Latest news and gossip about the Sony Playstation 4 (PS4)

PS4 details leak - Based on PS3 technology and out by 2011?

2009-01-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

The Playstation 3 is only just over two years old, a mere teenager if the 10-tear strategy Sony is committed to pans out. But hardware developers are always planning their next move, which for Sony is likely to be the PS4. The details of the next Sony console are rumored to have leaked, and they make for some interesting reading.

While we’re all enjoying our current-gen games consoles, the PS3 and Xbox 360, and the last-gen console masquerading as current-gen, the Wii, some of us already have one eye on the future of the industry. Which is why articles about the PS4, Xbox 720, and Wii 2 are some of our most-read of all time.

Gaming Front has translated an article from PC Watch, a Japanese Web site we’ve rather unsurprisingly never heard of before. It’s claimed the article contains leaked details of the hardware being planned for the PS4, as well as Sony’s strategy for making the console a success. This obviously needs to be taken with a very large pinch of salt.

The translated text is a jumble of bad English and technobabble that in its original form will only be intelligible to Japanese otaku. But there are some interesting points to take out and extrapolate from it.

First off, the PS4 could be the first Playstation console to be built using the same basic hardware structure as the previous console. The original Playstation was just that, and for the the PS2 and PS3, Sony consequently scrapped the hardware and started again from scratch. The PS4, on the other hand is rumored to be being developed around the existing CELL architecture.

If true, this would be a huge development. For starters, it would lower development costs by a huge margin, meaning the PS4 could launch at a low price right from the off. More importantly, Sony could make rather than lose money on every console sold.

It would also mean developers wouldn’t have to struggle to get to grips with the new hardware, as they seem to have done in the previous two generations. This, in turn, would mean smaller developers could make games for the system without the need for huge budgets, making the PS4 more casual-friendly than its older brother.

Making the PS4 more of a souped up version of the PS3 rather than a whole new console could also mean an earlier launch, with 2011 being mentioned in the article. That’s only two years away and would seem a little early, especially as for there to be any launch games available, developers would have to begin making games this year in order to hit that street date.

Read the original article and see what you think. There is some in-depth discussion of the internal hardware of the PS3 and PS4 for those who are interested in that kind of thing. As to whether these really are official leaked details on the PS4, I’m not convinced, and Sony is already denying it. Having said that, the strategy looks good so maybe Sony should adopt it anyway.

Source... http://gamer.blorge.com

Ubisoft planning for new console generation in 2012

2009-01-25T06:39:00.000-08:00

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has revealed that the company is expecting the arrival of new generation of consoles by 2012.

The publisher was speaking about future acquisition plans and managing its staff positions. "We have now enough to help us to grow the company for not only next year but to get ready for the coming of the next generation consoles that are probably going to happen 2011, 2012,”said Guillemot.

Sony is constantly banging on about its “ten year life cycle” plan for the PS3, but given the ongoing success of the PS2, that probably doesn’t mean it’ll wait until 2016 to launch a new one. What it probably won’t do is make the mistake of giving Microsoft such a long period of first mover advantage, so we expect a major arms race once the first next-gen rumblings really kick off.

In fact, rumours last year pointed to a 2011 launch date for the PS4, which fits in quite well with Guillemot’s suggestion.

Source... www.t3.com/news

Forget PlayStation 3: PS4 on the horizon?

2009-01-25T06:35:00.000-08:00

2011 says the rumour, but will that be soon enough to beat a Wii 2 or Xbox 720?

Rumours floating in from the Land of the Rising Sun say that the next round of console wars may not be as far off as you think. Sony may want ten years of life from the PS3, and the console wars may only just be reaching their most game-o-rific stages, but in just a couple of years, we could be gearing up for the launch of PlayStation 4.

According to PC Watch, Sony is already chatting with software developers about a future console. It'll be based on the unique Cell processor and will apparently provide double the power of the current PS3 console.

