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[RiccochetJ]

This also begs the question: HOW WILL ONLINE BE HANDLED???

One console can run the same game @60fps but the other can't go over 30... or can barely hold it? We've got a problem.

The same way they handle it on PC...

Is this sort of thing new to you all?

Christ.

 

[curiouscharles]

I assumed that was a given.

Would be odd to release an enhanced SKU with only a GPU upgrade.

I assumed it was a given too - as there's a lot more needed than a simple GPU upgrade to start pushing 4K.

Like, my 4770k and 980ti can't even push 4K to acceptable standards...

 

[RedSwirl]

This is where I disagree with the majority of GAF. A true PS4.5 in 2017 could look like this. A new APU with:
1. Zen CPU (i5 equivalent with more cores)
2. Polaris GPU (~4.5-5 TF)
3. HBM 2.0 memory (1 terbate/sec of 10-12 GB with EASE)

Why?

The transition to a new CPU architecutre and 14 nm GPUs are the only real reason to even consider making an upgraded console. The transition will net you 2-4X performance of your current machine in a similar thermal envelope. The CPU is the real crutch and waiting for AMD to produce Zen will roughly equate to the same time as their Polaris GPUs launch.

Finally, HBM IS the new standard. It's replacing GDDR5 altogether and for much cheaper (in the long run). It offers better performance, cheaper manufacturing costs over time, and will actually EXPLICITLY benefit the one area Sony is advertising: 4K. 4K is impossible without huge bandwith numbers. Even than, the huge bandiwth increase will allow developers to do some really neat tricks.

Is that even economical for a game console earlier than 2017?

 

[thuway]

I'm shaking my head at how many people seem to support something like this. Personally I find consoles attractive because UNLIKE cell phones, PCs, and tons of other tech they stay the same for 5-7 years. If incremental upgrades are going to become commonplace you may as well just have a PC.

I hope this rumor isn't true.

Does your PS4 stop working if PS4.5 launches? What would make it such a "bad" idea? Irrespective if Sony launches PS4.5 or not, on PS4- Battlefront will always be 900P, AF will still be borked on a majority of titles, and the weak CPU will be a massive bottleneck in too many situations. Releasing "modest" hardware upgrades with forward compatibility sounds like a reasonable attempt at offering power users an upgrade while also keeping up with the Jonses in the tech world.

 

[infiniteheteroskdasticity]

I hope they have a great argument for this. They sure wouldnt want 40 million angry people...

The backlash could be fucking huge.

False. There will be a vocal minority who make some noise but the gaming community has evolved. Gamers are generally older and have a lot more disposable income. Somebody who spends $200-300 a year (or two) on a really minor iphone upgrade isn't going to have any problems spending similar money on a console. A 3 year console cycle makes tonnes of sense because of x86. They can guarantee support for PS4/Xbox One on all PS5/Xbox Two games because the architecture is designed around forward compatibility. They can similarly guarantee backwards compatibility too. Have a 1080p TV only and don't want to upgrade consoles, you can play the same games on your existing PS4. Have a 4k TV (or want to buy one from Sony) and you can upgrade your console to support your nice new TV set. Its great business and good for gamers too (instead of being locked into one console for 5-10 years).

 

[SolidSnakex]

The rumors from Kotaku and Zoetis are pretty different. Kotaku paints a picture of something that's hardly set in stone as well as something that not many developers even know about. While Zoetis is saying that it's coming out this year. If Kotaku's rumors is right, then you have to wonder if Sony's listening to feedback. The reaction has been pretty damn negative to the idea. And does it really make sense to launch an upgraded console this year when your current console is selling above what it was last year (which was a record year for Sony), and while you're launching a new an expensive peripheral? And on top of that their lineup in general for the PS4 this year is top notch.

Sony basically had to spend an entire generation rebuilding their image and it's pretty clean right now. Why risk it on something like this?

 

[Sammy Samusu]

To think that I almost bought a PS4 to play fucking Type-0.

 

[thuway]

Is that even economical for a game console earlier than 2017?

