Sony Won't Invest As Heavily In PlayStation 4 [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

donniebaseball23 writes "Sony CFO Masaru Kato told investors this week that the company won't be looking to put the same kind of massive R&D into PS4 as they did with PS3. PS3's costs were astronomical because of Blu-ray and the Cell chip, but Sony's bottom line can't take another similar hit. Analysts are speculating that this will leave the door open for competitors like Microsoft. 'PS4's hardware could be less impressive than the PS3 at its launch. I think Microsoft will really be able to put the screws to Sony in the next console war,' Panoptic analyst Asif Khan commented to IndustryGamers."

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[Trebuken]

My G2X can phone can already do all that (has HDMI output) and may even have the same CPU. I believe it should be pushing Android 2.3 maybe 2.4 by fall as well.

The controller seems to be the only only perk.

Hope it can bring something more to the table. It seems to me to be akin to the Gameboy Player.

[kedawa]

It's a dead obvious trend. Consoles have always used a mix of custom and off-the-shelf hardware, but with the high level of integration inherent in modern computer systems, designing a platform in-house has become impractical.
Anything Sony tries to engineer will be less efficient than the ready-made solutions offered by IBM/AMD/Nvidia, since those are the companies that design the logic used in the components in the first place.

[cynicalhat]

It kind of makes sense really. blu ray tech can be re used. Slap a faster cell processor in there and a more modern version of the "RSX" with current shader models and the like. more ram. bam! less R&D.

[duffmanth]

They certainly can't launch another console at $599+ or they'll sink themselves.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I wonder if they will drop the Playstation line, and give the next console a new name. It seems like this is a good time to hit the reset switch.

[Damaramu]

A buddy of mine works in the industry and his company has had PS4 dev kits, from the sounds of it, at least since the beginning of the year.

He says the PS4 is a monster of a machine. I'll get more info from him about it next time I see him online.

[WCP]

A buddy of mine works in the industry and his company has had PS4 dev kits, from the sounds of it, at least since the beginning of the year.

He says the PS4 is a monster of a machine. I'll get more info from him about it next time I see him online.

Wuh.... That would mean Sony is launching at the same time as Nintendo. Otherwise, why would Dev kits already be available. This seems really hard for me to believe, but if you have the inside scoop...

I'm guessing that if what you say is correct, then Sony might even tease this machine at e3.

[kupomogli]

If PS4 is going to be announced then there goes whatever edge Nintendo would have had for a slight graphics lead over 360 and PS3. Now all they have is the LCD controller for kids who happen not to have a TV and still want to play. Doubt that's going to work for them.

I just hope the PS4 is BC for PS1 and PS2, atleast software based.

[kedawa]

A buddy of mine works in the industry and his company has had PS4 dev kits, from the sounds of it, at least since the beginning of the year.

He says the PS4 is a monster of a machine. I'll get more info from him about it next time I see him online.

That's no surprising. Dev kits aren't even necessarily based on the console hardware. They're just similar enough in some respects to give devs an approximation of the target platform. Early XBOX360 dev units were just PowerMac G5 computers with an ATI video card running a custom Windows NT operating system.

[chrisbid]

I wonder if they will drop the Playstation line, and give the next console a new name. It seems like this is a good time to hit the reset switch.

or sony should spin off the playstation brand into its own company. convergence is a failed business model for gaming consoles. the playstation team needs less pressure from other sony divisions to allow them the freedom to focus on games. sony can still make a killing by being the primary shareholder in the new company and will still make money on every game published on a blu ray disc.

[duffmanth]

I wonder if they will drop the Playstation line, and give the next console a new name. It seems like this is a good time to hit the reset switch.

I don't think need to drop the Playstation name, they just need to be smarter about launching their next console. That means not charging $599 for it, market it as a game console instead of a computer, and don't be cocky and arrogant assholes.

[otaku]

I recently sold my ps3 over a lack of content and the whole security debacle they've really been dropping the ball with this system wonder how much longer they will even stay in the game? Will we end up with just nintendo and ms? I could see that and even be fine with it.

[Sabz5150]

They certainly can't launch another console at $599+ or they'll SNK themselves.

Fixed

[duffmanth]

Fixed

Nice touch lol!