Sony PS4: Rumour mill continues

Nic Simmonds

After studying a BA degree at the University of the Witwatersrand where he majored in Media Studies and Philosophy, Nic served as an intern at...

Full Profile

E-mail

While rumours about the PlayStation 4 have been floating around online since 2006, Sony has remained tight-lipped on the subject.

When the first substantial rumours surrounding the PS4 surfaced in December 2006, Sony responded by stating that there would be a PS4, but definitely not before late 2010. Not much has changed from Sony’s side since then, but the industry’s rumour mill continues to escalate.

The only official fact that can be stated with certainty is that the PS4 will not be here before 2011.

There are, however, various websites that are reporting detailed PlayStation4 specifications. Most of these sites, however, keep their sources secret and therefore cannot be taken too seriously. Some sources claim to have access to insider information, leaked information and preliminary information sent to game developers.

At this year’s Games Developer’s conference in Leipzig Germany in August, president and CEO of Crytek, Cevat Yerli, declared that "the PlayStation 4 and Xbox ’720′ will arrive in 2011 or 2012, we think. But this is just our estimate – we don’t know.”

Around the same time, Japanese news site “PC Watch” reported some information on the PS4. The information was apparently obtained from third party developers who were in possession of official PS4 specifications for feedback purposes. PC Watch refused to name the developers in question as they were covered by a non-disclosure agreement.

According to PC Watch, the PS4 will be about twice as powerful as the PS3 and will feature motion sensing technology similar to the Nintendo Wii. They reported that the proposed deadline is currently 2011 and that Sony is determined to beat Microsoft’s next console to launch.

The information also states that Sony is not replacing the PS3’s CELL architecture, but is rather going to develop what they already have.Finally, apparently the PS4 will opt out of using XDR and make use of regular JEDEC memory.

More highly speculative information available at “edepot” suggests the PS4 will include 9.1 channel surround sound, SATA- 600 storage speeds (6Gb/s), USB 3.0, Bluetooth 3.0, 1024 MB GDDR5 VRAM and 1024MB DDR4 system ram.

The same source indicates that the PS4 will be able to output to QF-HDTV (3840x2160p) and will make use of Holographic Discs (HVD).

At any rate, it seems reasonable to expect the PS4 to launch sometime around late 2011.

Only time will tell how much validity there is in any of these rumours.

Sony PS4 discussion