Though that sounds impressive, it's actually not a giant leap forward for a console generation. To only double the speed in five years is quite restrained and nothing like the leap from the PS2 to PS3.

Sony perhaps felt that it got its fingers too badly burned by letting Xbox 360 beat it to market last time and won't want to give Microsoft the same opportunity again. That said, having had a full year's head start on Sony and with a console that's just about beginning to feel its age, Microsoft may well have already started gearing up for its own third-gen console successor in a similar timeframe. Nintendo remains the wild card in all of this and could make its own mark with Wii 2 by that time.

If the speculation isn't too wide of the mark, it seems likely that the next round of console wars is going to be even hotter, scrappier and nastier than this one. Unpleasant for those on the inside, but only good news for those of us buying the things!

Source... www.t3.com

SCEE president has 'no knowledge' of PS4

2009-01-12T06:34:00.000-08:00

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves has revealed that he has absolutely no knowledge of the PlayStation 4 and isn't sure if the console is even being planned.

"I'm not even sure if that's being considered," Reeves told Dutch TV station RTL. "It's certainly nothing I can talk about. I have absolutely no knowledge of it whatsoever. Not even sure it's being planned."

Regarding general development within SCE, Reeves noted: "We're still continuing to develop products that we put in our mid range plans six months ago, one year ago."

The PlayStation 3 was revealed at E3 in May 2005 and launched in Japan and the US in November 2006. The PlayStation 2 launched in Japan in March 2000. Assuming a similar time frame we can estimate that the PS4 won't be announced before spring/summer 2010.

Source... http://www.videogamer.com

PlayStation 4 in 3D

2009-01-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

Will Sony's next system be coupled with 3D glasses?

US, January 9, 2009 - CES 2009 is currently underway in Las Vegas, and while there are tons of home audio systems, DVD and Blu-ray players, touchscreen phones and other miscellaneous cool gadgets to be seen and played with, perhaps the biggest theme this year is 3D. Long gone are the days of the blue and red paper glasses, replaced with polarized lenses or even standalone displays that promise they can provide the effect without having to wear anything on your head.

3D is getting big in Hollywood as well, and fast. James Cameron has long been working on Avatar, a 3D-only film, and has said that all of his future work will be shot in 3D. At Sony's CES press conference this year, there were announcements that Toy Story 1 and 2 would be re-released in 3D, and a third film would be coming in the same form. Dreamworks announced that all of its future projects would be in 3D. The list goes on and on…

But that's not all. At Sony's booth, a handful of PlayStation 3 titles were running 3D demos, including WipEout HD, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. Our guys that have seen it say it's pretty amazing.

Sony is keeping mum on exactly how these games are working, if they're just tech demos and not ever intended for release and so forth. For my part, it sounds to me like all three of these games will be patched with 3D viewing capabilities at some point in the future. And, it could also explain why we haven't seen Gran Turismo 5 proper yet - it could be that the game is meant to be played in 3D and we'll see it running as such at E3.

But what about other content? Will every (or even just some) PS3 games get a 3D viewing option? Could a firmware update bring the content to everyone? Maybe, maybe not. But it seems to me that it's likely that the PlayStation 4 will be built from the ground-up for 3D content, including Blu-ray discs for movies.

Don't try crossing your eyes.

One of Sony's problems in the past, as a company on the whole, is that its bits and pieces haven't worked all that well together. For example, you can't download music to the PlayStation 3, which is a giant missed opportunity given Sony's large catalog of tunes. Movies took forever to get there, etc. etc. But the company is struggling (as are most these days), and a more cohesive approach to all of this would help things. It's one of the initiatives that Howard Stringer was pushing for when he took over a few years back, and things are getting better, with stuff like the XMB showing up in both its gaming devices and displays, and Blu-ray being a major focus for the company.

