User:Trap The Drum Wonder/PlayStation 4

''' This essay is now defunct. Please see PlayStation 4. '''

The PlayStation 4 or PS4 is the eighth generation video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment and manufactured by Sony Corporation Sony Electronics division. The PlayStation 4 system has been codenamed the "Orbis." The system is has AMD hardware and boast a resolution of up to 4096×2160. Sony has yet to officially acknowledge the console's existence, despite persistent rumors that an unveiling would take place during the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo. The console will be the successor to the PlayStation 3 and (according to PSW ) it will be twice as powerful with a similar size to the Nintendo Wii. The PlayStation 4 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 720 and Nintendo's Wii U as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles. According to rumors, Sony desires to put the PS4 on the market by 2011, E3 2011 at Sony Conference. It has been announced on 20th Feb 2013 that it will be available in the holiday season.

Rumours suggest that support for the PS3 console will not be dropped, at least not right away. Sony will continue to sell and support the outdated console for a while after the PS4's initial release. Sony has already discussed the future console with software developers and plan to base the PS4 on a unique cell processor which could provide double the power of the PS3. The new PS4 will allegedly contain an upgraded chipset from the PS3. Currently the PS3 uses the Cell processor, however there has been speculation as to whether the next model will use it or not. The latest rumours say yes, that it’ll be a slightly faster 45nm, with between 10 to 20 cores. In addition, Sony is said to also be looking at ditching the XDR memory, and switching to JEDEC RAM, which is more cost-effective. With it being slimmer than its predecessor, the PS4 is allegedly going to be more energy efficient and cheaper for consumers.

Some notable concept art for the console has been produced by graphic designer, Tai Chiem. As displayed, the console could sport a futuristic look and consist of a spherical screen and a 'knell touch screen panel.'

Console Race
Sony is in competition with Microsoft to bring a next-gen console to the market. Sony realised that when Microsoft released the Xbox 360 with a relatively cheap engine, this allowed Microsoft to capture a healthy chunk in the gaming market.

Also the PlayStation 3 is a distance away from the Wii in the market (especially in East Asia). This made Sony to think as to making a smaller console, as the Japanese buyers prefer smaller platforms.

While the PlayStation 3 has only recently been released and has its best days still ahead of it, Sony is not one to rest on its laurels, and with the intense competition in the video game world, plans for the PlayStation 4's future release are already being put into motion. In fact not only is the PlayStation 4 getting this treatment, but even the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 6 are in the early stages of planning and conceptualization at Sony’s R&D labs.

While Sony has not released any official information concerning the system’s future launch, the generally accepted release date is pegged as late 2012, which would follow the trend of Sony’s previous console generations. The PlayStation 1 was first released in late 1994 in Japan and 1995 throughout the rest of the world. The PlayStation 2 hit stores in 2000, giving the PS1 a retail shelf life of 6 years from its Japanese launch. Likewise, the PlayStation 3 came out in 2006, 6 years after the release of the PS2. Following this trend that Sony has established would give us a late 2012 release for the PS4, but 2013 rolled around and still no official word on the PS4's existance.

It’s possible that how the PlayStation 3 fares in the current console war may also determine the release date of the PS4, for a couple of reasons. If the system continues to flounder in 3rd place in the console wars, failing to generate the revenue which was initially expected of it, Sony may be far more eager to cut their losses and rush the PS4 to market sooner rather than later, possibly as early as late 2011.

If the PS3 does indeed fail to make ground on the Wii and Xbox 360, it may also convince Sony to try and jump the gun on the next generation console wars and get their system out the door first. Both the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, which dominated their generations of the console wars, came to market at the same time or earlier than their competition. The PlayStation 1 was launched just after the Sega Saturn, and well before the Nintendo 64, while the PlayStation 2 was released before both the Xbox and Nintendo Gamecube.

This enabled Sony to get a head start on the competition and gave developers time to build their skills at developing games for the console, to the point that even as more powerful consoles came after, games released on the older system were just as good technically, providing no real incentive for players to move to the new consoles.

