If you read carefully that doesn’t contradict what I said. I said they don’t target the newest one.
I did not get that meaning out of this prior statement, unless there’s some implied meaning to “legacy” I’m not aware of. I’m not a hardcore tech guy, so maybe that’s a term of art.
It’s not a critically important point, but at some point legacy hardware appears to get left back, and you are currently inside the circle, and I’m out of it. Not that I’m fretting over my inability to play cutting-edge 3D stuff on an iPad, the performance degredation is felt across all applications and the OS. Hell, the keyboard took over 10 seconds to appear under iOS 8 on an iPad 2.
Back on point, I think this is what folks may be afraid of when they hear about an iterative console experience. If you don’t have the next-to-newest, you might be paying full price for a bad user experience. That will have to be managed better than how I’ve seen Apple do it, they are indifferent to “legacy” users at best.
Even the WSJ chiming in now and claims that, according to their sources, the new PS4 will be announced ahead of the PSVR launch.
Sony Corp. is planning to sell a more powerful version of its PlayStation 4 machine to handle higher-end gaming experiences, including virtual reality, people familiar with the matter said, while continuing production of its existing console that has so far sold more than 36 million units world-wide.
Existing PlayStation 4 owners would need to buy the new model to take full advantage of the enhanced graphics and power, though it is likely that the current model and the coming one would share the same software catalog, one of the people said.
The new console would be announced before the planned October release of the PlayStation VR, Sony’s new virtual-reality headset, the people said. It would be able to handle ultra-high-definition resolution graphics. The upgraded console would also provide more power for running the PlayStation VR, whose main competitors, Facebook Inc.’s Oculus Rift and HTC Corp.’s Vive, are designed to work with top-shelf computers.
Woof…
fuck that then.
So, PSVR will want the 4.5 for better in game graphics? New PS4.5 for 300 bucks, PSVR bundle for 500.
Still cheaper than Oculus or Vive, considering I need to buy a 300 dollar video card to run that. Drop your prices for god’s sake Nvidia! You can buy a console for that amount of cash!
But… that really sucks. I bought the PS4 launch, only to have it last 3 years before being obsolete? That is PC-level obsolescence.
Yuck.
This seems like an incredibly silly move for Sony. They’re winning this generation handily, why are they obsoleting the PS4 already?
It’s sort of obvious that PSVR will only barely work with the current PS4. If anyone wants to make experiences look better and have more interactivity than the VR demos we’ve been seeing, Sony has to improve the basic hardware.
If they make a PS4.5, wouldn’t that just ensure that people will skip the PS5 because they’ll want to wait for the PS5.5?
Being a first adopter with consoles is always a reduced experience in my eyes.
If I buy a console at all I wait several years into its lifespan since I get a better price, a better model (slim for instance), a large established library of titles, and great sales on titles that came out at the console’s release.
If the 4.5 rumor is true than my waiting game paid off again since I may be able to get an upgraded version of the PS4 for a decent price.
-Todd
“Existing PlayStation 4 owners would need to buy the new model to take full advantage of the enhanced graphics and power, though it is likely that the current model and the coming one would share the same software catalog, one of the people said.”
This would be an unbelievable idiotic move by Sony. To obsolete the PS4 less than 3 years after its release when its selling great? This sounds more and more like people getting wires crossed and rumors being spun into “facts”.
That’s not what this story is saying. Its talking about upgraded internal hardware not just a system that is smaller and runs quieter. Sony has never done anything remotely like this, nor has any other console maker. the only comparison would be stuff like those goofy addon carts that Sega did in the 90’s which were a disaster.
Why do people keep saying the 4.5 will “obsolete” the current PS4? I am not getting that sense at all. Seems like the current PS4 will continue providing the same traditional gaming experience just fine.
-Todd
Yeah I realize this is somewhat unprecedented but it doesn’t invalidate my argument that waiting well into a console’s lifespan provides a better more rounded experience for late adopters.
-Todd
If the PS4.5 is an upgrade to the hardware (like a better proc or GPU, more RAM, etc) then it’s kind of inevitable. Developers will target the better hardware. Even if the Sony mandate is all games must work with both consoles, it’s probable that the experience on the PS4 will be severely downgraded. As it is, the PS4/Xbox One can’t manage a steady 60fps with full 1080p on most games.
The issue raised in the last sentence here had me thinking this would be a shorter console lifespan anyway. Both the PS4 and the XBone went with relatively weak hardware so I didn’t see either console having the longevity of the PS3 or 360.
The 4.5, if true, seems like a moderate step to address that without truly obsoleting current PS4s like a full PS5 rollout would. It seems like a concession to their current installed base.
But I’m also that weird guy that is still enjoying his PS3 so I don’t think in terms of hard obsolescence. :-)
-Todd
That’s not what we really saw though the with the New 3DS XL. There’s what one game that requires the new handheld and won’t work on the old?
The difference is that the hardware previous to the New 3DSXL wasn’t underpowered for the games being made. The PS4 and Xbox One already struggle to maintain minimum resolutions and framerates for current games. A bump in hardware would most assuredly be the new target spec for the big publishers since they’re eking by as it is in the current constraints.
Simple solution to that; Sony and MS just force developers to offer a great experience on the past 3 generations of consoles. Obviously developers will primarily target whichever device has the highest market-share, but as long as games run great on the other generations, who cares? Again, every popular game runs great on my 3 generation old ipad 4, which was released in late 2012.
They did this with the last 360. Not a great trade in amount, but it would be nice if they upped it.
Yeah, I mean, if they had some sort of system where I could send off my old PS4 with 100-150 bucks and get a new one, I wouldn’t care that much.
Dare to dream…
I also think that current gen feels a bit underpowered, but I’m not ready for an upgrade yet. I don’t think this is an awful idea, but I would have like another year or two out of my hardware and then a bigger bump. I might hold out and wait to see what happens and possibly skip a generation if we are going into an iterative upgrade scenario.
Still, I’m not very excited at this as a direction for consoles to take.