Kotaku: Sony is working on a ‘PS4.5; briefing devs on plans for a more powerful PS4

JordanN said:
I find this ironic since they're the ones who started it.

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If anything, the blame is on them.
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That is an unfair comparison.

But if we are going to play by that rules.

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Edit: I hope is ok to respond to such an early post.
 
Optimusdouche said:
I guess you never bought a phone either, since at any given time a better model is on its way in less than year.
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You're right, but I know that when I buy a brand new phone. When I bought my PS4, I didn't know I was going to have to upgrade my console to have the best possible experience on that console in a year.
 
If this is true, I'd rather let it run games on solid 60fps and 1080p.
Looks far more useful than 4K, which not many people have anyway in terms of TV.
 
rauelius said:
Look at Phones. We are up to the iPhone 6s right now, with the iPhone 7 coming up soon. In the year 2016, the iPhone 5 is still a relevant device, and can play 99.999999999999% of the same apps as the iPhone 6s. In fact I'd go so far as to say that even the iPhone 4s can about that many games.

So, using the Apple iOS ecosystem (It's about as closed as the consoles, so it is comparable) of software and devices as an example. Lets say that the XBOne/PS4 we got in 2013 can play 99.9999999999% of the same games as an XBOne/PS4 from 4 Generations later, but at lower quality settings. Bear in mind the cadence of the console updates won't likely be yearly, and most likely every 3 years. So the PS4/XBOne we all got in 2013 will still be able to play games released in 2023...that's a 10 YEAR life cycle...at which point Sony/MS can do like apple and drop support for the earliest generation device upon the release of it's newest device....

It works for phones, it works for graphics cards, why shouldn't it work with consoles especially considering the breakneck speed at which technology is advancing.
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It works for phones because the phone industry is not comparable in terms of being able to walk into any high street game shop and get a 24 month contract for a PS4. Equally people justify phones in entirely different ways as by and large they use them a lot more throughout the day.

It will not work for consoles - you will fragment your user base. If you're proposing a PC like system, people will just go to PC's. Sure people will remain, but you are more likely to lose people than attract people with multiple iterations of a mainstream console.
 
The current Canadian dollar means there's no way I can afford this.

I bought a PS4 when the dollar was still good, hoping to get at least 5 years of it being top dog in the console space.

Not looking forward to afterthought versions of AAA games.
 
I just thought what if at E3 there is another trailer for The Last Guardian and then a fade to black. And then the following words pop up slowly one after the other.

Only

On

PlayStation

4

.5
 
Protann said:
You're right, but I know that when I buy a brand new phone. When I bought my PS4, I didn't know I was going to have to upgrade my console to have the best possible experience on that console in a year.
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So if it isn't the best possible experience, it's trash? I presume you're gaming on a 120" rear projection setup with a Dolby Atmos capable surround sound system.
 
Zoetis said:
.
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Will Microsoft do the same?

IMO a great thing for consoles.

You can stay on your old machine but you should deal with the sacrifices etc and for the guys that need the best and newest shit there is the upgraded version.

Would Upgrade ASAP. (Yes if i want more i could play on PC blabla but im not a pc player and dont care about it)
 
DigSCCP said:
Where would we go to that "You develop for one PS4, you develop for 36 million" Sony just showed in one of those PSVR presentations?
Honestly I hope this never happen.
Devs will always target the biggest audience, wich means the weakest SKU, and the chances of we get even longer gens with only res + FPS + some assets being better is huge.
And if I wanted that I would have a PC, not a console
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So there's nothing wrong with that. Developers will target the biggest audience, which means the weakest SKU. Which means no game will look bad no matter what SKU you use. It'll just look a little better on the newer SKU, which will sadly be the face of marketing. We will see all these crazy looking games with captions "RUNNING REAL TIME ON PLAYSTATION 4 HARDWARE" with a small asterisk at the bottom saying "*Running on PS4K Hardware". However, the older and biggest audience will never get left behind. They'll never leave behind XBO audience, or NX audience as well.

JumPeRJumPzZ said:
Will Microsoft do the same?

IMO a great thing for consoles.

You can stay on your old machine but you should deal with the sacrifices etc and for the guys that need the best and newest shit there is the upgraded version.

Would Upgrade ASAP. (Yes if i want more i could play on PC blabla but im not a pc player and dont care about it)
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Microsoft is definitely doing the same. They already announced it that they're looking into the idea of having upgraded systems in the market, treating "Xbox" as a brand to have the confidence in, and the systems as a PC.
 
I guess that people will get angry down the line when Sony announces the PS5, why buy a PS4 when PS5 will play both PS4 and PS5 games?

yeah stupid analogy but it sounds that way when people are angry at Sony potentially releasing a PS4.5
 
RiccochetJ said:
Ha! Indeed :D



I don't think so. New phones and tablets come out every year with enhanced hardware. Multiple CPU's and graphics cards are released every year.

People have the choice to upgrade and I think that's a great thing.

The caveat is that MS and Sony have to give us guarantees to invest in their hardware. The people saying that they would have waited longer are just lying to themselves. Are you really going to wait to play the next Uncharted? Some will. Some won't.

But there has to be a guarantee that your console isn't going to be obsolete in 2 years. I think 5 years is a good number.
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5 years is indeed quite fine indeed. I remember MS at the start of this console generation saying this gen was going to last 8 to 10 years or so? But that clearly wasn't going to happen. Unless they had those upgrade plans in mind al along.

It's going to be a damn interesting year though. Who knows what both Sony and MS will do and of course the NX reveal. Very interesting times ahead.

Last year I couldn't have imagined that we'd be talking about a improved Xbox One and PS4.
 
JumPeRJumPzZ said:
Will Microsoft do the same?