Nothing I wrote above is pie in the sky or exotic. The issue is waiting on these things to launch. Polaris, Zen, and HBM 2.0 are going to launch Q4 this year. This is why I think releasing a PS4.5 at the end of 2016 is a joke. But it's not going to be in time for Q4 this year for damn certain.

 

[Synth]

Various SNK? You mean my copy of King of Fighters 94. Your right, but if it had taken off outside of Japan, and more people used it. It was the same thing as N64 did, only they used it for more games in more territories.

It is comparable I have a 32x and actually run games through it, it depends on the game and version of genesis you have.

It is comparable it's just it was the fucking 90's and sega was making awful decisions and not backing them up with software.

There are differences between different models of Genesis, and those did affect the audiovisual outputs, yea (sound is most notable), and this applies also to Genesis game running through a 32X... but this isn't comparable to an upgraded console spec consistently running games better than a previous model. If anything, you could say that a 32X is backwards-compatible with Genesis games (and it'd fucking better be, if it's gonna occupy the cartridge slot), but the Genesis sure as hell isn't forwards compatible with the 32X. No 32X game will play on a standard Genesis unit. It's a completely different scenario that required strong sales of the 32X unit to make the purchase worthwhile, as otherwise their simply wouldn't be software to utilize it at all. It was a separate software library.

The same applies to the RAM cart to a lesser extent. A couple of games required it and wouldn't work without it, a handful of games were improved by it, but would work otherwise.. and the vast, vast majority of the library (like 99.5%) would simply ignore its existence entirely. It's not like you dropped the cart in, and Burning Rangers suddenly stopped running like ass. It was a specific accessory, just like any other, that had a few games designed explicitly to use it.

I've had all of these machines too. It's not like I'm guessing here.

 

[Tripolygon]

Point being is none of us are blown away this current generation. They were both gimped from the get go. You know it. Probably the first generation I can remember when it was just alright.

Yea speak for yourself. Ever since this gen started, there have been game after game blowing people away. It started with Killzone/Ryse, then inFAMOUS/Sunset Overdrive, Driveclub/Forza 6, The Order 1886, Until Dawn, and soon we'll have Uncharted 4/Quantum Break. There are many more i didn't even list.

 

[BKK]

I simply don't agree. Many games this gen have blown me away and Uncharted 4, from the little I've seen, looks stupid amazing. Horizon doesn't blow you away? Driveclub? Battlefront?

PC's power is irrelevant because PC's go with the console gen. If the consoles aren't producing games that amaze you, neither are PC's because they are sharing the same games which run the same textures and engines and worlds, albeit with better IQ and res. Last gen had its share of issues right from the get go (Xbox 1.5, PS3 with poor ports, etc) but each gen always delivers the goods and this isn't any different imo. I'll give you sports games which haven't really made the jump relative to other genres but especially this year, games are delivering beautiful, huge worlds. The ram jump alone makes it a big leap over last gen, go back and play some older games for perspective.

Well, I can get blown away by Spectrum homebrew when I take into account the power of the hardware, but when compared to what I've seen before? It's been a long time since I've been blown away like I used to when seeing the latest arcade game, or a new consoles' graphics.

 

[thuway]

The rumors from Kotaku and Zoetis are pretty different. Kotaku paints a picture of something that's hardly set in stone as well as something that not many developers even know about. While Zoetis is saying that it's coming out this year. If Kotaku's rumors is right, then you have to wonder if Sony's listening to feedback. The reaction has been pretty damn negative to the idea. And does it really make sense to launch an upgraded console this year when your current console is selling above what it was last year (which was a record year for Sony), and while you're launching a new an expensive peripheral? And on top of that their lineup in general for the PS4 this year is top notch.

Sony basically had to spend an entire generation rebuilding their image and it's pretty clean right now. Why risk it on something like this?

This. Kotaku never mentioned releasing in Q4 2016, nor did they even begin hinting at power ceilings. The article itself sounds like they were gauging feedback and had yet to even ship development kits. Which is why I find the idea of launching in nine months proposterous.

