
Sony announces PS4 with 8-core x86 processor, 8GB GDDR5 memory and DualShock 4 - recoiledsnake
http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2013/02/21/sony-announces-playstation-4/
======
huhtenberg
If their recent rework of the Playstation Store is any indication, the PS4 is
_doomed_. They are just Microsoft II - on the surface it ticks all the boxes,
but the resulting experience sucks balls. As if it were designed, implemented,
but never actually used before the release.

When PS3 came out, it was excellent. It was an adult-oriented _standalone_
console that worked well as a media center and it was also really well
designed. It was true to the spirit of old Sony electronics - a self-
sufficient device with a polished interface that matched its function. Sure it
had a hook up to the Internet and PSN, but it was secondary. But then they
started "improving" things. First, you got promo ads in the corner of the home
screen. Never asked for a permission, no way to turn them off, even by
disabling the network connection. So _my_ device was little bit less mine.
Then they started pushing "selected apps"- Netflix-Shmetflix and what not.
Again, without asking, just because it was good for me, and, again, the device
became even less mine. At the same time they increased the font size and
replaced that beautiful Navier-Stokes visualization of a loading indicator
with some generic spinner clock thingy. Sprinkled some other crap over the UI.

Just now imagine your old Sony cassette deck deciding to show you ads for new
Justin Bieber album and offering to share shit on Facebook. That's PS3 _now_.
So it's hardly surprising that I have no hope and zero expectations that PS4
will be anything else but a disappointment.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
It doesn't matter if they are Microsoft II since Microsoft is their only
competition in this space.

~~~
vecter
I don't know why you're saying that, disruption is right around the corner:

<http://greenthrottle.com/> \- Play mobile games on your TV

<http://www.bluestacks.com/> \- Play mobile games on your PC

<http://www.ouya.tv/> \- Android gaming console

[http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/6/3958162/valve-steam-box-
cak...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/6/3958162/valve-steam-box-cake) \- Play
games sold on Steam directly on your TV

~~~
phaus
With the exception of the steam box, you listed mobile gaming platforms.

Mobile games thus far can be placed into one of two categories:

A: Ports of obsolete PC/Console games with terrible control schemes.

B: Casual games.

The last time around, Sony tried to position itself as the platform for
hardcore gamers. It appears that they are doing the same thing with the PS4.
Hardcore gamers only play casual games either when they are away from home, or
when they don't have time to play on their platform of choice. I'm not sure
who technically won between Sony and MS, but it wasn't a landslide victory.

Don't get me wrong, casual games are great. Nintendo, Apple and Google have
proven that there is a huge market for casual games, and it probably has a
larger market than there is for hardcore gaming, I don't really know. Even if
it is, that doesn't necessarily mean that traditional gaming is going to die.

~~~
city41
The Ouya is a console with a controller. It won't just be casual games and it
won't suffer from terrible control schemes. I have my doubts it will do much
to Sony, but I'm glad to see the additional options coming.

~~~
ekianjo
Ouya is not even out yet, and just because it found 100 000 clients on
Kickstarter does not mean it will be much bigger once it reaches the market.
And it's probably "too cheap" in terms of hardware to motivate anyone serious
with gaming to buy it.

~~~
ekianjo
mrbill, not sure if you know but you are [dead]. Anyway, for me being serious
about gaming is not just about playing good games of all ages, but also keep
trying NEW games. I would not be satisfied playing with the Atari 2600
forever.

------
jpxxx
There were quite a few true innovations shown off in this endless whatever:

\-- silent preloading of games you may be interested in

\-- immediate local play of digital titles while they download

\-- OnLive/Gaikai style video streaming of full disc games you haven't yet
purchased

\-- rolling video replay of your screen as a core system service

\-- Mobile-style instant system hibernation

\-- continuously streaming your display to remote friends

\-- allowing remote friends to assume control over your currently playing game

All of these are welcome, but "play the full game as a streamed demo" and
"preload digital games of likely interest" are brilliant, wiping out so many
pain points from digital software purchasing.

(and back to cynicism: every game they showed off was pre-rendered nonsense,
their target market is plateauing at best, mobile's strangling them, etc etc
etc)

~~~
Andrenid
All of those features require constant data streams except one.

In a country like Australia where we have data caps, pretty much the ONLY
feature above that will actually benefit us, is the feature that involves us
turning the console off.

