclusive. Calling it a launch window title also seems a little bit rich at this point as it’s not slated to be released until early next year, leaving the console without a compelling title for a month or more. This is good news for anyone who still isn’t sure which of the next generation consoles to back but for early adopters like me, people who believe enough in the platform’s potential to plonk down cash sight unseen, it is something of a let down.

Honestly though I only have myself to blame for this, I knew going in that most of the available titles were of little interest to me but I was holding out hope that it wouldn’t be too long after before The Witness was released. It’s much the same experience I had with White Knight Chronicles, foolishly thinking that it was to be made available either on launch or shortly after. I guess I was hoping things would be different this time around, figuring that 7 years of progress would mean that there’d be at least one compelling exclusive available. As we can see there isn’t so my shiny new PlayStation 4 will have to sit there, biding it time until it’s able to shine.