 

[AmyS]

More tech websites have picking this story up and giving their own thoughts.

Ars Technica

Kotaku's Patrick Klepek cites two trusted development sources for the information and says other staffers at the site were able to independently confirm the same hardware plans with additional sources. That said, Klepek's sources warn that the plans they're hearing about seem more "exploratory" and vague than anything concrete at this point.

A slight graphical upgrade to the PS4 would make some sense to fill the gap between now and the eventual release of an entirely new PlayStation 5 platform. Just over two years out, the PS4 is already starting to show its age a bit at the top end of the performance curve. The PlayStation VR headset, for instance, runs at a slightly lower resolution than its high-end PC competition, and the device needs an external processing box to help offload some processing work from the central system (though Sony insists that box's role has been overstated in the press).

Outside of VR, 4K TVs are becoming much more affordable and common in living rooms around the world. That's easy to forget given that the now-standard HDTV was far from a household item when the Xbox 360 and PS3 released in 2005 and 2006. In fact, the Wii's lack of contemporary HD support made its graphics look increasingly dated throughout its lifespan. The jump from 1080p HD to 4K resolutions isn't quite as revelatory as that resolution jump from a decade ago, but today's consoles could start to look similarly dated if they can't take full advantage of 4K TVs.

If it was to happen, this kind of mid-generation tweak to the actual graphical power of home console hardware is pretty much unprecedented (unless you count external add-ons like the Sega CD and 32X). Sony would have to handle some tough questions about how older PS4 games would be upscaled for any half-measure upgraded system and whether the company would allow new games to run exclusively on the PS4.5 (much like some portable games now require the upgraded "new Nintendo 3DS"). Any "enhanced PS4" rollout would have to be managed very carefully to avoid splitting the market.

Microsoft's Phil Spencer recently floated a trial balloon hinting that the Xbox One might see its own PC-style upgrade program in the near future (though he later walked back those statements a bit). In any case, with outfits like Valve taking pains to make PCs more console-like, it wouldn't be a total shock if consoles start imitating the PC's hardware upgrade cycle in return.

ExtremeTech

In a report on Kotaku, numerous unidentified developers have confirmed that an upgraded console is currently under development within Sony. Colloquially called the “PS4.5,” this device will have an upgraded GPU aimed at supporting both higher frame rates for the PlayStation VR and 4K gaming on UHDTVs.

PSVR Patrick Klepek, the reporter who broke this story, has a long track record of delivering big stories that turn out to be true (like the Xbox 180 and the Infinity Ward fiasco). Not only does Klepek have multiple sources for this revelation, but Kotaku’s Jason Schreier and Stephen Totilo were able to independently verify this information as well. There’s no doubt in my mind that this machine is being worked on internally — I’m just unsure whether or not it will ever see the light of day.

One of the sources for the original story felt that the PS4.5 was an exploratory device, and that makes a lot of sense to me. Sony should absolutely be researching the possibilities of an upgraded PS4, and getting feedback from trusted developers. That doesn’t necessarily translate directly into a retail product, so I advise coming to this with a fair amount of skepticism. Until we have more information, we shouldn’t expect any new hardware in the immediate future. For all we know, we might never see this come to fruition.

The idea of major hardware revisions for consoles might look compelling on paper, but the reality of the situation is much more problematic. As I pointed out earlier this month when the news hit about the potential Xbox One upgrades, the compatibility issues are nontrivial.

Perfect backwards compatibility is not necessarily guaranteed on newer hardware, and releasing games exclusively for the improved console will fragment the market. After all, most developers want to be able to sell their games to the entire install base — not just a small fraction of early adopters. It’s a tightrope that needs to be walked year after year, and I don’t envy the engineering teams tasked with pushing the hardware forward without breaking anything along the way.

As it stands, I’m tentatively optimistic about a future in which consoles get better internals every year of two, but I want to see the real-world implementations before I can fully get on board. I’ve been bitten by the death of older iOS apps time and time again, so I find it difficult to be blindly enthusiastic here. Unless the Xbox and PlayStation teams have found a clever solution for perfect compatibility three, four, five iterations down the road, expect to see many original releases sacrificed for better hardware.

