Two questions: Can anyone estimate a price for this monster, and why was a gaming console not designed to be a gaming console?

DigitalSushi:
According to the internet, everyone has a bleeding edge PC at all times.

I wonder if you get the same kind of attitude on Forums dedicated to Petrol Heads (or car enthusiasts)
"News just in. Chevrolet announces new model of Camaro"
"lol noobs, I'll stick to my Ferrari, thanks"

FYI, you PC people should be happy that there is more incentive for game developers to use all that fancy new DirectX 11 goodness, instead of considering it a waste of resources because you know, more console gamers.

I was really happy for you PC guys and girls when nVidia announced there new hardcore Titan graphics card, why can't you be happy for us console gamers aye?

Look I'm happy that a new generation is finally coming out. This overly long console generation we have had has totally stalled PC graphics since most our games these days are designed on the PC but optimized for consoles. Which means we PC users get games that don't fully utilize our hardware graphically.

I'm liking the specs I'm seeing honestly, I just upgraded and from what I'm seeing I won't have to upgrade again until the next console cycle unless I just want to because my system is already better than anything the console manufactures are throwing out.

Plus the fact sony went with a standard PC architecture means devs will have an easier time porting games, which hopefully means less console exclusives. Something I as a PC gamer can totally get behind.

Sony said the same about the PS2 and PS3 before they launched.

Was this supposed to impress me? 'Cause it doesn't. All that power is meaningless if you can't do anything with it.

I get it your better than us, were lower idiot's while your so smart and powerful....NOW CAN YOU PLEASE SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!
Thank you ^_^

The Hungry Samurai:
And out come the PCletists.

Fine you guys have better specs on your computers. PS4's hardware is speculted to run something between $400-600. How many of your gaming rigs cost that little?

i dont think anyone would deny that high end gaming pcs cost more, but the claim wasnt that the ps4 will be the most powerful gaming device for the price range. if the claim was that it would be the most powerful gaming device, period, then thats just a flat out lie

My gaming PC that I built a year ago is stronger than the PS4.

I watched the Sony conference and feel half-retarded from how many buzzwords they were throwing at me.

A lot of hot air with nothing behind it. Whatever though, either way PC gamers won, now console shit will start using better specs allowing for prettier ported games from our favorite studios, and Sony also showed that it can't spare the cash to make their system truly next gen with a lot of current PC builds surpassing or at least meeting their specs so perhaps more gamers will flock to PC.

Again though, if not, whatever, it's good to know that my year old PC will at the very least be able to handle the next ten years of console development (and then some once I SLI the graphics card).

I'm not going to join in on the whole PC thing, but just gotta say way to state the obvious - of course the most current console is going to be the most powerful gaming device of all time. What's the competition? The last generation and everything that came before? I guess it makes for a good headline...

Gordon Freemonty:

Well, that was a massive lie. I'll admit that the 8GB RAM for a console impresses me to a degree, but a console will never overtake the hardware in PCs.

Yeah, my computer is rnning 8 GB. Not exactly mindblowing, even if it is a serious step up.

I can only respond with a resounding "meh."

Except for a few exclusives, I see no reason to get a PS console. Most of the games will also get ported to a PC, and I just spent more than I should have putting my rig together.

Meanwhile, Nintendo has developed and entire console that I can't emulate on my PC that will also have the 2 console franchises that I love the most, as well as several others that I enjoy the hell out of.

Well sony does look to try and pull a "we are powerful rawr" thing. lets hope they learnt from past mistakes and are truly going to make it pwoerful. at least for a coupl years till PC leaves it in the dust. this "unspecified" leaves a lot to be desired though. the only thing we know is that it has average amount (8gb) of very fast (DDR5) ram. and thats it. but considering that in PS3 ram was the worst part, maybe they were trying to emphasize it more.

Casual Shinji:
Let's hope this power doesn't translate into a bull in a china shop.

KeyMaster45:

Mr.Mattress:

KeyMaster45:

Welcome to the brave new world folks. Where the primary function of a game console is no longer to play games.

Yeah, I don't like that either. At least Nintendo is still focused on making Game Consoles for the Games, but everyone here keeps branding them as a bunch of losers.

It's as if we want Game Consoles to no longer focus on Games...

Nintendo means well, they really do. We just wish they would stop forcing their experimental peripherals on us as mandatory items for their consoles.

Sony did that. (the not-forcing thing, I mean) And look how well the Move sold!