Ironic.

~~~
zurn
The PS4 sounds like a pretty good reason for consumers to demand capless data.
Along with services like Netflix this should diminish the market for crippled
net access.

~~~
chii
consumers can demand all they want. it downy doesn't mean they will get
anything. the bandwidth problem in Australia is due to the small population,
and distance from the rest of the world.

------
misnome
I read this for a bit, and then did a double take on

"The new system uses a DualShock 4 controller with a touchpad, share button,
lightbar and headphone jack."

I know the one thing that I have been missing on all consoles to date is a
share button! It doesn't go far enough though, it really should have separate
share buttons for each of the online services I use!

~~~
Cushman
You joke, but "Record that awesome thing that just happened" is a button video
games have been needing for a long, long time.

~~~
drewblaisdell
The future does not look like more buttons for increasingly specific
functions.

~~~
jamesaguilar
The evidence suggests it does. How much of this belief do you base on your
ideals and how much is based on reality?

There used to be just game buttons (joystick + one button on Atari, for ex).
There there were start and select. Then there was a console-specific power
button (the "XBox" button and the "PS3" button on the Xbox controller and DS3
respectively). Now there's a share button. I dunno dude, it looks like the
arrow of history is actually pointing the opposite direction from what you
said in this comment.

~~~
ekianjo
The Xbox button and PS buttons are not "specific" since they have several
functions - they pop up a menu where you can access a long list of functions.
Having a single button for sharing to your network is borderline stupid, since
it will flood the social networks with useless crap nobody cares about.

~~~
jamesaguilar
twitch.tv and Machinima claim that more than nobody cares about sharing of
video game clips.

~~~
TillE
Game streaming is popular because of the personalities and explanations.
Without narration, the vast majority of videogame clips are just cold and
sterile, and not at all 'social'.

"Look at this cool thing I did" is the go-to example in this kind of demo, but
in reality nobody cares. We want a human voice.

~~~
jamesaguilar
You don't think they'll capture the mic in multiplayer? That would surprise
me.

~~~
ekianjo
Mic capture and narration is different.

~~~
jamesaguilar
?? Mic capture is all that's needed for the narration like what happens on
twitch.tv.

------
kstrauser
Slow. Golf. Clap.

Sony, you finally showed up to the party with hardware that devs actually know
how to use and optimize for. While Cell was cool, it took ages before anyone
knew what to do with it. Thank you for going with something more common!

~~~
stusmall
I'm a little disappointed to be honest. Easier to approach, easier to optimize
for... but since when has console development been an accessible market? Maybe
its a naive outsiders view, but it will take more than a commodity instruction
set to make console gaming an easy target.

~~~
robinh
Actually, there've been a lot of complaints from developers that it was much
easier to develop games for the 360 than for the PS3. Thus, this is an
unsurprising move from Sony.

~~~
Argote
Microsoft does dev tools remarkably well.

------
grecy
I have to wonder if Sony and Mircosoft are dooming themselves to rapid
obsolescence by moving to x86 hardware...

In three years it's going to be too easy to compare the specs and quality to
the latest and greatest pcs.

EDIT: I'm watching the live stream now:
[http://www.gamespot.com/features/playstation-
meeting-2013-ps...](http://www.gamespot.com/features/playstation-
meeting-2013-ps4-announcement-6403818/?tag=Topslot%3bPlaystationMeeting2013Live%3bWatchThePlaystationMee%3bGoNow)

~~~
rayiner
It's PC gaming that's on the way to obsolescence. I tried to help set up a
game for my brother in law (he's 12) on my brother's not-too-ancient PC. Steam
wouldn't start and we'd lost the activation code for the game (printed on the
manual). Which we found out only after we'd spent 30 minutes installing the
game. I was minutes worth of patience away from just going out and buying him
an XBox.

~~~
nightski
This single troublesome incident does not really say anything about the status
of PC gaming, sorry. You could of just as easily experienced a red ring of
death with the Xbox 360.

~~~
rayiner
I don't think it's true that, statistically, I'd be just as likely to
experience the red ring of death than to lose a manual, have to run an
installer for a game, or have problems getting software started up. With a
console, there would've been a 99.9% probability of just handing the kid the
game, starting it up, and leave him to play it.

~~~
tapoxi
Not so with the Xbox 360, I'll cite Wikipedia on this one:

On February 8, 2008, during the Game Developers Conference 2008, Microsoft
announced that the "Failure rate has officially dropped", but without
mentioning any specifics.[28] The same month, electronics warranty provider
SquareTrade published an examination of 1040 Xbox 360's and said that they
suffered from a failure rate of 16.4% (one in six).

