The Sony news and discussion thread

[Flabyo]

Seems like a press embargo might be up on No Man's Sky, people seem to have actually played it now.

And, shock horror, it's a game! (I know, I know, but the way some people online have talked about it it was as if they thought it was never going to be anything other than a pretty tech demo).

Reading the various pieces, it reminds me a lot of an old EA game called Starflight.

That's not a bad thing at all.

[Todinho]

Interesting game that was came up in the playstation channel,looks like a mix of a bunch of genres:

[chase210]

So PS4K or PS4 Neos is a thing, thats awesome.

http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/sourc ... 1100-5437/

Earlier this year, rumors began to fly that Sony would release an upgraded version of the PlayStation 4, a console often called the PS4.5 or the PS4K by fans and press. Today, multiple sources have confirmed for us details of the project, which is internally referred to as the NEO. No price was provided, but previous reports indicate that the NEO would sell at $399. At time of publishing, Sony has not returned our request for comment, but we will update this story if the company responds.
Starting in October, every PS4 game is required to ship with both a “Base Mode” which will run on the currently available PS4 and a “NEO Mode” for use on the new console.
Games running in NEO mode will be able to use the hardware upgrades (and an additional 512 MiB in the memory budget) to offer increased and more stable frame rate and higher visual fidelity, at least when those games run at 1080p on HDTVs. The NEO will also support 4K image output, but games themselves are not required to be 4K native.
The NEO will not supplant the current PS4, but will exist alongside of it and use the same user environment. The PS4 and NEO will use the same PSN store, connect to the same online communities, and offer the same user experience, so expect to see the same cross media bar that you’re used to. Players will be able to retain all of the purchases they made on the PS4.
Sony seems committed to keeping the NEO and the original PS4 player bases connected. As such, there will be no NEO-only games, and Sony will not let developers separate NEO users from original PS4 players while playing on PSN. Likewise, Sony explicitly and repeatedly states that developers cannot offer exclusive gameplay options or special unlockables for NEO players—so don’t expect NEO owners to get a level editor or a special Rocket League car that you won’t have access to on your original PS4.

I'm happy as larry with it personally. I bought my PS4 at launch and with 3 years of gameplay and a reasonable trade in deal, I don't mind 200 euro or so for an upgrade. Not everyone seems to be as mellow with it though.

[Electric Crocosaurus]

So PS4K or PS4 Neos is a thing, thats awesome.

I'm happy as larry with it personally. I bought my PS4 at launch and with 3 years of gameplay and a reasonable trade in deal, I don't mind 200 euro or so for an upgrade. Not everyone seems to be as mellow with it though.

As someone with less than a year's use from my 'base' model I'm less impressed, although I'm not ready to fetch my pitchfork just yet. The concern is that we'll start seeing software that hasn't been properly optimised for the base unit but runs fine on the Neo. And purely subjectively I'm not happy that my shiny new PS4 is no longer the flashiest on the block. But hey, chalk this up as another tick in the cause to abandon console gaming and just go PC; the days of consoles just being 'pick up and play' systems seem to be long gone.

[Alex79]

Well yeah but that argument doesn't quite hold up when you consider any top of the range PC will no longer be the flashiest on the block after a matter of months let alone years.

[chase210]

Well if Sony is going to keep parity between the two SKU's, it shouldn't be an issue right?

[skidoosh]

Been hearing rumblings on twitter that Microsoft are looking to make a similar move. I'm not sure (yet) it's a bad thing that the hardware gets an update every three to four years in my opinion. Gaming is now a mainstream - premium hobby with the power to increase the rate of inflation for the largest economies in the world.

In my opinion this was inevitable. Both consoles are great, but they are constantly being judged and criticised for not giving this 1080x60 gold standard that someone came up with somewhere. The truth is people are starting to want more powerful consoles and if steam machines do become a real contender they'll also become a real threat. The steam machines from dell are s**t cheap for what's in them and the library of games is larger every day.

The main problem I can see is with already published titles that will still work on the new iterations, but I highly doubt that they'll run any better than they do now due to the hard coded resource limits they have to stop them crashing the machine. And as for future releases, can anyone see developers throwing more budget at software for the new iterations? Or will they just publish the same game with a larger max memory allocation?

[Beck]

I am all for this, the last generation was drawn out for too long in my opinion. So, do we think this decision by Sony is related to the NX?

[skidoosh]

I'm on board with the 'idea' of a hardware refresh, but I'll have to reserve my full judgement until we see how they handle continuity in regards to games. If they turn round and say 'you'll have to re-buy the games you want to keep playing' even though we all know it's just better hardware I'll be a bit pissed. I'm 90% sure this won't be the case though.

I don't think that this is anyway related to the NX though. I just think they went with a pretty flexible architecture and at the same time that we're seeing some rabid advancements in software and hardware. They made a profit on the PS4 from day one. The new components are probably just hitting the price point were they can charge day one prices (£350) and make a profit for better hardware.