Releasing the PlayStation 4 with full-on 3D viewing capabilities would be a game-changing move, especially if the next Xbox and Nintendo systems don't follow suit. As mentioned, it apparently sounds amazing, which is obviously a good thing for Sony fans. But it would also give the PS4 that same sort of nifty catch that has gotten so many people to buy a Wii. Wiggling joysticks around is nothing compared to seeing objects jump out of the screen.

Included with every system?

For the company as a whole, this would also give a bit boost to Sony Pictures Entertainment and the overall electronics division as bring 3D movies to our homes is obviously next on the to-do list for a lot of makers. It's going that way in the theaters, so you can bet it's going to wind up at home sooner than later.

Source... http://uk.ps3.ign.com

Rumour: Sony PS4 to Beat Xbox 720 to Market

2008-10-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

Time to reach for your industrial-sized bag of salt again. Another hardware rumour has emerged, this time supposedly detailing the preliminary specs of the PlayStation 4. If the specs are to be believed, Sony will forgo a massive technological leap in favour of keeping costs down and getting to market in the not massively distant future.

Before we go any further, the official line: Sony, for its part, says it, "Does not comment on rumour and speculation".

If the specs are real, however, the PS4 as it's planned now will be no more than twice as powerful as the PS3. Similarly, it will work with the existing Cell architecture rather than featuring something new. Further to that, XDR memory will be dropped in favour of standard JEDEC RAM.

The specs were supposedly sent out to Japanese developers in order to get some feedback, then leaked to Japanese site PC Watch.

It would seem that the days of technical one-upmanship may be coming to an end...

Sony also, apparently, has a 2011 deadline for getting the console out and plans to beat the next Xbox to market. That fits loosely with the recent opining of Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek, who said that the PS4 would likely be out by 2012.

It doesn't fit quite so well, however, with Sony's intention to have a 10 year lifespan for the PS3 - which should take the current console through to 2016. While having the current console on the shelf for ten years doesn't preclude a new one coming out in the meantime, a 2011 release would be a full five years before that.

As we said, keep that salt handy...

Source... http://news.spong.com

First PlayStation 4 Specs Posted?

2008-10-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

It looks like Sony Computer Entertainment may have sent rough and definitely not ready PlayStation 3 specs to third-party developers to solicit feedback. According to Impress (links to Google translation from Japanese), preliminary ideas being kicked around for the PS4 have it taking a page from Nintendo's Wii by focusing on lowering manufacturing costs and "merely" doubling in power, though by my yardstick, doubling the power of the PS3 would still be a pretty grandiose leap.

What else. Nothing you wouldn't have been able to intuit on your own, if we assume tomorrow's play book looks like today's "lessons learned."

For one, Sony wants to get out ahead of the Xbox 3 -- or 720, or whatever the heck Microsoft opts to call it -- by 2011, according to Impress. True or educated speculation, you can almost assume that Sony recognizes the now status-quo criticality of getting silicon to market first for simple, practical developmental reasons. The idea that "brand loyalty" trumps scheduling seems a lot less attractive after the laggard success of the PS3. If your favored publisher's "concept-to-gold-final" trajectory runs 12 to 16 months (the average, unless you're Will Wright with funding pockets deeper than the Marianas Trench) getting crowd-pleasing, deal-making games to market that show off your system's "va-voom" is all about timing, marketing and horsepower be damned.

The PS4 will also continue to utilize the existing CELL architecture, rather than launch something brand new. Bravo, says me, because forcing developers to effectively pick up and move from their established country to Timbuktu every half a decade is a surefire way to cripple launch cycles and leave "un-anointed" third-party developers out in the cold. What's more, a twice-powerful PS3 would almost certainly offer enough "oomph" to keep the plaudits coming from the hardcore faithful, while allowing Sony to more vigorously reach out to the Nintendo "casual" market with a steady stream of cheap-to-develop titles. The idea by 2011, presumably, would be to have a pinched and tweaked CELL SDK that absolutely purrs.

