There have been a number of rumours over the past few days of an upgraded PlayStation 4 model that will be able to play games and movies in 4K resolution. Kotaku and Eurogamer were the first to report the news with multiple sources backing up the claims, and now the Wall Street Journal has also reported that a new PlayStation 4 with “enhanced graphics and power” will be hitting the shelves.
The new console is rumoured to launch before PlayStation VR (read: an E3 reveal) and it is said that “it is likely that the current model and the coming one would share the same software catalogue.” The WSJ also reports the new console is “to capture gamers willing to pay for a richer gaming environment, including a high-end virtual-reality experience.”
If games are to work on both versions of the PS4 then developers are unlikely to make many improvements to the PS4K versions other than resolution and, possibly, frame rates, at least until there is a sizeable install base for the high end console.
Of course you will need a 4K TV to make use of the new console and sales of those are still rather low. There are very few 4K broadcasters, at the moment standard blu-ray is the only HD format you can buy in most shops, and there is the problem of space. You can’t really have a 4K TV smaller than 52″ as the smaller screens means the advantage of having such a pixel dense display starts to diminish.
Sony did tout a 4K video service that “will work with PlayStation 4″ three years ago, but we’ve not heard much of that since, possibly because each move would be 100gb.
With enhanced graphics and a new UHD Blu-ray drive the PS4K, if it exists, is not going to be cheap, and with Sony fans shelling out £350 for PSVR it seems an odd time to be asking them to spend even more cash on upgraded PS4K consoles. Personally I have no interest, my 52” HDTV – which I bought for a a ridiculous sum of money to go with the my launch model PlayStation 3 back in 2006 – is still working perfectly and I have no desire to go to 4K.
Would you be tempted to upgrade? Let us know in the comments.
Source: WSJ
Kennykazey
I’ll probably upgrade at some point if it can improve games at 1080p, as I don’t have a 4K TV nor any plans to buy one for a couple years at least.
But it needs to make a genuine difference across the majority of games, and not just a couple like New 3DS.
Clubber Lang
As you get with PC games now, graphical performance will be scaled in line with your hardware’s capability. No interested in the 4K atm bit it will be interesting to see how the new console handles VR and the benefits there.
Pixel_nme
This is something im interested in as i have a 4K tv,from everything thing i’ve read there are 3 possibilities,the most likely one being it having a 4K Buray drive and HDMI with beefier CPU GPU,so it will play Bluray and things like Netflix in native 4K and upscale games to around 4K with other improvements possible like smoother framerates but everyone will be fine with there current PS4’s,i’ve also seen rumors it will have the box that comes with the PSVR built in and possibly have a bundle with the headset.
Andrewww
I have to admit that I’m slowly becoming tempted by PSVR, and if it’s just to find out what the hype is all about. But I’m happy with the 3m screen diagonal that my beamer produces and will not downgrade to any small 4K TV.
zakwhorules
I’d be tempted to get one just for the performance upgrade. If it meant being able to play any game at 1080p@60FPS then that would be worth it for me, better if it could get to 2560×1440@60FPS as that’s what my current PC monitors are. I think the current gen consoles should be hitting 1080p at least 30FPS as a base and if the PS4K is what’s required to do this I will welcome it with open arms.
However I most likely wouldn’t be getting one any time soon as I only bought my PS4 in the last 6 months.
TheShepanator
An APU doesn’t exist that could power 4k games at the sort of detail settings people expect. If they do change the APU at all it will be just for power/heat savings. I would put my money on it just being a new ps4 model with HDMI 2.0 so it can support the new UHD blu-rays and maybe the home screen will be 4k too. Games will still be 1080p perhaps upscaled to 4k.
Galgomite
The author is right that offering PS4K at the same time as VR launches is a bad idea. It’s an inevitable system though now that they run x86 architecture. Considering how much power it STILL takes to run 4K games I’d call this one for Fall 2017.
Zimsalabim
I’m with the Shepanator.
4k Blu-Ray player (trojan horse for next gen format and all).
PSVR BOB baked-in.
Upscaling to 4k for 1080p content. Maybe a little more RAM and/or faster GPU but as other posters are saying, anything more advanced is too costly.
Yours for £399.
£599 for the PS4K and a PSVR headset.
Zimsalabim
PS VR is Important to Sony’s ongoing business, but so is building a 4K ecosystem. A PS4K would help do that, in the same way that PS3 gave a head start to Blu-Ray (mass production of the blue laser diode helping drive down its costs a lot faster). Remember, Sony is into broadcasting tech (broadcast cameras, etc) as well as TVs and the like, so it’s in their interests to build an ecosystem, from soup to nuts that people can see, touch and feel. If they can take a financial hit with a mooted PS4K it’d be worth it in the long run.
This isn’t about gaming per-se. It’s about the whole conversation.
PSVR is potentially of equal importance, but no-one knows at this stage whether it’s going to fly or whether it’s going to be another ‘3D TV’ fiasco. BUT. If the engineers are tasked with building a ‘4K-ready’ PS4, then I can think of few reasons NOT to bake-in PSVR tech into the same case in the drive to offer a true High-End model. Potentially big wins here for little intellectual capital.
We shouldn’t be thinking about what our individual preferences might be, but stop to consider the bigger, strategic picture that is Sony’s global business. Do that, and it begins to make sense.
skimpy
I would prefer more games running at 60fps than 4k, besides, my 1080p TV is working fine with no intention of replacing it any time soon.