IMO a great thing for consoles.

You can stay on your old machine but you should deal with the sacrifices etc and for the guys that need the best and newest shit there is the upgraded version.

Would Upgrade ASAP. (Yes if i want more i could play on PC blabla but im not a pc player and dont care about it)
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Well MS was already teasing this and Sony is doing it so it happening with Xbox too.
 
Protann said:
I mean, if Sony's trying to turn the PS4 into a PC with these incremental hardware upgrades, why not just build a PC and get all the benefits of that platform?
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Why not indeed? The argument is that with a console, you plug it in and it just works. By guaranteeing that all the components are the same across all the consoles, it's on Sony to make sure that the firmware is up to date, all the patches are up to date, and the system is working properly. Note how they block you from even going online until you've downloaded the latest update.

That's not the case for PCs.
 
The Lone Courier said:
I just thought what if at E3 there is another trailer for The Last Guardian and then a fade to black. And then the following words pop up slowly one after the other.

Only

On

PlayStation

4

.5
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While such an event could create delicious drama I don't see Sony being stupid enough to do this. Whatever benefits they can get out of making it for a more powerful console it will not be worth the negative ill will.
 
Edit: in another thread, I said that I couldn't see multiple console releases like the cell phone market being viable. One offs like "we have one for people who have 4K TVs" are more plausible than 12-24month releases though

formasymphonic said:
People are used to buy phones every year or two due to heavy subsidisation and that the monthly cost is mentally written off as the costs for calls/texts/data etc. On top of that the phones are always with them and can get heavy day in / day out use leading to wear and tear over the life time usage.

Those aren't behaviours and mindsets that apply to consoles.

I could see MS pushing for Xbox branded hardware in terms of minimum spec PCs and laptops etc, but multiple consoles that they are expecting mass market to buy each year just doesn't seem like it would work to me. (Not on the scale they are hoping for anyway).
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How well received this is (and future console gens wil be), will depend entirely on

A) how these new consoles are positioned
B) if there ends up being functional disparity between them and their predecessors.


"A" needs to be "these are exactly the same, they just have more GPU so you can render at 4K for your new TV/watch 4K Blu-Rays"
"B" needs to not be a scenario where
- you start getting games that will only work on the newer consoles
- you start seeing features that will only work on the newer consoles
- games are pitched as designed to run on both consoles but ends up being lipservice only (poor performance on original PS4/XB1).

I also think that if this is going to be a thing from now on, it could hurt early adoption rates of future gens. A lot of people falsely proclaimed the death of consoles when the XB1+PS4 were announced and launched. But hypothetically — if we all knew/suspected that there would be "better" versions of the consoles before the gen is half way through — would the console adoption rate be where it is right now?
 
Tankard said:
What did Zoetis wrote, the replies to his post are empty (i mean not the "end of the year" one)?
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He basically just reconfirmed its actual upgraded hardware for devs to get better effects and framerates on. And not to worry about exclusive titles on it, by quoting someone else's post
 
TheHolyTurnip said:
No, but it won't play them as well and i already put down the money for the "old" model because there was no reason to think something for powerful would be coming out until the next Gen.
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Your PS4 won't play games as "well" as the newer model, but they won't play worse than what you're getting now.

And as for the money you put down on your PS4, you will most likely be able to trade it in and pay a (hopefully) small amount for the new model.
 
A PS4K is ok, if the idea is for 4k support and improved VR support for PS4 games.

It's going to be incredibly difficult to pull off correctly though, but Sony 2.0 after their ps3 blunders has the best chance of pulling it off. Consider me skeptical for now.

You are increasing demand of developers who now have to target two platforms, and I have concerns about PS4p games not running as they should since they now have the 4k version.

I also like PS4K as a name ;)
 
Don't care if it's an upgrade that plays all PS4 games.. and can play higher res... don't do this.

Splitting the market has never really worked in the past with consoles. Dev's would still need to program for it, give options for it, and test it. We haven't even seen most of the games announced from the start come to fruition yet.

I'm fine buying a whole new console in 2018.
 
Hmm.. interesting news. So running 4k games @ 30fps (I would assume the target FPS) is barely doable on Titan X (i.e. 12G of GDDR5 RAM). I'm thinking that they'd have to up the RAM on the PS4 to at least that much. TFLOPS would have to be many orders of magnitude higher than what is in the system now.

My conclusion, even if they were to make such a leap, I doubt many people would buy such a system and thus many devs would just not support it. VR would make this doable but that's not exactly 4k total res, so a lot of PR language there IMO.
 
PS4.5.... Intriguing but it would be a dream if they add backward compatibility from PS1 to PS4 and have a Final Fantasy 7 REMAKE limited edition console.
 
SalvaPot said:
That is an unfair comparison.

But if we are going to play by that rules.
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I'd say it's still fairly apt. New 3DS actually has a pretty substantial upgrade compared to any other handheld revision Nintendo has done. The CPU is really fast and now a quad-core, more RAM and VRAM too. GPU remained the same however.
 
Pennywise said:
KHw7FAE.png


#MakeThePS4GreatAgain

Trump-Sony is back.
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"And let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that Sony doesn't know what they're doing. They know exactly what they're doing. Sony is undertaking a systematic effort to change this console, to make PS4 more like the PC."
 
Suikoguy said:
A PS4K is ok, if the idea is for 4k support and improved VR support for PS4 games.

It's going to be incredibly difficult to pull off correctly though, but Sony 2.0 after their ps3 blunders has the best chance of pulling it off. Consider me skeptical for now.

You are increasing demand of developers who now have to target two platforms, and I have concerns about PS4p games not running as they should since they now have the 4k version.

I also like PS4K as a name ;)
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Super PS4 would be better.
 
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