Sony confirms next-gen console is in development

[Jos]

Sony had some interesting tidbits to share at its quarterly financial briefing yesterday. Besides breaking down the previously disclosed $3.1 billion loss for the fiscal year 2011, which primarily stemmed from a $4.4 billion write-down in deferred-tax assets in Japan, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato had this to say when queried about the recent increase in research and development costs:

"For the home equipment the PS3 still has a product life, but this is a platform business, so for the future platform - when we'll be introducing what product I cannot discuss that - but our development work is already under way, so the costs are incurred there."

The release of a next-generation console from Sony is probably a long way off, considering the company has previously said the PlayStation 3 will have a 10-year lifespan and it was released in 2006. Back in March, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai said "a near-future PS4 or next-generation home console is not something that [the company] is even debating now", and that may remain true, but if such is the case it's still good to know the development process has begun this far out.

The news come after Nintendo confirmed that its upcoming gaming console, dubbed "Project Cafe", will be revealed during E3 2011 next month and will be on sale next year. Meanwhile, Microsoft recently posted multiple job openings on LinkedIn to fill several positions in their Xbox division, and was also rumored to have handed out a prototype development kit for the Xbox 360's successor to EA, but the latter has categorically denied those reports.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/43975-sony-confirms-next-gen-console-is-in-development.html

 

[example1013]

As long as they're not making a new disc drive, this should be good news. The cost of the PS3 at launch was ridiculous.

 

[Mizzou]

Sony really can't afford to allow Microsoft and Nintendo to release their next generation consoles well in advance of their own offering. It will also be interesting to see if sony will be sticking with the cell processor or not. Seems like they would have significant issues with backwards compatibility if they opt for a more traditional processor. Think it's a pretty safe bet that the next XBox and Wii will be backwards compatible with the current generation, don't think Sony can afford to blow it on that front again.

 

[Lurker101]

Lurker101 confirms that he has no interest in buying Sonys next-gen console

 

[Guest]

it seems they make enough profit to develop a ps4? where are the lost? they lied, the they dont make the money they proyected but never lost any cent on the ps3, so it should be cheaper this time, with less components bcuz technologically speaking...what will be the improvement? maybe 2GB of memory and a better graphic card and slimmer, i think that they are in a hurry just to resecure the console with a better design and the chance to charge for the online experience....at least to make it worthy the ps4 should arrive in 2017,if not....it means they have learned the way the life spawn of apple products works....and for a console that sucks!!!!, they dont try to get better..they just try to make us fools over and over again!!!!

 

[example1013]

Microsoft purposefully bottlenecked the new 360s. I don't think either company is looking to iterate in anything near the fashion PC tech does.

 

[Superpeter]

If your not under 15 years old and can earn your own money, Get a decent computer if your serious about gaming. Stop buying this crap so they will make better ones...My new original term---"Consoles R 4 kids"...says it all really.

 

[Tomorrow_Rains]

Why does it feel like Sony is going to release a new console which instead of a disc drive is going to contain a hard drive, you're going to need internet connection and are only going to be able to download the games from sony servers.

hrm...and monthly subscriptions.

Already Feels Expensive.

 

[stewi0001]

Hopefully they will make it more game developer friendly since, if I remember correctly, each of the sub-processer has its own complier and thus more of a pain to program.

feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that.

 

[treetops]

Sweet, its no coincidence a new console has not been released since 2005, our bad economy has had console makers scared since 2007 biding there time until it picked up again.

 

[TomSEA]

I'm suspecting that both MS and Sony are now ramping up their next-gen console development after Nintendo made their recent announcement. None of these groups wants to be the last to release a new console. Which suits me fine. The faster MS and Sony get their consoles out, the faster developers will build better games to match the newer hardware. Right now as PC gamers, we're getting screwed over with crappy console ports of games that are using damn near 10 year old technology.

 

[Benny26]

It's tough to really think about "the next big thing" that the PS4 could have for me though.

 

[ramonsterns]

Oh boy, more outdated crap being developed in an attempt to draw those unwilling to learn the basics of computers (See: Ignorant) to milk as much money out of them as possible. I can't wait to play "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3: The Return of Modern Warfare 5: The Movie: The Game", "Madden 2016", and "Street Fighter 4:SUPER MEGA ELITE ARCADE EDITION 2" when it comes out.

 

[example1013]

Superpeter said:
If your not under 15 years old and can earn your own money, Get a decent computer if your serious about gaming. Stop buying this crap so they will make better ones...My new original term---"Consoles R 4 kids"...says it all really.

Yeah, none of us have to pay for college, or food, or gas, or insurance, or other things, and have tons of money available to blow on a $1000 system that's going to be used exclusively for dicking around, and is going to need to be updated to another $1000 system in 2 years. A slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

Paying $300 for a single-function device is a lot better than paying even $500 for a single-function device. And this is before we even get into ancillary costs, like electricity.

 

[ramonsterns]

example1013 said:

Yeah, none of us have to pay for college, or food, or gas, or insurance, or other things, and have tons of money available to blow on a $1000 system that's going to be used exclusively for dicking around, and is going to need to be updated to another $1000 system in 2 years. A slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

Paying $300 for a single-function device is a lot better than paying even $500 for a single-function device. And this is before we even get into ancillary costs, like electricity.

