Hardcore gamers have probably heard about Michael Pachter. He’s an analyst at Webbush Securities and famous for his gaming predictions. He’s right every once and a while, but I wouldn’t call him gaming’s Nostradamus. Even so, it’s always interesting to see what he thinks and compare it with our own thoughts. To this end, he has revealed yet another prediction during a podcast. He seems to believe that Sony is going to wait and see what happens with Project Scarlett before they go public with PS5. How does that make you feel? Is that even something we think is possible? It’s time to discuss. Pachter’s Prediction: A Hint of Truth? Pachter’s predictions are often met with mixed reactions from the community. Sometimes he’s pretty close, but other times he makes a vast majority of the community’s eyes roll. We’ve got a new prediction from him, courtesy of an interview with GamingBolt where he mentioned a new prediction about the PS5. According to Pachter, they could be waiting on Microsoft: “I’m sure Microsoft intends to launch first, and I am equally certain that the new Xbox will be backwards compatible with any Xbox One X software. I agree that it’s hard for Xbox One X purchasers, but they should know 4 years into a cycle that there is another one coming. My guess is that Microsoft intends to launch in 2020, but if they think Sony is going to launch the PS5 then, they will launch early.. Let’s dive in and see how I feel about these predictions. Michael Pachter’s Vision For The PS5: Releasing in 2019? Michael Pachter spoke with Gaming Bolt in the wake of Shawn Layden’s PS5 comments, and of course, the analyst had some predictions to throw out for those interested in his wisdom. Pachter confirmed his beliefs that the PS5 will indeed be backwards compatible, but he also mentioned a release date: 2019. In Pachter’s words: “The PlayStation 4 Pro is better (from a technical perspective) than the PS4, so I think that’s a half step towards the PlayStation 5. I think the PS5 will another half step. It will surely support 4K. Will it support 240 frames per second? Great. Will it play games that were made for the PlayStation 4 Pro? That’s the question. I think it will. So I think they will build a console that will be backwards compatible with the PS4 Pro. So I think it will be perceived by the consumers to be a half step and I think Shawn is telling the truth when he says it will be a full-fledged console.” Pachter went on to explain his prediction, saying that Sony is waiting for the 4K market to mature more before they release their new console. He admits that it could be 2019 or 2020, but leans towards the former. According to his predictions, Sony already has the PS5 nailed down, they’re just waiting for the timing to be right. Breaking Down Pachter’s Claims: A Few Hits and … Read More
Why The PS5 Will Run at 8+ Teraflops For True 4K
When new consoles are announced, people want to know what it can do, and how powerful it is. While the typical consumer isn’t interested in RAM, GPU, or teraflops, hardcore games absolutely want to know what’s under the hood. Knowing the specs of a system empowers us to make a lot of predictions as to what it will be able to accomplish. Today we’re going to look at the teraflop, and what it does for a console’s power. Then we’ll look at the PS4 Pro’s specs, and why the PS5 will hit the fabled 8 (Actually 10.28) teraflops to play games in native 4K. Uh, Remind Me Again: What’s a Teraflop? The term “flop” refers to a floating point operation. This is a basic measurement of computational power. At the heart of both Sony and Microsoft consoles are chipsets manufactured by AMD. To calculate the teraflops of a console, you follow this formula: multiply the amount of shader cores by the clock-speed, then multiply that by two. That last step is to account for each clock (one multiply, one accumulate operation) that runs simultaneously. This will get you a huge number, so we divide that by one million and that will give us a teraflop measurement. Let’s look at an example, using the Xbox One and PS4: Xbox One: 768 shaders (x) 853MHz (x) 2 instructions per clock = 1,310,208 megaflops or 1.31 teraflops PS4: 1280 shaders (x) 800MHz (x) 2 instructions per clock = 1,843,200 megaflops or 1.84 teraflops So how does this apply to games as a whole? Well, we have to remember that teraflops are a very basic measurement and only apply to computational power. You have to consider several other factors before you can make a prediction on the performance of a machine. The software drivers and architecture of the GPU also contribute to the overall performance. It’s about efficiency as much as it is importance. On paper, for example, the PS4 Pro is 2.3x more powerful than the PS4, but a 40% increase