Personally I'm on my third Xbox 360 after the first suffered a Red Ring of
Death failure and the second had a faulty DVD drive that killed any inserted
disk, destroying my copy of Rock Band. It actually convinced me to switch to
gaming on the PC, as I refused to trust my Xbox and I didn't want it to fail
until I had finished the Mass Effect trilogy.

~~~
ekianjo
Yeah, the Xbox360 hardware is unreliable at best. I never used my first
Xbox360 for long hours nor in extreme conditions and yet in less than one year
after purchase it did the RROD thing. It was one of the first models, so this
may have improved, but this does not leave a very good image of the product.

------
blhack
Remember the Xbox? It was almost exactly an off-the-shelf PC.

Those of you chiding the PS4 for being the same thing seem to forget how well
xbox has worked out for microsoft.

The average person playing video games does not care what makes the video
games go.

~~~
dclowd9901
And certainly not when that platform makes it easier for more interesting
games from indie developers to make appearances on the system.

------
tibbon
When the PS3 was announced it had a hefty feature set, some of which did _not_
happen on launch, or ever.

Things that didn't happen: Two HDMI ports, three ethernet ports, and six USB
ports.

Backwards PS2 compatability, multiple card reader formats, and SACD support
were all dropped later on. Ones that do support SACDs still no longer support
digital surround output.

I love my PS3, but Sony seems to have quite a history of over-promising and
under-delivering with these announcements, and then cutting features that they
launched with down the line as well.

~~~
uvTwitch
I'm not really sure that dropping dual-HDMI, tri-Ethernet and hexa-USB is such
a big loss for a videogame console.

~~~
tibbon
No, but PS2 computability and SACD over digital going away really sucked.

The point is more that Sony sells the systems at these announcements as having
everything, and eventually... have less.

------
yk

        "
        There is background uploading and downloading, allowing the console to update game and system items in the background even if the main power is off. [...] 
    
        This is enabled by a secondary processor that allows for background work while the main processor is handling gameplay.
       "
    

Hopefully one day there will be a time sharing multi user environment, then we
will no longer need dedicated hardware for updates.

Aside from this, I am somewhat undecided if the PS4 could be interesting. The
Kinect+Move controller sounds good, if it is implemented well ( and the
libraries are anywhere close to the Kinect ones). And the hardware seems to me
okay, roughly what one would expect from a new console. On the other hand, I
do not see anything like the blue ray drive of the PS3, a really compelling
reason why I should get a PS4 instead of an xBox ( or an upgrade to the PC
that sits next to my TV).

~~~
wmf
Yeah, the secondary processor thing sounds odd to me. Couldn't they reserve
one core for background processing? I doubt games will use all 8 cores anyway.

~~~
Aissen
The PS3 could do that. Except it didn't work well for a few games. I remember
horrible frame drop experience on Assassin's Creed, which was due to a game or
demo that was downloading in the background.

Also, think of the power user case. I'd much prefer a 3W processor waking up
during the night doing silent updates, instead of the whole 100W monster (or
maybe a fifth of that if they do intelligent power-gating).

------
betterunix
Sounds great, but I will not be buying one. Sorry Sony, but after what you did
to the PS3 I do not think anyone can trust you or your products.

------
mtgx
You can watch the event on Youtube:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noRJ15T4qb4&list=PLE19672...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noRJ15T4qb4&list=PLE196726F02565118&index=1)

~~~
eco
IGN appears to be streaming a capture of the official UStream stream complete
with buffering animations and stuttering.

<http://www.ustream.tv/playstation>

------
grecy
"Our security comes at a high price: our freedom."

"We already live in a culture of fear"

That just got political real fast.

(From the live stream)

~~~
arrrg
Yay, hypocritically using currently trendy counter-culture politics to market
super-violent video games! It truly is the future!

(Game’s no doubt gonna be awesome, though. So I forgive their dumb marketing
shenanigans.)

------
UK-AL
They should just open up the PlayStation store like the app store. Sure you'd
have a lot of crap, but the market will sort that out and they won't rise to
the top. It will be well worth it if any small studios develop a hit indie
game.