I have heard some grumblings that developers aren't too enamoured with the idea of shorter cycles, but I think in a few cycles it'll probably work out better for them. I can see why they'd be a bit peeved the leaked spec does mention games will have more memory allocated to them, but not much. Faster CPU, GPU and RAM is nice, but without ample RAM it'll just be a massive optimisation exercise for the AAA devs.

[Flabyo]

I seriously doubt either Sony or Microsoft pay much attention to what Nintendo are doing now.

Nintendo make a lot of money doing what they do, but they don't really cannibalise much of the market that the Sony and MS products appeal to. There's some overlap, sure, and a few of the big publishers will support the NX, but not to the extent they already support the Sony and MS machines.

[chase210]

Well its up to the developers to patch the older games a Neos mode. But then it puts me in mind of when Sony began putting trophies into PS3 games in mid 2008, and hardly any developers patched the older games for trophy support. Only ones that spring to mind were uncharted and super stardust. Then most games that came out after a certain point in 2008 did have trophies, and then from 2009 on it was mandatory. So it kinda seems similar here.

[skidoosh]

With somethings a patch won't cut it I'm afraid. Memory management is normally an engine feature and the limit would be imposed during a build to the target platform. So It may take a fresh build of the whole game to resolve it. Can't see any real reason older games won't just run on the new hardware. It'll be the same OS and the same CPU architecture they were built against in the first place, they just won't have access to the extra RAM in this case.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

I'd love to ask Sony why they're doing this and hear their honest answer. I'm baffled by it all personally.

They are the market leader by a comfortable margin (about 36m PS4s to 19m Xbox Ones last I heard) and have a piece of hardware that already delivers at least equal, often better performance than it's rival on almost every multi-platform game released. An incremental power boost now simply isn't needed.

So why make such a potentially divisive move?

Do they have knowledge of NX specs and are desperate to remain the most powerful console on the market?
Like Flabyo said I'd be surprised if they're too bothered and I expect NX to be a massively different proposition in many ways more important than just power.

Is it to do with PSVR and them wanting to boost the system to better support it?
I doubt they'd make such a bold move as this and change the entire PS4 landscape for what will likely be a pretty niche piece of kit for the foreseeable future. Plus Sony have clearing been developing PSVR for many years with the standard PS4 spec as the host platform, so to decide now at the 11th hour that they need to boost the console just for this would be an odd move.

Are they smelling blood and going for Xbox's jugular?
The Xbox One is selling well in it's own right, but are Sony feeling like they can really put them to bed by making the existing slight performance advantage into a larger one? If the double whammy of this new console and PSVR shifts enough PS4s to open up say a 3:1 lead by the end of the generation would Microsoft still come back for more next time round? I think they probably would because they'll still have a strong brand, a sizeable install base, and more than enough cash to throw at turning it around. Killing Xbox for good is nowhere near a sure enough bet to make this move.

Overall I just can't think of a clear motivation, and whatever way I look at it the potential gains to be made in doing this are far outweighed by the possible alienation of the people who made the console so successful in the first place (if you want to hear the views of someone who really hates the idea check out Colin Moriarty on the latest episode of PS I Love You XOXO - https://youtu.be/uqhBdCYymuQ)

I'm confused.

[ratsoalbion]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... l-co-exist

[Pitwar]

As much as I wish I could say I won't, I'll be upgrading right away. Basically any excuse to get more out of my 4k TV.

[Alex79]

So if anyone upgrading is looking to sell their old PS4 for a decent price give me a yell!

[skidoosh]

Just watched the PS I Love You XOXO opening and I have to say I think most of his points, I wan't to say sensationalist bollocks but I'll say don't hold water under close scrutiny instead. I agree with Greg Miller more that given the nature of the machine it is a luxury Item and all my games run just fine on the base model PS4.

Colin's argument about the value drop off for people who bought the console in the last year isn't relevant when you compare it to technology on the whole. Anything you buy rabidly depreciates in value when it's full of chips. Looking at it from a different angle. With the last console release cycle fresh in everyone's minds can anyone remember how much of a car crash it was? Well all I can remember is broken games and playing on the PS3 for another 12 months because there was barely anything on the PS4 I wanted to play. Maybe a gentle iteration cycle with all your old games working on you new system forever more and the new working on the last iteration and up will be better in the long run.

And Colin's rant about exclusive content coming in the way of better fidelity and frame rate. Who said that'll be the case? The console has already been said to upscale, and two versions of the assets wouldn't fit on one disk if one set was for 4K so all you're left with is a better frame rate. I haven't got a 4K TV, so the only reason I'd buy one is for the sake of having one.

[Flabyo]

You won't be running games in 4k, even with that spec.

They have said that games in NEO mode *must* run at 1080p though or you'll fail certification.

[skidoosh]

That's makes even less of a reason to care. If your console lasts six years and they're moving to a three year cycle, then like me with phones I'll just get every other one. But I don't see a reason to panic just yet anyway. If the dev kits are only going out now I can't see this being released this year. The PS4 dev kits were out way, way longer than 6 months.

[Beck]

Allegedly all games released after September this year will have to have a day one patch that will enable or optimise the "neo" features. That would suggest the neo will be with us before Q4 this year.