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Sony VP teases 'a big secret' announcement for E3 or earlier, calls out PlayStation brand
Sony's been mum on any new PlayStation (read: PlayStation 4) news since ... well, ever (okay, there is that one exception). But Sony Electronics VP of Home Entertainment Hiroshi Sakamoto may be the first to break that silence. He told Emol (translated by Engadget Spanish) in response to a question about "a new announcement related to the new PlayStation," that while the news is "still a big secret," the PlayStation side of Sony, "are getting ready for it." He of course doesn't directly refer to a "PlayStation 4" or the rumored "Orbis" internal project name. Sakamoto adds that the PlayStation team are "focused on E3," but, "the announcement could take place at that time, or maybe even before, in May." Sounds like Sony's toying with a pre-E3 event for its next-gen console -- E3 takes place on June 11 - 13 -- though Mr. Sakamoto's comments are still ambiguous enough that we can't be sure. This is a company that launched three different major hardware iterations of the PlayStation 3, so anything could happen. When the interviewer follows up on Sakamoto's tease-y answer by asking, "But are you getting ready for a big announcement or something complementary?," Sakamoto continues speaking in ambiguities. "Probably the former, on that date we hope to deliver big news, but we must wait until May at least," he says. We've followed up with Sony for more, but don't expect to hear much beyond a wink and a smile.
AMD exec behind Wii and Xbox 360 graphics jumps the fence to NVIDIA
AMD has been suffering a conspicuous brain drain, with executives like ATI veteran Rick Bergman and CTO Eric Demers crossing over to tangentially or directly competitive companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Chalk up another one for the list -- strategic development VP Bob Feldstein has bounded towards NVIDIA's (literally) greener pastures. The blow cuts deeper than usual through Feldstein's responsibility for graphics in most of the consoles from the past few years: he headed up work behind the Xenos chip in earlier Xbox 360s and the Hollywood core in the Wii, and he likely had some say in the Wii U's video hardware as well. While the staff shuffle won't directly affect AMD's Fusion processors or Radeon cards, it's hard to see much of a positive for AMD's future in video gaming, even in the light of rumors that the next PlayStation and Xbox might use some of Feldstein's work.
Sony's Kaz Hirai: no PlayStation 4 at E3
It looks like you can officially put any hopes of a PlayStation 4 announcement at E3 to rest. In a roundtable with reporters at CES, Sony's Kaz Hirai responded to a question about recent comments attributed to gaming division head Andrew House by stating that "Andy is absolutely right in that we are not making any announcements at E3." As The Wall Street Journal reports, Hirai further added that he's "always said a 10-year life cycle for PS3, and there is no reason to go away from that." That ten-year life cycle would place the PS3's end-of-life around 2016, but as with the PS2 and PS3, we'd expect some overlap between the PS3 and its eventual successor.
Sony execs talk PlayStation Move expectations, PS4 details
The PlayStation Move is now less than a month from hitting stores shelves, and it looks like some Sony execs are already busy starting to manage expectations. Speaking with Eurogamer this week, Sony Computer Entertainment senior vice president Ray Maguire chose to compare the Move's launch to that of the EyeToy for the PlayStation 2, saying that "exactly as with EyeToy in the PS2 days, it's a product that needs to be sampled. You need to get your hands on it. You need to understand it. You need to try it." Maguire further went on to say he's "not particularly" expecting "massive" day one sales, but that he expects sales to grow as word of mouth spreads. In other PlayStation news, Sony's Kaz Hirai seems to have effectively ruled out a download-only future for the eventual PS4 in an interview with MCV, with him saying that a "digital future is over ten years away." Hirai then went on to note that "we do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would hope," and that "here's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium." No word if that also applies to Sony's future handhelds as well.
Sony patent app details motion sensing break-apart controller
We heard some pretty far-fetched stuff back in June to the tune of a break-apart DualShock 3, and lo and behold, it seems that someone at Sony Computer Entertainment America is taking the idea quite seriously. A recent patent application was filed by the company, and it fairly clearly lays out the very kind of design we'd (not really) been expecting. In essence, the gamepad would consist of two pieces, each of which would utilize an "ultrasonic tracking system" for some type of game console / peripheral to recognize 3D inputs. Best of all, the approach here sounds significantly different enough from what's used in the Wiimote that Sony could avoid months upon months of litigation -- imagine that, right? It's hard to say whether this stroke of genius will ever amount to anything, but at least there's a chance, however minuscule.[Via PS3 Fanboy]
Sony said to be hanging onto Cell processor for PlayStation 4
As should be clear by now, any talk of a successor to a still relatively new game console should be taken with a hefty grain of salt but, if word from Japan's Impress is to be believed, it looks like we could possibly be getting a clearer indication of what might be under the PlayStation 4's non-existent hood. Apparently, unlike the massive shift from the PS2 to PS3, the eventually PS4 will be a decidedly smaller leap, with it relying on a slightly speedier (and, likely, 45nm) Cell processor but not a completely new architecture. That would let Sony keep the cost down considerably while also easing development for the console since, by then, developers should finally have a handle on the PS3's hardware. To further cut costs, Sony is also said to be considering a switch from the speedy Rambus XDR memory to more traditional DDR3 memory, which could apparently be tied directly to the processor to cut down on latency. Or the PS4 could be powered by a pink slime that feeds on negative energy, you never know. [Via Electronista]
Will Sony's PlayStation 4 have Blu-ray? Someone thinks not.