 

[Classic_Gs]

I just bought a PS4 back in Decemebr and I am happy to trade in towards a more powerful unit. Long console generations suck anyway, bring on the 3 year cycle.

 

[mugurumakensei]

Nothing I wrote above is pie in the sky or exotic. The issue is waiting on these things to launch. Polaris, Zen, and HBM 2.0 are going to launch Q4 this year. This is why I think releasing a PS4.5 at the end of 2016 is a joke. But it's not going to be in time for Q4 this year for damn certain.

I think you are probably right on everything except the GPU. 3 TF is probably the max I'd peg it at. Polaris architecture is likely and that'll give it better performance than what the TF delta shows.

 

[False]

There will be a PS5 and Xbox 2 on the market by the end of 2018.

That would be a perfectly reasonable 5 year cycle by the end of 2018 though, not a 2-3 year short cycle. I'd assume that to be a safe bet.

 

[undecided]

Count me in the camp that doesn't see the downside.. Current owners get the same games at the same fidelity as they would if nothing changed. New model buyers can get higher graphical options, just like on PC.

It would have been nice to build the consoles to allow module swapping though.

 

[ffdgh]

Well this is gonna be fun to watch. Rather exciting.

 

[vivftp]

I'm shaking my head at how many people seem to support something like this. Personally I find consoles attractive because UNLIKE cell phones, PCs, and tons of other tech they stay the same for 5-7 years. If incremental upgrades are going to become commonplace you may as well just have a PC.

I hope this rumor isn't true.

Remember the PS3 and 360? How were those faring after 5-7 years? Their respective fan bases were aching for better tech.

Now look at the current gen of consoles. We haven't even completed a full 3 years and for a long while there have been a vocal group who've been crying for more powerful hardware. Hell, some wanted that right off the bat. Obviously that couldn't be done without drastically raising the prices at the time and thus dooming this gen to purgatory. This business model gives those who are crying for more a chance to get it, while allowing those who are satisfied with what's out there to keep chugging along as though nothing's changed. It's the best of both worlds, IMO.

It's also worth remembering these are just rumors. They might or might not have any truth to them.They might be true, but might not be giving us the complete picture. We're mostly just guessing and talking hypotheticals here anyways. Wait and see, that's all we can do.

 

[orochi91]

These quotes are critical:

Ars Technica:

That said, Klepek's sources warn that the plans they're hearing about seem more "exploratory" and vague than anything concrete at this point.

Extreme Tech:

One of the sources for the original story felt that the PS4.5 was an exploratory device, and that makes a lot of sense to me. Sony should absolutely be researching the possibilities of an upgraded PS4, and getting feedback from trusted developers. That doesn’t necessarily translate directly into a retail product, so I advise coming to this with a fair amount of skepticism. Until we have more information, we shouldn’t expect any new hardware in the immediate future. For all we know, we might never see this come to fruition.

 

[RedSwirl]

Nothing I wrote above is pie in the sky or exotic. The issue is waiting on these things to launch. Polaris, Zen, and HBM 2.0 are going to launch Q4 this year. This is why I think releasing a PS4.5 at the end of 2016 is a joke. But it's not going to be in time for Q4 this year for damn certain.

Like I said earlier, doing it in 2017 would basically give it the same gap of time that existed between the original Xbox and Xbox 360. Four years is almost a whole console generation really. Of course the 360 was probably more powerful compared to PC hardware at the time though. Still, would four-year incremental upgrades be that bad?

 

[Skinpop]

Do you consider it a betrayal when the laptop, tablet, setup tv, phone, etc...upgrade every year?

those things run on platforms like android and ios - with consoles the console itself is the actual platform. That's part of what differentiates and makes consoles exciting (for me at least). Also, it's kinda funny that you neglect the entire history of console gaming where upgrades every year has never been a thing. Why are you comparing with these things again? Do you want your consoles to be like smartphones?

why ?

