PlayStation "Meeting 2013"

The 360 is not really up to the hardware task these days, mostly due to memory constraints. It less needs a massive new video card and processor and more just a bunch of RAM.

There are a decent number of current gen games that look drastically different on a high end PC vs a 360. There is room for updated hardware in there, but there's a decent discussion to be had about the value of the additions as your non high budget games aren't pushing your machine anyways.

This is part of the problem with the console model in general: with a PC you can decide on a very large scale exactly how good a card you need for the money. The consoles are mostly selling different amounts of internal storage.

From a developer standpoint, and to some extent a consumer standpoint, it's really nice to have a set of standardized hardware. The developer can target one set (or okay, one for each console) of hardware, and make sure the experience is the best it can be. And the consumer knows that the game will work well on their hardware, and that all future games will work just as well on that hardware.

I get that, but it's the reason people are bitching about new hardware and not liking the cost of the upgraded machine. A bunch of devs need beefier consoles (Far Cry 3, Crysis, I'd lay odds on the new Bioshock looking better on PC than console for the same reasons the others do as well (512m of shared memory is.. interesting to work around, considering that PC gamers get all bitchy when games cap out at 4G because fuck your *32 bullshit)

So while 80% of your library and upcoming games can deal with the current gen perfectly fine, you're looking at the same problem between the PS1 and PS2. A lot of the games early in the PS2's life were basically perfectly functional PS1 titles that could run on the old hardware fine, but the upgrade was for the few that actually needed better hardware.

This is solved in the PC market by rolling your own level of what you want to play, but in the console market you have to expect that every few years the hardware is going to be upgraded for those edge developers who DO have the art budget to want to push the limits of the older hardware.

If Sony/Microsoft had had the foresight to install an expansion slot for additional RAM, I'd be willing to guess that we wouldn't be getting new consoles yet; memory is hands down the biggest real problem that the current ones face.

Let's keep in mind the improvements Critereon was able to make for the Wii U version of Need For Speed: Most Wanted - very, very noticeable, and with hardware in the same space in terms of CPU/GPU horsepower. Having 1GB+ of RAM available to games on current-generation hardware would go a long way toward solving some of the visual issues that have plagued this generation.

To be honest, I'm kinda surprised that the new consoles aren't just PS3 1.5/360 1.5 with more memory, die shrinks, and higher clocks.

(I also think that, from a business standpoint, those would probably have been better bets, but that's neither here nor there.)

As to the why for memory, it's marketing, and MS used to have such a hard line on standardization that devs were forbidden from offering a disk install feature because not all SKUs had disks. Thankfully the latter was lifted because what the hell people.

with 100% backward compatibility. That is such a beautiful dream. Shame it won't happen.

You can reduce the clocks, turn off any new silicon, and get perfect hardware BC.

The Wii did just that for Gamecube mode. Clock everything down to Gamecube levels, turn off the Wii-specific silicon, and it's a Gamecube.

Similarly, the hypothetical PS3.5 would throttle down to Cell/RSX clocks, turn off new silicon, and for all intents and purposes become a PS3.

NeoGAF is already pooped, and there's still an hour and fifteen minutes before the show starts.

If 3D TV had actually happened I could see this coming generation using that as the great leap forward, perhaps linked with better motion tracking.

As it is, it seems as though we're getting a next gen because it's too much effort _not_ to have one.

There's a difference between a for-profit company going after short-term profit versus long-term profit. At one point with the XBox and 360 Microsoft was aiming at developing a product for the future audience it envisioned it could have - now I feel like the design decisions are simply aiming at the lowest common denominator.

I think you're missing out by simply not running a huge HDMI & USB cable from your computer to your television. You don't need to buy a whole extra machine. I have my desktop hooked up to my living room TV by simple virtue of cable routing.

Red Dead was the sole console exclusive that I enjoyed in the last few years, and if I apply my rule of console buying ($$$ amount in games I want equal to cost of system) to console exclusives, I don't think I could justify the purchase.

The argument that PC games are more of a pain to deal with is a weird one, because I always feel like it hinges on any individual's ability to build a decent, clutter free system that won't give them too much trouble. I don't find that particularly difficult, and I've had just as many problems that I couldn't address by tinkering with this generation of console hardware. I've actually spent more on replacement console hardware in the last few years than I did on my PC.

