Playstation 3 and Playstation 4

Remember convergence, the idea that all technology would merge? Sony’s PlayStation family isn’t there yet, but it’s getting close…

The process of turning all our culture into digital formats creates the tantalising prospect of complete integration of all the stuff we care about: books and films and TV programmes and music and pictures of our dogs that we can access anywhere at anytime.

The reality is there are hundreds of different technical standards and proprietary business standards making it a complete pain to do very simple things with your digital possessions: say, moving a song you’ve bought from one company to play on a portable device from another. For example, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to take the TV content I pay my cable company for and watch it on the train, and there are various daft ways you can do this now.

In response to this problem different vendors are proposing complex mash-ups of hardware and software that will bring all the disparate elements of our digital lives together. Needless to say, they want to own the whole piece. So, Microsoft has Media Center PCs, the Xbox, and Windows Mobile devices. Apple has the Mac, the iPod, Apple TV and the iPhone, and Sony has its PlayStation family, as well as phones, cameras and TVs. Because they’re all trying to cover so many bases, and because they all come from different places, it’s easy to miss the fact they’ve all got their eye on the same prize, but don’t be fooled. Sony, for one, has made its final destination absolutely clear: it’s planning a long-delayed online virtual world accessible from its PS3 game consoles, called simply Home.

Home is aptly named. It’s where in fact all these companies want to be, in the sense that they all want control over the digital media in our homes. They know that the company which controls the living room computing platform in the way that Microsoft used to control the office desktop computing platform will make ungodly profits. Each company has its strengths and its weaknesses. Microsoft has its formidable PC installed base and the hugely successful Xbox console, but Windows brings problems as well as benefits, not least the ludicrously restrictive digital rights management (DRM) software built into Vista. Apple has great hardware and lovely interfaces, and has cracked the music content relationships, but also insists on horrible DRM software and has yet to get the studios on board properly. Sony has great hardware devices and the brilliant PS3 game console, as well as loads of media assets, and has even won the next-generation DVD war, but a tradition of weird proprietary hardware formats like the Memory Stick as well as amazingly shonky software interfaces.

I’ve been playing with the Sony PS3 and the Sony PSP lately, and despite some typical Sony weirdness together they do offer some insight into what a dream converged home entertainment system might look like. The PS3 is a great piece of kit. It’s a bit easier to smuggle into your living room than the Xbox as it’s practically silent, and lacks a ludicrous external power supply, and of course it also plays HD Blu-ray movies.

A key element in convergence is linking together the internet, from which all digital goodness flows, to your PC, your TV, your games console, and a handheld device. Clearly wireless is the way to go: the PS3 makes this magic connection between console and PC very easily. I found it much easier to connect the PS3 wirelessly to my PC than the typically Windows rigmarole involved when linking the Xbox and a Media Center PC, and I never managed to get Media Center to stream via the Xbox, while the PS3 caught movies from the air as if by magic, bringing the movies on my PC hard drive on to my TV

So what do you end up with? Sony has a nice interface, (Microsoft’s Media Center interface is also very good.) You get great games and Blu-ray discs (although Sony’s gaming line-up and online play are still lagging behind the Xbox.) You can rip a DVD on the PC and then stream it wireless to watch on your TV. You can take that DVD and watch it on your PSP on the train (once you’ve invested in Sony’s horribly expensive proprietary portable memory standard.) You can download movies, games and game demos from the Sony store and watch them on your TV or PSP. It’s all starting to come together nicely, on some elegant hardware.

And yet… even though the hardware and network pieces are coming together, there are huge gaps. Why can’t I use my PS3 to buy music from iTunes (I can stream all my music from my PC to the TV if I want to)? Why can’t I buy movies and TV programmes from the Sony Store? All these things are technically possible and will probably emerge in time: in the US, online movie company Netflix allows people to download movies to watch via their game consoles. Sony charges you for an arm and a leg for media management software that makes it easy to copy your movies and music from your PC to your PSP – clearly this should be just part of the device’s basic software.