When I buy a console there's an assumption of what kind of product I'm buying, and part of that is a locked hardware spec - meaning I can enjoy every game on this machine just like every other ps4 owner without ever even thinking about upgrading(until the next console is released). That's like 50% of the appeal with these things for me, the other 50% being games that never are ported to pc.

 

[thuway]

Like I said earlier, doing it in 2017 would basically give it the same gap of time that existed between the original Xbox and Xbox 360. Four years is almost a whole console generation really. Of course the 360 was probably more powerful compared to PC hardware at the time though. Still, would four-year incremental upgrades be that bad?

Nah and I was totally on board with 2017/early 2018 until Zoetis came in and said end of this year and this thread went into BUNKER mode. Developers tend to get development kits in stages, and leaks begin to flow out slowly from that point on. Right now it sounds like one of those famous "ask what the developers want/need for 4K gaming" questionarres.

 

[b3b0p]

Technology improves, prices drop, and Sony makes up for this by adding more value (improving on their current platform), so they don't have to drop the price.

I can't believe anyone would be upset by this. This is actually good news.

Anyone expecting discounted or free upgrades are living in some other world. Seriously, wake up.

 

[Head.spawn]

These quotes are critical:

Ars Technica:

Extreme Tech:

Well, that nuance went to hell as soon as Zoetis posted.

 

[Man]

3 year cycles would be the lowest healthy rate me thinks. Bi-annual would be too frequent.

 

[AmyS]

These quotes are critical:

Yes I agree, those quotes are important.

Once again, remind ppl of the PlayStation Type C rumors -- A PS1 with with more RAM/VRAM and a quad speed CD-ROM drive.

 

[Mr. Giggles]

Well, that nuance went to hell as soon as Zoetis posted.

Yea.... I'm curious to see if what zoetis said would come to fruition.

I think he's just bull shitting for fun.

 

[BKK]

There are differences between different models of Genesis, and those did affect the audiovisual outputs, yea (sound is most notable), and this applies also to Genesis game running through a 32X... but this isn't comparable to an upgraded console spec consistently running games better than a previous model. If anything, you could say that a 32X is backwards-compatible with Genesis games *and it'd fucking better be, if it's gonna occupy the cartridge slot"), but the Genesis sure as hell isn't forwards compatible with the 32X. No 32X game will play on a standard Genesis unit. It's a completely different scenario that required strong sales of the 32X unit to make the purchase worthwhile, as otherwise their simply wouldn't be software to utilize it at all. It was a separate software library.

The same applies to the RAM cart to a lesser extent. A couple of games required it and wouldn't work without it, a handful of games were improved by it, but would work otherwise.. and the vast, vast majority of the library (like 99.5%) would simply ignore its existence entirely. It's not like you dropped the cart in, and Burning Rangers suddenly stopped running like ass. It was a specific accessory, just like any other, that had a few games designed explicitly to use it.

I've had all of these machines too. It's not like I'm guessing here.

To be fair, the 0.5% of games that worked with enhancements are by definition forwards compatible, the other 99.5% are just backwards compatible. We can just say that it had a very small library . A bit like Supergrafx, I think that only had a library of five exclusives, and two forwards compatible games, apart from that it had to rely on backwards compatibility for it's software support.

 

[thuway]

Like I said earlier, doing it in 2017 would basically give it the same gap of time that existed between the original Xbox and Xbox 360. Four years is almost a whole console generation really. Of course the 360 was probably more powerful compared to PC hardware at the time though. Still, would four-year incremental upgrades be that bad?

The other issue about Fall of this year, and I've said this before, and Megative is the only other person that even acknowledged it:

Launching a new console alongside all PSVR would be the dumbest move ever.

One would almost certainly cannibalize the other's sales.

 

[TetraGenesis]

What is happening?

 

[Arklite]

gabe won

I'd say. At this point I just need all fighting games to have PC ports and I can stop paying attention to whatever the fuck is going on with consoles. Budget hardware with mediocre digital stores and now potentially littered with half step refreshes. The only thing I'll miss is Gran Turismo.

