So, Who’s Looking Forward To Seeing The PS4 Next Year?

A few months ago I’d gotten wind that some kind of meeting with Sony and developers was on the cards, what’s known as a ‘disclosure meeting’ where everyone signs non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) about upcoming hardware – in this case, it was to be for the PlayStation 4. Things had gone quiet since, until today, when news broke that the disclosure meeting did happen, and that some devs had already started to spill the beans under condition of anonymity.

From that report, we got our first (assumed) concrete information on what’s going to be behind Sony’s next console which, crucially, the platform holder isn’t using the phrase “PlayStation 4”. This is still codenamed Orbis, as it has been for well over six months, and it’s clear that that’s likely to remain the case until much nearer the big reveal.

That, according to the leak, is going to be next year, and before E3.

This nugget is of considerable importance, not least because now that that’s out in the wild, Microsoft have the chance to plan their attack accordingly. They’re unlikely to now wait until the big show in Los Angeles to show off the Xbox 360’s successor, for example – the 360’s lead in launching over the PS3 was hugely beneficial to the Redmond-based company and they’re now armed with information that they might not have had access to before, at least publicly.

But more importantly from the viewpoint of the gamer, we now have a date that’s likely to hold true, and even if Orbis is kept under wraps until the month of June 2013, we’ll know all about the console by next summer at the very latest.

[videoyoutube]In terms of hardware, though, things aren’t quite as clear cut. VG247’s report mentions an APU (a combined GPU and CPU that handles graphics as well as all the computational stuff), AMD’s A10 to be precise. That’s a nifty chip (it’ll run the likes of Crysis 2 on maximum settings at 1080p and a decent framerate), but it’s not necessarily one that you’d associate with “next gen”, at least not on its own. We’d assume that the A10, if that’s the chip carried over to the final models, would be paired with a discrete GPU for added grunt, or even our old friend Cell.

Chances are that the A10’s just there in the current dev kits as a guide, and it’s something that’s likely to change over the coming months to a newer, more powerful model. The fact remains though that by choosing something off the shelf (albeit tech that’s likely to be modified for Sony’s needs) the cost to build the console will be substantially lower, at least in terms of the chipset that runs the show.

Equally of note are the comments in the report from developers who cite Sony’s goals for visual fidelity for the games. 1080p is an obvious one to mention – especially as the PS3 has struggled from day one (and continues to do so) with reaching that resolution on all but the simplest looking games. Likewise, 60fps and 3D would be a real treat, especially at that resolution. And that’s apparently Sony’s target – “1080p60 games in 3D” without breaking a sweat.

Then there’s the onboard storage – which is apparently currently a 256GB hard drive. That’s actually more likely to be a solid state device, especially if those numbers are correct – hard drives don’t come in 256GB varieties, but SSDs do, and after the latest PS3 revision’s water testing with a similar slice of technology Sony will be more than comfortable with throwing in the much faster, more reliable storage device onto their next gen machines.

The UI, too, seems to be moving in the right direction. Perhaps by virtue of the increased RAM (between 8GB and 16GB for the dev kits at the moment, so probably 4GB in the final PS4) or the boosted grunt of the processors, the next gen Sony console will allow for a smoother in-game menu system that’ll allow users to move around the various elements of the user interface freely. The example cited is that gamers could pause a game, jump into the PSN Store, buy some DLC and then immediately return to the action.

The Orbis will be “always on”, too, downloading and updating in the background.

However, the PS4 isn’t likely to carry backwards compatibility, even if there is a Cell in there somewhere. Buying patterns and publisher decisions of late have pointed to a new trend: HD remasters – and there’s every chance that rather than letting Uncharted 3 work on Orbis, Sony will push out re-releases for the new hardware. We’ve been lapping these up recently, so why wouldn’t next-gen continue this currently rather fashionable new business model and sales channel?

But with a pre-E3 2013 reveal and (presumably) a late 2013 release, what could we expect in terms of new games? Well, it’s clear that the major releases for PS3 start to dry up in the first half of the year – after God of War and The Last Of Us first party AAA stuff is looking a lot quieter than it has been for a while. We know the likes of Ready At Dawn are working on a next gen game, and it’s reasonable to assume Naughty Dog, Guerrilla and Polyphony are too, amongst others.

This generation’s really starting to show its age now, and although I still have fears that next-gen will be all about trying to get more and more money out of us for games that’ll ship with half the content, in terms of new hardware alone I’m desperate to see what’s around the corner. I’m hopeful that Sony get this right, that the PS4 (or whatever it’s called) is easy to develop for, isn’t wildly expensive (they can’t do another £425 launch, that’s for sure) and the games turn out great.

More leaks are likely, so hopefully we’ll find out more soon enough.

79 Comments

  1. Strange how arse-backwards hardware has it. We were watching films on VHS on a 480p TV that was fine for decades. Actors and actresses looked suitably wonderful what with them being real. Hardware continually chases the spec of things but rarely looks to shout about the fact that we’re trying to create reality in most games (or a version of it). We can have the highest definition; the most vibrant, colour-accurate game ever but if they fudge the animation or lip-sync the game looks laughable at times.

