Will the PS3 outlast the xbox 360 and wii? How much more is there to come?

The answer to that question according to Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment, is that current Ps3 software is only "scratching the surface" of what Sony's console can handle. Even the much lauded Killzone 2, a game many claim the 360 would not be able to pull of, is not even close to "taking it to its full potential".


Dille has stated that "The PlayStation 3 just had its second birthday, Microsoft is further into their cycle. But, we're two years into what we always talked about as a 10-year cycle and PlayStation has always had a bit of a deeper learning curve because there's more horsepower under the hood -- I think that was true of PS2, it's certainly true of PS3 -- so this is not the end of what you'll see from PS3 by any means." (see Seattle Times)

So is this blog a little pre mature in discussing a possible Ps4? Probably. But it's always fun to specuate about what the industry might do next.

Sony denies rumors of Intel Larrabee for PlayStation 4 (ps4)

The Inquirer has released an exclusive report based on apparent conversations with unnamed Sony execs at CES. The report states that that Intel's forthcoming Larrabee is going to be the GPU to power Sony's PlayStation 4. Thus leaving Nvidia entirely out of the picture in all next generation consoles.

From the Inquirer:

"The nice Sony engineering lady at CES told us that Intel essentially bought the win, a theoretically good architecture, no imminent threats of going bust, and not being hated by Sony all contributed too. With a couple of deliverables satisfied, the PS4 GPU belongs to Intel." The report continued: "Yeah, Intel won the PS4 GPU, no shock considering how much they needed a console win to get people coding for Larrabee."

Sony have since denied this rumor. TechRadar reports that a Sony exec claimed that "it's nonsense, and is quite possibly the best work of fiction I've read, since Lord of the Rings."

What will the Sony Playstation 4 (Ps4) look like?

Just a bit of fun, here are a few Playstation4 (Ps4) ideas currently floating around the web. Some serious and some not so serious... 

How Soon Is Too Soon For The Playstation 4?

Since starting this Blog a lot of people have asked me why start talking about the PS4 now? Surely the current generation of Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii are barely out of the starting blocks. This may be true, but it's still fun and interesting to speculate what the future might hold. But I do wonder how soon would be too soon for sony to drop the next generation upon us? With the Playstation 3 languishing in third place in the current generation they may be tempted to drop the ball sooner than some people expect. Conversely they may feel that after investing so much money into the system they want to push it for as long and as far as it can possibly go. 

There is an interesting discussion going on a Kenzins.com on this issue. They seem to think that with increasing costs the lifespan of each new generation of consoles can only get longer.

Playstation 4 - What we know so far

Rumor has it that Microsoft is already readying its successor to Xbox360. Desperate to maintain their new found hold on the serious (or not including the Wii) market Microsoft are likely to come out all guns blazing with the consoles next incarnation. In response it is almost certain Sony are working on a Playstation4. So, with this in mind what kind of shape will Sony's next entry into the lucrative console market take?

All singing, all dancing digital hub, or all out gaming device?

This is perhaps the biggest problem facing Sony. Do they follow their classic 'trojan horse' approach and bundle the console with technology they want to push. For example PS2 came with DVD and ultimately launched the format into the mainstream, and PS3 came with Blu-ray and this no doubt proved influential in the eventual fall of HD-DVD. However, Sony's success with this all singing, all dancing approach has been somewhat mixed. Most people who own a PS3, own it just for the games, and many resent paying so much more for a digital hub device they are unlikely to take full advantage of. With DVRs, AppleTV's, and Media centric PCs all vying to take the crown of your homes 'digital hub', just how much space is there under your TV for another competitor? The success of the Wii my provide some evidence that it's better (and far cheaper) to have one device that does one thing really well, rather than a jack of all trades. However with the amount of music and movie content in the Sony library, and the fact that no one company has yet got the concept of a living room digital hub quite right, you can bet Sony will take this approach again.

Will it come with Blu-ray?

For this author Blu-ray will always be a stop gap technology between DVD and internet downloads. Before the format has even really got off the ground HD quality movies are already available to download from the likes of Apple and Microsoft. Whilst the PS3 has undoubtably helped Blu-ray win the physical format war, it has meant the demise of the PS3 in the console war. The technology has just proved to be too expensive to enable Sony to compete against its rivals. Sony will not want to make the same mistake again. If Sony see the light and understand that the future of content distribution is downloads rather than discs then they would be wise, in a move not too dissimilar from Apple's bold decision to scrap the floppy disc drive in the original imac, to omit an optical drive altogether. 

DVR out of the box?

Again DVR, seems like a sort of stop gap idea between linear broadcast television and a truely on-demand service. For this writer (and I know many people will not agree with this) the future can be seen in BBC's iPlayer and Apple's, albeit confusingly named, iTunes store. As broadband speeds increase content can be streamed and downloaded over the net on demand. Even news and sport can be broadcast live at at least full SD quality over the net. Full HD quality streaming can't be far off.  It is for this reason I think the notion of broadcast TV is going to be a thing of the path. Sony's aim should surely be to position it's next console as the deliverer of such online content, rather than a souped up DVR.

The Specs

So, after boldly proclaiming that the PS4 should have no optical drive or DVR functionality what can we expect to see? 

- Faster wireless. 80.211n at the very least.

- Souped up Cell Processor(s). With IBM already using much faster versions of the Cell in their Blade servers it seems keeping the Cell is by far the best option. Not only will it mean easy backward compatibility, but it will also mean developers can forgo the usual harsh learning curve of learning yet another new architecture.

- The state of the art graphics chip from Ati or Nvidia.

- An enormous hard drive. 1TB or larger is not out of the question. Especially if the optical disc drive is absent.

- The same shape controller. Why mess with perfection?

That's all for now folks. Disagree or take issue with some of my predictions? Why not leave a comment...

Playstation 4 Rumors Blog Launches!

With the growing news and rumors surrounding the PlayStation3's successor I have decided to create this Blog to track the Playstation4 from rumor to release. Check back here regularly for updates.