News & Rumours: Playstation 4/ Orbis *spin*

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I'd guess BC would need hardware (as soon as all AMD became clear), but I doubt that hardware need be present in dev kits if you want to hold out hopes.
 
AlphaWolf said:
I'd guess BC would need hardware (as soon as all AMD became clear), but I doubt that hardware need be present in dev kits if you want to hold out hopes.
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That'll only be a possibility if the inclusion of PS3 hardware in PS4s is exclusive to BC and unusable by PS4, which would be a crazy waste of resources. No, BC hardware would be repurposed for PS4 functions. If it was in, IMO Cell would take the job of DSP and video and compression engines. I consider BC a non-feature. Makes sense to move an optional value feature into an external box when its technology is of little use/economy to the main machine.
 
Depends if that feature were present in all SKU's and to be maintained throughout the life of the console. If it's a feature you're ditching after year 2...
 
Shifty Geezer said:
IMO Cell would take the job of DSP and video and compression engines.
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Possibly, but a PS3 is a lot more than just the cell, and would we still have to include the 256MB of XDR hooked up to it? If so, it's not mentioned in these leaked specs. Not to mention the headache of adapting a new GPU to draw graphics and new southbridge for all I/O tasks...

If BC is ever going to be in the cards, methinks it will be a module with a complete PS3 on it. We saw what a halfassed implementation did for PS2 compatibility in early model PS3s.
 
Grall said:
We saw what a halfassed implementation did for PS2 compatibility in early model PS3s.
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Was it bad? I had a launch PS3 and it was perfect. All my PS2 games work fine, and I never heard about anyone with a game that didn't work. It's later on when they switched to software BC in the newer models that it was very spotty (that's the one you mean right?). Ironically, despite the drama in some lesser forums, the biggest jump in sales for the PS3 has been when they came out with the non-BC model, because they could drop the price. Do we really want to force a higher price on everyone when only a few care about BC after a few years? I agree sadly that Sony's only reasonable solution is an optional BC module. I have the same opinion about motion gaming, but I'm probably in the minority :mad:
 
MrFox said:
Was it bad? I had a launch PS3 and it was perfect.
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You mean you have US launch PS3? My Euro launch model (which came out only a few months later) had very spotty backwards compatibility. All that remained of PS2 hardware in those PS3s was the GS, I believe, and some glue logic mating it to the PS3.

Do we really want to force a higher price on everyone when only a few care about BC after a few years?
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After a few years, yes, but right now, BC might be an important issue. I haven't made any surveys or anything like that, but we have to assume that both MS and Sony have researched this issue carefully. It's worth noting that this generation has been longer than any other in the past, so many people will have built up extensive libraries. Also, will it be feasible for these people to keep two generations of hardware, with their own controllers, cables and so on? It gets messy awfully quick... A module that attaches to the base console would seem the only reasonable option if emulation is out of the cards (and at least for cell it would be methinks; xenos binaries can probably be recompiled to run on a modern x86 CPU relatively painlessly, considering how inefficient the 360 CPU is.)

Oh well. Speculation... Isn't it fun?
 
Does anyone else feel as if the VGleaks updates are just regurgitating the most "plausible" explanations of their original rumors from this board?
 
I read about similar leaked specs from Gaf, not B3D.

It's been a good few months now. The rumors gained traction within the last month or so.
 
expletive said:
Does anyone else feel as if the VGleaks updates are just regurgitating the most "plausible" explanations of their original rumors from this board?
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I feel like this is possible, and might be the reasons for these 'leaks' just giving us more questions than real answers. Everything might be fitting into nice, neat little packages only because of recirculation of the same rumours, and maybe even the regurgitation as you say.

Might be time to radio silence the whole thing until certainly newer and official documentation is leaked, or we get answers straight from the horse's mouth at the end of February (Destination Playstation) or March (GDC).
 
It's definitely a little bit of everything I think. Probably mostly truth but it seems off because they're retyping and rewording leaked spec documents, to the point where it's confusing like this 14+4 thing. People on gaf are probably with the same source leaks, basically spec sheets and pdfs with diagrams and etc. But those are all dependent on the current kits they have and could be slightly dated. And not every dev has the same level or priority of access.
 
The rest

George Andreas, who was a creative director at Rare/Microsoft Game Studios from 2008 to 2011 and game director at Rare/MGS from 2011 to 2013, worked very closely with internal Microsoft creative teams to help incubate new concepts and help understand emerging creative/technology opportunities, such as Kinect.

Most recently, Mr. Andreas was working on “new Microsoft initiatives”, which probably meant certain new technologies, including those involving improved Kinect sensors as well as other concepts.

However, it appears that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe managed to offer George Andreas something more interesting and starting this months he is a creative director at SCEE.

Numerous executives from Sony Computer Entertainment and Microsoft Xbox division switch companies from time to time, bringing experience and ideas from one to another. It always remains to be seen how a particular person can influence the success of a platform and the history of video games.
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Did Ballmer throw a chair?

Maybe it's a hint that the second camera is the ToF depth cam from the sony patents.

Andreas, who played a key role in the development of the Kinect hardware, Kinect Sports 1 and Kinect Sports: Season 2 as well as Xbox 360 launch games Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero, joined Sony this month as creative director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, working out of SCEE's London office.

During his 16 years at Rare he worked on most of the legendary studio's games, including various Banjo titles, Viva Pinata and, going back to Rare's Nintendo years, Donkey Kong 64, GoldenEye and Killer Instinct Gold.
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He's from the old Rare. Maybe its the opposite and he didn't want to make motion games anymore, it could go either way.
 
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Creative director... Hey Sony, Playstation Home seriously need one for their art direction, for a few years now. Time for a total revamp together with natural interface.
 
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