The Features We’d Like to See on the PlayStation 4

We all know just how popular the PlayStation 3 has become since its launch in 2007. It’s true to say that it had a bit of a rocky start, but now – five years later – it stands alongside the Xbox 360 and Wii as one of the ‘standard’ home consoles. It keeps countless millions of us glued to our chaise sectional as we explore imagined lands and beat our friends at football. As time goes on, though, we’re hearing more and more about the PlayStation 4. If you’re a frequent visitor to this site, you’ll likely already have plenty of knowledge about what the PlayStation 4 may look, feel, and play like, but we thought it’d be fun to come up with our own wish list for features that we’d love to see. Without further ado, here they are.

Full motion control (alongside the Dual Shock)

First off, let’s make one thing clear: we don’t want the Dual Shock controller to go anywhere. There’s a reason that it’s been standard issue with PlayStation consoles for over ten years: it’s a great controller. With that out of the way, it’d be great to see the PlayStation 4 feature full motion control built-in. That means no having to buy an expensive add-on (we’re looking at you, PlayStation Move). Just a motion control system built-in to the system that just works. Similar to the Kinect and the Wii, but slightly less ‘gimmicky’. If that’s possible.

A bigger and better hard drive

The PlayStation 3 has been through numerous iterations, and at present it seems the two best-selling models are the 160GB and 320GB versions. The latter is OK for now – it’ll take you a long time to fill up 320,000 MB with games, videos, and such. As the digital world moves on to bigger and higher bitrate forms of media, we’re going to need something a little bigger to hold them with. Whether downloadable games or HD movies, having a hard drive of at least a terabyte should be just fine (they’re pretty cheap to buy for PCs now, so it’s not too much of an ask).

Full PlayStation Vita integration and streaming

The PlayStation Vita is the latest addition to Sony’s family, and it’s essentially a portable PS3. With great games like Uncharted available at launch, it looks like it’ll be a good seller. We’ve already heard that gamers may be able to stream PS3 output to the Vita, but nothing is set in stone yet. With the PS4, we’d hope that Sony will fully integrate the Vita – so you could use it as a controller, to play minigames, as an inventory, or just to stream full titles. It’s an exciting thought in any case.

A faster blu-ray drive

The fact that it has a blu-ray player was one of the biggest selling points of the PS3. In fact, it’s one of the reasons that blu-ray is still doing so well. But the drive hasn’t always been that great in terms of loading speeds. PlayStation 3 games famously have some of the longest load times in the industry (Metal Gear Solid 4 is a prime example). With the PS4, we’d hope that Sony will integrate a faster BD player that can load games much more quickly.

Full backwards compatibility

When the PS3 first hit the shelves, it had backwards compatitbilty for both PS1 and PS2 titles. This was great, and it made perfect sense. But following feedback from consumers about the quality of the PS2 graphics (fuzziness and some other things), Sony removed the functionality from future PS3 models. Many people were upset by this, so it’d be ideal if Sony could implement full backwards compatibility with the next PlayStation – so it’ll play PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 titles. It’s a tall order, yes, but that makes it no less awesome.

There you have it: five great features we’d love to see on the PS4. Word isn’t yet out about when we can expect the PlayStation 4 (maybe some time in 2013?), but in the meantime we can all dream can’t we? What do you think, and what would your ‘dream’ features be for the next iteration of the PlayStation series?

Playstation 4 announced at E3 in 2012?

There has recently been an increase in the number of Playstation 4 rumors being repeated throughout the internet, with the coming of the new year a lot of blogs have been reporting that the Playstation 4 would be announced formally at this years E3… which did not seem completely impossible. Just based on the sheer number of references to this rumor it seemed almost true… But it isn’t.

Speaking to reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday, Sony Computer Entertainment chairman Kazuo Hirai said his company won’t be unveiling a new console at the E3 Gaming Expo this summer. From the Wallstreet journal

Sony Corp. said it doesn’t plan to introduce a new home console at this year’s E3 videogame trade show, deflating expectations that a successor to the company’s PlayStation 3 would be on its way soon.

Although Hirai’s statement seems to belittle the hopes that Sony would be unveiling the next PlayStation at E3, it does not however mean that Sony will not unveil the next generation console at some point during 2012… Just not likely at E3.

Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House stated this week that the company wasn’t “contemplating talking about anything to do with future console iterations at this point,” adding that Sony was “just entering into this great period for PS3.”

This past holiday season the Playstation 3 sold more than 3.9 million units… for many at Sony this is a sign that a new console is not yet needed, and puts more weight on the “10 year console lifespan” that so many at Sony have been striving for. The longer Sony can hold out on the next generation console, presumably the more advanced it will be… consider for a moment the competition that exists between console developers, if Sony’s next generation console is released too soon it will not be able to take advantage of many of the online and web development changes taking place right now and if it is released too late then the console will suffer sales figures against other competitive consoles (the next generation Xbox).

Many of the E3 2012 release rumors seem to stem from the fact that Nintendo is launching the WiiU in 2012, and while the Wii is certainly a gaming console it is not one that Playstation is really in direct competition with… something gamers the world over know, and Sony them selves have stated. So the launch of a new Wii does little to push the Playstation 4 announcement any closer, however an announcement regarding the next generation Xbox would be much different.

With all of this information available, and the statements made by various Sony staffers, it can be determined that an E3 announcement, for the Playstation 4  is not coming in 2012… and to be honest it seems there is little evidence that there will be any announcement from Sony regarding a new console during 2012. Leaving us waiting, anxious, and enjoying our Playstation 3.

Whats the rush anyways?

 

 

 

Will Apple Make PS4 Worthless?

I’m sure I’m not the only one amused by Best Buy commercials mocking the lightning-fast speed of new technology constantly updating the market. The one that sticks out the most is the 4G commercial with Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber: “What’s a Bieber?”

The entire point of those commercials is that, when you finally save up the money and buy the next big gadget you’ve wanted (like the iPad or iPhone), the next one hits the market within a few months, sometimes weeks. Now there is the iPad 2 and iPhone 4, one for each year the device has been on the market (and that gets expensive).

The Epic Games leader, Mike Capps, weighed in on the effect that Apple will have on PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720: in short, he said the next generation consoles are completely worthless.

In a way, he’s almost right. Look at how quickly smartphones have taken over the market. Now they run on dual-core with 1GhZ RAM, remarkable for a portable device that is supposed to only do phone calls and texts. Games like Angry Birds flood the market, playable everywhere and addicting in their simplicity. But what if smartphones went one step further into console territory?

What Capps means is that, with the way iPhone keeps excelling, it makes sense that in a few years (like the iPhone 8 ) will be able to work as a controller and console in one. Simply plug into the TV and play.

While this seems possible, why would anyone want to rely on the same device for both gaming and phone calls? And I know a few of you have thrown a controller when a little PO’d at a game: imagine you threw your console everytime you threw a controller. That’s just plain silly!

But the thing that seems interesting: smartphones progress much faster than consoles, always getting faster and better. If someone wanted to buy the Xbox 720 or PS4, they’re shelling out at least $500 for the console and guts.

So, what would be a good solution to this predicament? One way would be to have a console “shell”, kind of like a tower, that can have pieces upgraded as Sony or Microsoft release better technology. Yeah, you’d probably end up spending more over time, but at least it would be optional instead of having to buy an entire new console every few years – and it would always be top of the line!

What do you think? Rumors abound about Xbox 720 and PS4 release dates, but is this just nonsense? Is Capps right?

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