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

Im expecting it late 2017 at the earliest. Right now it just doesn't make sense this year and next seem pretty mapped out as far as releases and hardware honestly. Plus launching psvr in October...yeaaa no way a ps4.5 would drop this year or even early next, so i feel alot better. A 4-5 year cycle is completely fine

 

[Synth]

Yes I agree, those quotes are important.

Once again, remind ppl of the PlayStation Type C rumors -- A PS1 with with more RAM/VRAM and a quad speed CD-ROM drive.

PlayStation Type C?
Actraiser 64?
Street Fighter 3 for 64DD/M2?

This is a page of lies.

 

[Orayn]

those things run on platforms like android and ios - with consoles the console itself is the actual platform. That's part of what differentiates and makes consoles exciting (for me at least). Also, it's kinda funny that you neglect the entire history of console gaming where upgrades every year has never been a thing. Why are you comparing with these things again? Do you want your consoles to be like smartphones?

I think a better comparison would be to the iPad. Roughly the same price range as a console, major revisions every 3 years or so, with smaller upgrades in between, and new software being compatible over roughly a full "generation."

The potential for console upgrades is something similar with the timespans stretched out further and forward compatibility being more enforced and sharply defined.

 

[Macleoid]

If this happens I hope it heralds the death of the console model. its felt to me like console stopped making sense this generation when what the average console gamer wanted was a gaming box with a dual analogue controller and access to all the latest big multiplat releases, but we're still having to put up with downloading updates and performing installs etc and anyway the games that actually sell are the same between the big two.

Nah burn it down and let's have a single open source platform where the power of Bernie makes my little dreams come true!

 

[pixellated_man]

well it'll likely be next year if they wait for polaris. if its Q4 2017 then i'll have had my ps4 for 4 years. i'd be up for an upgrade as long as it is BC and FC - so the ios model

Yup. I think people who see this move as a negative should just look at it as the ps5 being released a year or two earlier than the average console generation ends.
I'm fine with it as long as
a) Sony wait at least until end of next year before releasing it
b) it is fully backwards compatible. No running the games via emu please. More like ps2 backwards compatibility with ps1 from day one than what we are seeing with the half assed implementation we saw with the xbox 360 and it's handling of original xbox games.
c) There are no exclusives released specifically for this model if this really is more of an updated ps4 than a successor.

 

[dano1]

And just like that, they fucked everything up.

Ever hear of Apple

 

[Papacheeks]

There are differences between different models of Genesis, and those did affect the audiovisual outputs, yea (sound is most notable), and this applies also to Genesis game running through a 32X... but this isn't comparable to an upgraded console spec consistently running games better than a previous model. If anything, you could say that a 32X is backwards-compatible with Genesis games *and it'd fucking better be, if it's gonna occupy the cartridge slot"), but the Genesis sure as hell isn't forwards compatible with the 32X. No 32X game will play on a standard Genesis unit. It's a completely different scenario that required strong sales of the 32X unit to make the purchase worthwhile, as otherwise their simply wouldn't be software to utilize it at all. It was a separate software library.

The same applies to the RAM cart to a lesser extent. A couple of games required it and wouldn't work without it, a handful of games were improved by it, but would work otherwise.. and the vast, vast majority of the library (like 99.5%) would simply ignore its existence entirely. It's not like you dropped the cart in, and Burning Rangers suddenly stopped running like ass. It was a specific accessory, just like any other, that had a few games designed explicitly to use it.

I've had all of these machines too. It's not like I'm guessing here.

Not saying you haven't nice to meet another sega fan

But in my eyes it is comparable it's just like I said it was the 90's and sega was crashing hard by the time Saturn and 32X came out. Also there were a couple Sega CD games that were also on Genesis that looked, sounded better than their cartridge brothers.

I'm just saying that sega is an extreme case example.

 

[AmyS]

PlayStation Type C?
Actraiser 64?
Street Fighter 3 for 64DD/M2?

This is a page of lies.

Precisely my point.

