It’s years away from being released, but yet you cannot help but wonder what a Playstation 4 would be like. Ever since the beginnings back in the early 90′s when the PS1 first came out, people have been amazed at what the console achieved. Finally, 3D graphics were starting to happen (remember Ridge Racer and Destruction Derby) and the games were also very playable. It had a WEIRD looking controller, but yet it was the most comfortable of any other ever made. The sounds generated and audio were also top notch.
Gran Tursimo made it’s debut on the PS1 and the game was just amazing. Move forwards a few more years and the Playstation 2 was launched. All the game play was just as good as a PS1, but the graphics were far more stunning. GT3 A-Spec was amazing as well as the Grand Theft Auto games which now were appearing in 3D. Then we moved on to the Playstation 3 in the last couple of years. The PS3 didn’t get as much love from the public as the 2 previous models did. Maybe that was due to the Nintendo Wii, or Microsoft XBox 360… however, things are starting to come together and some good games are being developed with even more realistic graphics, all of which work on a HDTV if you are lucky to own one of those beasts.
So what’s next? We have seen talk of even higher definition TV’s appearing in the next few years. Imagine HDTV on steroids, mixed with a console even more powerful. The other obvious routes which will be followed are the more processing power, larger storage, better networking experiences and a ton of other things… but what will be new? What can it do different to what the PS3 and others are doing now?
What’s your opinion? What extra will the PS4 do beyond what a PS3 does now? Drop a comment and lets discuss.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
it will be able to hold more than 1 cds/games etc. Be able to download pictures and videos. Acessabe to the Internet,hold music,have a build’t in memory system thoe have a seperate memory card if needed “for extra memory”
personally the 360 is a billion times better than the ps3 coz its 200 quid cheaper, and its basically a ps3 wit ’360′ on it.
what is wrong with ps3 owners?
@jmerry: Erm… PS3 isn’t the same as a Xbox 360… the PS3 has Blu-Ray for starters, and it definitely gives the elegant feel of a home entertainment system… not to mention that you can pretty much use it as a computer.
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Anyways… back on topic.
If I think about it… the PS4 would just be a more powerful cousin to the PS3. It may have a Dual Core CBE (Cell Broadband Engine), or just a single core sytem, but with more SPU cores. As far as optical drives, it does not need to change as of yet, Blu-Ray is still ways away from achieving its full potential… so the might likely hook the system up with a more accurate BD player that could read up to… 70-100GB worth of data. As far as storage goes, they might likely put in a larger HDD than the current generation. which would be between 120-250 Gb in size. It would also be needing high RPM ratios (7500 RPM at the very least) in order to allow of faster reading/writing of data. It maybe a new generation of the Dualshock controller… with more precision than the current generation of controllers.
dude virtual reality needs to come into play in later years. If u think about it the ideas and experiences could be endless. like if ur caught in a fire or jumping off a burning building in a game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The PS3 is in 3rd place because it was (and still is) more expensive than the Wii & Xbox 360 and it was released a year after it’s direct competition (Xbox 360). This has trapped it in a vicious cycle where people won’t buy it because of cost & smaller library and developers won’t create games (especially exclusives) because of the smaller user population. In order to succeed, the PS4 must be cost competitive with the Xbox 720 and be released for the same Christmas season (and be available – no shortages).
Therefore, anything which adds cost or development time (HW & SW) must be dropped.
The first thing to go is backwards compatibility (including software emulation). This means Sony can start with a clean slate from a hardware & controller perspective, which is far more valuable than any hypothetical sales they may get by supporting old games.
There should also be two models:
$300 – $200 with a DVD drive and a 1GB SSD
$500 – $400 with a Blu-Ray drive and a 100+GB HD
Yep, drop the Blu-Ray as a standard feature. Again, one of the problems with the PS3 is the cost of the system, partly due to the Blu-Ray drive. And although some people (myself included) may have bought a PS3 because it was less expensive than a Blu-Ray player, this is no longer the case. Sony also no longer needs to use the Playstation to push the Blu-Ray format. And although the cost of Blu-Ray has gone down, going with DVD will reduce costs even further.
Heck, to further reduce costs, don’t include DVD movie playback in the budget model (like the Wii). This will reduce licensing costs. The Blu-Ray model could also include the capability of playing back other video codecs (which the budget model wouldn’t include again to reduce licensing costs).
And, as seen with the Xbox 360, there’s money to be made in upgrades and add-ons. (Especially with proprietary connectors instead of standard SATA.)
But other than the drives, the two models should be identical with the same ports as the PS3. (Although maybe put in a Memory Stick slot instead of one of the USB ports, and give the USB port power even when the system is off.) Also stick with the internal PSU instead of a brick.
For the CPU/GPU I’d recommend Sony work with the various engine companies (e.g. Unreal, Havok) to ensure their engines can be quickly ported and probably go with a symetric multicore and GPU with GPGPU capabilities. The asymetric PS2 & PS3 may have lots of power but are less appealing to developers. Processing power also needs to be balanced with power consumption to keep down heat & fan noise.
There also may be value in having a separate CPU dedicated to the OS, with the ability to overlay/dim the game display. This could then handle in-game XMB, truely background downloads, and cross-game online capabilities.
Again, the critical items Sony needs to address are cost, release date, and making it attractive to developers. Fixing these problems will start the system/game feedback loop and lead to profit.
I hereby release all rights to these console ideas.