PlayStation Meeting 2013 (PS4 unveiling - conference replay in first post) - Page 24

I like 360's controller better than the ps3, I have more grip and a bit more wight to it. I like the feeling that I actually have a controller in my hands.

I much prefer the look and feel of the PS3 controller, one of the reasons (more minor) reasons I think I went with the PS3 in the first place.

I've only ever owned ps2 and ps3. A few years ago, my EMT partner brought his Xbox to work and we played halo 1 & 2 all they way through between running 911 calls. Have to admit the Xbox has a much more comfortable controller for extended gaming sessions. The ps3 controller makes my hands cramp up if I play too long. Guess I just have "man hands."

I could use a PS3 controller that is about 20% bigger. Everything else the exact same.

Like I said, I love this part of a hardware cycle. Cool ideas and pie-in-the-sky rumors mixed together:

This is different, a VR display pack in with the next PlayStation. I find it hard to swallow unless they A) Include one in every box to make it worthwhile to develop for, and B) Make it cheap enough that they don't have to launch another $600 console. I do like "Omni" though, they should run with that. But wait, there's more:

Cloud services rumor is very plausible, and seems the logical way to go. Having a back compat dongle add on would be nice, but I just don't see Sony bothering with the expense of such a thing. Weird things have happened before though. Oh, and a games list:

That games list is something (Bump in the Night ). I read these rumors for the laughs just as much as for the possible truths.

Full article, with even more stuff, HERE.
Edited by Crash44 - 11/30/12 at 3:53pm

I like the name just fine. Utterly innocuous and catchy. And as mentioned before, Sony cannot use "PS4" since the number 4 is bad luck in east Asia.
As much as I'd like to believe they will use Gaikai in this way, I'm highly skeptical. Sony has no good track record in making their catalog titles available (but then, who does?). I expect we'd see something similar to PS+ where we pay a monthly fee for service that gives us a few okay freebies, but we'd likely have to pay per title on top of the service fee. Just conjecture. But seems reasonable based on what they're doing currently with PS+.

Playstation Omni, the perfect system for a FF7 remake. Omnislash in full HD!

I'm surprised that I got so close to the current rumors...

Great read, thanks!

I really hope the next gen of consoles will introduce a true break through when it comes to game physics and overall fluidity, characters still feel very sluggish and robot like in this generation.

If true, it sounds like we can expect roughly the equivalent of a decent PC from 2011. Probably with compromises in memory (4GB?), but with potential increases in efficiency. Sounds believable to me.

If this is the way Sony goes, I hope the GPGPU thing isn't another idiosyncratic dead-end technology like the Cell processor. If it is, then developers are stuck having to rewrite code tailored to Sony's "unique" architecture yet again. In which case, we'll again see third-party devs dragging their heels and only slowly migrating and getting more proficient at coding for a GPGPU. From what I've read about GPGPUs, you can't just port directly from multicore to one of these and expect similar performance. You have to code from the ground up for it. Sound familiar?

All depends on what the competitors do.
Edited by confidenceman - 12/6/12 at 2:44pm

The development kits actually comes in both 8 or 16GB of RAM. Not sure how ambitious Sony is willing to go though for the actual game units.

Developers are already being forced to adjust to the GPGPU for one particular console and that's the Wii U. With the main processor being a bit on the slow side, they have no choice.
Edited by Paulo Teixeira - 12/6/12 at 4:09pm

Love the comment about load times "could be" significantly faster. Some current gen good games were so painful - (i.e. Modnation Racers and Need for Speed the Run) that I won't even put that sad disk in.

That's the rub. Early dev kits tend to be more generous with RAM than final builds. That might make porting a bit easier from PS3 to Wii U, but not the reverse. Also, I haven't heard rumors about the next Xbox going that route. Coupled with MS's DirectX, there's no telling what sort of parity we'll get in terms of architecture. I really hope we don't get a repeat of this gen's first couple of years.

The 360 also used a early form of the GPGPU (their custom GPU was very advanced for the time) so it isn't that new of a concept at all.

More Info. Make them both powerful, I want Next Gen power for my money.
http://www.omnigamer.com/will-the-xbox-720-be-more-powerful-than-the-ps4/

Microsoft can afford to sell at a loss, which from the sound of it, will be quite large early on. (especially if Kinect 2.0 is included with every console)

Sony needs to be profitable from day one, as a company they can't afford to have another system that burns cash with no return for the first few years. Expect it to be sold to retailers below cost.