    I realise this is more to do with the devs but I wish the hardware was tailored to stunning AI, character animation, environment effects, etc, instead of clarity and definition. After everyone calmed down over GTA not being 720p, I bet most people just got on with a truly immersive looking game.

    • I agree, In F1 2012 the graphics etc. look really good but it does suffer from slow down from time to time. I would much prefer slightly less graphical detail and no slow down.

      I hope the loading times of all media will be faster next gen, at the mo it’s terrible how long some games take.

      • I really like 1080p games, Prince of Persia may not have been the most spangly looking but the sharpness more than made up for the lack of effects, same goes for Wipeout HD! I like the idea of the next generation making the best of the pixels on the current generation of telly.

    • I’ve been a PC gamer until only just very recently, gaming on a 1080p monitor for a few years. I went to a friend’s house recently and played 360 with him and was stunned at how disappointing the game looked in 720p, on multiple TVs, a high-end projector and even my awesome monitor. This is why I don’t own a PS3, I’ve been waiting for a true 1080p console and the PS4 is it.

      How is it ass-backwards to push technology forward, to want visual clarity? Unreal Engine 4 can handle millions of particles at once without any major hit to the hardware performance, pair that kinda tech with 1080p and have the game at 60 FPS(3D as an option) and I’m set. Until then, though, I’m just playing the waiting game. I’m not lowering the quality of my gaming experience, and everything you listed(AI, animation, environmental effects) and tons of other things(lighting, physics, particle effects) are all going to be improved with the next-gen hardware. That’s just the nature of next-gen systems, yaknow.

      • I was a console gamer for the longest time, and owned a PS3, PS2, PS1, N64 and blah blah blah. Now I am a PC gamer, and I can’t imagine why you would ever buy another console. There is literally nothing about it that makes it better than having a PC, and having a PC means you can upgrade your tech whenever you want.

      • I want them to push technology forward for the right reasons. We see extra glitz and effects but it also highlights how visual a species we are. We’re on some stunning hardware (current gen and great PCs) but yet we still see some stiff-as-cardboard action in games. Don’t get me wrong, Sony (and the like) merely provide the hardware… I just wish we’d see a shift in direction with regards to how immersive it is. I suppose I’d like to see middleware that helps the devs create games with reality in mind (for example). Motion capture (or what appears to be stunning animation) should be in everything yet I see piss-poor stuff left, right and centre. Sure, the top games show off some wonderful stuff but even they suffer.

        Maybe procedurally generated speech or real-time tweening of movement and animation so it makes the devs’ lives easier.

        Either way, we have a long way to go to reach that visual AND emotional connection that we have in real life.

      • Sevchenko, can you play Killzone on your PC? Resistance, Uncharted, inFamous, Ratchet & Clank, LittlebigPlanet? No? There are a ton of games released exclusively for consoles and they’re generally better than the offerings on PC.

        I don’t see why you’d want a PC as your gaming device when Steam has a monopoly on the industry and you’re just buying licenses to download games that can be taken away by their corrupt support team. It happened to me, I lost 268 games that I had accumulated in 4 years. It was due to the support guy disliking me, I was polite, unoffensive and reasonable. Someone was harassing me on Steam, I didn’t want to deal with them so I just warned them that I was going to report them and just leave it at that. They then threatened to report ME(“nuh-uh, I’m gonna tell on YOU”), and in the end I lost my account and that guy got off scot-free.

        So you actually own games on console, you don’t have to spend money or mindshare upgrading your PC and keeping up with the Joneses and consoles get WAY more good games than PC because it’s more profitable to develop a game for PC. Not only that, but the nature of console optimization means that PCs actually have to spend a lot of time catching up, at least for the first few years.

        I spent $700 on my computer build in late 2011($600 on parts, $100 on Windows 7) and the PS4 is looking like it’ll cost $300 and be a good bit more powerful, and it’s undoubtedly getting better game support.

        bunimomike, you’re talking about software technology, not hardware. The PS4’s hardware is gonna rock, you should instead talk about software designers like Epic Games and Crytek about having more realistic AI and animation. Everything you listed in your second comment sounds possible on next-gen hardware… as long as the software is made.

      • Only if you buy discs for the console do you own them in the sense you mean (although you don’t really you just buy an a licence which allows you to use the media on them)

        You can just as easily by the PC games on disc too

        Even this gen most releases are available digitally now & in the next-gen it will grow to become the norm, so you’ll be in the same boat as you found yourself in with Steam.

        And Sony are no angels on this front either, I know of someone very recently who has lost everything thanks to an inoffensive username that for some reason after all these years Sony have taken a dislike to?

      • @bunimomike Pushing technology forward doesn’t imply reasons or usage. How about we push technology forward and game devs will make what they make, they’ll just be able to do it better in any aspect they want.