in computational power doesn’t necessarily equal out to a 40% increase in performance. When it comes down to it, teraflops alone cannot define a console or PC’s performance. There are other factors like the GPU’s memory bandwidth that play into the equation. Thus far in the console war, the Xbox One’s 1.31 teraflops has been at a distinct disadvantage when compared to the PS4’s 1.84 teraflops. This is also a result of the Xbox One’s lower memory bandwidth. Developers have been very good at handling the difference in specs over the course of the generation, but we’ve seen resolutions swing wildly between the two consoles. What the PS4 runs in 1080p runs at 900p or lower on Xbox. The same situation may become the case with Xbox 2 (Project Scorpio) and PS4 Pro. Microsoft is targeting native 4K and 6 teraflops with their new console, but how they will manage that remains to be seen. There are some who believe that 6TF … Read More
Virtual Reality is The Future (Sorry 4K TVs)
When a new technology emerges, it can go one of two ways: either it will claim a place in the halls of gaming greatness, or it will be doomed to fade into history. We’ve seen it time and time again. HD-DVD vs Blu-ray, motion controllers vs standard inputs, and so on. Now we’re in an age where your TV can have 4K resolution, and if you’re really feeling lucky you can also have a virtual reality headset. Virtual reality is nothing new, but this is the first time we’ve seen it hit a mainstream stride. In fact, the concept of VR has been around since the 1980’s when the term was first coined. Quite a fad to have lasted this long, but that does that mean that this attempt will be the one that sticks? Will the steady advancements in VR finally win over the masses? Join me as we discuss the future of gaming. A Brief History of Virtual Reality According to the Virtual Reality Society, virtual reality was a term that came into the public eye in 1987 when a scientist named Jaron Lanier coined the term. The concept became the focus of science fiction and other forms of film and literature as time went on. We all remember Nintendo’s foray into this realm with the Virtual Boy in 1995. After numerous headaches (quite literal ones), this attempt flopped. Since then, virtual reality has still appeared in all kinds of fictional work, but beyond some amusement park rides, it didn’t seem like something that would ever come home. I remember my first experience with VR at the popular Disney Quest attraction. Looking back, I realize how crude this technology was, but man was it awesome. It was pretty uncomfortable, though, as the headset was huge and the only sizing option was a massive crank on the back of the device that squeezed your head like it was in a vice. Jump forward to 2016 and virtual reality has finally come to fruition. You have the higher-tiers like the HTC Vive that, combined with the cost of a capable PC, will cost you one of your kidneys, and then you have the slightly less expensive Oculus Rift. Sony came out with PlayStation VR in October of 2016 and brought the most affordable option to the masses. It works with your PS4 and even better with a PS4 Pro. While still expensive, it brings real VR to your living room. Yes, the screen isn’t 4K, but we’ll get to that in a moment. At this point, VR is still very young in terms of a mainstream option. Meanwhile you have wildcards like augmented reality and Microsoft’s HoloLens. Not only that, but now Microsoft is bringing Windows 10 VR headsets out from a variety of partners. While it certainly seems like major publishers like Sony and Microsoft are all embracing VR, along with the mobile options from Google and Samsung, is this a clear sign that VR is here to stay? … Read More
The 4K Dilemma: How PS5 Will do What PS4 Pro Won’t
The PS4 Pro (previously known as the PS4.5 or PS4 Neo), releases in November of 2016. For the first time in the gaming industry, we’ll have a new console release with better hardware and more capabilities that still exists within the same generation. That’s right, the PS4 Pro is not the PS5, it’s something new. Furthermore, the extra power isn’t able to run games in native 4K as of yet. Instead, Sony has opted to upscale games to this higher resolution. Combine this with the lack of a 4K Blu-Ray player, and you have to wonder how all of this fits together. Today, we’ll break down the details of the PS4 Pro and ultimately use it to peek into the future and find out what Sony is planning for the PS5. Mark Cerny Breaks Down the PS4 Pro Mark Cerny is the system architect for PlayStation. He’s also been involved with countless other game franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted, Spyro, and even Ratchet & Clank. He worked on the PS4 and now he’s sat down