Next Gen Rumors

[dschroll]

Yeah, they're dropping both to the same price, which says a lot in terms of how much people think of the 3G version as it won't even command a premium over the Wi Fi one. My concern is the memory cards, which are still insanely overpriced. I hope Sony drops the price on those too. Still, there's just not enough gaming content on the Vita to tempt me. What would push me over the edge with Vita is if I could play all my PSN content on it. Then I would buy this in a heartbeat. It only seems to be with certain games though at this point.

I wonder if Nintendo will respond in kind with a price drop. They do have significantly better content than the vita, so they may not feel the need to. We'll see...

[dschroll]

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The new PlayStation also will allow players to share achievements on social networks through smoother links to Facebook or Twitter, while also enabling aspects such as sharing footage of game play online through YouTube, people familiar with Sony’s plans said. Sony’s new console may also allow users to compete against others using different hardware, such as smartphones and other portable devices, those people said.

Microsoft, while it has tested cloud gaming, is putting greater emphasis on software that allows the Xbox to interact with mobile devices like Apple’s iPad. The company is also planning to create new interactive TV content to be played on its consoles, after opening up a new production studio in Southern California.

[reaper]

Does it seem like they are talking about the Vita as if it is "past tense"

[Jincman]

Absolutely ... that seems odd.

[dschroll]

Its just Sony building up hype to the next Playstation product. They've been doing a small video for all their past devices.

[reaper]

Juicy new tidbits

kotaku.com/5985356/source-the-ps4-will-be-out-this-november-and-youll-be-able-to-control-it-with-your-phone

[Jincman]

Does anyone know if there is a live stream?

[fatty]

These should work but I don't know where the official one is.



psmeeting.gametrailers.com/

[dschroll]

Rumors of the next gen Kinect and how its improved over today's Kinect:

Here’s a quick list of improvements when compared to the original Kinect sensor bar:
Improved field of view results in much larger play space.
RGB stream is higher quality and higher resolution.
Depth stream is much higher resolution and able to resolve much smaller objects.
Higher depth stream accuracy enables separating objects in close depth proximity.
Higher depth stream accuracy captures depth curvature around edges better.
Active infrared (IR) stream permits lighting independent processing and feature recognition.
End to end pipeline latency is improved by 33 ms
Tracking of players with height of one meter.
One mode for both seated and standing players.
Detection of hand states, for example, open or closed hands.
Detection of extra joints, and rotations for some joints.
Tracking of six, rather than two, active players.
Tracking of occluded joints, for example, an elbow occluded by a hand.
Detection of joint positions.
Detection of sideways poses.

[reaper]

I'm kind of interested in Kinect 2.0. I think they first one had some really cool gameplay ideas but ultimately was held back by technical reasons. I am hoping kinect 2.0 improves those and we see some unique and interesting ideas.

[dschroll]

You know, I'm kind of starting to get concerned about something with regards to all these new (and current) consoles. It seems they are all coming with sensor bars or cameras now. Wii and Wii U have the sensor bar, 360 has kinect, now the PS4 is gonna have their sensor bar. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want all this stuff sitting all around my TV.

[reaper]

Used games

www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-21-sony-tells-eurogamer-playstation-4-will-not-block-used-games

[reaper]

Good interview... I have a good feeling about Sony this gen

mobile.businessweek.com/videos/2013-02-21/sonys-tretton-on-playstation-4-industry-outlook

[dschroll]

Meh....its mostly corporate speak at this point. I had to laugh in terms of when he mentions at how the hardcore base is growing and that 30% more consoles were sold this generation than last. I think we can all attribute that growth to the Wii.

[dschroll]

This is a good article:

www.polygon.com/2013/2/25/4027270/what-dreams-may-come

When Sony laid out the promise of the PlayStation Portable in 2004, it called it the Walkman of the 21st Century, a PlayStation 2 in your pocket. When the company unveiled the PlayStation 3, it talked about gaming across multiple screens, the ability for gamers to buy and sell in-game items and showed off a boomerang-shaped controller.

When those systems hit, they delivered a feast of new playable content and edged forward the boundaries of gaming innovation, but both were shadows of the promises that Sony original made.

Where Sony often promises the heavens, it's typically delivered the earth.

Last week's PlayStation 4 unveiling seemed to be an event designed around this premise. While there were some hard promises made — we saw six games in development, some of the locked specs for the system and a controller packed with possibility — much of the two-and-a-half-hour show was filled with a sort of dream-fueled rhetoric.

