EDGE: PS4 to launch this holiday season in NA and Japan. Europe Early 2014

Lots of interesting info in this article. I didnt want it to get buried in the other thread.

Summary:

- Launches this Holiday Season in North America and Japan.
- Europe early 2014 due to some distribution channel issues in Europe.
- New Controller has a touchpad, not a LCD screen. Replaces Start/Select/PS buttons and lets you take screenshots.
- Move controller and new eyetoy may not be included in every system.
- System records last 15 minutes of gameplay. Can be edited on the console and posted online.
- This is a big one. Sony already has 4GB of faster GDDR5 compared to the slower one MS is using (176Gb/s vs 68Gb/s), but MS has around 8GB to make up for the slow bandwith. However, Sony's privately told developers that they are trying to bring it up to 8GB if they can. F*cking awesome if true.
- More powerful than the 720 on paper but we already know this from the leaks. PS4 GPU 1.84 TFlops vs MS 1.24 Tflops vs Wii 0.5 Tflops.
- Very Developer friendly. Devs very pleased with this new Sony.

Full article here:

http://www.edge-online.com/news/playstation-4-revealed/

 Of course, MS might have a change of heart after seeing these specs and may beef up their console at the last minute. They did that with the 360 doubling the RAM after Epic b*tched about it. Still, the MS console has some secret sauce like ESRAM that should erase the memory deficit and some other fancy new compute units that will make multiplats look practically the same on both consoles. Funny how it's MS who has the secret hidden power this gen.

I will faint with excitement if Sony goes with 8GB of GDD5 RAM. Open worlds games will look godly with that much RAM. I hope Sony ditches the idea of including PS Eye and Move controller in every console and puts that extra cash towards 8GB of GDDR5 RAM.

I feel a little vindicated.:P  My photoshop from that old thread doesn't sound far off.  If I'd gotten rid of the PS button, it sounds like I was dead on.

Yeah, you nailed it.

I do hope they switch the left analog stick with the dpad, like it is on the 360.

And make it just a little bigger and easier to hold. The Wii U tablet is a beautifully designed controller and sits perfectly in my hands.

System records last 15 minutes of gameplay. Can be edited on the console and posted online.

Hell yeah. As I said in the X720 thread, the ability to automatically record game footage would be cool as heck. People will no only post their multiplayer victories against impossible odds, but cool creatures they've come across in their favorite rpgs and footage from user created levels they are promoting.

System records last 15 minutes of gameplay. Can be edited on the console and posted online.

Hell yeah. As I said in the X720 thread, the ability to automatically record game footage would be cool as heck. People will no only post their multiplayer victories against impossible odds, but cool creatures they've come across in their favorite rpgs and footage from user created levels they are promoting.

CarnageHeart

Saw that on gaf earlier. The thing that has me interested in that article is the whole gameplay recording thing. I've been waiting years for a console to have this feature. It's something I've asked for multiple times. Hopefully the way Sony does it is gives you the option to either put videos directly on youtube from your ps4 but also simply put them on your psn profile to give your profile some extra personalisation and meaning.

Getting it out in the States, their weakest and Microsoft's strongest region, this year is vital. It's like they actually know what they're doing this time around. As an EU citizen I can't wait to pay more and wait longer. -_-

If it launches with a decent lineup and at a reasonable price I could see it taking off right out of the gate.

I also wonder if it's going to have some type of community feature like Miiverse where you can post video clips you record

8 GBs of GDDR5? That would leave Microsoft in the dust. 

8 GBs of GDDR5? That would leave Microsoft in the dust. 

Vari3ty

It's very unlikely though. That RAM is expensive and will require a lot of place on the mobo. 

Anyway, saw this mock up on gaf. Looks good.

Lots of people want gameplay recording it seems, me too. As much as it pains me, move should be separate. Oh and enough of the eyetoy, move needs to work without it. Make most games very easy to be compatible with move, like all shooters.dvader654

A facebook styIe newsfeed with all your friends uploads, statuses and activities would be a fantastic edition. I uploaded my vids of going 37-1 and 34-1 in CoD, but i got like 4 views because why would you watch some random dude killing everyone. If it was your friend and you were playing the same game then you might be more interested in seeing it. 

Apparently the touchpad takes the screenshot instantly and automically shares it among your friends. That's pretty sweet if you ask me. Hope they make this network available online so we can view it from the web as well. Make a smartphone app as well. Just like facebook.

Taking screenshots and recording video would be awesome. This is sounding better and better with each new bit of news.

[QUOTE="Vari3ty"]

8 GBs of GDDR5? That would leave Microsoft in the dust.

S0lidSnake

It's very unlikely though. That RAM is expensive and will require a lot of place on the mobo.

