The PlayStation 4 is so cool it didn't even show up to it's own launch party ...
As another Sony presentation passes I ponder at what point I fell asleep , I would say around the 1 hour 30 mark ...an improvement on the last one .. Falling asleep meant I missed out on missing the lack of show of the actual console. I awoke the next morning blissfully unaware that the PS4 was a no show at it's own show... I was comfortably at home though ..spare a thought for those flown thousands of miles to witness the unveiling of the PlayStation 4... Dualshock 4 .....joypad....
Well that would be the cynical sarcastic view ..a lot of the media is taking right now. But to follow that train of thought would be to miss the genius that is behind the PS4 concept. Check out many tech blogs now and the header image is the new controller not the console ! This is Sony taking control back from the media, this is a company after all famous for ads that have no sign of the console they are selling ...this is because PlayStation is a brand as much as it is hardware ..sold and marketed like fashion as a lifestyle choice ...
So let's take a look at the PS4 through thegameveda looking glass ...
Hardware : the Sony PC PlayStation Concept
The PS3 was full of exotic hardware cell cpus, 8 cores, one magic redundant one, fast RAM, but too little to match the ever evolving PC gaming scene. So exotic that only now at the end of it's life are coders actually getting to grips with the architecture. Impossible to upgrade due to cost .. and design issues ..
For PS4 Sony looked around and chose wisely to go for X86 hardware, a stock gpu ( with a little customization) and retained a little flair by opting for GPU RAM as system RAM.
So to all intents and purposes the PS4 is a PC, which is cool , the first thing I will try is to run Windows 8 off a usb stick ..no really.. having PC architecture has benefits and I mean other than making it simpler to code for . The price of PC components usually halves by the time you have them fired up to do anything , so the cost of production of PS4 consoles will decrease over time, at an exponential rate . The PS4 will thus be making Sony profit far longer than the exotic expensive chips used in the PS3 or PS2 for that matter. Secondly PC components are easy to replace, the same motherboard setup could have faster CPU , more RAM and GPUS added to it for little extra cost , allowing Sony to have an upgrade cycle that is yearly not 5 or 10 yearly. So your PS4 Slim launching December 2014 ( one year after your PS4 phat launching this December) can not only be slimmer , but have a faster X86 CPU and GPU AND still run all your PS4 software ... and still have a drop in price too ..
What will matter to Sony in this age of tablets, phones, PCs and Macs is for the PS4 to stay relevant to your gaming life .. something which the present gen of consoles is finding it harder and harder to do..
Dave Perry the father of PlayStation 4 and the Ghost in the new Sony Machine ?
First and foremost what I was expecting from the Sony announcement was a heavy dose of GAIKAI and cloud shenanigans and this I got right from the horses mouth Mr "Herbet's Dummy Run" Dave Perry himself , whose verbal delivery the more astute among you will notice has an interesting Anglo/American vibe.... and if you know what Herbert's Dummy Run is then you know why .... Mr Perry is a legend to the first gen of gamers (*and continues to be so for subsequent generations!)
I have stated before that the stage we are at with cloud technology today , makes hardware largely irrelevant and what I would love to see in PC and console hardware is not just CPU, GPU and RAM acceleration but also dedicated cloud/streaming acceleration. Valve and Nvidia have picked up on this in the PC arena but Sony are way ahead of them...in ambition at least.
I game asymmetrically ( !) using completely non gaming hardware to stream from more powerful gaming hardware all the time..because I do not need to be sitting in front of a jet engine sounding gaming rig chained to a desk any more .. thanks to the cloud power of Splashtop and with GAIKAI I can do so without even having any gaming hardware . The potential is endless:
Sony is doing this in two ways that I see :
Firstly in hardware : The PS4 with the PSVita are the first console devices that are going to be optimised for cloud gaming and GAIKAI is the ghost in Sony's machine that will let us play any game ( from PS1 to PS4 on our PS4s , PCs, Vitas , tablets and phones ... )
Secondly : by building the server and cloud highway that will enable propel cloud gaming past me harping on about it in my blog or you tube videos and into the train riding average gamers phone holding hands so they can carry on playing Crysis 4 without carrying their computers, rigs , consoles or even tablets with them .. Sony by buying and investing in GAIKAI have a head start over rivals.
A couple of years from now when the console is truly obsolete as a gaming platform , we will all be gaming from the cloud across devices and operating systems , as Dave says everywhere . The thing people do not see yet is that PS4, or the PlayStation is evolving from physically hardware dependent into a set of hardware independent cloud based services.
By moving gaming to the cloud, in the beginning introducing gamers to it by leveraging the magic of instant in game viewing, demos and more .
PS4 It does games too
The games themselves were throwaway, par for the course, which is to be expected right now the most exciting games being developed tend to be smaller independent fare anyhow so touting Unreal Engine 4 or Killzone 4 is not really in any way awe inspiring . Although you will get no argument from me for more Killzone, Final Fantasy (VII) or God of War ... but you know these are hardly going to move gaming forward now are they?
PS4 : The West is the best ..get over here and we'll d....
Throughout the meeting there was a distinct lack of past dependence on our Nihon game developing cousins, with a few Capcom and Square mumblings in what looked like the minimum of efforts to satiate the Japanese audience. Well what do you expect? A significant proportion of Japanese coders have proclaimed their own development industry dead. Being outsold and defeated in what was your arena by a bunch of catapulted Angry Birds has caused untold damage to ego of many great name Japanese coders. Thus Sony seems to be pushing hard to conquer the West again, perhaps this is because gaming has moved and with it games development to a Western gamer led model but more than that Sony need to appeal to the untold wealth awaiting games developers who are successful in India, China , Russia and Brazil.. which no one has really done in 4 decades or so of console or game development.
All in all it went pretty much as I suspected and predicted here in a treatise entitled " How the Sony PlayStation 4 will end the PC and console hardware upgrade cycle once and 4 all!
Cui bono?
Capiche?
In creating the original PlayStation Sony took it's CDROM tech that Nintendo shrugged at and went on to dominate the console industry , today with it's PlayStation Plus gaming subscription service and the cloud power of instant gaming with GAIKAI ,sensible and cheap ( to make) hardware selection as well as waking up to it's fanbase outside of Japan places the PS4 in a uniquely strengthened position amongst console manufacturers. Nintendo are on their way out , Microsoft would rather you Windows 8 than Xbox 720 (which will lose them money ).
I should probably go back and watch the last 30 minutes of the meeting that I missed while snoozing but as far as I can see Sony did what it needed to so instead I shall go play some of Dave Perry's Herbert's Dummy Run ...
Oh and Dave if you are reading please release GAIKAI back to the PC masses ..and how about firing up the old Speccy and coding some more Wally Week in your spare time?
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