Sony Big Announce Feb. 20: PS4? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

MS is pretty committed to showing 720 hardware (or whatever they will call it) at E3.  Developers already have dev kits and word is that hardware is finalized. This is very different then Sony, who is saying they haven't even finalized the hardware.   The more this story goes on, the more it seems as though it was an attempt to get some attention from MS who will be showing hardware with the next XBOX.   I'm not sure what Sony is doing.  I like the idea, but I'm not sure if this was handled very well.   The fact they didn't show hardware of any sort isn't the way this should have went on

Ah...that's the piece I was missing. I thought Sony was getting way, way out in front. More they're running scared in catch up. I found a few demos to watch. The Witness had super music, but the gameplay had nothing to commend it (tracing trivial mazes?) killzone had a jaw-dropping opening flyover that made me pine for a new Half Life. I'm curious what games look like in a year.

 

[Sam Posten]

Pretty funny; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rJDn0jRnUQ&feature=youtu.be More serious recap: http://www.youtube.com/embed/x7QhUL8NUK4?rel=0&wmode=transparent Why did they do it now? Because March is going to be huge. http://paxsite.com March 22-24 Then http://www.gdconf.com/ March 25-29 Then in June (11-13): http://www.e3expo.com They needed to be public now for their big devs to do reveals at Pax East, which they confirmed during the live stream. Wouldn't surprise me for MS to go public with 720 before GDC to also get info to devs during that conference. But if they are going to miss Holiday 2013 then it doesn't matter if they are under the radar at GDC still I guess....

 

[Ruz-El]

Sounds like it's not PS3 compatible: period. So all those digital games on the PSN are not playable on the PS4. So no rush at all for me to buy one. They said it might emulate the PS3 stuff in the future, I'm going to need to see some solid reviews of this streaming stuff before biting. It sounds great in theory, but the real world of internet providers is a different story.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The innards of the PS4 are finalized but they didn't announce the HDD size, so I'm guessing that's the only thing they're not setting in stone yet. The look of the console is what isn't finalized yet. Russell - Sony said that developers who make PSN downloadable games can make them work on the PS4 but that they are not natively supported. The PS4's chipset is completely different from the PS3, so they would need to use emulation to run games or reprogram them from scratch, neither of which is feasible. I imagine that the streaming service to play PS1/2/3 games will also work with PSN games. My only concern is whether every PS1/2/3 game ever made will be on there or if it will be a slow-drip of releases like the Wii Virtual Console or even Sony's PS Classics lineup.

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Morgan Jolley
The innards of the PS4 are finalized but they didn't announce the HDD size, so I'm guessing that's the only thing they're not setting in stone yet. The look of the console is what isn't finalized yet.
Russell - Sony said that developers who make PSN downloadable games can make them work on the PS4 but that they are not natively supported. The PS4's chipset is completely different from the PS3, so they would need to use emulation to run games or reprogram them from scratch, neither of which is feasible. I imagine that the streaming service to play PS1/2/3 games will also work with PSN games. My only concern is whether every PS1/2/3 game ever made will be on there or if it will be a slow-drip of releases like the Wii Virtual Console or even Sony's PS Classics lineup.

Here's my problem with it though. The PSN is an online distribution service like Steam. If Steam got an update to STEAM 2014, and now none of the game you purchased worked, you would have to wait to re-buy the game or pay for the emulators, would everyone think "dems da breaks!"
I get it's a hardware issue, but don't sell us on a digital service that get's taken away from us with the new machine that comes down the road. Thankfully Sony has given me about 70 games and I have no need at all to buy a new bluray player so I have no need to purchase this one any time soon.
My curiosity now isn't on what's happening with the PS4, but when they are going to discontinue the PSN support on the PS3.

 

[Sam Posten]

The difference is with Steam your games run on any platform they are released via Steam on, PC, Mac, Linux and even PS3. It is able to route around obsolescence like damage in that manner, where digital distribution systems tied to a specific hardware platform are not.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I'm curious about PSN on PS3 going past this coming holiday season. That said, they just stopped making PS2s last month, so they will probably keep servers up for a while, possibly migrating content to a streaming service for PS4.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Wait, are they planning on shutting down PSN entirely and replacing it with something new (or nothing)?

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman
Wait, are they planning on shutting down PSN entirely and replacing it with something new (or nothing)?

Nothing has been announced. My speculation is: if the PS3 is not supported, then the PS3 games support will eventually disappear from the PSN.
Who knows how PSN will link to GEiki streaming or whatever it's called.
All I know is, my PS3 PSN games don't work on the PS4, I see no need to upgrade anytime soon.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

They said that PSN games made for PS3 will not be natively supported on PS4, but that the developers could work out an emulation or patch update to try and fix that. Games that are less taxing on the PS3 could possibly work easily through emulation, but really complex stuff would be hard. I'd imagine that PSN games would work the same as PS3 if they're using Gaikai. But no, nothing has been announced.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Thanks for the details.

 

[Sam Posten]

Courting Indies:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/189271/Sony_kills_concept_approval_makes_moves_to_get_indies_onto_PS4.php

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/03/21/unity-tools-coming-for-playstation-developers/

http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/25/4147066/playstation-4-blacklight-retribution-primal-carnage-genesis