PlayStation 4 Will Still Have Physical Media Capabilities
No PSP Go style download only content for the PS4

Shane McGlaun (Blog) - August 26, 2010 10:04 AM
http://www.dailytech.com/PlayStation+4+ ... e19455.htm

[caption=http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/16326_pspgo.png 300]Epic Fail: PSP Go[/caption]
With the digital movie and rental markets starting to transition to streaming rentals and digital downloads for purchases, many expect the same thing to happen with the video game market. The problem with streaming video game services such as OnLive is that lag and the quality of the internet connection can make the games unplayable.

Sony's PSP Go so far has been a failure. This was Sony's first attempt at a download only game console and the Go was met with very mixed consumer reactions. Some stores even refused to carry the console. A Sony executive once proclaimed that he would be surprised if the PS4 had a physical optical drive. That proclamation may have led many to expect the PS4 to be more like the PSP Go than the current PS3.

Apparently, Sony has learned some lessons and Kaz Hirai has offered up a few factoids that point to physical media being integral to the PS4. Hirai said, "We do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would hope." He continued saying, "There's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium. To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even ten years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme."

Despite the fact that there will apparently by a physical optical drive for media in the future Sony console, downloadable game sales are booming. A recent report from the NPD group claims that almost half of all video games purchased in 2009 were online downloads. It appears that both physical and download games will continue to be important for consoles in the near future. NPD Group reported that in 2009, 23.5 million games were sold in the U.S. at retail and 21.3 million were purchased online.

Presumably, that would count games purchased for smartphones from the App Store and other smartphone markets.

The PSP Go sucked. Old news.

The main problem was that it was MORE expensive than the regular PSP, which was still on the market. That didn't make any sense to me.

Looks like Sony & Microsoft are finally making the push for the next generation of consoles. The current generation has lasted as long or longer than any previous generation. With no major new technology coming down the pike, I'm expecting a reasonably cheap PS4 console and I don't really expect any major graphical leap forward... I'm pretty much convinced that the issue is money not CPU, since you see huge graphical leaps between first and second installments on the same console, such as Uncharted 2 looking so much better than the original. Even Bioshock 2 seemed to have that extra bit of shine now that they knew they had a hit on their hands.

So, most of what I expect is an upgrade to the CPU, memory, and a continuation of the trend toward smaller consoles. More PS3 Mark II (or X-Box 360 Mark II) than the big leap we saw last time.

And hopefully Sony can learn the lessons of X-Box Live. I've only played around with it for a few hours (haven't even done any on-line playing) and it's clear to me that they understand on-line content in a way that Sony & Nintendo do not.

Apparently a lot of the increase in graphics this generation has been at the sacrifice of frame rate, which isn't something I give a shit about tbh, games still look pretty smooth to my eyes.

I go agree that this next generation won't be that big of a leap forward, which is good in my eyes, when we can stop worrying about the looks of a game we can start actually focusing on the aspects that make a game good. The gameplay, and god forbid maybe have compelling stories thrown in now and then. And super god forbid be able to do both without having them interfere with each other (GTA IV, I'm looking at you).

Poking about a bit and found this quote about the PS3.

http://www.ign.com/top-25-consoles/15.html



Nevermind that the expensive PS3 was losing over $200 for every console sold and they removed backwards compatibility as a way of getting the price down... they stubbornly refused to drop the price of the system

Game journalists... you got to love them.

And while a good solid frame rate is important, you can get away with about 24 fps, which, if memory serves, is the frame rate on movies. Mind you, you don't want to be hanging down around that level at normal playing, but if your crazy firefight drops it down to about there, most folks aren't going to complain.

My thoughts exactly on the frame rate issue. A non-issue really.