Sony is working on PS4.5

[Dima]

[Title changed from "Rumor: Sony is working on PS4.5" on 2016-06-11 - Monk]

Kotaku rumors usually (if not all the times) turn out to be true.

Sony is currently planning a new version of the PS4 with increased graphical power and games running at 4K resolution, developer sources tell Kotaku.

We don’t know whether current PS4 owners will be able to upgrade or if they’ll have to buy an entirely new device to benefit from this power boost, but from what we hear, Sony has started briefing developers.

Based on conversations with developers who have spoken with Sony, this ‘PS4.5’ will include an upgraded GPU both to support high-end 4K resolution for games and add more processing power that can enhance the games supported by PlayStation VR, the headset Sony will launch this fall. It’s unclear if ‘PS4.5’ is an official name or just a nickname that developers have been using. One developer jokingly called it the ‘PS4K’ while telling me about the device.

In layman’s terms, 4K resolution is around four times the pixel size of 1080p, which is the current standard for games on PlayStation 4 and competing consoles. The current PS4 can output 4K photos and videos, but cannot support 4K resolutions for games. With this upgrade, it would. Besides resolution, developers would have an opportunity to push more effects and other graphical tweaks to make their games look better, thanks to the new GPU.

A more powerful PS4 would also allow the machine to be more competitive with PCs in the world of virtual reality. With a higher-end GPU, the PS4 could more easily match up against the more expensive Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual reality headsets, which are designed to work with powerful PCs.

When contacted yesterday about this report, Sony declined to comment. “We can’t comment on rumors or speculation,” a spokesperson said in an e-mail.

The circle of people who knew about this upgraded PS4 was small until recently. I first heard about the device from one trusted source, then two. Kotaku’s Jason Schreier and Stephen Totilo were also able to independently verify the existence of these hardware plans with their own developer sources, although some of the details have been vague; one source told us that the device felt “exploratory” and that it may not even be released this year.

We’ve also heard that at this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Sony held meetings with developers about the hardware and how it would work. As we were chasing down this story, coincidentally, Kotaku UK EIC Keza MacDonald overheard some developers casually talking about the machine while on line at GDC. They mentioned the name ‘PS4.5’ and discussed its increased horsepower, mentioning both 4K resolution and PlayStation VR.

Our sources aren’t sure when this upgraded machine will ship to consumers, nor how much it will cost. The PS4’s price dropped from $400 to $350 last fall, and one source indicated that this new ‘PS4.5’ could let Sony keep selling PS4 hardware at a higher profit margin for $400.

There are still lots of big questions surrounding the device. Will Sony allow people to trade in their existing PS4s to buy the new machine? How will developers cope with releasing games on multiple types of hardware? Could some games only support PS4.5, as is the case with the New Nintendo 3DS? When this PS4 goes on sale, will Sony continue to sell old PS4 hardware at a lower price? How can Sony manage all this without fragmenting the market?

Right now, we don’t have the answer to those questions.

More here
http://kotaku.com/sources-sony-is-working-on-a-ps4-5-1765723053

I know that some people in here want to buy a PS4 soon (or near FFXV launch). If i had to make a guess, this PS4.5 will probably come out next year along with a new, slimmer design. I don't think that Sony would launch a PS4.5 that would cost 400$+ and the PSVR during the same period. Probably they will cut the price of the PS4 to 300$ this year along the PSVR to counter the arrival of NX and the potential new price cut for Xbone.

[IronEvangelion]

Rumor: Sony is developing a more powerful PS4.5:

http://gematsu.com/2016/03/rumor-sony-w ... rful-ps4-5

Rumored to support 4K gaming and has increased processing power to better handle VR games. Sounds too good to be true. I mean, the current gen can barely handle 1080p gaming, and now all of a sudden 2 years later we're going to skip 1440p entirely and jump straight to 4K gaming, which is 4 times the pixels of 1080p? How much is this thing going to cost!? It must be at least $1,000 if it's even real.

[hui43210]

I wouldn't jump out to buy it since I have a PS4, I do wonder if it would have backwards compatibility with PS3/2/1 tho? Probably not.

[Dima]

I wouldn't jump out to buy it since I have a PS4, I do wonder if it would have backwards compatibility with PS3/2/1 tho? Probably not.

90% it won't and i wouldn't buy it either if i had a PS4. I won't buy a 4K TV (which is expensive) only to play some games in 4K. I think i learned from my experience when i persuaded my family to buy us an HD Ready (not even full HD) Sony TV for 1500 Euros. It was one of the first HD Ready TVs on the market.