with The Verge to talk about the approaches he took to PS4 Pro. It’s safe to say that Mark, and his wonderfully smooth voice, will also be the architect on the PS5. Moments like these offer a lot of great insight into what he and Sony are thinking. For starters, the PS4 Pro is indeed 2.28 times more powerful than the PS4. The first caveat, even with this power, is that not everything will run in native 4K resolutions. When asked about the new GPU, Cerny revealed that it’s not actually new. Instead, they decided to install a second GPU that’s almost identical to the first one with a 14% boost to 911MHz. The standard PS4 hits 1.8 teraflops, but the Pro is bringing 4.2 teraflops to the table. The same eight Jaguar CPU cores are being used, but they’ve been clock at higher speeds. Furthermore, the RAM has a higher bandwidth, and they’ve also added an additional gig of conventional RAM to boost the speed of menu applications and switching between them. This power allows the system to hit native 4K in certain situations, and what Cerny calls “extremely close to 4K” in others. For games like Call of Duty and Horizon: Zero Dawn, the system uses a workaround called checkerboard rendering. This allows the system to reach 2160p resolution by changing the way pixels are arranged so the resolution is in fact higher. Other games will use this same technique to run in 1080p. As you may already know, a shocking amount of titles only run at roughly 900p on PS4, so this will also offer a boost for 1080p television owners. Games will require a “Pro” mode or a patch to take advantage of the extra hardware. This means that games will run the same on the new system unless modified to use the extra power. For 1080p television owners, the difference won’t be huge, but developers can use this power to … Read More
PS5 Confirmed by Sony Executive: 2018? 2019? 2020?
If the announcement of the PS4 Pro had you worried about the future of PlayStation, and ultimately a PS5, it’s time to put your fears to rest. Sony Interactive Entertainment America boss, Shawn Layden, has confirmed that PS4 Pro won’t be the last we see of the PlayStation brand. Furthermore, new rumors are pointing to a possible 2018 release date for the PS5. While PS4 Pro is going to ease the market into 4K, it’s clear that it’s simply a means to an end. Let’s find out what Sony’s planning, shall we? Sony Exec: “There Will Be More PlayStations.” Sony gave us all a collective heart attack when President Shuhei Yoshida said the PS5 is an “if,” signifying that Sony was unsure of the PS5’s future. Thankfully, we can put those rumors to rest. After the PlayStation Meeting, The Verge caught up with Shawn Layden, head of SIEA and the PlayStation Worldwide Studios group. During the interview, Shawn was asked about future PlayStations in the wake of this new announcement. Specifically he was asked if the next step is a PS5. Here’s his response: “Right now we were concentrating on how do we iterate within this PS4 life cycle. The technology and improvements behind PS4 Plus are our way of articulating where we think the market wants to go. People will want to have greater fidelity of images and graphics. Where we go from there, we’re going to have to wait and see. It’s our first time innovating within the life cycle, so I’m not exactly sure what impact that will have on our plan going forward. But there will be more PlayStations.” That right there is enough to confirm we’ll see a PS5 at some point in the future. The showcase at the PlayStation Meeting for the PS4 Pro didn’t appear to be a massive upgrade, so the biggest question about the PS5 will be how it pushes the boundaries of graphics and gameplay. Will the next PlayStation be another small step forward, an iteration as it were? Or, will we see a generational leap worthy of the name “PS5?” That is certainly the question, but PlayStation boss, Andrew House, has said in the past that he’s not too keen on shortening the console lifecycle. In an interview prior to E3 2016 with The Guardian, House made it clear that PS4 Pro isn’t a generational leap, but he also cautioned against shortening life cycles: ”I’m not suggesting we want to bring the games industry to an 18-month-two-year cycle because then you would lose an awful lot of the fixed platform benefits we’ve enjoyed that allow for these really great leaps in game experience. However, we did think there was an opportunity to reflect on the traditional lifecycle, and on 4K technology, and say maybe there’s an opportunity, within the course of a normal lifecycle to offer something else. Something a little bit better, for a segment of the market that feels that this is important.” So, it’s fair to … Read More
PS4’s System Software 4.0 Update Means The PS5 isn’t Coming Anytime Soon