 

[OSHAN]

Man ActRaiser 64? If only..

 

[FalsettoVibe]

So are we thinking that these rumors are true?

 

[icespide]

Ever hear of Apple

lol

 

[Vashetti]

The other issue about Fall of this year, and I've said this before, and Megative is the only other person that even acknowledged it:

Launching a new console alongside all PSVR would be the dumbest move ever.

One would almost certainly cannibalize the other's sales.

Yup. I have a PSVR pre-order but would almost certainly cancel it and get the PS4.5 (or whatever it's called).

 

[RiccochetJ]

What is happening?

MS and Sony appear to be going the route of phones and tablets for their respective consoles and upgrades. GAF is rioting.

 

[xaosslug]

More tech websites have picking this story up and giving their own thoughts.

Ars Technica


ExtremeTech

does that mean Ars is reading into it? >_>

 

[Keihart]

Yup. I think people who see this move as a negative should just look at it as the ps5 being released a year or two earlier than the average console generation ends.
I'm fine with it as long as
a) Sony wait at least until end of next year before releasing it
b) it is fully backwards compatible. No running the games via emu please. More like ps2 backwards compatibility with ps1 from day one than what we are seeing with the half assed implementation we saw with the xbox 360 and it's handling of original xbox games.
c) There are no exclusives released specifically for this model if this really is more of an updated ps4 than a successor.

Then it won't be PS5, game would either be so much better on the new model that the old one version would perfom awful or they will be so similar that would make you question the purchase. Cross games forever, just like playing on cellphones.

 

[Red Comet]

Lol I literally just upgraded to a 1TB PS4 like two days ago. I'm a sucker and will probably get it anyway.

 

[RoboPlato]

Does your PS4 stop working if PS4.5 launches? What would make it such a "bad" idea? Irrespective if Sony launches PS4.5 or not, on PS4- Battlefront will always be 900P, AF will still be borked on a majority of titles, and the weak CPU will be a massive bottleneck in too many situations. Releasing "modest" hardware upgrades with forward compatibility sounds like a reasonable attempt at offering power users an upgrade while also keeping up with the Jonses in the tech world.

I agree with most of your post but I do want to say that AF has been fine in almost every graphically intensive games I've played lately. The issue seems to be mostly sorted.

 

[RedSwirl]

those things run on platforms like android and ios - with consoles the console itself is the actual platform. That's part of what differentiates and makes consoles exciting (for me at least). Also, it's kinda funny that you neglect the entire history of console gaming where upgrades every year has never been a thing. Why are you comparing with these things again? Do you want your consoles to be like smartphones?

To be honest I think that has been an odd thing for consoles to do in this day and age. I don't think anybody would doubt modern consoles absolutely have operating systems. It's just that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo don't make those OSs out to be identities in and of themselves. At least not to the extent that other software sectors do. Sony kinda made a big deal about the cross media bar as a UI, and Microsoft made a big deal about major Xbox 360 OS updates. In fact I'd say the 360's superior OS was a major reason people chose it over the PS3, with features like in-game controls, custom soundtracks, and party chat. Not to mention Microsoft got into the console business in the first place because it was afraid Sony was going to use PlayStation as a gateway to get an OS into people's living rooms, and Xbox has been an attempt to do the same thing.

One of the dumbest things about this new generation in my opinion is how the PS4 and Xbox One have had to have updates to reclaim a lot of the OS features already in the PS3 and Xbox 360. It sucks that they couldn't just reuse and upgrade the OSs for those systems.

What I'm saying is, I think it's past due that console manufacturers moved on to centering their platforms around operating systems instead of static pieces of hardware. You can do that and still have a closed platform. It's what iOS is. It's probably what the NX is going to be. Microsoft is planning to bring Xbox into the Windows 10 family, and why shouldn't it?

Whenever discussions like this come up a lot of people seem to express fear at the notion that game consoles are no longer this special snowflake of an industry compared to other tech. They're really just computers primarily focused towards one task. It's just that we've spent the last 30 years being taught to think of them as toys by the way they're marketed.