Anyway, saw this mock up on gaf. Looks good.

I think it would be better to err on the side of affordability. It would be awesome if Sony came out and said '$300' though '$400' is probably more realistic.

Hype is always entertaining. I remember the nonsense with regards to the power of the PS3 and how it was ultra powerfull blah blah and in reality its the weakest of the two HD consoles and has the worst performance. I expect the same here. Also I don't see much advantage to the inclusion of 8 GB of RAM outside of multi-tasking. It would not make the games look better by the default and is a general overkill for specifically for gaming.

I truly hope the recording function is there, I'm too che .. frugal to buy a capture card. I have been playing around with my video editing software so this would work very well for me. I'm really not sure why they felt the need to add a touch pad?

mock upS0lidSnake

I hope it has more substance on the back side. All I wanted from a new controller was a 10-15% increase in size.

Hype is always entertaining. I remember the nonsense with regards to the power of the PS3 and how it was ultra powerfull blah blah and in reality its the weakest of the two HD consoles and has the worst performance. I expect the same here. Also I don't see much advantage to the inclusion of 8 GB of RAM outside of multi-tasking. It would not make the games look better by the default and is a general overkill for specifically for gaming.

Pedro

Yeah, when I saw the first rumors pegging the new consoles having 8GB of RAM, I was just laughing and rolling my eyes. But it seems they really are doing it. I really don't understand for what purpose. 8GB of GDDR5 RAM is just not going to be used by any developer on the planet. My PC still has 4GB of GDDR3 RAM and performance is top notch. Also, unlike PC games, console games mostly stream directly from the disc.

Anyway, it's about time consoles enable screenshots and video recording. Good news. I hope they don't stop there. I would like to see tracking gameplay hours and stuff like that.

[QUOTE="Pedro"]

Hype is always entertaining. I remember the nonsense with regards to the power of the PS3 and how it was ultra powerfull blah blah and in reality its the weakest of the two HD consoles and has the worst performance. I expect the same here. Also I don't see much advantage to the inclusion of 8 GB of RAM outside of multi-tasking. It would not make the games look better by the default and is a general overkill for specifically for gaming.

UpInFlames

Yeah, when I saw the first rumors pegging the new consoles having 8GB of RAM, I was just laughing and rolling my eyes. But it seems they really are doing it. I really don't understand for what purpose. 8GB of GDDR5 RAM is just not going to be used by any developer on the planet. My PC still has 4GB of GDDR3 RAM and performance is top notch. Also, unlike PC games, console games mostly stream directly from the disc.

Anyway, it's about time consoles enable screenshots and video recording. Good news. I hope they don't stop there. I would like to see tracking gameplay hours and stuff like that.

Wait, I was under the impression that you can never have too much RAM. Why do you guys believe that they wont need 8GB of RAM?

I have always heard developer complain about how the RAM in current gen consoles is just not enough. Most PC games dont take full advantage of all the RAM available in PCs because these games are developed for consoles first. Correct me if I'm wrong, but next gen games are going to have bigger textures and reading these textures from the slow bluray drives is going to be a huge problem. The more RAM the developers have, the more stuff they can store in it and quickly access it. I believe that having all this RAM will result in huge draw distances, less pop ups, better quality textures and well better resolution. Werent the Skyrim PS3 issues blamed on the PS3's split RAM architecure? In those cases the framerate went down to 0 fps at time. Imagine if they had 8GB, they could load the entire game in the RAM and not have to worry about reading it from disc saving them precious CPU resources that could be used for something else. Most PS3 3D games run at half the resolution of 720p. I'd imagine having 8GB would help them create two images of 1080p resolution, one for each eye as long as the GPU can handle it. 

I agree that 8GB GDDR5 is too expensive, and just a rumor at this point, but if Edge is reporting it then there has to be some truth to it. Maybe Sony is looking to have another 4GB of DDR3 RAM to go along with the 4GB of DDR5. Maybe they will just settle for 5GB. 

Also, are you sure you have 4GB GDDR3 RAM? That's VRAM you are talking about. My GTX570 only has 1.3 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. One thing about consoles is that the RAM also acts as VRAM so whatever RAM your games are using is an addition to the VRAM your GPU is already using. 

Just last year Crytek devs were saying 8GB of fast RAM should be minimum. They like to show off and talk out of their ass, but these consoles need to stay relevant for another 6 years. With the newest graphics card pushing nearly 4 Tflops of processing power, these sub 2.0 Tflops consoles will need any edge they can get to keep up. And RAM is a huge part of it. 

