The PS4 Has Something You Always Wanted…

Before we start with this announcement, please press play on the video above. Done it? Good.

In a lengthy post over on Gamasutra, PlayStation 4 systems architect Mark Cerny has described all sorts of technical bobbins. Bus speeds, GPU bottlenecks and “bypassing its own L1 and L2 caches.”

Exciting stuff I am sure you will agree, but not as exciting as this: news that will thankfully see the end to a billion ‘humourous’ comments on websites across the globe.

Mark describes a number of dedicated chips on the PS4 and says “by having the hardware dedicated unit for audio, that means we can support audio chat without the games needing to dedicate any significant resources to them.”

The PlayStation 3 does not have cross game chat because there was simply not enough resources for it. The PS4 seemingly has a dedicated chat chip, it has cross game chat built in!

Huzzah! Happy Friday everyone!

46 Comments

  1. Having all these dedicated processors for chat and background downloading gives me hope that we’ll see high end games while being to have these nice extra features without sacrificing performance. Nice work Sony.

  2. I’ve always really wanted a Teasmade/Teasmaid

    Hope it has a dedicated chip for making tea too

  3. Blimey, so people actually care about this? Huh.

    I always thought it was joked about because its such a useless feature. Would i want to hear about one of my friends pwning noobs whilst i am settling down for a nice game of Tony Hawk? Not really tbh.

    • It’s about making the experience joined up

      On the 360 a group of friends can meet up in a lobby on the dashboard then they can launch into the same in-game lobby.

      Then if they quit the game, change discs and go for something else they all stay in the same dashboard lobby being able to go from game to game to game to game without losing touch.

      As well as actual friends might use it to talk to each other regardless of what they’re playing.

      It’s not that XGC itself is great, but the fact it’s just a part of something bigger & makes the whole experience a lot more joined up

      The lack of XGC (and probably included headset) is possibly one of the reasons it’s so hard to have good online gaming on PS3 with randoms, which even now is sometimes silent, rather than having people work together.

      • It’s like that on the xbox though,no one talking because they’re all in parties and the ones that do talk are 12yr old mouthy kids.

      • i have a great online experience on my playstation, i mean come on Giotek do great headsets for as little as a tenner.

        As Cr8zyHorse said, xbox live is a dessert land for link up chat because everyone is in party’s. CGC is great in 1 way but how many people do you truly talk too outside of your own friends list… Ive made more random friends on PSN than live.

    • Oh, agreed cc – I’m not knocking it entirely, i just know its not really for me. I’ll chat in game (as its relevant & banter can still be present), but other than that, i’m quite happy being mute in non-gaming periods. Its actually quite rare that i play with friends on one game then switch to another with the same group. Likewise for some others too, i guess.

      Call me a cynic, but I actually get the feeling that it would be the most requested but yet unused feature.

      I don’t really get your point about randoms if i am entirely honest though (apart from the lack of included headset of course). It’s not like you can’t chat/issue instructions to them now if you want to & i can’t see people inviting randoms into their xgc ‘lobby’ (or whatever) either. I have had both sides of the coin though – Randoms who are more than willing to co-operate with you & even help you out if required & there are some randoms who exist purely to make others lives a misery. Just the way of the world i guess.

      Truth be told, i would just be happy if comms worked as expected in every game, but i suppose that is probably a bit of an ask! ;)

      • The thing is it’s not even only about being able to go from game to game, there’s loads of times, that I’ll be playing a multiplayer and a friend a single player or vice versa, and one will want to play with the other, and we’ll go into a chat and talk until the other finishes what he/she’s doing and comes over to the multiplayer. Or sometimes I just like to chat with friends, if it’s not a story heavy game, completed it before or a (two different) multiplayer game then I like to just talk with friends sometimes, or share experiences, it’s nice just to have it there. Yes it’s not used an awful lot but it’s useful, mostly just for getting groups together and setting up games, but also for numerous other things.

  4. Da ,da da dah da ddaaaaaa daaaa da da da daa *kicks legs*

    • *kicks legs with Tuffcub* That made the article 100% better very much enjoyed.

  5. Would prefer backward compatibility tbh.

    • I agree… :(

    • You could just play them on your older console.

      • I’m keeping hold of my PS3 after I’v bought a PS4 for precisely that.

      • but the more older consoles, the more plugs they’ll occupy. its ridiculous that digital downloads aren’t compatible. Its makes £100’s worth of games a waste.

      • Me too. Just traded in my old dying slim for a sparkly new super slim to sit beside my future ps4. I understand why they haven’t gone BC with the ps4 but I would have paid extra for it given the option.

      • Not everyone can afford it without selling their existing equipment, retaining a few of their favourite games especially as it will take a while to build a collection on the new system.

        Of course, PS3 > PS4 upgrade & then BC isn’t possible because of Sony’s choices with PS3 architecture. Shame

      • I’l be trying my best to keep my PS3 but it simply might not be possible, depends entirely on price for a top end model of the PS4 (big HDD, peripherals, launch games bundle etc).

        I dont often settle for the low end models, i like everything to be the best it can be for the price. Looking forward to those price wars after E3.

    • Always good to buy a new console to play old games. I get the idea why people would want it but it becoming a huge issue for a NEXT gen console seems ridiculous. I’ve played the odd few PS2 era games and it’s never been as good an experience as I remember. Isn’t a big issue for me, not at all.

      • I agree, I would like it but the only reason would be for the start really, when they will be games that I still like to play from the old system and there isn’t much out on the new. The only real issue I have is that I might not have enough money to buy the console outright with out having to trade the old one in, but I’m sure I’ll manage especially and the trade price will drop insane amounts I’m sure. Only over reason is that I would get nostalgic and by the time I would I’m sure the old system would be cheap to by preowned.

      • But the differences between PS1 > PS2 and PS2 > PS3 were huge. This new generation is a bit of a luxury imo.

  6. reading this with the music playing is much more fun! =D

    • Totally agree! Reading this with a smile on my face & a bobbing head.
      Every article should have it’s own soundtrack.

  7. I don’t see how it’s useless. That would be quite silly to say. I have alot of good friends that I know that also play PS3. I don’t get to see them all the time, and we have good conversations and banter – that may not even be game related – whilst playing games. It would be so much better if we could do that whilst not playing the same games. Say if I’m on SSX trying to beat a high score, I can still talk to a group of my mates whatever they are on respectively. It’s a useful feature for many.

  8. More positive news toward to the PS4. The future is looking good.

    The one thing that pleases me the most is that they seem to have really taken on board some of the ‘contstructive feedback’ from this gen of consoles.

    Very happy!

  9. A girlfriend?

    Just kidding, I already have one of those ;) But yeah, another pointer to show Sony is actually listening to its customers. Not sure it’s a feature I’ll use much, if at all, but I know a lot of people do want this. I was going to say well done Sony but I’m not sure they really need congratulating on doing something 8(?) years after the xbox, even so, it’s a nice addition!

  10. PS3 Forwards Compatible Xgamechatz F.yeah !

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