Or you could save the $300-$500 and buy a $500-$700 computer which will run most games, make surfing easier, or waste less of your life if you're going into any sort of digital media?

You *are* going to need a computer anyways, instead of buying two shitty products, save yourself the $200-$300 for a basic computer and the $300-$500 for a console, and WHAM, you suddenly have enough for a mid-range computer.

 

[Trillionsin]

example1013 said:

Superpeter said:
If your not under 15 years old and can earn your own money, Get a decent computer if your serious about gaming. Stop buying this crap so they will make better ones...My new original term---"Consoles R 4 kids"...says it all really.

Yeah, none of us have to pay for college, or food, or gas, or insurance, or other things, and have tons of money available to blow on a $1000 system that's going to be used exclusively for dicking around, and is going to need to be updated to another $1000 system in 2 years. A slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

Paying $300 for a single-function device is a lot better than paying even $500 for a single-function device. And this is before we even get into ancillary costs, like electricity.

Are you suggesting a PC is a single-function device? Because if you are, let the flamming begin.

 

[example1013]

ramonsterns said:

example1013 said:

Yeah, none of us have to pay for college, or food, or gas, or insurance, or other things, and have tons of money available to blow on a $1000 system that's going to be used exclusively for dicking around, and is going to need to be updated to another $1000 system in 2 years. A slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

Paying $300 for a single-function device is a lot better than paying even $500 for a single-function device. And this is before we even get into ancillary costs, like electricity.

Or you could save the $300-$500 and buy a $500-$700 computer which will run most games, make surfing easier, or waste less of your life if you're going into any sort of digital media?

You *are* going to need a computer anyways, instead of buying two shitty products, save yourself the $200-$300 for a basic computer and the $300-$500 for a console, and WHAM, you suddenly have enough for a mid-range computer.

Or you can spend $300 on the console, $100 on a cheaper, used computer that's good enough to get on the internet, and save $200 while still being able to enjoy games. The midrange computer would be obsolete even faster, and unable to run anything after 2 or 3 years, whereas the console will likely still be good 5 or more years down the road, with no updates necessary. I have my GameCube from like 2005 and it still runs perfectly, and my PS3 from 2007 works excellently, too. However, no computer within my house is that old, and the machines at my job that are 4 years old get bogged down running 5 instances of Firefox.

 

[princeton]

Implying that consoles are ever next gen. Consoles are last gen at launch and continue to age,

 

[Guest]

It's interesting how console gamers ALWAYS forget to include the cost of games into the PC vs. Console argument.

Can you get games for $5-10 like you can on Steam? Not a chance.
Do consoles games command a $10 premium over PC games at launch? Yup.
Do PC games drop in value much quicker within 2-3 months of release? Yup.

Also, when was the last time a gamer's console was $200-300 at launch? Oh right, 10 years ago.

PS3 20GB launched at $499 USD.
PS3 40GB launched at $599 USD.
Xbox360 20GB launched at $399 USD.

So basically this $200-300 console cost makes no sense unless you plan to wait until 2016 before PS4 and Xbox720 fall to those price levels. That means you have another 5 years of gaming on already awful PS3/Xbox360 graphics......that's not comparing apples-to-apples with PC.

Finally, it doesn't cost $1000 every 2 years on the PC. You can purchase a Core i5 2500k for $225, 8GBs of ram for $75, $150 mobo, $50 hard drive, and a $125 case + PSU + DVD-writer = $550.

Now just add a $200 GPU. Every 2 years you just sell that GPU and reinvest the savings into another $200 GPU. I guarantee that overclocked to 4.5ghz+, the 2500k will easily last 3-4 years. So all that will be required is reselling the videocard. Overall cost for 5 years on videocards wouldn't be more than $500 (what a console costs). But you also use your desktop for everything else right? The cost difference isn't as large as people make it.

 

[example1013]

Princeton said:
Implying that consoles are ever next gen. Consoles are last gen at launch and continue to age,

But that doesn't affect their ability to play current-gen games, which is really my only point.

 

[example1013]

Most console gamers use shitty computers that can only handle internet browsing, word processing, and e-mail, because that's all they use them for. At least that's what I'm figuring, because I can't think of any reason to buy a console if you already have a $1000 PC.

 

[BMfan]

This just proves that most PC gamers are full of ****,just because you would like a world with no consoles so everyone else that likes having a console should just get lost.
Why can't we have both?
There are a few games i like on my PS and if i feel like playing a FPS i use my PC,

If the only reason you dislike consoles is because the developers are now just porting games across then complain to the developers for been lazy.

 

[Benny26]

...and have tons of money available to blow on a $1000 system that's going to be used exclusively for dicking around, and is going to need to be updated to another $1000 system in 2 years.

Naah!...Maybe 3 years, yeah.

'dicking around'? <---*Copy*

[Insert a general definition of video gaming here] <---*Paste*

 

[Guest]

Cant wait to see what SONY has in-store! This gen PS3 is superb. Can they top that? Well... am in ... an curious to join the line with my wallet. Am sure this time tho, they wont make the same mistake as before. Bring it, SONY!!!

 

[revam1]

...to each their own.