Source... http://blogs.pcworld.com

Sony considering existing cell processor for PS4: Bad idea?

2008-10-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

IBM's 45nm cell processor.

(Credit: IBM)

Ah, the challenges of being a game-console manufacturer. Blogger Sean Hollister at GameCyte says that Japanese tech news site PC Watch is reporting that, in a potential cost-savings move, Sony is considering using a tweaked version of PS3's current cell processor in the upcoming PS4--which isn't due out until at least 2010.

Unfortunately, I don't read Japanese, so I can't translate the article for you, but here's what GameCyte has to say:

"In a long technical analysis following the report, PC Watch voices the opinion that the PS4's performance would not increase significantly from that of the PS3 if this is true. While Moore's Law and the historical rate at which Sony has shrunk processors size would suggest that the cell processor could reach as many as 32 cores, PC Watch expects that the cost of redesigning the cell's layout--which has apparently remained the same as it has shrunk from 90nm to 65nm, and from 65nm to 45nm--would be prohibitive enough that Sony will stick with around 10 cores for the PS4."

PC Watch hasn't cited any particular source in its article, but apparently Sony's been asking some developers what they think of the idea. Hollister goes on to note that, "They [PC Watch] speculate that while Sony would like to distance themselves from the cell in the long run, at present they might do well to make use of their existing investment and expand the technical capabilities of the PS3-only moderately--a la the hardware transition from GameCube to Wii-- in order to constrain further expenditure."

Personally, I think the Wii's graphics suck--and most Wii games suck, too--but Nintendo hasn't exactly been hurt by any of that (though, I do think the mediocre graphics will seem overly retro sooner than Nintendo thinks). That said, the PS3's graphics are obviously starting from a much higher baseline than the GameCube's, and developers are just starting to get the hang of developing for the thing. So, it does make some sense for Sony to stand pat with the current cell processor and simply try to get the cost of the machine down to the point where it can move a ton of consoles and not lose money on each one. I'd guess that will be somewhere in the range of $250.

The basic problem for Sony is that, ideally, it wouldn't put out a PS4 until 2012 or even 2013. By that time it could recoup--or at least start to recoup--its initial investment on the PS3. But, a little company called Microsoft will undoubtedly push forward with an XBox 720--or whatever the 360's successor will be called--in 2010. And it will probably push the graphics envelope.

I'd like to see Sony just stick with the PS3 until 2012 and come out with a model that had a modified design (read: flat top) that would fit better in my equipment rack. This would be similar to what it did with the PS2; Sony could call it the PS3 Turbo Slim, or something like that. Have a couple of models, one that cracks the $200 barrier, and let Microsoft do what it's gotta do. Then come out with something a year or two after Microsoft does--but make sure it's actually superior (Sony's initial claims that the PS3's graphics would best the XBox 360's simply haven't been true).

Oh, and Sony? For those of us with universal remotes, please put an infrared port in whatever new machine you build.

Anybody else have any bright ideas for how the company should proceed with its PlayStation franchise? Thoughts on what the PS4 should be--or not be? And when would you like to see it arrive? Feel free to comment.

Source... http://reviews.cnet.com

T3: PS4 is coming 2011 so forget Wii 2 and Xbox 720

2008-10-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

We love rumours as they really get us all chatting of ifs and buts and maybes, the latest rumour that we found comes from T3 who say that rumour has it the PS4 will come sometime in 2011.

The bit we find even more interesting is the fact we should forget about the PS3 because obviously the PS4 will be better and that the PS4 will smash the likes of the Nintendo Wii 2 and the Microsoft Xbox 720. Game on.

Console wars will get hotter and blood will be shed to take the top slot, personally of course we back the PS4. We have heard the software developers and Sony are chatting about the future console, when you think about the amazing step forward in technology from the PS2 straight to the PS3 you can only imagine what the PS4 will hold.

Source... www.ps3daily.co.uk