Wild Speculation time: I think the playstation 4 will be more of a concept

TheSonicRetard

that is to say, there will be no single stand alone playstation 4. Rather, the playstation 4 will come in a variety of appliances, like already built into TVs, or inside other consumer electronics equipment. Of course there will be stand alone PS4s, but I think there will be multiple models, varying across price range.

In this sense, it'll be a realization of the old 3DO conept, where a console was simply a standard which could be built into a range of compatible devices. Although, surly, the playstation 4 would stay on sony devices.

I also believe Sony is gonna announce either a partnership with steam, or develop their own steam clone, with cloud saving for the PS4. Games you purchase will also be linked to your PSN account, and you'll be able to play them on any Playstation 4 system, with your saves simply following you via cloud.

These are just my own wild speculation as to what the ps4 will be. I offer no proof or guarantee.

Blandlytasteful

I don't really think people will be too keen on buying a TV with hardware they don't care about inflating the price tag. Conversely, if a new system comes out, I might want it without buying a whole new damn TV. Plus the Sony TV and console developers are different companies, ostensibly...

I have doubts.

Linespider5

There are ways to make this awesome, and ways to make it horrible.

I suppose if Sony did a product-wide overhaul of their tech to make PS4 an interchangeable app that can exist via their own Sony Steam Cloud shenanigans, maybe it won't be so bad if you need to buy a new TV but are worried about getting one that's compatible with your PS4 profile history. But...product-wide overhauls of tech don't really....happen on companies the size of Sony. Apple, maybe.

I'm thinking more that they might make something like a Roku Box For their PS4. There might be essentially next to nothing in the box, and it still might be just a condenser unit for some kind of future cloud tech, but this seems like a less potential clusterfuck, as, much like the Roku Box, it should be able to work on damn near any TV set or monitor-based appliance a schmuck may ever own. Which would probably be easier and cheaper to implement than integrating a Playstation Media Column in all Sony devices-but I suppose in the latter half of the PS4's life they could start doing the built-in integration stuff with their TV models and whatnot. It would be the next level of the Slim editions that most successful systems eventually roll out. "Well, shit. The lady and I bought a new plasma screen and I guess I have a PS4 now. Infamous 4 for me."

My only concern is how do you quantify those sales? The industry-speak that so much in gaming lives and dies on hasn't developed the rhetoric to explain this type of stuff. Of course, there will be people who will happily state Sony's 20 million unit edge is comprised of appliances that have never even been used to play games on, and so on.

For what it's worth, I'm really beginning to dig Sony's well-established look and design for their consoles-particularly the controller. They should never mess with that again-it's just too iconic of modern gaming in general.

The Reverend Dr Galactus

There was talk a few years ago of building the Xbox 360 into various devices, but that never went anywhere, either, likely due to the fact that Microsoft doesn't really produce any home electronics and didn't have the partnerships in place to make it happen. Given that Sony makes all sorts of home electronics, I think your suggestion is entirely possible, but probably not for the PS4.

The PS3 is a much more likely candidate, as it's already proven itself as a media device as well as gaming platform, and by the time the PS4 is on the market, I could see a built-in PS3 adding something like a $100 premium to a Bravia. And they'll call it "Bravia Play." And Playstation Home will be a dedicated button on the remote. Anyway.

Word on the street right now is that the PS4 won't involve nearly as big an investment in custom tech. If it doesn't use the Cell architecture, that's another SCE generation without easy backward-compatibility, so it makes sense to keep the ten-year-lifecycle PS3 going through integration. I'm actually surprised they never did this with the PS2, but the "it only does everything" PS3 seems like a better candidate this time around.

Senshi

Re: Bravia Play, there's already that one Sony Ericsson phone that is like a PSP lite, isn't there? It's called the something something Play. Xperia Play, maybe. Dunno, Sony Ericsson has been nothing but a letdown these last few years so I haven't stayed on top of it, but there's some supporting evidence of Sony going in that direction if I ever saw it.

Bartholamue

Senshi wrote: »

Re: Bravia Play, there's already that one Sony Ericsson phone that is like a PSP lite, isn't there? It's called the something something Play. Xperia Play, maybe. Dunno, Sony Ericsson has been nothing but a letdown these last few years so I haven't stayed on top of it, but there's some supporting evidence of Sony going in that direction if I ever saw it.

XPeria Play, yes. You were right..

dbrock270

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Industry/F5C6F8A6?page=1

PS4's new hardware.