That would be far more revolutionary than social integration and some
buzzwords.

~~~
lnanek2
PlayStation Mobile is fairly open at least:
<https://psm.playstation.net/portal/en/index.html#register>

Console dev used to take special, expensive development kits, although moving
to a more PC like architecture will make a public SDK at an affordable price
more likely. Probably the easiest way to do it right now is to just use the
multi-platform Unity engine.

------
robomartin
[http://www.theonion.com/video/sony-releases-new-stupid-
piece...](http://www.theonion.com/video/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-
shit-that-doesnt,14309/)

Sorry, couldn't resist.

------
rbn
So basically a desktop pc with "Social gaming features" and onLive?

~~~
betterunix
...and locked-down so that you cannot run the software you want, and the
ability for Sony to remove features whenever they want (and you cannot disable
that).

~~~
CountHackulus
That security is going to be disabled so fast it'll make Sony's head spin. x86
is a well known processor with a ton of corner cases, legacy code, and know
attacks that should make this a lot easier than the Cell, where no one really
knew how to attack an IBM LPAR.

~~~
keeperofdakeys
All three previous generation consoles were almost perfect in terms of the
security of their design, the problems were due to bugs in the software
implementations. As such the actual architecture of the processors didn't
matter too much.

------
ekianjo
The rumor that they would be using Gaikai to run previous games (PS2, PS3) was
actually true. This is no where as good as emulation, though, since there will
always be a tremendous lag during play, unless you live next door from the big
servers and have a flawless, fast connection with almost zero ping. Net, for
most people out there, this will be a terrible experience.

~~~
shurcooL
OnLive has shown there's surprisingly little lag with most above average
connections.

We'll see how it goes here, but I'm pretty sure it will be a good experience
(that will only get better as internet infrastructure and their servers
expand).

~~~
ekianjo
Well trying to access Onlive from Japan has been a bittersweet experience.

~~~
shurcooL
Yeah, it will make sense once they expand their servers to cover that area.

------
Nursie
Sooo..... Standard PC hardware but with a locked down software stack you can't
run anything but approved software on.

Why? I can't think of a single reason to buy this... unless there are some
really good exclusive games.

~~~
LinXitoW
A single hardware configuration with a single software configuration is
infinitely easier to target, test and optimize for than the free, but vast
landscape of PC configurations. Here's hoping the SteamBox will give us all
the advantages of consoles without being locked down for the more adventurous.

------
TillE
And some great digital distribution features. Finally, a modern console.

Even as a PC gamer, this is incredibly exciting. More powerful hardware means
you can do fancy graphics and still have plenty leftover for other features.
Every cross-platform title benefits.

~~~
polshaw
It's great for PC gaming for say the next 4 years, for the first time in ages
all AAA games will make decent use of a graphics card/features (with PCs
running higher res + less optimised) . After that it will be dire and
stagnated again. That is IF these consoles last as a major force past then..
the traditional advantages of consoles over PC gaming are a thing of the past
erroded from both sides; your console has constant required system updates, a
web browser, 0 day game updates, meanwhile your PC can now do instant-on, has
proper controller support (360), an app store (steam).

~~~
Argote
A proper gaming PC is still way more expensive than a console.

~~~
LinXitoW
More? Probably, although it depends on how you define proper, whether you
factor in aftermarket costs and whether you already have prior hardware lying
around(very likely with PCs).

But definitely not "way". The 600$ the PS4 is rumored to cost(yes, i know,
just a rumor) can get you a decent gaming rig.

------
modeless
Also a stereo camera for depth sensing and an always-on screen recorder that
lets you watch your friends' games in real time and save video screenshots
from any game.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
I wish there was screenshot functionality better integrated on the ps3. I want
some snapshots of Okami HD.

~~~
Lexarius
The PS3 does allow screenshots, but the game gets to decide whether or not to
let you do it. Press PS button and browse over to the Photos section. There
will be a screenshot option if the game OKs it. Sadly, most games don't seem
to have it enabled.

------
ececconi
I don't think the PS4 will save Sony from the mess that they are in. Is it
just me? I used to be so excited for new consoles to come out. Now I try to
get myself excited about the PS4, but can't.

Actually, I'm very excited about the next XBOX. Microsoft has been onto
something with the whole gaming thing.

~~~
jmduke
How old were you when the PS3 came out? When the PS2 came out? Now?