Yeah, if you make it optional, you sever your userbase and ultimately doom your innovative hardware to failure, because no developer wants to pour resources into a game that uses something in a truly unique way to where it requires a control solution most system owners don't have.

Baresark:
The non-specifics of the hardware is really annoying. I'll say this though, 2 Teraflops is impressive for a console. My 660Ti does 2.5 Teraflops. 2 Teraflops puts it at least a high end first gen DX11 card.

That's 2 teraflops for the entire system not just the GPU.

Why they would go with x86 architecture is just confusing for me.

As has been said before x64 is also known as x86-64 (in fact x86-64 is it's technical designation).

The real odd thing about the choice is how they've, possibly inadvertantly, made it a lot easier for the emulation scene as translating between different architectures is always the biggest hurdle, both programming wise and resource wise.

hazabaza1:
Apart from, you know, any modern gaming PC.
I do like consoles and I've got nothing against them but pretending that your new console is "the most powerful gaming device ever" is complete bull as long as PCs exist.

as long as MODDED pcs OVER $2K exist. For its price point, it's more powerful per dollar. Not every PC out there is cutting edge, and very few copies of any PC game are ever run at max specs. When my rig was new, I still had to run medium on games that came out in the next three years. No console has ever had that problem, as they always run the equivalent of "high" (note: I didn't say "very high") up until the end of their ten year run. A console will never lag because of background processes, will always have exactly the RAM the game requires, and dedicates every bit of its processing power to the game. You'd be lying if you told me an out-of-the-box PC could say the same and stay useful for gaming for 10 years.

Fappy:

The Hungry Samurai:
And out come the PCletists.

Fine you guys have better specs on your computers. PS4's hardware is speculted to run something between $400-600. How many of your gaming rigs cost that little?

Mine did. You can build a decent gaming PC for around $600 bucks these days.

same, im about to completely overhaul mine (which will likely be more powerful than the ps4) for about £500 at most

Nieroshai:

hazabaza1:
Apart from, you know, any modern gaming PC.
I do like consoles and I've got nothing against them but pretending that your new console is "the most powerful gaming device ever" is complete bull as long as PCs exist.

as long as MODDED pcs OVER $2K exist. For its price point, it's more powerful per dollar. Not every PC out there is cutting edge, and very few copies of any PC game are ever run at max specs. When my rig was new, I still had to run medium on games that came out in the next three years. No console has ever had that problem, as they always run the equivalent of "high" (note: I didn't say "very high") up until the end of their ten year run. A console will never lag because of background processes, will always have exactly the RAM the game requires, and dedicates every bit of its processing power to the game. You'd be lying if you told me an out-of-the-box PC could say the same and stay useful for gaming for 10 years.

to be honest mate you must be really bad at bargain hunting, what specs we do know about the ps4 can easily be brought at this time for roughly the same price £400-£600, and probably towards the lower end of that while theres a good chance the PS4 will be at the higher end

and by the time the ps4 does come out that pc will be much cheaper with a more powerful pc being at the price of the PS4
not to mention if already have a pc you dont need to replace it, just upgrade some parts which is even cheaper to do.

and interms of the lagging, games can lag on both consoles and pc depending on the game and if YOU have anything else running in the background

i will partially concede that last point to you, im actually running on a 5-6 year old system right now and im maybe a month or two from upgrading, and while it can run alot of new games i do need it on lower settings, but then again depending on how well the game is optimized often still looks as good as a console version

"Highly enhanced PC GPU" he says.
What he means, of course, is "Bargain bulk buy four year old Nvidia GPUs they still had pallets of at the warehouse."

DigitalSushi:
According to the internet, everyone has a bleeding edge PC at all times.

I wonder if you get the same kind of attitude on Forums dedicated to Petrol Heads (or car enthusiasts)
"News just in. Chevrolet announces new model of Camaro"
"lol noobs, I'll stick to my Ferrari, thanks"

FYI, you PC people should be happy that there is more incentive for game developers to use all that fancy new DirectX 11 goodness, instead of considering it a waste of resources because you know, more console gamers.

I was really happy for you PC guys and girls when nVidia announced there new hardcore Titan graphics card, why can't you be happy for us console gamers aye?

We are happy for you, but that doesn't mean we won't laugh at stupid marketing statements.

*Sigh* I'm not even bothered about Sony's current trends in marketing but I again like always will be disappointed at how badly PC elitists will react to such trigger words and how they need to tout their superiority like some dick waving contest.