        @Facelord Yes, I know the PS3 has a bunch of exclusive games that are tons of fun. The PC does too though. They’re not the same games, but sometimes they are. The overall point is: the PC can do everything the PS3 can do, but the PS3 can’t do everything the PC can do. So yes, I miss a couple games, but now I play multiplat and exclusive PC games always at 1440p at at least 60-80fps. 1440p is much higher resolution than the PS3 is even capable of. And as for that guff you said about keeping up with the joneses, that’s only if you choose to. As for the further guff you said about catching up to consoles.. I assure you that’s never been the case. Some poorly ported multiplat games aren’t well optimized for pc, but most games are. And even the poorly coded console ports run better on our machines simply because they’re faster machines.

      • Sevchenko, you CANNOT find most PC games these days at retail with no DRM. I actually spent a few hours trying to find good PC games on discs a few days ago and all I could find were Rayman Origins and some indie adventure games like Grey Matter. For that one reason alone, PC gaming is dead to me. I’m a PC gamer at heart, but Steam has murdered PC gaming with their damn monopoly.

        At the end of the day, I’m likely spending less than $400 on a PS4 that I won’t ever have to upgrade, outside of the hard drive, to get a great gaming experience with very little DRM involved(screw Sony’s online passes). I spent $700 on my gaming PC(Windows included) and it’s a beast, but it’s useless and I’m going to have to upgrade it if I want to play the latest games in the future(not happening unless there’s a DRM-free retail revolution in PC gaming). Good PC exclusives: Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Good console exclusives: too many for me to list. It’s where all the games are at, that’s undeniable. I almost feel bad building a gaming PC for my latest client because he’s gonna have to use Steam or Origin to get his fix. :<

  2. i will happily buy the ps4 if the price is sub £280 and it plays games at 1080p @60fps. Also i expect a headset and a HD cable bundled with it this time. oh and a decent party chat system in the ui :)

  3. Why can’t you all just buy new PCs and come into the future with us. Don’t let a whole new generation of consoles slow the industry down AGAIN.

    • Shut the hell up, you damn elitist. PC gaming is dead, consoles are the last bastion of hope people like me have in this industry. Seriously, stop being an elitist. The bad outweigh the good in PC gaming by miles, most notably with DRM like Steam, SecuROM and always-online-even-in-singleplayer nonsense.

      You know what I found when I had a burst of positivity yesterday and wanted to return to PC gaming? I found that there were almost zero DRM-free options for me, I even wanted this four-game indie adventure bundle and one of the titles was a Steamworks game and all of them required online activation. Forget PC gaming, Vita and PS4 all the way. Don’t act as if your opinion is the only correct one, and don’t say that consoles are slowing the industry when it’s not true. Do you see titles like Beyond: Two Souls or The Last of Us on PC? Games like that, that focus on story-telling, animation and AAA production values, are NEVER made exclusively with PCs in mind, or at least they haven’t since the late 90s. Since consoles are where all the money is at in the industry, games are almost universally made with consoles in mind. When a new console releases, the bar is raised further for the entire industry. You can’t say the same when AMD or Nvidia release a new GPU, or when a new processor line releases.

      • “Don’t act as if your opinion is the only correct one”

        Ironic quote, that.

        Stop being aggressive towards fellow members.

  4. 1080P, 60 FPS with decent A.I was what this generation really should have served up, so if that’s the selling point of next generation Xbox and Playstation, i won’t be rushing in. (3D and motion control do nothing for me).

    It’s the games that will be running on the next generation console platforms that i’m really going to be looking at…QTE’s seem suddenly very much back in fashion, which i find a real throwback to my MCD days, so if i’m getting more action based (dare i say dumbed down) instalments in aging franchises with numerous QTE events thrown in, trinkets awarded for pressing start, spending 5 mins in an online match etc, then i’m not going to give a toss what resolution the game engine is rendering in, or at how many FPS etc as bottom line will be i’ll be feeling very dissapointed by whats being served up as the next big thing.

    Plus..how long before it’s hacked? :-)

    • Think of the potentials of 4k HD resolution gaming, and then consider that the PS4 will handle 1080p, 60FPS and 3D at once *with* a massive bump in quality. Unreal Engine 4 can handle millions of particle effects at once with only a very small hit to performance, as long as the system can handle all the other features of UE4 well. The lighting effects of UE4 are insanely good, that’s the kind of updates we’re gonna see.

      There are tons of great games this generation like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dishonored, Resistance and Gravity Rush. Sure, there are some bad things in the industry(mostly with whatever’s popular, whatever’s gone through focus groups) but overall there’s a ton of good stuff as well.

  5. And re:PC VS Consoles…has it not pretty much always been this way since the PS1 era?.Back then friends of mine were playing things like Wipeout, Quake, Unreal T. etc at higher resolutions etc and with MODS that i could only dream of as a console owner, but then i did’nt have things like hardware conflicts, patches etc to worry about, i had comfort of just popping disc in and playing (How i wish i could say the same about patching on consoles this generation).

    By the very nature of the beast, PC’s will always be ahead of consoles, you pays your money, you takes your choice.Never understood why 1 camp should ‘fear’ the other….games get ported across from each side, more people who get to experience a fantastic game, more chance of studios producing more fantastic games, happy days all round…right?.

  6. am reall looking forward to this. I hope it launches with an affordable price seeing they are working with off the shelf components. June couldnt come sooner

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