Next PlayStation launching this year, say sources

Unnamed sources have claimed that the next PlayStation console will debut this month and launch this year. Microsoft's reveal is reportedly set for spring.

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Last night, Sony began teasing an upcoming event on February 20 to "see the future" of the PlayStation brand. The announcement of the event kicked off speculation that we'll finally see the Orbis revealed, and various sources have now chimed in with more details.

The Wall-Street Journal reports that its sources have confirmed this will be the debut of Sony's next console. They go on to say the system will be released this year, and claim this console will focus more on social aspects and how users interact with it than a strict focus on hardware power.

The social aspects could be tied into the controller. Sources tell Edge that the controller will feature a "Share" button. The system will reportedly record the last 15 minutes of play, and hitting the button will allow you to quickly edit and share screenshots and video.

Meanwhile, Polygon reports that Microsoft is planning its own reveal event for spring. This means Sony would beat Microsoft to the punch in talking about the next generation, despite CEO Kaz Hirai's recent comments to the contrary.

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  • reply
    February 1, 2013 8:15 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Next PlayStation launching this year, say sources.

    Unnamed sources have claimed that the next PlayStation console will debut this month and launch this year. Microsoft's reveal is reportedly set for spring.

    • reply
      February 1, 2013 8:38 AM

      599 US Dollars

      • reply
        February 1, 2013 12:42 PM

        It has more appropriate weight when you write five hundred ninety-nine US Dollars.

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      February 1, 2013 8:43 AM

      So that must mean persona 5 on ps3 before the year's end!

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        February 1, 2013 8:39 PM

        Not necessarily, Persona 3 came out a year after the PS3 launched and Persona 4 a couple years after that. I'm sure it'll be a PS3 game but it might come out after the PS4 launches.

        I hope you're right though! Persona 5 is easily my most anticipated game.

    • reply
      February 1, 2013 8:52 AM

      Time to get a second job.

    • reply
      February 1, 2013 9:00 AM

      [deleted]

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      February 1, 2013 10:19 AM

      If they have incorporated their technology that won't allow the system to play used games then count me out. I wonder if they have learned from the PS3 in regards to it's price point. I'm thinking it could be 399 if they have learned and if not that 699.

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      February 1, 2013 11:13 AM

      Don't beat me down for this.

      But has there been any word on whether or not it will play PS1-PS3 games (ie: backwards compatibility)?

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        February 1, 2013 11:32 AM

        I've read (here on Shack, actually) that because of the hardware licensing attached to the hardware Sony has been researching for the PS4 that it will not be backwards compatible.

        Guess we'll find out soon enough.

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          February 1, 2013 1:02 PM

          I think even more than licensing it comes down to hardware. The PS3 has a lot of proprietary hardware in it (the Cell Processor etc) which is not easy or takes a lot of resources to emulate. I think we've seen in the past that emulation doesn't work so well with backwards compatibility. They aren't going to put a cell chip in the new machine because it's just additional money when they are probably trying to shave every penny off. It sounds like the approach they are taking is making older games playable via Gakai (so basically the game plays on a PS3 in the cloud and it streams the image to your TV and streams your controller inputs to the datacenter). It works.. it's not ideal but it does work.

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            February 1, 2013 10:35 PM

            I wouldn't mind if it played ps2 games though.

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              February 2, 2013 8:56 AM

              Yeah, there are still some PS2 games which are very playable. Even the 3d ones.

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          February 1, 2013 3:11 PM

          Hardware licensing attached to the hardware, at Sony's Department of Redundancy Department.

      • reply
        February 1, 2013 11:32 AM

        None I think, ie yes, and the word is no. Use the old hardware to play your old games.

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          February 1, 2013 11:52 AM

          PS2 and 3? Hell no (other than through some streaming service), but they've had some form of PS1 backwards compatibility or emulation in every console they've released up to this point, so I don't see why the PS4 would be any different.

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            February 1, 2013 1:03 PM

            Only the first couple versions of the PS3 has backwards compatibility, they stripped that out a while ago.

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              February 1, 2013 1:24 PM

              All PS3 versions can play PS1 games. It's PS2 backwards compatibility that they removed.

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                February 1, 2013 1:40 PM

                Oh, I guess I missed that detail. I wasn't even thinking about PS1 compatibility. I didn't know anybody still played those.

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                  February 1, 2013 1:48 PM

                  Dude!?

                  Suikoden
                  Vagrant Story
                  Final Fantasy Tactics
                  Final Fantasy VII
                  Wild Arms
                  Xenogears
                  Chrono Cross
                  Star Ocean: The Second Story

                  All PSX games and all very much playable today!

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                    February 1, 2013 2:07 PM

                    Yeah, maybe, they look kind of old and janky to me now. They look better on an emulator on the PC.

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                      February 1, 2013 8:55 PM

                      They do, yeah, but not everyone is as emu-savvy as you might think. I've used PS1 and 2 emulators, and most of them involve a little too much setup.

