Way back in 2007, surrounded by controversy and material shortages, the Playstation 3 launched, well, it half launched in some places, didn't launch at all in others, and sold for stupid $2000 price tags on Ebay. After a rocky period and shortages over half the globe, things straightened out and the Playstation 3 sold for around $630/£425, the most expensive home console to be released. The PS3 pretty much blew the Playstation 2 totally out of the water, hosting features and technology that it's little brother couldn't even comprehend when it was released back in 2000. The main reason for Playstation 3's high price tag was the 2x slot-loading Blu-Ray DvD Disc drive, which at the time, put the production cost of the Playstation 3 way up to $800. Some time has passed since then but the cost of a similar Blu-Ray drive can still set you back $400, which is a considerable amount of money to any gamer. One thing that's safe to assume, Sony won't go backwards with the Playstation 4 so we can expect either another Blu-Ray drive, or some improvement on the current one, automatically sky-rocketing the predicted Playstation 4 price to over $500, although there are a number of Blu-Ray drives that you can pick up for next to nothing that offer similar technical capabilities, only time will tell.
Improving the PS4
One of the many complaints from industry experts is the Playstation 3 RAM limits, featuring only 256MB of XDR DRAM as the consoles main memory unit and another 254MB of GDDR3 RAM for the Nvidia RSX, it is undoubtedly one of the main features of the PS3 that's been holding it back. So what can they do with the Playstation 4 to improve on this? The XDR ram itself, although at 256MB sounds to be selling you short, is actually considered to be up to 12x faster than traditional PC RAM, although when compared to current PC technology, this is no longer a solid fact. The RAM is nothing new, the same type of technology was used in the N64, although nowhere near as powerful as current options but 256MB of it can set you back $120/£80, so at current generation prices it can still cost a bit.
One of the many complaints from industry experts is the Playstation 3 RAM limits, featuring only 256MB of XDR DRAM as the consoles main memory unit and another 254MB of GDDR3 RAM for the Nvidia RSX, it is undoubtedly one of the main features of the PS3 that's been holding it back. So what can they do with the Playstation 4 to improve on this? The XDR ram itself, although at 256MB sounds to be selling you short, is actually considered to be up to 12x faster than traditional PC RAM, although when compared to current PC technology, this is no longer a solid fact. The RAM is nothing new, the same type of technology was used in the N64, although nowhere near as powerful as current options but 256MB of it can set you back $120/£80, so at current generation prices it can still cost a bit.
Then we move on to the graphical part of the Playstation 3, the Nvidia RSX (the unit that powers the PS3's graphic capabilities), is now 4 years old and there's plenty of other models available on the market although the RSX is still a pretty sweet graphical option as it boasts 300+ trillion transistors, the ram clocks at 700mhz, and can produce 60 million dots per second, more than enough to power any gaming console but nobody wants today's technology in tomorrows console, right? The RSX is the equivalent to the 8800GT used in many computers over recent years but even the 8800GT is obsolete with the other cards available in todays market, the current price of an 8800GT is roughly $280/£180 and considering this card features technology 4 years out of date, you can expect a cost of at least $300/£200 for the Playstation 4's graphical unit.
So to sum up the possible basic cost of the Playstation 4, not including things like blue-tooth devices, or hard-drives, you can expect anything up to $700/£500.
Control Pad Options
When you attempt to price up a future console, you have to take into account as much as possible and based on the current technology, you cannot ignore the control pads. After the leaps in the current generation from Nintendo with the Wii motion sensor and Sony with the 10-bit precision upgrade, from the previous 8, we have to assume that the next generation will take another step forward. The original PS3 controller, Sixaxis, featured 8 pressure sensitive buttons, a pressure sensitive D-Pad and 6 axis, 10-bit precision analog control sticks. This was an obvious improvement on the PS2's 8-bit precision model but the Sixaxis was discontinued in 2008 after the release of Dualshock 3. A large reason behind the Sixaxis controller being dumped was the fact that it couldn't handle any vibration features as it interfered with the motion control inside the pad, the Dualshock 3 was the next step in technology that allowed game developers to combine both vibration and motion sensitive technology. However, this came at a hefty price as the Dualshock 3 controller was priced at $59.99/£39.99 which is about the same cost for today's newest console titles. Time passed and the controller eventually dropped in price, selling in today's market for about $35/£20 but it has taken almost 4 years to get that low. So what can we expect from the next generation of control pads?
In all honesty, your guess is as good as mine. There is no official information on whether the next generation Playstation 4 pads will incorporate motion technology similar to the Playstation Move, whether they'll stick with the current design and features or whether they'll go for something totally new but it's safe to expect a hefty price tag with whatever they choose. Based on the fact that the Dualshock 3 control pads are still selling at $30, you can at least expect the next generation to be the same, if not more expensive, than the original price of the Dualshock 3.
Dualshock 4 Cost - $60-80/£40-60
When you attempt to price up a future console, you have to take into account as much as possible and based on the current technology, you cannot ignore the control pads. After the leaps in the current generation from Nintendo with the Wii motion sensor and Sony with the 10-bit precision upgrade, from the previous 8, we have to assume that the next generation will take another step forward. The original PS3 controller, Sixaxis, featured 8 pressure sensitive buttons, a pressure sensitive D-Pad and 6 axis, 10-bit precision analog control sticks. This was an obvious improvement on the PS2's 8-bit precision model but the Sixaxis was discontinued in 2008 after the release of Dualshock 3. A large reason behind the Sixaxis controller being dumped was the fact that it couldn't handle any vibration features as it interfered with the motion control inside the pad, the Dualshock 3 was the next step in technology that allowed game developers to combine both vibration and motion sensitive technology. However, this came at a hefty price as the Dualshock 3 controller was priced at $59.99/£39.99 which is about the same cost for today's newest console titles. Time passed and the controller eventually dropped in price, selling in today's market for about $35/£20 but it has taken almost 4 years to get that low. So what can we expect from the next generation of control pads?
In all honesty, your guess is as good as mine. There is no official information on whether the next generation Playstation 4 pads will incorporate motion technology similar to the Playstation Move, whether they'll stick with the current design and features or whether they'll go for something totally new but it's safe to expect a hefty price tag with whatever they choose. Based on the fact that the Dualshock 3 control pads are still selling at $30, you can at least expect the next generation to be the same, if not more expensive, than the original price of the Dualshock 3.
Dualshock 4 Cost - $60-80/£40-60
The Cost of the New Playstation 4 - Can you afford it?
Although this is all speculation and guesswork, one thing most will agree on, the cost of a Playstation 4 will hit your wallet and hit it hard. Everything in the next generation takes a step up, from the technology to the price and considering the original price of the Playstation 3 was over $600, you can only expect the same, if not more for the next generation. Nobody knows for certain but we're putting our money on a minimum $700 price tag, of course we'll know more once they release some technical information but until then, all there is to do is speculate. So what do you think? Would you pay $700 for a brand new Playstation 4? Or will you hold out a few years until the inevitable price drop takes effect?
Although this is all speculation and guesswork, one thing most will agree on, the cost of a Playstation 4 will hit your wallet and hit it hard. Everything in the next generation takes a step up, from the technology to the price and considering the original price of the Playstation 3 was over $600, you can only expect the same, if not more for the next generation. Nobody knows for certain but we're putting our money on a minimum $700 price tag, of course we'll know more once they release some technical information but until then, all there is to do is speculate. So what do you think? Would you pay $700 for a brand new Playstation 4? Or will you hold out a few years until the inevitable price drop takes effect?
So are you willing to shell out the dough?
No comments:
Post a Comment