The company talked about a online store powered by artificial intelligence that could help determine the games you might want to buy and then pre-load them onto your console for you. But it didn't offer details about how that would work.

It said games would be playable before they finished downloading, but later said that it wouldn't require third-party developers to deliver on that promise.

Sony said it hopes to make PlayStation 4 games, or some version of them, playable on the PlayStation Vita.

They talked about wanting some form of interaction between tablets and smartphones and the new console, but not what that would be exactly.

The company sketched out the concept of using both real names and screen names when using its PlayStation Network. But it hasn't talked about the very real concerns surrounding real ID.

It said every significant third-party game maker was making content for the PS4, though only two took to the stage during the event.

The company said it hopes to create a service that will allow gamers to stream PlayStation, PS2 and PS3 games to the PS4, but didn't promise it would happen.

Even after the event, Sony officials weren't exactly clear on some of the chief points of this new philosophy. Whether used games will play on the PS4, a point of contention and concern among many gamers, seems still unclear, with the head of its game studios saying that his "expectation" was that they would be playable.

Most noticeably, Sony's PS4 unveiling never featured the actual console, due to launch this holiday.

The console is just a box, a Sony exec later told me, what really matters is what's inside it. But the thing is, we're not sure about that either.

Last week's "PlayStation Meeting" seemed more collective dream than the launch of next-generation gaming.

Don't get me wrong, the concept roughed out during the over-the-top presentation is inspired: Sony wants to deliver a console that is accessible to everyone, offers the immediacy of gaming on a smartphone, is as social as Facebook and Twitter, is an integral part of your life and that will be consummately personal to every gamer.

The promise of Sony's PlayStation 4 is a smart response to a future of gaming that has to compete with iPhone game impulse buys, Kickstarter consoles, top-tier, free-to-play games and computers turned living-room gaming machines.

The question is: Can Sony deliver?

[reaper]

That is a good article and a nice gut check. Thanks for sharing. I guess my feeling is simply this:

1. It seems as though they are more humbled this time around and wanting to do right by the core gamer and the developer.
2. The promises seem within the realm of possibility.

So, overall I don't feel as though they are trotting something out that has a 3% chance of ever seeing the light of day. I think they are discussing plans that are very likely to occur. The game streaming is one such example. I've already played games streamed over the net. I know it's possible. The quality is really the only concern.

On a related note, I was just thinking how cool it would be to be sitting at my desk at lunch time and decide I want to make some more progress on Elder Scrolls VI, a PS4 game in my console at home. I turn my Vita on and it instructs my PS4 to wake at home and start the game. The game is streamed to my handheld and I play an hour then store the vita and get back to work. Doesn't that sound cool!?

[reaper]

Yeah baby!

[reaper]

Developers React to PlayStation 4

www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/25/developers-react-to-playstation-4#.USvd8AnvgfQ.twitter

[dschroll]

Eidos co-founder Ian Livingston doesn't see a digital-only system this generation, but he suggests the next Xbox will require an always-on internet connection and will feature marked discs that prevent sharing games across systems.

"Broadband speed globally isn’t at a level that justifies digital-only.” Livingstone told MCV India. “So they’ve gone halfway [...] With the next Xbox, you supposedly have to have an internet connection, and the discs are watermarked, whereby once played on one console it won’t play on another. So I think the generation after that will be digital-only.”


Read more at www.destructoid.com/eidos-co-founder-says-next-xbox-won-t-play-used-games-246969.phtml#E4xu0Guxs4vBmSTX.99

[dschroll]

The PlayStation 4 could employ a multiple-tier subscription service, offering different levels of access in a style similar to a cable television company, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida tells The Guardian.

"We could have gold, silver or platinum levels of membership, something like that," Yoshida says. "We can do subscription services when we have more content – especially now that we have the Gaikai technology available. With one subscription you have access to thousands of games – that's our dream."

Yoshida says the PS4 will have more digital content than its predecessors, at least: Every game will be available as a download, while some will still be sold at retail. This makes it easier to host smaller games such as Jonathan Blow's The Witness, and it supports a broader range of payment models, such as free-to-play or subscription-based games.

"We're shifting our platform more and more to the digital side," he says. "PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc."

Yoshida previously confirmed that current-gen PSN games won't run natively on PS4, though emulation or cloud service plans aren't out of the question.