FCC: Sony Prepping 1 Terabyte PlayStation 4

[StewShearerOld]

FCC: Sony Prepping 1 Terabyte PlayStation 4

Documents released by the FCC have revealed that Sony could be working on two new versions of the PS4.

<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/sony>Sony may be prepping some new <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/ps4>PlayStation 4 models for gamers who like their hard drives big. That, at least, is the indication of a pair of certification documents recently made public by the FCC. In the documents, the organization confirmed that Sony has registered a pair of new "Computer Entertainment Systems" with the model numbers CUH-1215A and CUH-1215B. While the 15a was listed as only having an HDD capacity of 500GB, the 15b will apparently have an impressive "1TB" HDD. <a href=https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=rHKTPKB2ImYOlpZY6S4XZQ%3D%3D&fcc_id=AK8CUH120Z1>A pair of labels for these model numbers were also released by the FCC, complete with PlayStation 4 branding.

While Sony has yet to confirm if or when it will actually be bringing these new versions of the PS4 to retailers, the company, in a request filed to the FCC this past April, asked that it delay revealing details about the aforementioned "equipment description" to the public in order to avoid giving its competitors "an unfair advantage in the market." In other words, it didn't want Microsoft catching wind and then quickly countering or beating Sony to the punch with a 1TB XBox One.

As exciting as a 1TB hard drive could be for some gamers, the biggest question on our minds is what the company has in mind for the new 500GB version of the console. The PS4, as it exists on the market right now, already has a standard 500GB hard drive. We'll have to wait and see, but it's possible that the new 15a model could just be a more cost-effective redesign that Sony could potentially sell at a cheaper price point. We've reached out to Sony to see if you can procure any additional comments.

Source: DualShockers


Permalink

 

[Prepare Your Keyhole]

Hopefully we'll get an official anouncement soon. I told myself I'd only buy a PS4 once the obligatory PS4 slim or V2.0 would come out with a bigger harddrive. As I come from a fat PS3 with <40 GB (37 GB) I really don't want to continously delete games to install new ones (and installation can take way too long for my tastes).

Also it would be nice that I am not anymore locked out of games to download because of the download and installation size (hello 18.5 GB Metal Gear Rising Revengeance that needs double GB for installation and downloading :/)

 

[Jacked Assassin]

This should've happened before ESO. I might still buy one. But it doesn't feel right knowing this right before I buy the 500GB version.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I've been saying it for months, both companies will probably have console SKUs with bigger HDDs by holiday season this year. Now all MS has to do is at least match them with a 1 TB xbone. The stupid thing would to stick with the 500 GB and tell the their customers to invest in a USB 3.0 external drive. That's what I heard one needs to expand on HDD space without voiding the warranty.

The 500GB revision is curious, though. Maybe it's to take care of possible manufacturing defects or design issues? I wouldn't think they would do a complete redesign (like a Slim model) until next year at the soonest.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

It's taken them long enough although I was expecting something along the lines of a 4TB model launched alongside an 8TB. Then again, I don't know the cost or effort that it would take to cram a large HDD into a console...for all I know an 8TB or 4TB HDD could jack the price of a PS4/Xbone back up to the $500 level at this point. Either way, it's nice to see that this is finally happening (apparently). It gives me another reason to want to want a PS4.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

It's taken them long enough although I was expecting something along the lines of a 4TB model launched alongside an 8TB. Then again, I don't know the cost or effort that it would take to cram a large HDD into a console...for all I know an 8TB or 4TB HDD could jack the price of a PS4/Xbone back up to the $500 level at this point. Either way, it's nice to see that this is finally happening (apparently). It gives me another reason to want to want a PS4.

The PS4 uses 2.5" HDD's they only go up to 2TB's the 3.5" HDD's that go to 6TB+ are physically over 4 times larger.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

It's taken them long enough although I was expecting something along the lines of a 4TB model launched alongside an 8TB. Then again, I don't know the cost or effort that it would take to cram a large HDD into a console...for all I know an 8TB or 4TB HDD could jack the price of a PS4/Xbone back up to the $500 level at this point. Either way, it's nice to see that this is finally happening (apparently). It gives me another reason to want to want a PS4.

The PS4 uses 2.5" HDD's they only go up to 2TB's the 3.5" HDD's that go to 6TB+ are physically over 4 times larger.

