Report: Sony Working on a "PS4.5"

[Steven Bogos]

Report: Sony Working on a "PS4.5"

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The "PS4.5" will reportedly be able to support 4K gaming.

An unnamed source has told PlayStation VR headset [http://kotaku.com/sources-sony-is-working-on-a-ps4-5-1765723053].

It's currently unclear if this upgrade will function as a kind of physical add-on to current PS4's (like those old Sega consoles), or if it will be an entirely new system (like the new Nintendo 3DS). We've also got no clue on when (or if) it will be released, with one developer reportedly stating that the console felt "exploratory" and it may not even be released this year.

Microsoft recently announced its own, similar vision [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/166666-Microsoft-to-Unify-Xbox-One-PC-Gaming] for consoles that are upgradable like a PC.

While it certainly would be nice for the PS4 and Xbox One to be able to have enough graphically horsepower to finally render games at 1080p/60 FPS consistently (and possible even the lofty "4K resolution" dream), I'm fairly doubtful of this "PS4.5" at this stage. Sony's strength so far has been that it's machine is simple, and cheaper than the competition. Complicating it with an additional upgrade, or worse, releasing a brand new console that makes early adopters feel obsolete, doesn't seem like a good idea.

We have reached out to Sony who have of course declined to comment. Take this one with a grain of salt, folks.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/sources-sony-is-working-on-a-ps4-5-1765723053]

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[LysanderNemoinis]

The fact this whole thing has come from Kotaku should tell you all you need to know about it. If Kotaku reported the sky was blue, I'd have to check out my window just to make sure before I'd believe them.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Maybe if they pull this off, it'll have enough horsepower to emulate PS3 games.

I'm still bitter about losing my game collection when I upgraded. I really shouldn't have traded my PS3 in...

 

[Bob_McMillan]

The 4K part makes this sound very unlikely. Top PC hardware struggles at 4K/30, and I'm not talking about 970's.

Incremental upgrades though, yeah, that sounds about right. VR is demanding and current consoles are pretty weak all things considered.

Yeah, right when I read that, I knew that this was bull.

Anyway, if they do, I will be PISSED. I didn't buy my PS4 for it to be even more outdated just 3 years later.

 

[The Enquirer]

The 4k bit will be... interesting. I run a 980ti and get around 45 fps on high end games at 4k.

 

[Jacked Assassin]

I'm looking forward to Jim Sterling whining about how PT UHD looks like manure on his 4K TV.... /sarcasm

Also this feels more like a push for Sony to sell 4K TVs.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I'm smelling some BS on this one. Sony has majority share this generation. They can save the "plays games in 4K" bullet point for the PS5's packaging. Dumping more money into a VR system this early is too risky. They might as well wait for the PS5 on that as well.

Maybe a year from now, I could accept rumors that Sony and MS are about to release updated consoles, or the next full generation. It's Nintendo that has the finances and is stuck in the market position to try this wacky stuff.

It's currently unclear if this upgrade will function as a kind of physical add-on to current PS4's (like those old Sega consoles)

Yeah, because that worked out so well for Sega, and all of the others that tried generation-bridging add-ons. *Remembers Sega's very sketchy history in the mid 90s.*

Also, is there any way to upgrade a PS4? The only ports I remember are a few slow USB 2.0, the internal SATA for the HDD, and Ethernet. The Ethernet might work, in a bizarre network cluster way. Although, it seems like the console makers realized last generation that high-speed expansion ports rarely got used and were adding unnecessary extra costs. So, they stopped designing consoles with expandability beyond what USB can support.

 

[09philj]

An unnamed source has told Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/sources-sony-is-working-on-a-ps4-5-1765723053]

Need I say more?

 

[JayRPG]

Definitely BS within the strict guidelines of the rumour, there's no way there's a hardware revision powerful enough to run games at 4k coming anytime soon.

However, It would really not surprise me if they upped the power and released a new "slim" console, or PS4 V2... At the very least I think they will be offering a hardware revision (even if it doesn't increase graphical capabilities) sometime in the near future to try and sway late adopters to the PS4 rather than the Nintendo NX (since anyone who hasn't moved to next gen yet will most likely buy whatever is newest when they decide to take the plunge).

The components they are using in the PS4 now have obviously come down in price since the PS4 release, for the same cost/profit margin they could put in something a little more powerful, much like the difference between the 3DS and the N3DS, the PS4.5 might have an exclusive title or 2 (maybe restrict that to VR titles) but all games will play on both consoles, they may just run better on the PS4.5.

 

[Dead Metal]

Yeah, no.
Not real, there is no expansion port on the PS4, the PS3 had expansion slots, but not the PS4. I also do not believe that Sony would release a new improved version of the PS4 with more power, especially now that they swayed the majority of console customers to support them with the package they have now.