[IronEvangelion]

Yeah I'm gonna wait on 4K gaming until probably the 9th gen. I just bought my current TV 2 years ago, I'd rather not replace it so soon. Plus that will give the 4K TVs more time to become reasonably priced, and there's just not enough 4K content right now for me to justify purchasing one anyhow.

[MAGI_01]

Definitely a non buy for me. 4k displays are too expensive still and 1080P looks good enough for me.

[Dima]

Just out of curiosity, i saw the prices of some 4K TVs and it turns out..... the prices are not that high. Samsung, LG and Philips have 43' models that cost 399 Euros and there are some 50' models that cost 499 Euros. There are also some other models that cost 35.000 Euros.

[Sicarius VI]

So is 4k resolution the only thing that it offers?

If so I am sure the majority of gamer it's a no buy simply because of the amount of money they would have to spend on that PS4 and a TV(Like everyone above has been saying).

I do wonder if it would have backwards compatibility with PS3/2/1 tho? Probably not.

It'd be really nice, especially considering the PS1 and 2 games, although you would think it would kill the profit of what is the current system on the PSN of renting an older system game for like a day, week, etc. My sister did that with Infamous 2, and it's really just another way they make their money. I don't think they would go sacrificing that system to please the crowds.

[Dima]

So is 4k resolution the only thing that it offers?

Well, we don't really know yet but i don't think that 4K resolution is something to ignore. As you long as you have a big TV the difference will be noticeable.

[IronEvangelion]

Eurogamer sources have corroborated this rumor:

http://gematsu.com/2016/03/eurogamer-so ... s4-5-rumor

According to Eurogamer, Sony’s research and development labs have prototype devices, but while more GPU power is being offered to developers, “realistically it is nowhere near enough to provide native 4K gaming at the same quality level as current 1080p titles.”

That sounds more realistic than before. IMO we probably won't get native 4K console gaming until probably gen 10, maybe gen 9 if there's enough of a jump in the power and price of home consoles.

[Monk Ed]

Almost makes me wonder what the point would be, then.

[Dima]

Almost makes me wonder what the point would be, then.

Basically, it's a slim PS4 with more power. Similar to New 3DS. Games won't run at 4k native but the resolution will be better than 1080p. New games will run better on the new PS4. Meanwhile, the old PS4 will still play all the games but with less FPS/resolution.

[Dima]

Youtube channel, The Know(they leaked the Dark Souls 3 images and info), made a new video with what they know about PS4.5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f1xmoz99tU

Another from WallStreetJournal. I am not posting the link cause you must have an account (or something like that) to read the full article and it doesn't really say anything new. Just that a new PS4 with more power is coming this October.

[Dima]

Okay now i really feel strange that i have to make 3 posts in a row. I am not doing it on purpose and i hope that someone else reads my posts except me . If a mod could combine my 2 previous posts in 1, it would be great (i already did it with the last one but i can't with the older ones).

The new rumor/leak comes from a developer that posts on GAF. Before posting, he/she got an approve from the staff (GAF staff won't allow any leaks from their members unless they are verified).

-Price is currently 399$ but it could be go up to 499$
-The reason for that is that the new PS4 has a GPU twice as powerful as standard PS4 and it's much faster
-No trade in program for current PS4 users but this may change
-4K Blu-Ray Player. Will upscale games that are not natively 4K
-Developers already have development kits and are making games that will specifically take advantage of the new hardware
-These games will work on older PS4 but with considerable sacrifice to the performance
-The changes will be ''significant'' in terms of graphics
-Current games would not be getting any type of performance upgrades by being played on the system and any benefits to older games would come via patch per game and per developer
-God Of War 4 and Deep Down (lol is this still alive) are some of the games that will take advantage of the new PS4 capabilities

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1202462

Remember this is still a rumor, despite being a verified source. If all this is true, then it's more than a single upgrade. Sony may even alienate the current userbase and people will think twice before jumping early and buy a Playstation console again. It may seem like the usual smartphone upgrade (iPhone 6 - Iphone 6s) but we are talking about consoles here. The source didn't said anything about a redesign (they can't see the design anyway, the dev kits are different in shape) but i suspect it will change in order to not look like the old PS4 (which the rumors say it will still be sold and get a price cut).

Seems like i am gonna wait before getting a PS4.

[IronEvangelion]

The new rumor/leak comes from a developer that posts on GAF. Before posting, he/she got an approve from the staff (GAF staff won't allow any leaks from their members unless they are verified).