~~~
ececconi
mid twenties now late teens ps3 early teens ps2

~~~
ithkuil
mid thirties here and I did have a blink of excitement when I read the word
"PS4", like "oh I forgot there was such thing to wait for, yay".

It lasted 4 beautiful seconds. Not sure whether to blame Sony though...

------
mirsadm
I'll be more interested when I see actual games running on it. Sony is well
known for showning cut scenes of games running "in real time" on the PS<insert
number>. I am sure that the PS4 can play pre rendered movies really well in
real time but I'd like to see the actual game.

~~~
wmf
There's a guy onstage playing games.

------
Corrado
My thought is that no matter what the next generation of gaming platform looks
like (Steam Box, PS4, XBox 720, etc.) the network is going to be the weak
link. If cable/satellite/telephone companies don't get their head out of their
ass we wont be able to take advantage of all this functionality. Sure,
downloading games and updates in the background sounds cool, until your 10MB
DSL bogs down and your game drops to 5fps. :(

This is another area where Google will blow the doors off of the competition.
Or at least get them to upgrade their offerings so that we can actually use
these gaming boxes like they are supposed to be used. Yea, right. Oh well, I
guess that the Kansas City folks will be happy anyway.

------
mikevm
This is interesting:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Aparad...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Aparadox3d.net%2Fblog%2Fdirect3d11-ps4.html&oq=cache%3Aparadox3d.net%2Fblog%2Fdirect3d11-ps4.html&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)

> We are pleased to announce that we have ported Paradox Engine and Yebis
> Post-Processing Middleware on PS4 last year. In order to successfully
> achieve this, we have managed to develop a full compatible
> Direct3D11/DXGI/D3DCompiler API on top of PS4 existing graphics API. We plan
> to use also this layer to port other middleware developed at our company.

------
yRetsyM
Can someone enlighten me - there choice of x86 processor, does this mean it's
a 32bit platform? not a 64 bit one? And if so, how does this affect them with
the imminent change that's happening on desktop moving towards 64bit?

~~~
Filligree
Welcome to 2013, 64-bit took over the world years ago.

There are no 32-bit x86 processors for sale anymore. "x86" means x86_64 as
well.

------
hakaaaaak
There was a study that came out years ago that stated that the closer
something comes to looking real without being real, the more it is mentally
rejected.

I like the eye candy I've seen in beginning of the PS4 gameplay of Watch Dogs:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PODJJN3fTME>

But I really notice the roughness, like when he slows down after running
across the street, and the unrealistic smooth circular pans that don't
accelerate and decelerate like a normal panning movie camera would.

And, of course I think the Atari 2600 was the best home gaming console ever
invented.

~~~
kevincrane
I think you're thinking of the uncanny valley:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley>

------
veidr
Was nothing at all said about _when_ this product will actually be available?
Neither the OP nor the five other random PS4 announcement articles seem to
have any info on that.

~~~
MartinCron
Patience, man. The press event isn't even done yet.

------
twotwotwo
I expect HN to be all over it when this is made to run its first unsigned
code, and again when someone has a full Linux distro running on it. Don't let
me down, friends.

------
TomGullen
"Kotaku added that there's also a headphone jack but it's unclear whether this
will end up on the final product."

Can someone explain to me why this even requires thought from Sony? A
headphone port costs like 5p each when mass producing them surely? You get a
lot of value added for that 5p. Is this to simplified? Can someone who knows
more about factory production elaborate?

~~~
jellicle
Sony is probably thinking "Someone will hook this jack up their cassette deck
and record our proprietary music and sound effects". Seriously.

~~~
edandersen
Instead of just enabling 2ch PCM from the optical audio port and recording
perfect output from there.

------
ddorian43
What advantage has the GDDR5 ram from the normal ddr3 in pc? From quick
searching gddr5 has more bandwidth and ddr3 has less latency.

~~~
binarycrusader
GDDR is really a requirement when it comes to graphics chipsets when you want
to max out fill rate, etc. Now consider that this sports a unified memory
architecture for the CPU and GPU.

Armchair programmer speculation: The latency of GDDR5 matters less when you
don't have to transfer data back and forth between system memory and GPU
memory. In fact, effective latency should be less all things considered
compared to a traditional PC architecture.

