Sony is shipping second generation PlayStation 4 kits to developers

We've heard a ton of talk about Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 720 over the last year or so but surprisingly, there hasn't been hardly any chatter to speak of with regards to Sony's next generation console. That of course doesn't mean...

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Trinity chip is a great approach for a console, looking foward to see how they push it when they can design games for static hardware.

As long as it has full backwards compatibility for PS3 games.

If they can make it easier for the developers, then good for them...

PS2 and PS1 would be nice too!

I was on that bandwagon once, but damn do I need trophies.

Good news if you ask me. I don't like consoles but it means we will get equal graphics on PC.

I hope there is at least 4xAA to go with the 1080p+60fps. Looking forward to more news on this!

IMO--256 GB harddrive too small at least a 500 gb or 1 TB

SSD maybe? One can only hope.

For those who believe there will be backward compatibility... I very much doubt it.
Thye removed it from the PS3 pretending it was due to vulnerabilities, or at least that was one of the excuses I read.
But it is simply that if they remove it, they can push games on the PSN for £2 - £10 a pop. And you won't have a choice if you really really really want to play one of them games. It's all about the money.

Well, I wouldn't say you don't have a choice, I still have both my PS1 and PS2 from when I was a kid, they still get use. I'm sure if you head to your local flee market you could pick one up for fairly cheap!

Hopefully they don't advertise something and eventually remove it

Could be an SSD.

This one move could alleviate any loading issues for games as we know it just as long as they design the hardware to utilize the fast I/O speeds.

As for the CPU, I don't think its going to get PS3 B/C. Why? Its no longer a Cell chip and they probably will still sell the PS3.

I don't think there will be, the hardware in the PS3 compared to the PS4 is quite different, it might not be able to emulate the PS3 to a level that makes playing full PS3 games a possibility. Lets hope the best PS3 games get ported over to the PS4, like alot of PS2 titles have been.

Sounds a bit like the wii. Compatibility for wii games, but gc games are probably downloadable, and have to be bought again I believe.

Backwards comparability is a big deal. I hope Sony realizes that and doesn't release a dud.

BC should be scrapped.

- It would make the console more expensive if BC is hardware based (exact reason why it was removed in later versions of PS3, some studied sighted the BC cost to be $80-100 per each "fat" PS3 sold). During a time when launching a console at a competitive price is a lot more critical for its success given the state of the global economy, this would be counter to realizing the affordability factor

- It would remove the ability for Sony to make $ via HD-remakes of classic PS3 games (Let's face it if you haven't owned a PS3, you'd rather buy real 1080P remakes of Uncharted, God of War and Dark Souls, rather than buy upscaled PS3 games for your PS4). Sony needs this revenue stream given the current financial situation of the firm

- BC has not really worked well even for Xbox 360 or PS3. The best way to guarantee BC is to keep your current console.

- BC would be very difficult to do well, only piling on unnecessary costs to Sony. That $ saved on not getting BC working could instead be used for a larger SSD/flash storage, or a cheaper console

- People who are spending $400+ on a next generation console aren't buying it to play PS3 games. For that they can buy a cheap PS3 in 2013/2014. Current PS3 owners aren't forced to sell their PS3.

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As far as the APU goes, the current A10 design is barely 2x faster than the ~7900GT GPU in PS3. I think it will be a custom-based A10 CPU + GPU with a lot more cores than 384. Alternatively, I can see APU being used with a low-end discrete GPU for a possible hybrid cross-fire. A10-5700/5800 on their own are not sufficient to play next generation games at 1080P at 60 fps on their own, even if taking into account specific console optimizations.

I think you're right. Also a major limitation on most low end cards (and certainly integrated ones) is memory bandwidth, and consoles usually don't have that problem. A little embedded RAM, a 256 bit memory interface, and things would look much better even for integrated graphics.

- Was software based for the PS2. Don't know why they couldn't do that for the PS3 too. As well as the PS4 when it comes out.
- Lazy programmers maybe?

- BC worked great on both my PS2 and PS3.
- In Fact, the first 60GB PS3 had a FULL PS2 soldered to the motherboard. They later learned to emulate most of it.

- That's not true. And I don't want 4 systems hooked up at a time.
- Also, old systems wear out and can't be purchased in new condition anymore.