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                        February 1, 2013 8:57 PM

                        It's like the Shacker who shrugged off Wind Waker HD because "everyone" had already played it on Dolphin. Uh, no. A very, VERY small subset of gamers bother using emulators.

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                        February 1, 2013 9:45 PM

                        No, I understand that. I was speaking of me personally, I have a hard time playing games that old because they look so bad. It's mostly old 3d games. 2D games often hold up better ironically.

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                February 1, 2013 2:43 PM

                and for PS1 they've been pretty aggressively stocking the PSN store with those games

      • reply
        February 1, 2013 1:42 PM

        [deleted]

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        February 1, 2013 1:55 PM

        Their Gaikai acquisition will allow for BC without needing hardware support. Just streaming.

        PS Plus will likely be a huge part of it.

    • Ziz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      February 1, 2013 11:18 AM

      I've only owned a Playstation. I've still got it around too.

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      February 1, 2013 11:24 AM

      If Sony is going to try to compete in the social arena, I don't see it going well.

      Maybe the Steam box has a shot after all

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        February 1, 2013 11:37 AM

        xbox and ps titles, ported to steam-box, then ported to pc, yay!

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          February 1, 2013 12:28 PM

          As steambox will be a PC, that last one should happen pretty quickly.

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      February 1, 2013 12:18 PM

      The more I think about this, I think Sony is messing up by announcing first. Sure, they are going to get a lot of hype here in February, and possibly people are going to start pre-ordering now. However, it's like 95% certain that Microsoft has a console coming out this year too. So, if Sony announces their launch date as November 15th, 2013, what do you think the chances of Microsoft having a whole window approach and just launching November 1st, 2013 to still beat them to market.

      Granted, I don't think a few week lead means much this time, if it was a whole year maybe more. But still, there is the possibility MS hasn't set their date in stone just yet, and could easily leapfrog whatever date Sony throws out there.

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        February 1, 2013 12:49 PM

        The launch doesn't really matter that much, especially because they're going to arrive at the most a month or two apart. Both systems will completely sell out and do fine.

        What really matters 6-18 months later when decent first party titles arrive, and other marketable features.

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        February 1, 2013 8:53 PM

        This will just be a teaser announcement. Key features, mock up trailers, etc.

        Price and launch date will be E3, if not later.

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      February 1, 2013 12:26 PM

      Anyone see that new God of War footage Valcan posted? Yep, we urgently urgently need these new consoles.

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        February 1, 2013 2:11 PM

        It would be a more interesting example if you picked a franchise that actually made meaningful use of the additional power in the last generation shift (ex GTA, Assassin's Creed)

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          February 1, 2013 2:39 PM

          Why? Fact is, GoW looks fucking slick as fuck on "old" consoles - it's a video game, it looks amazing - as does Uncharted.
          Also, looking at GTA5 shots, I'd say they've managed to wrangle some far better graphics out of that too.

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            February 1, 2013 3:36 PM

            because God of War 3 did pretty much nothing interesting with the power of the PS3 besides being more God of War made prettier. So sure, it's a good example of a game whose next sequel will probably play equally well on a PS4 as a PS3. There are plenty of big franchises for which this is not the case. Assassin's Creed is an example of open world at a scale that wasn't really possible in the PS2 era. GTA and Elder Scrolls games had real gameplay improvements from the additional power (physics additions, much bigger scale, keeping track of world state better so an item you dropped hangs around, cars out of your FOV don't disappear immediately, etc). Madden can't do fully physics driven gameplay (the last iteration added fully physics driven tackles and it's a huge gameplay and visual deal), and other sports franchises surely have similar desires for more power. On the PC side SimCity is an example of taking advantage of processing power increases for real gameplay changes.

            Of course new consoles aren't blocking people from creating any good new games. But they're most definitely holding back the design space in both known and unknown ways (what happens when good, large scale fluid dynamics don't require your entire processing load, far more power for AI, doing facial animations closer to LA Noire without the same expense, etc)

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              February 1, 2013 10:41 PM

              I see your point but I'm not convince the leap even after 6 years is going to be that impressive. My point is the consoles can produce incredible incredible looking games still and some of them don't really look dated at all, whereas with the PS2 things were really starting to creak at the end.

              I'd rather we waited until late 2014 for the new consoles. We'd have cheaper ram, faster cpu's, smaller manufacturing process, cooler chips, cheaper disks. It'd be a win all round.

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      February 1, 2013 12:27 PM

      Are Sony and MS really going to co-release consoles this year? Madness.

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      February 1, 2013 10:16 PM

      Which means ill be buying one in about 7 years

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      February 2, 2013 12:42 PM

      didnt some ceo or something just recently say sony had no interest in being first out of the gate?

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        February 2, 2013 9:24 PM

        Sony - the master of talking out of their own ass.

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