Guerrilla Games: PlayStation 4 Is Not Just a High-End PC.

Xbitlabs ^ | 04/09/2013 11:55 PM | Anton Shilov

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More hits on what they have done to the Special APU.

[jeffc]

I’ll probably get this instead of replacing my trusty old 2006 XP PC I’m using right now. Surf the web and play games, that’s all I use it for anyway.

[Viennacon]

I’m not sure if I’ll get this, especially at full price. The lack of backward-compatibility is a real sh&t sandwich, done deliberately to make people buy games twice.

[Durus]

It’s not even a high end PC.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Backward compatibility is a double edged sword. That is the main reason MS windows is so bloated. They probably couldn’t touch the price point if its that advanced.

[Eye of Unk]

High end pc sales are tanking, partly because of Windows 8 and partly because of tablets.
I need a new pc but instead I bought a Samsung 10.1 Tablet, using it at work on my lunch break right now.

[GraceG]

The APU is a good solution for the Gaming console, because this means a simpler systemboard and the simpler the board the cheaper the console.

[bicyclerepair]

If you’ve ever disassembled a playstation controller you would see that it’s garbage.

[Wayne07]

It’s definitely worse in some ways, slower cpu and gpu, but better in others. It will have 8GB GDDR5 (even the Nvidia GTX 690 which costs over $1000 only has 4gb). It won’t have the boated overhead of a consumer OS. Overall it should be an amazing package for the price (presumable $399-$499 range), and will rival the performance of PCs that cost 2x-3x as much.

[jeffc]

...and will rival the performance of PCs that cost 2x-3x as much.

AND.... it won't have to be upgraded 5 years after purchase to play the latest and greatest games, like PC's do.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I think the tanking sales has more to do with the form factor than windows 8. For what most people do a tablet makes more sense.

[discostu]

It won’t make anybody buy a game twice. If you’ve got something playing on your PS3 and you buy a PS4 you keep the PS3. There’s plenty of ways to have multiple systems plugged into your TV. And nobody will be porting games over to the new system. And lack of downward compatibility means lack of albatross, from a development perspective downward compatibility is primarily not fixing old bad decisions.

[discostu]

And there’s nothing really pushing the market anymore. PC technology is no longer growing by leaps and bounds, a 5 year old PC is no longer dramatically slower than a new PC, if your machine was an 11 then it’s probably still a solid 8 now. The more gracefully technology ages the less drive there is to replace it with the new hotness.

[rollo tomasi]

PS4 is using x86 architecture so backwards compatibility would cost even more $$$ because of the Cell processor in the PS3. Either programmers re-code PS3 titles (Exclusives) or Sony includes the Cell which they of course would not do (Sony has been bleeding money but fortunately they have plenty of assets to sell off).

The PS4 and Nextbox is the PC gamers dream come true. Both consoles are "PC based" and developer friendly. This will usher in the era of better optimization. Its a win-win for both the console player and PC gamer.

[rollo tomasi]

GPU tech is advancing rapidly.

[Viennacon]

I get that its hard to do with the technology, but I was always impressed with the PS2s ability to play games for the PS1.
I do like that they’re now offering PS1 games from the Play Station Store, but they need to expand the library, and there are a lot of PS2 games I’d like them to make available for download with the new console. It makes sense, having PS1 games become available for the PS3, and then have PS2 games become available for the PS4. There are some especially rare games I no longer have and would want to be able to play again.

[discostu]

But I can still play brand new games on my 6 year old PC, which is only barely noticeably slower than my 2 year old work PC. And I wasn’t anywhere near top of the line then. Also because PCs are components if I really wanted to jump my PC’s speed I could do it with a new GPU card. Performance per watt really isn’t going to drive the market, that’s a nerd stat that doesn’t have that much to do with what I see on my screen.

[rollo tomasi]

The next generation of home consoles (PS4, Nextbox) will lead to a greater need of upgrading PC hardware components to play the latest games.

Like I said, a win-win for PC/Console gamers (With high end PCers getting a graphics/resolution/Frames per second advantage).

[rollo tomasi]

Sony re-wrote/designed their PS4 towards x86 architecture because programmers (Mostly third party) hated developing for the Cell processor. Sony's first party programing houses received better developer tools which were expensive to buy/"lease" for third party programmers/developers.

By tailoring the PS4 towards PC architecture, the third party crowd are more likely to developed better optimized software and more frequent as well. Unfortunately backwards compatibility needed to take a back seat.