Hype is always entertaining. I remember the nonsense with regards to the power of the PS3 and how it was ultra powerfull blah blah and in reality its the weakest of the two HD consoles and has the worst performance. I expect the same here. Also I don't see much advantage to the inclusion of 8 GB of RAM outside of multi-tasking. It would not make the games look better by the default and is a general overkill for specifically for gaming.

Pedro

When PS3 was first announced it had a bluray player that was retailing for over a $1,000 everywhere else. That was part of the reason why everyone considered it a high tech machine. 

Also, the 360 originally had only 256MB of RAM and was increased late in development only after Epic forced MS to add some more. So technically the PS3 did have better specs when it was first announced. 

Hate the PS3 controller, the 360 controller is so much better apart from the Dpad, the analog sticks are the worst.Tixylixx

This is actually going to play a very large role in choosing my next console. Even if Sony looks like it has a knockout with the PS4 spec wise and exclusive wise, if they still have the same Dualshock design I just can't see myself getting it. 

[QUOTE="Tixylixx"]Hate the PS3 controller, the 360 controller is so much better apart from the Dpad, the analog sticks are the worst.Vari3ty

This is actually going to play a very large role in choosing my next console. Even if Sony looks like it has a knockout with the PS4 spec wise and exclusive wise, if they still have the same Dualshock design I just can't see myself getting it. 

Strangely enough that may be the case for me as well.  I like the PS3...but my hands don't like the controller at all.  I feel like I'm getting arthritus after playing for more than an hour depending on the game. The design has served Sony well, but I do feel a change is needed at this point.

I'm also really hoping the Sony did learn it's lesson from the PS3 in regards to pricing.  Anything over $400 is an automatic pass for me.  I would like to think they have learned, but their intro price of the PSP Go upon release and the price of the Vita has me a tad concerned.  Granted, handhelds and consoles are 2 different beasts but I'm not relaxing until a price is announced.

Someone echoed my sentiments on the controller, but I'll repeat it here, just for clarification; I wish they put in a left stick on the PS4 pad. I'm so used to the XBox 360 controller that it's hard to play a game with any other kind of controller. :lol:

Seeing all this news makes me want to trade in all my 360 games and the system just to go on the PS4 bandwagon or even PS3. :P

Wait, I was under the impression that you can never have too much RAM. Why do you guys believe that they wont need 8GB of RAM?

I have always heard developer complain about how the RAM in current gen consoles is just not enough. Most PC games dont take full advantage of all the RAM available in PCs because these games are developed for consoles first. Correct me if I'm wrong, but next gen games are going to have bigger textures and reading these textures from the slow bluray drives is going to be a huge problem. The more RAM the developers have, the more stuff they can store in it and quickly access it. I believe that having all this RAM will result in huge draw distances, less pop ups, better quality textures and well better resolution. Werent the Skyrim PS3 issues blamed on the PS3's split RAM architecure? In those cases the framerate went down to 0 fps at time. Imagine if they had 8GB, they could load the entire game in the RAM and not have to worry about reading it from disc saving them precious CPU resources that could be used for something else. Most PS3 3D games run at half the resolution of 720p. I'd imagine having 8GB would help them create two images of 1080p resolution, one for each eye as long as the GPU can handle it. 

I agree that 8GB GDDR5 is too expensive, and just a rumor at this point, but if Edge is reporting it then there has to be some truth to it. Maybe Sony is looking to have another 4GB of DDR3 RAM to go along with the 4GB of DDR5. Maybe they will just settle for 5GB. 

Also, are you sure you have 4GB GDDR3 RAM? That's VRAM you are talking about. My GTX570 only has 1.3 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. One thing about consoles is that the RAM also acts as VRAM so whatever RAM your games are using is an addition to the VRAM your GPU is already using. 

Just last year Crytek devs were saying 8GB of fast RAM should be minimum. They like to show off and talk out of their ass, but these consoles need to stay relevant for another 6 years. With the newest graphics card pushing nearly 4 Tflops of processing power, these sub 2.0 Tflops consoles will need any edge they can get to keep up. And RAM is a huge part of it. 

S0lidSnake

Unfortunately its not that clear cut. Large open worlds are possible now with the limited amount of RAM and that is because the data is streamed. This would not change with more RAM. Lets not forget that Blu Ray storage capacity is way beyond 4GB and 8GB. The main beef devs had with the PS3 memory was the splitting of the accessible memory. While the system shared 256MB could have been accessed by the video card the system could not allocated non GPU related use of VRAM, limiting the flexibility.