Now here's something to get that noodle of yours thinking. While it's arguable that Sony's PS3 is the very best Blu-ray player out there for the money, at least one skeptic isn't so sure that the BD capabilities will even be on the inevitable PlayStation 4. Don Reisinger has stated that "Blu-ray is the LaserDisc of its time," which he explains by saying that "it's not nearly as useful as the DVD that it's trying to supplant, and the future is coming on so quickly that it may not have the time to cement itself in the industry before HD downloads become the next big thing." Of course, he's suggesting that digital downloads will make such a huge impact in such a short amount of time that a BD player on the PS4 will be nearly unnecessary. In reality, this argument is much more about the ability of BD to catch on before it's ran over by streaming video, but we suppose the answer to that could indeed have an impact on the PS4's positioning. Have a think -- do you follow this logic, or are you screaming "bollocks"?
Joystiq Podcast 007 - Synergy edition (feat. Shawn Andrich and Dennis McCauley)
Arriving fashionably late is the latest installment of the Joystiq Podcast, double-oh seven! No, it's not "Bond edition," it's "Synergy edition." Why synergy? When you combine guest host Shawn Andrich, of the popular Gamers with Jobs Conference Call podcast, with discussion of Jaffeton you can't help but feel the synergy. Roll in some discussion with GamePolitics blogger -- and Joystiq columnist -- Dennis McCauley, and thinks get downright synergistic. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3) [RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [Digg] Like the show? Digg it. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Hosts: Christopher Grant and Justin McElroy Guests: Shawn Andrich (Gamers with Jobs) and Dennis McCauley (GamePolitics) Music: "We Weren't Put Together" by David E. Sugar Program: 0:01:30 - Spider-Man 3 synergy ("who cleans up all that webbing?") 0:12:36 - Sony goat of war II ("red phone") 0:21:07 - PlayStation 4 is coming ("fourth dimension new chipset") 0:27:53 - GTAIV "limited" on 360 ("it makes no qualitative difference") 0:33:38 - LucasArts' Fracture ("everybody's a miner") 0:41:00 - Wii release calendar ("What're ya' buyin'?") 0:49:55 - Dennis McCauley on Clements High maps 1:03:48 - The Jaffeton (censored)
Kutaragi looks forward to PlayStation 4, 5, and 6
Everyone reading now is likely to be significantly older (and thusly worse at video games) by the time they're actually released, but the legendary departing Kutaragi-san told EE Times, "As a matter of course, I have the vision of Playstation [sic] 4, 5 and 6, which will merge into the network." Proud father of some of the best selling game consoles of all time apparently looks forward to seeing his ideas for PlayStations 4, 5, and 6 all come to be; obviously specifics were nil, and not much more than that to be heard since we're sure it's still all conceptual, pie in the sky stuff right now. But it's still kind of funny to imagine what the PS6 will be like, and just how accurately it will replicate sensory perception over its SIXSENSIS neural-link compared to those totally obsolete last-gen 2020-era consoles.
PlayStation 4 is forthcoming ... so what?
There is a piece circulating the internet on comments made by Paul Holman, VP of Technology for SCEE, where we claimed that we would not see a PlayStation 4 until at least 2010. Unfortunately, 2010 is never actually quoted by Holman, implying that it might have been a fabricated/sensationalized number created by the article's author, David Richards, at SmartHouse.Here's what we gather from the article: following one analyst predictions that were circulating the internet (notice a trend here?) that predicted Sony's executive shift would result in them leaving the hardware market, Holman states that, "to say that there will be no PS4 because of a management change is a bit far fetched." That is the only thing he says about a PlayStation 4, yet the article uses the topic, with an unsubstantiated number, as its headline. The article has been picked up by many press outlets either as "at least 2010" or just plain "PS4 arriving in 2010."We're not going to say anything regarding their spelling and punctuation, but the 2010 claim (at least 2010, mind you) is not supported by any quotes from Holman. GameSetWatch also tackles this issue, both specifically and generally.The rest of the article discusses the new-gen PlayStation 3 firmware (we've blogged this). What you should take from the article is that a PlayStation 4 will arrive, eventually, but a launch year is not yet being discussed. And read the full article, as the headlines can be misleading or worse, as in this case, unsupported by the article itself.Last month, Ken Kutaragi told BBC that he wanted a PlayStation 4 "within the next decade." Maybe we can say, then, that PS4 will be out by 2020? Nah, let's not be presumptuous.