Sony has been teasing the big 4.00 firmware update for the PS4 and now that have information on what it will add to the current PlayStation experience, it’s clear to see that the PS4 and the upcoming PS4 Neo are here to stay. The PlayStation 5 may still be a few years off, but this update showcases a renewed interest in refreshing and redesigning the PS4’s features, and that’s fine with us. Today we’ll look at the features coming in the 4.00 update and how they signal a reboot of the PS4’s cycle in the wake of the Slim and Pro models that are on the horizon. PS4 System Update 4.00: New Features and a UI Refresh PS4’s upcoming update is codenamed Shingen, according to the PlayStation Blog. Users who signed up for the beta will get a taste of the new features, but let’s take a look at everything that’s coming in this new update: 1. A User Interface Refresh The term “refresh” is used in gaming when a new model comes out or an update overhauls the current standards to set a new precedent for the future. It all starts with new system backgrounds and a redone “What’s New” tab on the main menu. The system icons and the popup notifications have also seen changes. It’s supposed to be similar to the look and feel of the original design, but it should be a little easier to use. 2. New Quick Menu Normally when you hold the PS button on the DualShock 4, you get a quick menu that covers the whole screen. Not so, with this new update. Now you’ll still be able to see most of the screen, thus removing the need to leave your game entirely. With this new quick menu, you can see which friends are online, access your party, and you’ll have the ability to customize what it shows. 3. Share Menu Updates The Share Menu has also seen some love. It will now only cover a portion of the screen and save the last network you shared a screenshot or video to. In addition, video clips can be uploaded up to 140 seconds in length on Twitter (it was previously 10 seconds). 4. Folders and Organization Features A huge request people have been asking for, myself included, are folders to organize your content on the PS4. This update wil allow you to group games and apps together for quick and easy navigation. The library has been given a separate section for purchased titles and one for content you have installed. You can also search for items in your library as well and choose from sorting options. 5. Trophy Changes You’ll be able to view you trophies offline in this new update, and you can also see the contents of hidden trophies. The rarity level of trophies will also be represented with a pyramid icon that fills and shows ultra-rate trophies at the top. 6. User Profile Changes The user profile will now … Read More
The PS5 Will Be Backwards Compatible, Thanks to Microsoft
Every time a new console is announced, the first question on everyone’s minds is “will it be backwards compatible?” We are happy to tell you that on 4/16/19 Playstation’s Mark Cerny confirmed the PS5 will be backwards compatible with PS4 games in an interview with Wired Magazine. That being said the fear of a new generation invalidating all of our purchases from the previous one is very real in gamers everywhere. The very structure of the PS4 was completely different than the PS3, which was the basis for why Sony said the PS4 could not be backwards compatible. Even so, they’ve made concessions here and there. Looks like they are getting it right for the PS5. Meanwhile. Microsoft is making more and more Xbox 360 games compatible on the Xbox One every week. Sony’s been backed into a corner. It’s time to bring out the claws and make backwards compatibility a feature on PS5. Thankfully, rumors are pointing to this being the case. PS5 Backwards Compatibility: All The Latest Evidence The PS4 is absolutely killing it this generation, with millions of consoles now comfortably sitting in gamer’s homes. That’s an impressive install base, but if Sony releases a brand new console without backwards compatibility, they would essentially starting from scratch. Yes, the PS4 would continue to exist for several years, but when it comes time for the PS4 to go the way of the dodo bird, all those gamers will have a huge library of games that they can no longer play on PS5. It doesn’t make sense any way you slice it, and with Microsoft already offering backwards compatibility on Xbox One X, so Sony had to step up. Here is what some of the evidence was that Sony was going to include backwards comparability: Software Testing Patent If you’re feeling like you need more technical documentation in your life, you should check out this full patent listing from Sony. If you’d rather get to the point of it all, here’s a quick excerpt: “If the CPUs of the new device have lower performance