This is what every console thread looks like on the Escapist whenever PC elitsts decide to step in and dick wave because they realy have nothing better to do than spout the same fact crap all over again like a forceful Germany from the 1940's.

We don't need "powerful systems", we need good games.
For all I care, they could keep the PS3 and start making more interesting exclusives.
But I guess a sparkly new shooter makes more money...

Joccaren:
Most powerful gaming device ever... with the exception of any PCs.

And really, a 32bit CPU?
Ok, maybe he means an X86-64 CPU, but just saying X86... That could be anything back to 16 bit computing, and is more commonly used to describe 32bit programs and such so... Yeah...

Not high hopes for this. What sounds like a meh CPU, an undefined GPU that will probably be a 560 equivalent, maybe a 570 or 580 if we're lucky, and 8Gb of RAM. Yeah... No. As said by Waaghpowa, I could probably build a PC equivalent to this for $600, and I've got a $1500 budget for one of my friends computers. He's getting a beast. Hopefully Sony is at least smart enough to release this for <$600, though with their $1000 PS3 launch here I kinda doubt that.

worldfest:

And to Think I Entertained the Thought of Going PC

The console industry will flourish; and the future -- that is, for Microsoft & Sony -- appears bright as it's predicated on "the future". The controller looks and sounds innovative, and yet not half-hearted in any measure. Everything about the controller serves a specific purpose for the game and the console itself! The console just wants to please you; the PC wants you working for pleasure -- i.e customization, mods, user keys and downloads. All of this busy work gets in the way of experiencing the game.

PC vs PS4 Spec Comparisons Are Moot

As long as the power is substantive and broad enough, you can count on human ingenuity stretch this console's capacity for their idea. Not to mention the consistency among the titles for consoles.

You know, its kinda true in that the console industry will flourish thanks to the stigma a lot of people still have about PCs [That is, thankfully, finally starting to die] - namely that they cost $3K, break all the time, need to be upgraded each year and are impossible to tell what will run on it, but otherwise... Yeah...
I mean really, that "The PC wants you working for your pleasure..." Yeah, bullshit. The PC works just fine without any of that. Its like saying the PS4 doesn't want to give you pleasure because it doesn't have customization and mods. Downloads... Pretty sure PS4 will have an online store too. CD keys I'll give, but they're not that big a deal if you can read.
And no, human ingenuity can't stretch the console's capacity for the idea. It can cut the idea down to fit the console's capacity whilst still maintaining much of the original idea, but Optimization isn't a magic Fix-All that you can apply to a game and suddenly run more stuff on the console's hardware. It doesn't work that way.

I don't think you understand how ideas work. You have quite a breadth of knowledge for technology, but you're stymied by this principle:

There are Always Limitations for Ideas

You simply work around them.

PC Upgrades?

There are no misconceptions about a PC. No one's stupid, they know that investing money in anything will make it better, be it pc's, cars, houses, etc... But most don't upgrade their brand new vehicles; that's just silly. Everything is good enough to suffice. But why do people upgrade their houses? Why install pools and other in-home appliances? Because it raises the sticker price (value) of their house.

For Most Consumers, There Is No Incentive of Any Kind for a PC Upgrade

Why would I want to even open up my PC? Who cares about a slightly better textual resolution on Bioshock Infinite or Crysis 3. So is it ignorance? No. This is just how the market goes. Most consumers, like myself, put little value into having to invest time for research about PC's, and more time for $ to buy the appliances. Not to mention that most ordinary people don't want to be at their desks any longer than necessary. In fact, I already want to get off.

It's basic economics.

I guess the only reason why I like the PS4 is the x86 architecture it's working off. That means cross-platform development to-and-from PC will be much easier, and much more common. Everything else is unimpressive when lined up against a mid-range PC.

Wow, I'm really surprised how many people here are not even giving the PS4 a damn chance, I mean let Sony give it a whack and hopefully a kick-ass machine will come out at the end. I own a gaming PC a PS3 and an Xbox 360 and I have them because each can do something the other can't. I prefer Fallout 3 on PS3 than PC because for me, it crashes a lot less.

OT: I really hope that everything Sony says works out then we might end up getting some really good looking console games and raise the standard for console gaming.

This is all sounding really good, but what really sells me on a system is the software. So far it's looking pretty promising, with at least 3 definite buys shown so far.

worldfest:
I don't think you understand how ideas work. You have quite a breadth of knowledge for technology, but you're stymied by this principle:

There are Always Limitations for Ideas

You simply work around them.