More RAM is a good thing but for a gaming system the quoted 4GB-8GB is overkill for gaming and the inclusion of this much RAM; if the final specs includes it, would not be for gaming but to facilitate multi tasking capabilities. So now; like the Wii U, you can easily switch in an out of game for non gaming use such as browsing the net and what not.

My main beef with devs is the increasing loading times. The technology is getting faster but the loading times are getting longer. Devs are not particularly concerned with utilizing the technology to reduce loading times. Some devs make an attempt others just leave as it even though some games suffer from ungodly loading times.

At the moment the most highend video card clocks about 3GB of RAM, which goes mostly untouched. Lets not forget all textures in video games are compressed not only because of limited memory but also to reduce fetching of textures and to reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to fetch these textures. There is a lot you can do with 1GB of VRAM so 4GB or 8GB is nothing short of overkill. But like I said if they are going to have this much RAM don't expect the application would be for gaming.

And finally the advancement of technology in real time graphics have trememdously slowed down. The need to upgrade your PC has become irregular and uneccesary for most because the need is not there. Currently most folks are tricked in purchasing newer hardware when there isn't a need for this newer hardware. So I am not too concerned with newer consoles being out of date too soon and what not. I do believe that this is last generation of console gaming. So enjoy the moment. :D

More RAM is a good thing but for a gaming system the quoted 4GB-8GB is overkill for gaming and the inclusion of this much RAM; if the final specs includes it, would not be for gaming but to facilitate multi tasking capabilities. So now; like the Wii U, you can easily switch in an out of game for non gaming use such as browsing the net and what not.Pedro

Which we already figured. The operating systems on these consoles need RAM just as much as the games do, especially with all their multimedia capabilities. Doesn't really matter how much of that RAM is going to be delegated where (I figure it'll be no more than 2GBs split between the two; maybe 1 to 1.5GBs if we're lucky) since we'll still be getting a big upgrade. That's what matters most.

The rumors about the PS4's ram say that 3.5gbs will be available to devs and that 512 will be reserved for OS functions. That should work out great. My only beef with the XMB is how slow it can be. rragnaar

Well there you go, then. Even better.

The rumors about the PS4's ram say that 3.5gbs will be available to devs and that 512 will be reserved for OS functions. That should work out great. My only beef with the XMB is how slow it can be. rragnaar

Apparently PS3 OS has access to only 50MB or so. Which may explain the slow loading. 

TBH, Wii U has 1GB and that thing is slower than the PS3 OS at times. You know how you can close the Vita apps with just a swipe? Wii U apps take upto 15 seconds to close. They take even longer to load. Nintendo went with some cheap RAM and CPU and the OS really suffers from it.

If that release date is true, then man this is really early. I feel like I've only played a small number of games on the PS3. Oh well. I was able to get a good 2 years out of my PS2 after the PS3 launched. I'm probably going to do the same this time. I'm also very curious about the pricing.

I hope they fix the analog sticks on their controllers. It shouldn't be a nub with a rubberized tip glued on - it should be like a 360 controller as one solid piece. I've had the glue wear out and the tips become loose on several of my PS3 Sixaxis and DS3 controllers, forcing me to superglue them back on which messes up the controller a lot. Also, there should be a bit more resistance turning the sticks and it should be smoother, also like the 360 controller.

Unlike others, I think the triggers are fine and I don't mind the symmetrical placement, but I wouldn't care if they copied the 360 controller in every way (except for the D-pad of course). The DS3's only advantage over 360 controller was the D-pad and the included rechargeable wireless battery.

I'm excited for this next gen, although I assumed it wouldn't launch until 2014, but I don't mind being wrong. :P

Also, are you sure you have 4GB GDDR3 RAM? That's VRAM you are talking about. My GTX570 only has 1.3 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. One thing about consoles is that the RAM also acts as VRAM so whatever RAM your games are using is an addition to the VRAM your GPU is already using. 

Just last year Crytek devs were saying 8GB of fast RAM should be minimum. They like to show off and talk out of their ass, but these consoles need to stay relevant for another 6 years. With the newest graphics card pushing nearly 4 Tflops of processing power, these sub 2.0 Tflops consoles will need any edge they can get to keep up. And RAM is a huge part of it. S0lidSnake

I have 4GB of RAM and my GPU has 512MB of VRAM.

Crytek always talks bulls***.

Hate the PS3 controller, the 360 controller is so much better apart from the Dpad, the analog sticks are the worst.Tixylixx

All the PS4 controller needs to do is have 360 like triggers. The triggers on PS3 are awful. And I wouldn't be complaining if it had longer/bigger grips. That aside there isn't a single thing I'd want the PS4 controller to take from the 360.