-Price is currently 399$ but it could be go up to 499$
-The reason for that is that the new PS4 has a GPU twice as powerful as standard PS4 and it's much faster
-No trade in program for current PS4 users but this may change
-4K Blu-Ray Player. Will upscale games that are not natively 4K
-Developers already have development kits and are making games that will specifically take advantage of the new hardware
-These games will work on older PS4 but with considerable sacrifice to the performance
-The changes will be ''significant'' in terms of graphics
-Current games would not be getting any type of performance upgrades by being played on the system and any benefits to older games would come via patch per game and per developer
-God Of War 4 and Deep Down (lol is this still alive) are some of the games that will take advantage of the new PS4 capabilities

This kinda pisses me off if it's true. They're basically making a NEW PS4, like how Nintendo made the NEW 3DS. I'm going to laugh so hard if PS4.5 doesn't come with a power cord.

But the bottom line is, we can no longer trust Sony to give us value for our money. I mean I payed $400 for my PS4 just last year and spent over $150 upgrading the HDD and customizing the exterior, and now they're going to launch a "plus version" with a processor that's twice as powerful, 4K upscaling, pseudo-exclusives that won't run as well on older systems, and a $500 price tag? A traditional slim version I can understand releasing now, but 2.5 to 3 years is just way too soon for a console hardware upgrade. I wouldn't be upset if they had waited 4 years and just released the PS5, but this is ridiculous. You have to figure the PS5 is probably going to come out 2 or 3 years after this thing. They're pretty much trying to turn the console market into the smartphone market. Why even bother buying a PS console within the first 3 years of its life span if Sony's just going to release a significantly superior "plus version" mid-gen?

Now if Sony wanted to start a secondary premium console line catering to hardcore enthusiasts, I'd be all for it. But make it a premium console. Price it at $800-$1,000 and load it with $800-$1,000 worth of hardware like what SNK did with the Neo-Geo back in the day. Give it its own lineup of games, but make it BC with the PS4. Differentiate it from what you currently offer, Sony. I'd actually be tempted to save up for something like that. This PS4.5 is just too middle-of-the-road for me to justify buying one, especially since a superior PS5 will be hot on its heels. I'll stick with my current model, especially since the new model won't be touching my custom PS4's 4TB of storage for a long time.

[Dima]

I wouldn't be pissed off if i were you. First, i think that ''significant difference in graphics'' is a hyperbole. There is no way that Sony would make the revision of PS4 much more powerful. It would be like, giving the middle finger to 40 million PS4 owners. Yes, new games will look and run better on the new PS4 but this doesn't mean that these games will be unplayable when running on the old PS4s. Personally, i wouldn't upgrade if i was already a PS4 owner. This is something for the people who haven't bought the PS4 yet and an injection for the market before the arrival of PS5 (which should arrive in 2018 or 2019).

[IronEvangelion]

The report says that the chip that handles graphics processing is going to be twice as powerful, though. And much faster. That's pretty significant. It's true that it won't be a generational jump in graphics (they would need to increase the ram for that), but what worries me is that if this thing gets released, the PS4.5 is going to become the new baseline system for game developers. Games are going to be developed and optimized to run on it first, then downgraded for the original PS4. In short, there will be a lot more games that run like SW Battlefront on Old PS4 (SWBF had to be reduced to 900p in order to reach 30fps, on the XBox One it was reduced to 720p).

[Dima]

On a second thought, you are right. If this person is telling the truth and the new PS4 is twice as powerful then it's inevitable that it will become the new console baseline for the developers. The New 3DS never really got any support, not only from US/EU developers but also from Japan. This won't happen with PS4 though. Despite all this, i find it hard to believe that companies will take full advantage of it, because there are 40 million ''old'' PS4s out there. New games will sure look better but this doesn't mean that it will run bad on the old hardware. I mean, if some people are so worried about the resolution and FPS, then they made a mistake in the first place buying a console and not a PC. Personally, i don't care so much about the power of the new PS4, i only want to see if there is a new design. If there isn't, then i will buy the old one. Heck, i would already pre-order the Uncharted PS4 if i didn't knew that there is a new PS4 coming out soon.

[IronEvangelion]

A new rumor is out with detailed specs of the upgraded aspects and comparisons to the current model:

http://gematsu.com/2016/04/rumor-ps4-5- ... pu-gpu-ram

The rumor also details how the games will be handled: All games after the launch will be required to have a "Neo Mode" for the new console and a standard model for the old consoles, sort of like the graphics settings on a PC game. In addition, Sony is prohibiting devs from making Neo-exclusive games. All PS4 games must be able to run on the original model. Good call on their part.

[cyharding]

I think we can take rumor off of the title.

http://gematsu.com/2016/06/sony-confirms-ps4-neo-not-e3