than the CPUs of the legacy device, many errors in a legacy application may arise due to the inability to meet real-time deadlines imposed by display timing, audio streamout or the like. If the CPUs of the new device have substantially higher performance than the CPUs of the legacy device, many errors in a legacy application may arise due to the untested consequences of such high speed operation.” Breaking this down, the excerpt describes an issue with running legacy software on more or less powerful CPUs. If the hardware is more powerful, such as the case with PS5, there could be unintended consequences of throwing an older game into this new environment. The goal of this patent is to create a timing testing mode that can “disrupt” the processors and test for errors while in this mode. On it’s own, this doesn’t guarantee anything, but it does prove that the concept of backwards compatibility was … Read More
PS4.5 Will Surprise Microsoft and Crush Scorpio’s Performance
PS4.5 vs XBox 2 Scorpio – See video below</em For the first time since the dawn of gaming, we’re seeing new hardware coming out in the middle of a generation. I’m not talking about a “slim” model either. The PS4 Neo (PS4.5) and Project Scorpio (Xbox 2) are true leaps forward in terms of power. Both are confirmed, but the specs haven’t been finalized for either one. Even without that information, there’s still a lot to be found when we read between the lines. Microsoft is confident that Project Scorpio will be the most powerful console ever built, but their focus is all out of whack. Meanwhile, Sony’s made it clear that PS4.5 is all about power. Read on to find out why this gamer believes the PS4.5 will crush Scorpio when it releases. Project Scorpio: Microsoft’s Caged Beast When Phil Spencer took the stage at E3 2016 and announced Project Scorpio, the crowd went wild. I was personally surprised that they were talking about a new console over a year before its release. He didn’t provide many details beyond the fact that it would be “the most powerful console ever built.” This had the PlayStation fan within me worried, but since that big announcement, new information from the big man himself makes me wonder what Microsoft is planning to do with Scorpio. During an interview with Eurogamer, Phil Spencer shed new light on Scorpio’s purpose and place in the new Xbox Family. In the same breath that he announced Project Scorpio, he also announced Xbox One S. One is clearly more powerful than the other, so why would anyone purchase the S when they can have the power of Scorpio in holiday 2017? In Phil Spencer’s words: “Scorpio is designed as a 4K console, and if you don’t have a 4K TV, the benefit we’ve designed for, you’re not going to see. Clearly you can buy Scorpio, and if and when you decide you want to buy a 4K television to take advantage of the increased performance, obviously the console will be ready for you.” He told customers that they should just stick with Xbox One S, because Scorpio isn’t going to do anything for you unless you have a 4K TV. We all know that extra power is needed to run games in 4K, but if that’s all Scorpio is going to do, what about all that talk concerning the most powerful console ever built? This is where Microsoft’s other decision to create an “Xbox Family” comes into play. Microsoft is planning on keeping everything level with their new releases: “That fact that when you buy an Xbox One and start creating your game library and when you buy Scorpio those games and accessories and everything are going to run, make it feel like part of the Xbox One family to me. That’s why we communicate it that way. That was also part of the design point of the box.” I’m all game for backwards compatibility, but Microsoft … Read More
PS5 to counter XBox One X: PS4.5 Was Just the Bait
E3 2016 was full of surprises, more so than most of the prior year’s shows. The biggest curveball of them all was Microsoft’s announcement of Project Scorpio, now named XBox One X. It is a new console, promised to be the most powerful one ever made. It’s also coming out in holiday 2017. This puts Sony in a bind, but they’ve never been one to let Microsoft walk all over them. PS4 Neo has been confirmed, but we still don’t know much about the upgraded system. It will most likely release before Project Scorpio, but it’s not the real secret Sony is hiding. You see, Sony used PS4 Neo to force Microsoft to show their hand. Now they can move forward with PS5 and position themselves to once again crush the competition. PlayStation’s CEO Reacts to XBox One X: ‘I was surprised’ Andrew House, boss of PlayStation, interview with the Guardian post E3 and revealed some interesting insight into their ultimate console plan. We knew several days before