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?

Game Streaming on PS4

The former head of Sony Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison, made some interesting comments about the next generation of consoles. The biggest one: game streaming.

Streaming has become a huge source of video entertainment for everyone. We watch movies from Amazon Netflix on our game consoles, computers, and TV. It’s everywhere.

Harrison believes that next-gen consoles, like PlayStation 4, will steer away from the current generation of consoles in a multitude of ways, one of which is game media. Instead of spending fifty-bucks for a disc, you’ll charge a credit card or use points to purchase rights to stream a game, just like we do for Netflix.

Why? He thinks it will be a more service-based model than a retail one, since companies like Sony learned a lesson when they overspent during the development of the PS3.

He said:

“The new business model is going to become a combination of retail and services, and it’s going to be an interesting decision for the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, is the next console race about chips and CPU, clock speed and graphics, or is it about business models and monetization and discovery, and I think it’s probably going to be about the latter.”

But is that smart? Probably not. What if your router crashes for a day? How are you going to play your favorite game without being connected to the internet? That’s a major flaw, which is why this just seems silly as the only form of game media. It needs to be something on your harddrive or in your room, that you can access even when offline.

I mean, it would be nifty if some games were streamed, if it were cheap. More casual games, not directly geared towards dedicated gamers.

That may make PS more social, as well. Maybe if the PS4 can have a balance, it will be perfect.

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