So the Playstation 4 and Xbox 720 are coming! Well... I mean I think so... As I've been wading through my daily dose of gaming knowledge, it seems that people have taken the rumour of "the big announcements" and somehow made it fact. Less and less am I seeing articles use the terms "source" and "rumoured" instead saying "It will be at E3 2013" and "It's official" removing any indication that the rumours may be unfounded.
It's easy to see that this could fool people, me included! I woke up a few weeks ago, blurry eyed whilst turning my phone on, checking my Flipboard App and seeing headlines " Playstation 4 and Xbox 720 to be announced at E3 2013" as you can imagine, I was as excited as a young man getting offered a full band orgy with Girls Aloud. I clicked the link and there is no orgy.. I mean.. it is just a rumour. It isn't official, as of yet there has been no announcements from Sony or Microsoft suggesting there will be a PS4 or Xbox 720 at E3 2013, but they made me think this was assured. Now rumours are rumours and these stories do get leaked from time to time (sometimes intentionally and sometimes not) so to report a rumour of such a huge event is no surprise. But as a few days pass, websites become more desperate for you to click on their page and see their version of the story. This is understandable as well, websites need views, and an impressive story title entice's a gamer in, which is why headlines like "It's official, PS4 and Xbox 720 arriving this year" are not suprising but within the articles themselves there is a different story.
We need to be realistic here. we cannot fool the public into thinking that this is official, that it's an actual announcement from Sony or Microsoft themselves as that changes a rumour to a lie. I have counted five websites over the past few weeks that have spoken about this rumour as if it was truth. Not once did they use the term rumour, source or any other descriptions to declare that this is not official. The most surprising thing to me is that these five articles were not on small websites, these were big name players in the gaming industry who all posted articles about this subject as fact. Having such a large audience as these websites do and lets face it with the five of them put together, its a majority of the gaming fan base, they have a huge say into expectation of the products we buy and look forward too. This puts a ridiculous amount of pressure on Sony and Microsoft to now deliver or retort. I know gamers aren't stupid but most upon reading a story like this would spread the news like wild fire without realising the inaccuracy of the article.
These rumours could well be true but if they aren't then Sony and Microsoft now have two options. Due to huge expectation they bring the announcement of the next gen consoles forward to E3 2013, work like hell to release it earlier than expected and risk large problems and complications so it arrives on time. The second option is they wait, disappointing everyone who was so excited to finally get a glimpse! Even if they have an incredible line-up for our current generation, it could well be overshadowed by the rumour mill which seems to have built up enough momentum to be considered fact. It's a shame that the big boys of the gaming industry have acted in such a way and it would be naive to think this was the first time but this doesn't make it right.
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