In the case of Kinect I think that was clearly the goal. The Wii exploded and they were simply jumping on the motion control band wagon while they could. That doesn't necessarily change their long term strategy. I mean I wouldn't be surprised to find Kinect features built into the next Xbox or have it be Kinect compatible or something but I doubt we'll see it be Kinect only.

It's not that different, no. But it's still a pretty wide gap between 2 year old PC vs Xbox 360. Predominantly due to memory.

Most PC gaming is brain dead simple. Some of it is a total bitch of updating video drivers and odd glitches with random X brand widget. GW2 for example had a bitch of a time crashing on release with a very specific series of ATI cards from specific vendors who were overclocking them by default and they were overheating. That's fucking obscure for your random end user.

Single build systems are a dream for developers, they're just a bit of a pain in the ass for bargain shoppers. I'd love different xbox expansion modules for more memory or something, but that would kill the idea of a single hardware platform.

Very few add-ons in console space have ever achieved much market penetration, so this pretty much would never work. Developers can't afford to decide to use the higher memory, because only a small percentage of the market actually owns the ram expansion. So it becomes a chicken/egg problem, devs don't want to waste money narrowing their customer base, and customers see no reason to upgrade if there are no games for the hardware expansion.

(Not to mention the legion of folks who don't read the fine print and will raise hell when they buy a game for a system and find out it won't work without some new fangled adapter)

"SONY PLAYSTATION WANTS TO WIN THE WAR AGAINST REALITY"

We've gathered you here to talk about Facebook integration and Vita...

Hurray it's a gaming PC! I like that the slides explicitly call out PC on the components.

That looks exactly like the dual shock 3 controller.

Oh, a touchpad! And a light bar? So a wii controller?

And there's a Kinect?

Well, this is a bust so far.

Except for the 8GB of GDDR5 and easy to port from PC platform.

Hopefully they don't fuck up the cost.

Knack looks terrible.

Sleep mode = a great idea.

Hey, if I suck at a game, you can watch me suck, and take over for me.

That sounds fun. My facebook friends get to play my games for me while I watch.

Some stuff said so far:
"Nothing will come between the platform and the joy of playing."
"The system archetechture could fluidly connect the player to everything the Playstation experience can provide, "PSN, Vita, etc."
"PS4 created by game creators for game creators."
"It's built like a supercharged pc":

• x86
• Highly enhanced pc gpu with 8 gigs high speed unified memory
• W/ Hard drive
• Dual Shock 4 controller has touchpad input, a Share button for social stuff, a light bar for simpler way for the stereo camera bar to id players (camera bar tracks the gamepad itself due to the gamepad's built-in light bar.)
• 8 cpu core
• GDDR 5 Memory
• Suspend/sleep mode, for instant powder down & power up, even mid game.
• Digital downloads have a tiny initial download that can be played instantly, with the rest of the program downloaded in the background during play.
• Seamless gameplay video sharing during play.
• Browse & Spectate remote games by other friends and players
• Lots and lots and lots of Social stuff
• Vita, Tablet, and Smartphone integration

Personalization is the new word for targeted ads.

It's PlayStationFaceBook.

HAHAHAHA, yeah FU Sony(as a developer)..

Um it pre-loads games you might want to buy? PlaySkynet

Look out twitch.tv...It's SonyPS4Twitch.tv

I prefer PlayFaceStation

So you can have someone play games for you now? oh boy..

Pretty sure I'm not too keen on my Facebook friends watching me play my PS4...and being able to comment live on my screen while I play. I can turn this stuff off, right Sony? RIGHT?

• Gamers/viewers watching their friends video feeds will be able to drop in power ups etc to their friends at key moments in certain games.
• Stream and play from the PS4 to the Vita , via Remote Play, if you can't use the TV

My feed just went to hell.

Where have I heard of this feature before... Oh yeah the Wii U Gamepad.

So, they're reinventing the Vita as a $200 add-on controller for the PS4?

This will end well.

PLAY PS3 GAMES ON YOUR iPOD!

Somehow.