No, I'm pretty sure the quote said stretch the console's capacity, not change your idea, or cut large swaths out of your idea so it'll run on the console.
And whilst there are limitations for ideas that you can work around, there are also those that you can't. No matter what you do with your idea, if it is to make a drug that'll let a normal man fly like Superman, it's not going to work. Physics, Biology, Chemistry and in general the universe are against you on that one.

PC Upgrades?

There are no misconceptions about a PC. No one's stupid, they know that investing money in anything will make it better, be it pc's, cars, houses, etc... But most don't upgrade their brand new vehicles; that's just silly. Everything is good enough to suffice. But why do people upgrade their houses? Why install pools and other in-home appliances? Because it raises the sticker price (value) of their house.

Uhhh... I don't know whether you're arguing with me, or agreeing with me. You claim there are no misconceptions about PCs, and what you say is true, but you WILL meet a large number of people who honestly believe you need to spend 2-3K on a rig, and then upgrade it every year after that just to game on a PC. As other people have pointed out, it exists for a reason; things used to be that way a long time back. Now, people just don't get that there's no longer 6 brands of sound cards and 4-5 graphics chips, each playing a different set of games and requiring upgrades for when next years games come out. Building a PC is also ridiculously easy, and you'll find a lot of people who'll compare it to building a car.

For Most Consumers, There Is No Incentive of Any Kind for a PC Upgrade

Why would I want to even open up my PC? Who cares about a slightly better textual resolution on Bioshock Infinite or Crysis 3. So is it ignorance? No. This is just how the market goes. Most consumers, like myself, put little value into having to invest time for research about PC's, and more time for $ to buy the appliances. Not to mention that most ordinary people don't want to be at their desks any longer than necessary. In fact, I already want to get off.

Uhh... Slightly better textures... Right...
Ok, so a cheaper rig than a next gen console [Can be done rather easily, an equivalent to the PS4 would cost $600 ATM, and prices'll just keep dropping, even by the time the PS4/X720 are released], that has less than a quarter of the loading time of current gen consoles, that boots up almost as fast as an Ipad, and that has textures up to 8 times the size of a console's, running at resolutions over 4 times as high as what consoles render, in addition to numerous shader and post processing effects, a wider variety of games, a wider variety of control schemes, versatility, cheaper games, mods, larger levels, more enemies, better AI and, to be honest, better everything - and its the consoles that are the economic choice?
Granted you're not going to get the most out of your PC with just a $600 rig. You'll play Crysis 3 like a PS4 would, and you'll play every current gen game way better than any console, but you're not going to max out BF3, TW2 or C3. Some people think you have to to play on the PC, but again, ignorance. You'll still get faster loading times and an alround better deal and experience than you would on a console, with the option for an upgrade later on.

As for you wanting yo get away from the desk - why do you have your PC at your desk?
It is pathetically easy to link one up to your TV, and you can get controllers and such for the PC that'll let you play your games that way too if you don't care for using a KB+M on your couch.

Even then, there are a lot of people who get all of this, yet there's still one factor that keeps them going to consoles, despite the fact that they know they can get a better experience on the PC, and thankfully this is changing; Brand name loyalty. Its not necessarily the 'advantages' of a console that gets a lot of the masses using one, its the fact that "I had a Xbox last gen, I'll get this new one, and I'm sure my friends will too so we'll play together".

Things are slowly changing, but it views on PCs haven't quite swapped yet, whilst people are still loyal to their console of choice - as shown by the stupid Xbox vs PS3 wars you'll find on some parts of the Internet.

There are, doubtless, people who understand and still choose consoles because they fit into their lifestyle better, but there are also a lot who do it for simpler reasons that don't rely on a logical choice. Both kinds exist in the world, and the more common from what I've seen is the latter, but hey, anecdotal evidence and all that.

Well, they said the Cell would run a 1 teraflop, so yeah.

The Hungry Samurai:
And out come the PCletists.

Fine you guys have better specs on your computers. PS4's hardware is speculted to run something between $400-600. How many of your gaming rigs cost that little?

Mine. It cost the equivalent of $600-ish, factor out the UK's tax and premiums and the same system's about $450 in the US. It runs everything from Doom to Crysis 3 with little more than a click of compatability mode. It'll max every game in my collection at 1080p save for BF3 and Crysis 3, which are serious post processing GPU melters.