The only thing I can picture happening is a "slim" version, like what they did with every PS generation before.

 

[spartandude]

4k resolution? Yeah maybe the next console generation but not a small hardware update. It will take completely new hardware.

 

[Zipa]

Sounds like garbage to me, top end PC graphics cards can't maintain 4k/30fps consistently yet, so no console upgrade is going to. That and its Kotaku who are not exactly known for reliability only increases my scepticism.

 

[AstaresPanda]

I was thinking thats abit far fetched and then I saw that it was from Kotaku and thought BULLSHEEEEEEEEEEEEET. If PC's cant do it fully yet then like sh!t will a console. It really does like more like apush for sonys 4k TV's as console users dont seem to know jack shit about hardware etc just what they are sold in the huge marketing the consoles have.

 

[Remus]

I was thinking thats abit far fetched and then I saw that it was from Kotaku and thought BULLSHEEEEEEEEEEEEET. If PC's cant do it fully yet then like sh!t will a console. It really does like more like apush for sonys 4k TV's as console users dont seem to know jack shit about hardware etc just what they are sold in the huge marketing the consoles have.

Love the broad generalizations made about users in this post. I consider myself cross-platform. I usually pick up a new console within a couple months after release - long enough for that incremental broad platform breaking patch to land - and similarly, upgrade to a new PC about every 5 years with as much money as I can spare. An incremental upgrade to play 1080p/60FPs reliably I can understand, but 4k is a wet dream best reserved for the next generation, or even the one after, since current PCs can't even run 4k at the bleeding edge of smooth framerates. A console built for 4k would be undeniably, ludicrously expensive and the power involved to run the thing would put all the other major appliances in the house to shame.

 

[Mothhive]

Sounds like garbage to me, top end PC graphics cards can't maintain 4k/30fps consistently yet, so no console upgrade is going to.

Top end PC graphics cards can actually maintain 4k/30fps. My GTX 980 Ti can run The Witcher 3 with everything on Ultra (Hairworks off) at around 35-40 FPS at 4k. Many other graphically demanding games average at over 40.

The article is still garbage though as there is no way they'd be able to make a console with that much power affordable, and with the PS4 selling so well, they have no need to release another, especially since it would piss off all the people who just bought a PS4.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

The sad thing is I could totally see Sony doing something this stupid since they did make the PSP Go, the Vita, and the PS TV. Even if it's not true, their checkered track record has made a precedent.

 

[Laughing Man]

Maybe if they pull this off, it'll have enough horsepower to emulate PS3 games.

I'm still bitter about losing my game collection when I upgraded. I really shouldn't have traded my PS3 in...

Doubt they would retroactively add support for PS3 to an updated console, especially when their is so much money to be gouged from people who are willing to pay for the games from the PS3 store or better yet the 'remastered' version of that game that is only 2 or 3 years old.

Sony can suck it, I thought the PS3 would be the last gen of console I would buy, I now game almost exclusively on PC, but I relented and ended up buying a PS4 but after seeing what an utter shit shamble PSN is and that Sony have the sheer cheek to ask you to pay for this service I can safely say PS4 will be my last console.

What about MS I hear you say, lol after the whole constant online spyware non sense of the XBoxs earlier announcement only to find that MS decided that Win 10 would be a better way of mining user data combined with the cluster fuck that Win 10's 'forced' update and the whole mess that is the new GFWL, yeah MS can wait till Sony's finished sucking it first.

 

[AgentCooper]

Maybe if they pull this off, it'll have enough horsepower to emulate PS3 games.

I'm still bitter about losing my game collection when I upgraded. I really shouldn't have traded my PS3 in...

Doubt they would retroactively add support for PS3 to an updated console, especially when their is so much money to be gouged from people who are willing to pay for the games from the PS3 store or better yet the 'remastered' version of that game that is only 2 or 3 years old.

Sony can suck it, I thought the PS3 would be the last gen of console I would buy, I now game almost exclusively on PC, but I relented and ended up buying a PS4 but after seeing what an utter shit shamble PSN is and that Sony have the sheer cheek to ask you to pay for this service I can safely say PS4 will be my last console.

What about MS I hear you say, lol after the whole constant online spyware non sense of the XBoxs earlier announcement only to find that MS decided that Win 10 would be a better way of mining user data combined with the cluster fuck that Win 10's 'forced' update and the whole mess that is the new GFWL, yeah MS can wait till Sony's finished sucking it first.

Maybe it's the fact that the PS3 cell emulation on anything at the moment is hardly working. Nothing big is running through the Cell crack from a few years ago. Saying Sony could do a system with a cell processor for backwards compatibility is silly.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

You don't have to report every fuckin' rumor that you find on the internet. Especially not one that comes from an anonymous source and is so obviously fake. Journalism, right?