According to a post by Industry Gamers they have heard from “industry sources at a top developer” that the PlayStation 4 may be revealed next year. More specifically, Sony hopes to show it off sometime within the next 18 months. It’s interesting how this report surfaces just a week after we heard rumors telling us that Microsoft is preparing to reveal the XBOX 720 next year. The lack of information surrounding the plans of Sony and Microsoft make their potential new products infinitely more enticing.

Whether these rumors are true or not we aren’t sure that Sony is going to announce a new console in 2012, but we wouldn’t be surprised. It all hinges on what you interpret “10 year life cycle” to mean. The one thing that everyone will agree on is that it won’t be 2016 before Sony confirms their intentions for the next generation of gaming consoles.

There have been some rumors that Sony could move to an IBM PowerPC processor for the PS4, but that currently seems unlikely – in December, Sony bought the factory that makes the Cell processors from Toshiba, which suggests it’s commited to this platform. And sticking to Cell would simplify matters for software developers.

“I don’t think either Sony or Microsoft are interested in a new console until they can advance the technology, and they certainly don’t want to launch at a $600 price point. It may take some time to get 2TB hard drives, uber-fast CPUs and state-of-the art graphics, and sell at $400.”

Check back for more updates about the PlayStation 4 launch soon.

Betting is that consoles will have to keep up with the graphic market or else the “built out of my garage” PC’s will dominate the market.
That is unless Sony, Microsoft, & Nintendo can make deals with Graphic Card manufactures to not to sell a particular “Card Line” that will give the same eye candy experience as the consoles could have at least a 5 year time span.

The downside on technology moving so fast these days is that we might be seeing consoles developed every 4-7 years. Nobody is going to want to pay for a console when it’s outdated in less then a year but this is the way we’re going with technology these days.

Sony bet big bucks that its Cell processor and Blu-ray would become significant components to its home entertainment strategy and it’s paying off, but what’s to come? A PS4 with a glasses-free 3D projector?

The most concise quote is possibly this one:
“I think the value of the PS3 will continue to rise. Because of this, a near-future PS4 or next-generation home console is not something that we are even debating now.”

We’ll have to wait and see when more information comes to light!!!

Sony will streamline the system and make it cheaper: Releasing the PlayStation 4 for $299.99 would earn it massive sales, instead of stumbling out of the block with an $599.99 price tag that the PS3 was saddled with. Sony would be wise to release a machine whose job is to play games, unlike the PS4, which promises It Only Does Everything.

PS4 will be more developer-friendly: The PS4 could still have tons of power but Sony could have some software engineers write a new, less frustrating OS that will make developers able to do more in less time.

Other rumors for playstation 4 have already been confirmed: Sony has to ditch 10 year plans and stop using old hardware as a crutch in the videogame world, so the PS4’s implementation of the chip which shall use 6-8 cores, 24-32MB shared L3 Cache, Quad threading per core, a double precision performance approaching 200GFLOPS. The current CELL chip which powers the PS3 can achieve 15 double precision GFLOPS at its optimum therefore this means that the PS4’s performance leap would be over 10 fold over its predecessor.

Sony may change the whole concept of hard disk, bringing downloadable game content concept in their PS4, the path which they already started with PSP GO, everything can be uploaded & downloaded online, leaving few possibilities of game cracks.

It’s time for Sony to abandon the PS3 and just release the PlayStation 4 as soon as possible

- 3D video and gaming will be a big focus, as they were the last years.
- motion-sensing systems for “PlayStation Move“ (launched last September).
- especially for PSP2 it’s been reported that the device could feature an HD display and offer a slightly larger screen than current PSP models.
- lastly Sony will likely update the world on its ambitious scheme to extend the PlayStation Store’s video offerings to Internet-enabled HDTVs and Blu-ray players and to PCs.

While the game will likely see release on the PS3 one way or the other, it’s also possible depending on just how much later we see the game, that it could also see release around the launch window for the PlayStation 4.

Specification which has been confirmed include:

• the PS4’s implementation of the chip which shall use 6-8 cores,
• 24-32MB shared L3 Cache,
• Quad threading per core,
• a double precision performance approaching 200GFLOPS.
• The current CELL chip which powers the PS3 can achieve 15 double precision GFLOPS at its optimum therefore this means that the PS4’s performance leap would be over 10 fold over its predecessor.

If the PS4 is a revamp of the PS3, we’re likely to see some evident technology upgrades:

• a massive hard disk;
• to improve cooling + to reduce the size of the box: an external power supply;
• 802.11n to replace the existing 802.11b/g chipset;
• an increase in the onboard memory;
• new graphics processor
• a terabyte HDD isn’t out of the question.