Which is where Sony have a problem, the same one the PS3 had in fact. The price of gaming capable PCs has been dropping rapidly in the last half decade, sure you can spend $2k on a SLI'd up monolith, but a couple hundred bucks and som mid level hardware will handle almost all current games.

Above $400-ish this thing is a hard sell, above $500 it's going to be stumbling on launch like the PS3 so very nearly was even when a good gaming PC was north of a grand.

This one at least sounds more future proofed than the PS3, at least sligthly. PS3 had 512mb total at a time when games were already nailing 512mb GPUs to the wall, for reference BF3 needs about 3.5gb for 1080p at max (total, system + Vram), so at least the PS4 won't be behind on launch day.

I wonder if the claimed the same about the PS3 when it was released. We know how that turned out.

The Name's Bond:
Wow, I'm really surprised how many people here are not even giving the PS4 a damn chance, I mean let Sony give it a whack and hopefully a kick-ass machine will come out at the end. I own a gaming PC a PS3 and an Xbox 360 and I have them because each can do something the other can't. I prefer Fallout 3 on PS3 than PC because for me, it crashes a lot less.

OT: I really hope that everything Sony says works out then we might end up getting some really good looking console games and raise the standard for console gaming.

Ordinarily, I'd agree with you, but by the sounds of things this whole thing has all the signs of Sega-CD style failure. If this thing is going to cost a fortune before anyone is even ready to switch up to a new console, and Sony are focusing less on a dedicated gaming machine (dunno what that quote was all about) and more about tacking on a bunch of stupid networking bullshit no one cares about, I don't know...

I love Sony machines, and I really hope it works out, but this has got me worried they could go the way of Sega and end up dropping out of the console market.

OT: Is it my imagination, or have all the new console announcements recently had less to do with playing games, and more to do with a pissing contest against PC's? I find it really hard to get psyched up about a bunch of random numbers instead of launch titles and actually showing us what games will look like.

Waaghpowa:
Well everyone else summed up what I was thinking.

Pc Gamer magazine already did a hypothetical "What would a PS4 spec equivalent PC cost you to build right now." article. It cost 600 dollars. So by the time the PS4 comes out, that price would have dropped and more powerful hardware would have taken it's place in the same price range.

And remember, you can argue all you want about how consoles "Last longer" spec wise, but the bottom line is they still can't do the same tasks as a conventional computer.

link here

& the 3rd highest rated comment on PC GAMER is accusing the article of skewing and bias and is $250 off...and that's not even including the blue ray drive.

IronMit:
& the 3rd highest rated comment on PC GAMER is accusing the article of skewing and bias and is $250 off...and that's not even including the blue ray drive.

Blu ray drives are 50 bucks these days. Even if it's a little off, it doesn't change the fact that
1. The price of those parts will drop by the time the PS4 actually gets released and better hardware will fill the same price point

2. IT STILL DOES EVERYTHING. At the end of the day, everyone still needs a conventional computer/laptop.

The average person will spend ~500 dollars on a PS4 not including the cost of games, accessories etc then most people will also have an overpriced PC/Laptop with tech specs that can't do much more than browse the internet. Some people spend upwards of 1000 dollars on computers that don't have comparable graphics cards. I've built incredible powerful computers for people that don't break the 600 dollar price point. Sure, you might be sacrificing a bit of graphical power for utility, but I was always under the impression that people who wanted consoles didn't care too much about graphics.

Now you can go blah blah blah preference all you want, but I'm not trying to change your preference. I'm simply saying that from a practical stand point, the cost and utility of a PC capable of playing video games is simply cost efficient.

I built my computer about 4 years ago, cost me about 1200 dollars CDN I've upgraded it once and it plays everything on ultra 1080x1920. I have 3 monitors, one of which is a large TV I use for netflix and other videos when I want to lie back and watch, and I even have an assortment of controllers to play various games with. There's nothing I can do with a PS3 that my PC can't do. Why go out and spend 500+ dollars on this PS4 when a tech comparable PC will do it all for a little more?

DigitalSushi:

I was really happy for you PC guys and girls when nVidia announced there new hardcore Titan graphics card, why can't you be happy for us console gamers aye?

I'm not really expressing feelings one way or the other, but I'm reading everyone's comments to be in the stream of "they could do better because I can do better" and not "this is the worst thing ever!"

Besides, fuck Titan. It costs more than 2 powerful PCs combined.