In a recent interview, Doom and Quake creator John Carmack speculated that Sony will likely attempt to be first to the dance floor with their new console, before Microsoft launches their next console. As talked about above, there is plenty of rationale in this line of thinking. On the other hand, Sony has long maintained they have a long-term plan for the PS3, and with the lower production costs of the new slim model PS3, and the increased sales of the new version, the PS3 may just be coming into its own. Whether Sony will try to launch before Microsoft (by all accounts Nintendo will actually launch first, but they’re not considered direct competition to the others like Sony and Microsoft are to each other) remains to be seen.

In an interview with GameSpot at 2010's E3, Activision COO Thomas Tippl shed some up-to-date, though still quite vague light, on the PS4's future release. When asked when he expected the next generation consoles to release, Tippl stated that it was unlikely they would see release within the next 2-3 years, as Activision still had no information on any new consoles. With development times for next gen games running 2-3 years on average, it makes sense that if the new consoles will come with third party games at launch (a near certainty), it will be at least 2 years from the time third parties first get the development toolkits in their hands to the point where the console releases. In the meantime all we can do is speculate and continue to wait.

Playstation inventor Ken Kutaragi, as chairman and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is already thinking ahead to Playstation 4 and beyond. In an exclusive interview with EE Times, Kutaragi said: "As a matter of course, I have the vision of Playstation 4, 5 and 6, which will merge into the network."

Games
Rumours suggest that games will be retailed online via the PlayStation Network. Meaning that all PS4 games will be downloaded and that no packaging or BD cases or boxes are to be made with the new eighth generation games. However, a recent article explains why this rumor will not become reality.

Sonyps4.com have shed light on unconfirmed reports that the PS4 will not support backward compatibility. This means that none of the games released on previous platforms will be able to play on the console.

According to PS4info.com exclusive games such as Killzone, Uncharted and Little Big Planet will all most likely return to the console in astonishing graphics with incredible gameplay.

The former head of Sony Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison, made some interesting comments about the next generation of Playstation game consoles. Harrison believes that next-gen consoles, like PlayStation 4, will steer away from the current generation of consoles in a multitude of ways, one of which is game media. Instead of spending fifty-bucks for a disc, you’ll charge a credit card or use points to purchase rights to stream a game, similar to Netflix.

In January 2013, online gamers discovered a patent that reinforces the previous rumor that the PS4 will not support used games. According to the patent details, the disc and PlayStation account would be assigned numbers; if the numbers do not match, the game will not play.

'Forward Compatibility'
There is speculation over the PS4 containing forward compatibility of the next-gen platform Xbox 720. This could improve PS3 games drastically: the level of re-draw being vastly improved, or the possibility of multiplayer games being able to feature sixty-four players online instead of the current cap which is set at twenty-four players.

This should utilize the PS3 games and modernize them to similarise the eighth generation games. But predictably, this doesn't appeal to Sony as customers wouldn't be as keen to buy the new games - instead just play on their old ones.

Cell Processor Platform
SCEI has officially chosen IBM’s currently in development POWER7 architecture for its PlayStation 4 system (stated in an article on ps3clan.nl ), currently scheduled for a 2012 worldwide release. IBM shall debut POWER7 for the server market in the summer of 2010. The PlayStation 4 shall use a cost effective version of the architecture custom designed for Sony’s specific needs.

The only information FGNOnline currently has available regarding specifications and performance is that the PS4 implementation of the chip shall use 10-12 cores, 32-48MB shared L3 Cache, Quad threading per core, and a double precision performance approaching 200GFLOPS. The CELL chip which powers the PS3 is capable of 15 double precision GFLOPS. This would give the PS4 a performance leap of over 10 fold over its predecessor.

Interestingly, the primary reason IBM cancelled development on the CELL based PoweXcell 8i is because of SCEI’s change of stance. The company wanted to move away from the exotic architecture employed for the PS3 to a more traditional architecture favoured by third party developers. As displayed by its choice of processors, the server based POWER7 and the TBDR based PowerVR 6, SCEI once again has sights set for performance leadership in the next round.