Rumors, rumors and rumors! Even if Sony themselves say there will be no new member of the PlayStation family for a while, that never stopped people from talking. And now, the the latest rumors seem to carry pretty good news for everyone patiently waiting for the next gen of consoles: the PS4 would be good enough to go head to head with the best gaming PCs out there.
According to our source, Gameranx, who are quoting Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter, Sony’s next console (the PlayStation 4) is “essentially a PC” in technological terms.
Sony and AMD are partnering to create this beast, and we’re told they’re moving away from the PS3’s Cell architecture to an x86 processor for the new console, more akin to the ones used in PCs. This change can already be inferred analizing the architecture of the PS Vita, Sony’s latest handheld console.
In Leadbetter’s words, “It’s not about exotic, groundbreaking hardware anymore, it’s all about creating the best possible games machine with an enviable set of development tools – and it’s an approach that has already yielded results”. He continued: “While PlayStation Vita may lack a stand-out killer app, I still think that it’s set the bar in terms of overall quality and quantity over and above any console launch I’ve seen in over 21 years in the business. Extrapolating that same philosophy towards PlayStation 4 makes a PC-style approach to Sony’s next console seem very likely indeed.”
Still, the issue is what does this mean for the gamers. Basically, Leadbetter implies that the PlayStation 4 would be pulling out all the stops with AMD and ATI integrated graphics. This type of architecture in a console would mean a dramatical improvement in terms of memory and bandwidth, eliminating the bottleneck between the CPU and the graphics processor. In any case, it’s likely we’ll hear more about an eventual successor to the PS3 in the upcoming E3 2012 in June.
To see how some conceptual designers imagine an eventual PS4, check out Dare To Dream: The PS4 Concept By Joe Dumary and Amazing New PS4 Console Design.