Both of you mentioning 3.5 inch drives just reminded me of something. The funny thing is Nyko has a product coming out in a few days that let's one install 3.5" drives without dangling the sata cable out of the top of their PS4. It's a big ol' ugly case that snaps on top of the PS4 and, I'm assuming, has its own power supply that piggy backs on the mains lead going into the PS4. Although, the system software doesn't officially support drives over 2 TB, but some have reported success with up to 6 TB.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking to expand their PS4's space for a few reasons, though. It's Nyko, and I wouldn't trust their "coolers," much less something plugging into a high speed data device. Going over 2 TB is will probably be overkill for anyone who doesn't download tons of movies or switch between the many games they own extremely often. The price also makes it not worth just getting a 1 or 2 TB 2.5" HDD, compared to a 3.5". There are even 7200 RPM 2.5" drives out there for maybe $10 more than the 5400 rpm discs, so jumping up to a physically bigger drive that gives your PS4 a nasty looking growth to get a minor speed boost isn't even worth it.

I wonder how well it will even sell now that official 1 TB PS4's will be on the market.

 

[Hawk of the Plain]

1TB HDD, that's cute. Welcome to 2009 I guess.

So out of the box it can hold what, about 20 PS4 AAA games now?

 

[praetor_alpha]

While Sony has yet to confirm if or when it will actually be bringing these new versions of the PS4 to retailers, the company, in a request filed to the FCC this past April, asked that it delay revealing details about the aforementioned "equipment description" to the public in order to avoid giving its competitors "an unfair advantage in the market." In other words, it didn't want Microsoft catching wind and then quickly countering or beating Sony to the punch with a 1TB XBox One.

Too late: http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-One-Limited-Call-Duty-Advanced/dp/B00MMTKXTA

 

[Kahani]

1TB HDD, that's cute. Welcome to 2009 I guess.

Indeed. As mentioned above it uses 2.5" drives so you wouldn't be expecting any 5TB+ monsters here, but it seems a little odd to be describing such a tiny drive as "big" and "impressive", when "barely adequate" and "holy shit, they were using drives even smaller than that before?" seem more appropriate comments.

 

[Hawk of the Plain]

Indeed. As mentioned above it uses 2.5" drives so you wouldn't be expecting any 5TB+ monsters here

True, but at the same time, when designing the PS4 Sony made the call to use a 2.5" drive over a 3.5", I assume to keep to overall size of the box down. If they were willing to sacrifice a little bulk, a larger drive would've be an option. Of course it would also be more expensive, but Sony being Sony they have quite the track record of charging a premium for storage. And will probably do the same here even for the 1TB drive.

Another option would have been to include 1 or 2 empty 2.5" drive bays, again a little extra bulk, but very little extra cost to manufacture. This would have allowed PS4 owners to simply buy an off the shelf drive and slot it in when they needed more storage.

And I was just guessing in my previous comment, but I have to ask, how many games are you realistically going to be able to install on that 1TB given whatever the average PS4 game size is? I'm curious as doing some napkin math, on my PC I have about 2.5TB of games installed (about 750GB of that on SSDs), I'm not sure what the actual game count is, but it is somewhere north of 200.

 

[Kahani]

True, but at the same time, when designing the PS4 Sony made the call to use a 2.5" drive over a 3.5", I assume to keep to overall size of the box down.

The more I think about this, the less sense it seems to make. Consoles are not mobile devices, where size is everything. It's a static box that sits next to a giant TV and never moves. Nobody wants to fit their PS4 in their pocket, and everyone is used to having the odd box or two sitting next to their TV. Sure, making things smaller and less obtrusive is not a terrible idea, but sacrificing both cost and utility for the sake of a tiny reduction in overall size just doesn't seem to add up. A 1TB 3.5" drive is around £10 cheaper than a 2.5" drive. Keeping everything else exactly the same but increasing the size of the case by 1" to accommodate a larger drive would actually save Sony money (or more likely allow them a larger profit per unit) while also making it far more convenient for users. I have to assume that Sony had some reason for their choice rather than just blindly throwing darts at a supplier website, but I can't for the life of me think what it could have been.

 

[Hawk of the Plain]

I have to assume that Sony had some reason for their choice rather than just blindly throwing darts at a supplier website, but I can't for the life of me think what it could have been.

This right here is a significant part of the reason I gave up on consoles. The last one I owned was a 360, I was sick of having no control and having Microsoft (or Sony for when I had a PlayStation) make these decisions for me. The user interface was bad (I wanted the original "blade" UI back), the storage was bad and after I got the red ring of death I was done.

Now I build my own system and I choose what hardware and software I use. I can choose the size of machine I want (I went for full tower (big)), I can choose how much I spend to get more performance, and if I want to put 6 drives in it I can (and I did 3 hard drives 7TB total and 3 SSDs 1.5TB total).

I guess that's why this post caught my attention, my reaction was something along the lines of "wow they are still squeezing as much money as they can for storage".