I wouldn't count on it. The Xbox division has been profitable, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the company (where profits continue to slide). I don't think either Sony or MS can afford to sell consoles at a loss anymore. Which is why many of us think the next gen will only be a moderate bump in horsepower compared to last gen.

That's what they say before every generation. But that only happens at first. Once developers begin to push the hardware to its limits, the load times will increase. More data to load and process equals longer load times.

Has it though? Last I heard they wrote off 3 billion to cover the RROD issues. My understand was that the gaming division has yet to turn an actual profit in the name of increasing profit share and future revenues. Why shareholders look the other way after 10 years of losses... who knows. Sony on the other hand is bleeding from every crevice except their gaming division. It's why they rolled it up into their home electronics division, which was bleeding from the LCD fiascos.

Anyways, my point is I don't think either company is in a position to release a killer console this time around. The dev's don't want it, their shareholders don't want it, and going by sales and trends, consumers don't want it. A few hardcore gamers aren't going to be a path of gold for them in a world where mobile gaming, media integration and services, and app stores rule. If they can build a profit from day 1 console that can render BF3/4 at 60fps/1080 it'll be more than enough to get people through the next 6 years, as long as some forethought is put into the OS/marketplace/services ect.

All depends on how far back you go. They lost a lot of money on the first Xbox and on entering into the console business (and later on RROD). Not sure if they ever crossed over into the black overall. But regardless, the division has been making a healthy profit for a while now. Unfortunately, MS is hurting massively overall (profits down for the year by close to 25%), so that could have a big effect on how the gaming division goes forward. Sony's in a very similar position.
No kidding. I saw some recent quote from Epic saying that they'll be lucky if development costs for the next gen only go up by a factor of 2 to 4. That's not a business that many companies can afford to have a stake in. Production costs continue to skyrocket, the consumer base isn't growing, prices aren't scaling, etc. That's why something like Ouya or Steambox could be so disruptive.

In any event, Sony has their work cut out for them--as do the other two console manufacturers. IMO Sony needs something radically different and potentially profit rich like a Gaikai-driven streaming service to stay competitive with these other new platforms (iOS, Android, Steam, etc).

Faster, sexier tech just won't cut it anymore.

Michael Pachter has a show on GameTrailers, "ask Pachter" or something like that. In one of the most recent episodes he had predictions for 2013, and he predicted that Sony would have a console for fall 2013 priced at $399.99, but that Microsoft wouldn't be releasing a new console in 2013. Since Pachter is almost always wrong, you can expect Sony to release in 2014
Edited by Anthony1 - 12/18/12 at 2:41pm

Personally I see a Fall 2014 launch. Then again by 2014 MS and Sony will probably do everything possible to get out ahead of one another. So a Spring release could be what they are aiming for.

I could wait until 2014. For the longest time, I did all my gaming on the 360 and missed out on a lot of PS3 exclusives, so now I am going back and playing them. Plus there are still some good exclusives coming out this year, and other than checking out the new Gears, I see a lot of time for my PS3 this year. I just wish my friends played the PS3, but they are all on the 360.

I think they're both trying desperately to make a fall 2013 release work. Any later, and they risk losing even more publisher support. New platforms (Ouya, Steambox, etc.) could spread the market even thinner if Sony/MS don't get new consoles into the marketplace by then.

If either gets pushed into Spring 2014, it won't be for lack of trying.

I think when Michael Pachter is saying that Microsoft isn't going to have it out in 2013, a lot of that, is that he thinks the 360 is going to sell too well this holiday, and that MS will be fearful of pulling the plug too early on the 360, so their next-gen system will be deliberately held back maybe 6 months (spring 2014) to allow the 360 to die a more natural death.


I disagree with this notion, because I think the two different platforms can coexist in a decent fashion for the first two years. The next gen machine is going to be at LEAST $399.99. I think a high-end machine like that can coexist with a $149.99 Xbox 360. I think they can both do well. As for Sony, they can keep selling the PS3 for $199, and have a high-end PS4 come out and start to pave their journey into the next gen.

Getting a head start is crucial for the console's success, I'd be disappointed if Sony didn't learn that lesson already with the PS3. Also, I can't imagine being forced to live with such ancient current gen technologies till 2014! End of 2013 sounds much better to me with all specs being confirmed @ E3.

With the Wii U hitting a million units after 20 days on the market, neither Sony nor Microsoft can really afford to wait till 2014 and give Nintendo 2 years free and clear to build an install base and then release a new console 3 years later that puts them to shame.