This might also prove useful as a reference:
[http://solidlystated.com/hardware/difference-between-gddr-
an...](http://solidlystated.com/hardware/difference-between-gddr-and-ddr/)

------
ekianjo
Meh, not really impressed. Specs are good but they will not look so good in 3
years time. Nothing really new under the hood. This is indeed a machine of the
big administrative company known as Sony. This seems more like the common
architecture will favor PC gaming and conversions in the end.

~~~
rayiner
> Specs are good but they will not look so good in 3 years time.

Are you sure? My brother's got a 3 GHz Core 2/8800 GTX/4GB RAM system. Judging
from the release dates of the parts, it would've come out in 2007 (5-6 years
ago). That could still probably run some great games if developers continued
to optimize for it. 3 years ago would be more like Nehalem core i7 and GeForce
300 graphics. Still very serviceable, again assuming game companies continue
to optimize for it.

PC hardware improvements have really slowed dramatically since the 1990's and
early 2000's.

~~~
ekianjo
> PC hardware improvements have really slowed dramatically since the 1990's
> and early 2000's.

Well you cannot double frequency anymore on chips if that is what you are
referring to. But there are more and more cores, and GPUs is where the
innovation is happening (and that's what matters with games). A 2 years old
graphic card does not compare well with a new graphic card at the same price
nowadays. I usually renew my PC hardware every 2 years or so and I definitely
see the difference when I do in games and how well they run on the new config.
And I stopped turning on my xbox and PS3 a while ago when I could have full HD
games on my PC at great frame rates - playing on console then became slow
(loading times) and ugly (certainly not as good as on PC).

------
maaku
"Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these..." ( _No, seriously._ )

This puts peta-scale APU computing into the sub-$500k range. That's affordable
by a (funded) startup, and there are certainly interesting things one could do
with that kind of supercomputing firepower.

------
6thSigma
Soo.. can it play used games?

~~~
agent86
Looks like it can!

[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-21-sony-tells-
euro...](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-21-sony-tells-eurogamer-
playstation-4-will-not-block-used-games)

------
gavanwoolery
Curious as to the price point. Could make a good cheap computer if cracked...

------
Farox
I really don't want any of those networking/social features and I am pretty
sure we're doomed to use them. I think I am going to pass on this one.

------
mikeevans
Surprising, they didn't even show the console.

------
Yuioup
This confirms Visual Studio as the de-facto standard for game development. It
explain's Microsoft's recent embrace of Git.

~~~
bvdbijl
What do those two things have to do with each other?

~~~
Yuioup
Git is optimized for large files like game assets.

------
sergiotapia
Any ideas on what format the games will come in? I haven't bought a ps3
because there are no pirated copies sold here in Bolivia and 80$ for a game is
entirely too expensive for a third world country budget.

I have a 360 because I can buy burned games on a dvd-dl for 3$ a pop.

------
dschiptsov
x86_64 CPU/GPU hybrid chip and common DDR5 memory is nice idea (if they have
big CPU caches). I would like to run Linux or it.)

------
ne0codex
So when can I install linux on it?

------
ajasmin
This thing would make a great server. Though, I don't think Sony will ever
change their stance on Linux support.

~~~
cperciva
Why would they want to hand out subsidized consoles to people who aren't going
to pay for games to run on them? The only way it would make sense for them to
let you run Linux would be if "Linux" was a game they sold for $300 (or
whatever the difference is between the hardware cost and the console sale
price -- I'm guessing wildly here).

------
beedogs
So, uh, no backwards compatibility with PS3 games?

This is going to put Sony out of business.

~~~
btgeekboy
It's not like the PS3 had PS2 backwards compatibility for very long - hardware
support was phased out within a few short months, and software emulated
support within a year[1]. I'd say it worked out pretty well for them thus far.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps3>

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huhsamovar
No price. No release date. No hardware. What is this? A Microsoft product
launch?

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JulianMorrison
So they built a PC, and branded it.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Welcome to every console since the PS2/XBOX generation. Your comment is about
as useful as saying "oh, so it's just a computer?"

~~~
ajasmin
Nintendo still try to be creative when it comes to hardware. The Wii was
innovative and the Wii U is... unique.

~~~
InclinedPlane
You could say the same about the PS4 though, it has a stereo-optical camera,
for example. Ultimately all modern consoles are going to be a bit like a "PC",
whether the processor is a Power architecture or an x86 or ARM or whatever.

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shmerl
For such specs it's better to buy a general purpose computer, since it'll be
way more useful.

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daimyoyo
I hate to be a Negative Nancy, but I genuinely don't give a shit what Sony
does. After their persecution of Geohot for having the audacity to crack their
perfect little box, I refused to patronize them at all and a shiny new widget
isn't going to change that. Sony is not the kind of company hackers should be
patonizing. Please don't let the new toy make you forget what they've done in
the past.