E3 that the PS4 Neo (PS4.5) was real, but Sony had no plans to show it at E3. “The point of confirming the existence of PlayStation 4 Neo and the bare bones of the plan last week was not about disappointing the fan base who would obviously come to E3 with high expectations of all kinds of announcements. From past experience, the worst thing you can do is disappoint and pull the rug away from people. That’s why we went out last week and said, yes, it does exist, but don’t expect to see it at E3. I think it was the right thing to do.” In reality, he’s absolutely right. People expected PS4 Neo news at E3, and by tempering their expectations, Sony was able to set up the proper approach for their epic press conference which wowed the audience with a live orchestra and tons of big game announcements. Sony’s approach is very calculated. House stated that they didn’t want to show the PS4 Neo until they had a proper “range of experiences to showcase.” They don’t have that right now, so there’s no point in showing the system. That being said, Andrew House seemed surprised at Microsoft’s announcement of their hardware: “I was surprised by the step of announcing something over a year ahead of time. The dynamics of the tech industry are such that there’s a much heavier emphasis on immediate gratification than there was. A lot of that is to do with how Apple has very cleverly and elegantly managed the ‘available now’ approach. So yes, that was a slight surprise to me.” Notice how he said “slight surprise.” More on that later, but he went on to say that Sony learned their lesson back in 2013 when they announced PS4 and people wanted to know where the system was. They realized that the industry had changed, and they needed to change with it. Our next extremely important point before we dive into the details and speculation, … Read More
Call of Duty? More Like Call of Destiny: The Future of FPS
First person shooters, abbreviated as FPS, is a genre that has taken over gaming. The biggest franchises are all presented through the eyes of the protagonist. Whether it’s fighting a future war, or waging and old one, this genre represents billions of dollars for the industry each and every year. That being said, it’s clear that gamers are starting to get fatigued. The latest Call of Duty trailer has the most dislikes of any trailer ever, while the Battlefield 1 trailer has the most. What does this mean? What’s the future of FPS games? Time to find out! The State of the Union These days, if you walk into a video game store, you’re going to find more varieties of first person shooters then flavors of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Several of them have annual releases, and others spend several years incubating before they are released. Among all of these shooters, competitive online multiplayer represents one of the biggest motivations for gamers to pick up a copy. Personally I play for story, not for keeps, but to each their own. I can’t deny the popularity of multiplayer in today’s FPS games. Take Blizzard’s new IP Overwatch. This game is a team-based competitive shooter. No campaign, no storyline (except for one told through videos outside the game). All of this, and people eat it up like it’s made of gold. There’s no denying the popularity of it. Some games have taken this to the next level. Destiny, for example, is a hybrid MMO-shooter that is always online and always getting new updates, events, and expansions. The publisher, Activision, wants the game to last ten years and plans to keep it updated all the while. While not first person, Ubisoft’s The Division is another game that has blurred the line between a massively multiplayer game and a shooter. While these are in the minority now, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that more shooters will take this hybrid approach and keep people online with their friends throughout the experience. The FPS genre is in a state of experimentation right now. It’s unsure of where to go next, so it’s dipping toes into all kinds of new ventures. Some work better than others, but it’s clear that innovation is in order. I could be something as simple as a setting change (looking at you Battlefield 1, WWI certainly is a change of pace). Or, it could be a move towards more integrated, massively multiplayer experiences. Throw in the rise of virtual reality, and you have the recipe for change. New mechanics and cool settings aside, where is all of this going? It’s time to look at the paths that the first person shooter genre could take. Where Do We Go From Here? 3 Ways FPS Games Could Change Forever I’m no time traveler, but I see a few ways this can all go down. When it comes time for the PS5, what will the average FPS look like? How will it … Read More