While overall video game hardware sales are down this year, Sony has some good news announcing it has sold 70 million PlayStation 3 consoles worldwide.
The 70 millionth sale came as of Nov. 4, which includes all PS3 models since the system launched in 2006.
While
Sony is discussing numbers it was quick to mention that there are now
3,590 PS3 games available, which amounts to 595 million games sold
worldwide.
PlayStation Network, the PS3's free online service, is
now available in 59 countries worldwide, while the PlayStation Move
controller, which adds motion control similar to the Nintendo Wii, has
sold more than 15 million units as of Nov. 11.
The announcement sees Sony catching up to the Xbox 360, which reached the 70 million total unit sales milestone at the end of September.
While
Sony and Microsoft battle it out in the console race, they're fighting
for second place. Nintendo announced in September that the Wii reached 97.2 million sales since its launch.
Eyes are now turning toward the next generation of gaming hardware, which begins this month as the Wii U launches worldwide.
New consoles from Sony and Microsoft are also in the works, commonly referred to as the PS4 and Xbox 720, though details are scarce on either system.
Rumors
peg the new systems for release sometime toward the end of 2013, or
even falling back into 2014, so hopefully Sony still has some life to
squeeze out of the PS3.
A new PS3 model, dubbed "super slim",
launched just a few months ago, so it seems Sony still has a few tricks
up its sleeve before passing the torch to the console's successor.
Sony's PlayStation Plus service, which
offers games and other benefits to those willing to pay subscription fees, will
finally debut on the PS Vita next Monday, Nov. 19 (Nov. 21 in Europe).
The service became available to PS3 users in 2010, and Sony announced at the 2012 Tokyo
Game Show in September that PS Vita gamers would soon get to try it out as
well.
PlayStation Plus subscriptions are
available in two flavors: three months for $17.99, or one year of service for
$49.99.
The service is a tough sell, since online
multiplayer gameplay is provided for free on Sony's gaming platforms (unlike on
Microsoft's Xbox 360), but it does come with several
perks.
First and foremost, PlayStation Plus
subscribers have access to an ever-expanding library of downloadable games.
Sony adds new games to the PS Plus package
every month, and subscribers have unlimited access to those titles until they
cancel their subscriptions.
PlayStation Plus for PS Vita will become
available when the portable system's firmware is updated to version 2.0 on
Monday, and on Tuesday Sony's next PlayStation Store update will add five
downloadable PS Vita games and one PSP game for PS Plus subscribers.
Those games will include Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, Wipeout
2048, Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs
Attack!, the PSP's Final Fantasy Tactics:
War of the Lions, and the as-yet unreleased Jet Set Radio.
That last one, by the way, was originally
scheduled to be released on Oct. 16, but was delayed for unknown reasons. This
announcement is the first that's been heard of the game since then.
Sony announced the impending arrival of
PlayStation Plus for PS Vita in a PlayStation Blog post written by SCEA's
Director of Product Planning and Platform Software Innovation, Don Mesa.
Existing PlayStation Plus subscribers will
be able to take advantage of the service on PS Vita without any additional fees
or hassle.
Other PlayStation Plus perks include cloud storage for game saves, automatic
updates, and PlayStation trophy syncing.
The PS Vita's 2.0 firmware update will
bring additional changes to Sony's portable system, including an email app,
wireless content transfer between the Vita and a PC, and "enhancements to the
web browser," according to Mesa.
"With the addition of PS Plus," he wrote,
"and such a great lineup of exclusive games launching by this holiday, now is
the perfect time to purchase a PS Vita."
Sony is yet to confirm the existence of
the PS4 games console, but it exists out there somewhere.
The real questions are; when will the PS4
hit the shelves? What sort of hardware will it pack? And will it even be called the PlayStation 4?
There have been rumours doing the rounds
suggesting that Sony is calling the PS4 'Orbis'. This comes
from a source speaking to Kotaku "who is not authorised to talk publicly about
next-gen hardware but has shared correct information" with them before.
Assuming the Orbis name is in some way
accurate, it's still unclear whether the name is a codename like Durango or whether the console will literally
be called the Sony PlayStation Orbis instead of the Sony PS4.
The name does make some kind of sense if
you combine it with the word 'Vitae' (or Vita). Orbis Vitae translates from
Latin as 'circle of life' and hints at some serious synergy between the PS4 and
the PS Vita.
It could be a red herring, of course, but
with the Vita already communicating fairly competently with the PS3, it seems highly likely that this will be the case. So
what can we expect from the PlayStation 4?
The same source who revealed the
PlayStation Orbis name to Kotaku also mentioned that the PS4 was penciled in as
packing an AMD x64 CPU and 28nm AMD Southern Islands graphics power.
However, in November 2012, strong rumours have suggested that PS4 dev kits
have been issued to developers packing an AMD A10 APU,
between 8GB and 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and a Blu-ray drive.
The graphics part of the A10 APU is
already quite dated, which is a big disappointment but not all that
surprising.
Those chips aren't even the best that AMD
currently has to offer - so by the time the PS4 goes on sale it would be
woefully lacking in power compared to the latest AMD tech, let alone the most
advanced chips from Nvidia and Intel.
By 2014, Intel will be shipping 14nm - or
possibly even tooling up for 11nm - CPUs and with that amount of transistors on
a die, we're talking serious performance and efficiency gains.
So it's for this reason that we suspect -
or hope - that current PS4 development kits may currently be using these AMD
chips, but the final PS4 will most likely pack something a little more special.
We would at least expect a Steamroller APU packing a newer graphics core.
Now, because a console is a closed
platform, it's possible for developers and engineers to squeeze more performance
out of any given chip than would be possible in a PC which has a lot more
redundancies to cater for.
So the PS4 will have decent graphics no
matter what. But this is still very much last-generation tech we're talking
here.
And according to various rumours, Sony is attempting to get 4K gaming out the door with the PS4, along with full HD 1080p 3D gaming for the first time.
We don't think it would even be possible
to achieve this kind of output with the A10 APU unless some kind of multi-GPU
set-up is being used - so it's highly likely that Sony will pair the eventual
APU with a low-end discrete graphics card to help things along.
When the original original PS3 unit
shipped, it contained a chip that gave it the ability to play PS2 games.
Subsequent iterations of hardware omitted this chip and so the backwards
compatibility was condemned to death.
Current rumours suggests that the PS4 will
completely ignore the possibility of backwards compatibility and focus firmly on
the next generation. So if you want to continue playing your PS3 games, keep
hold of your PS3s, kids.
More rumours suggest that Sony is going in
the same direction as Microsoft in that it wants to kill off the second hand
games market. Current industry wisdom suggests that future PS4 games might be
tied to your Sony Entertainment Network account and will thus then have no
resale value. That's a similar approach as used by PC developers using Steam so
we reckon this is a likely development. Doesn't mean we're happy about it,
though.
PS4info dreams of a next-gen PlayStation
with a 32nm Cell processor an up to 16 SPEs, double the number in
the PlayStation 3. While over on gamrConnect, there's talk of a greater partnership with Google. Sony's new fondness for
Android on the Xperia Play is an interesting strategy.
Blu-ray on the PlayStation 4 is a dead
cert. While digital distribution is undoubtedly the way forward, not every
PlayStation owner has access to a fast broadband connection.
As Kaz Hirai told Develop, "we do business in
parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would
hope. There's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and
scope to have a physical medium."
As for the PlayStation 4 controller, Dr.
Richard Marks (Sony Computer Entertainment's US R&D manager of special
projects) says that "anything that lets us get the player's intent into the
system more" is technology they'll be looking at. No brain wave gaming just yet.
You can check out our
wishlist PS4 video, to see what we are seeking in the next-gen console
below:
Latest rumours suggest that the PS4 will
launch in time for Christmas 2013, though Sony are remaining quiet on the
issue.
VG247 is quoting an anonymous source (always a bad start to a
rumour) as saying that Sony believes it is in a position to get the PS4 out of
the door before the launch of Microsoft's Xbox 720.
We remember, of course, how Microsoft
managed to launch the 360 a full year before the PS3 went on sale and that
enabled it to gain a huge headstart, despite all sorts of technical faults and
expensive repair bills.
So it's a no-brainer that Sony will be
looking to make sure that doesn't happen this time. How it can be so sure of
beating Microsoft to the punch is another matter though, and as usual we'd take
these anonymous comments with a glass of salty water.
Meanwhile, if you side with the likes of
ITProPortal, you might believe that "the whole
concept of a single lounge-bound gaming device may become obsolete". The future
of gaming may well lie in a more portable device/controller that you can play on
the move or plug into your TV. Epic's Mark Rein has some interesting thoughts on
this here.
Senior execs for a big US retailer told their shareholders that they don't expect
the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 til 2014. That seems like a good guess to us,
even though Sony has always said the PS3 will have a 10-year life cycle (which
began in 2006).
Bethesda's Todd Howard, game director for
the blockbuster Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,
also says that gamers should not expect follow-ups to the PS3 and Xbox 360 until
2014, at the very earliest.
Speaking to PSM3 magazine, the
Bethesda exec said that gamers were happy with the current generation of console
tech and that he didn't expect to see an Xbox 720 or a PS4 before 2014.