There is a forest of business, technical, and user interfaces the industry will have to navigate, and it’s frustrating to see the missed opportunities and delays preventing this mish-mash of standards, hardware and software coming together. It’s all so close. What I’d now like is an XboxPS360, which combined the Xbox Live experience and games with the PS3’s hardware; an iDS-PSP, which combined iTunes and the iPhone interface with the PSP’s screen and the Nintendo DS’ games, and a lovely Sony TV, camera, and video camera. Of course they will all connect wirelessly, play nicely together, and integrated via a high speed 3G or wireless connection. They’ll give me open web access to iTunes, Napster and all online music, TV and film providers, and it will all be properly indexed and searchable by Google. And oh, why not throw in a Kindle, Amazon’s promising eBook reader, for added fun? Stay with me people, I know this is going to happen!

In response to some fairly bogus claims by an “analyst” last week, Sony has come out of the woodwork to state that yes, it is indeed planning to build a PlayStation 4, but not until at least 2010. Therefore, by taking this quote completely out of context, we have deduced that there’s a mere three year wait for some next-next-gen goodness, which can be easily tide over by FFXII, GTA and SotC. However, were we to actually do our job, we would let you know that in the interim Sony is planning on firmware upgrades for the PS3 to expand media center capability, allow third party applications, and to support third party controllers similar to that of the Wii.

“To say that there will be no PS4 because of a management change is a bit far fetched,” says Paul Holman. He also went on to mention the possibility of a keyboard and mouse bundle with the PS3, predict at least 20 new games for the European PS3 launch, and to tout that schmancy Cell processor under the hood. We’re standing by for a PR cleanup crew any moment now.

We all know that the Sony PS3 has just been released for less than a year to date, but plenty has already been written about this next gen (now current gen) console, ranging from the amazing value it packs thanks to the Blu-ray drive and technology inside to the exorbitant cost of a black and hot paperweight that pushes new technology to consumers whether they want them or not. What most of us are not prepared for would be any announcement of a new PlayStation console anytime soon, since that would be suicide for a company that is already experiencing enough troubles as it is on the gaming front.

Citing reports from the Australian “Lifestyle Technology Guide” Smarthouse and their unidentified “inside source”, Sony is apparently working on a new iteration of the PS3 so early in the game. While this rumored new iteration won’t be sold to just gamers only, it will feature some stark differences compared to the black behemoth that you see sitting on store shelves. The drive bay and attachment area will see some definite changes, and word has it this revamped console will be known as the PS4 - how original.

Despite the change in number signifying quantum leaps in terms of technology, everything inside including the chip set will remain the same as the PS3, but users will get new media manager software. Obviously this could probably mean that the PS4 is the entertainment hub that Sony hoped the PS3 would be, and perhaps this is a knee jerk reaction prompted by disappointing sales figures all over the world (except for Europe).

Exec tells Aussie tech site that the electronics giant will make another console after 2010; PS3 will see system upgrades, new peripheral support.

Late last month, executive shake-ups at Sony prompted one Japanese analyst to make a bold prediction: Sony was moving out of the gaming-hardware business and focusing solely on software. “I cannot now imagine a PlayStation 4,” said Nomura Securities’ Yuta Sakurai.

Sony was quick to rebut the claim, with a rep telling GameSpot, “I think it would be rather shortsighted for anyone to predict there might not be a next generation of PlayStation product.”

As for when to expect a new Sony console, one exec claims that the company’s fans shouldn’t expect the next PlayStation any sooner than the typical console life cycle allows. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe vice president of technology Paul Holman reportedly told Australian tech site Smarthouse that Sony will launch a PlayStation 4, but not any sooner than 2010.

Until then, Sony will continue to upgrade the PlayStation 3 through firmware updates that will allow “for the introduction of third-party applications and hardware such as interactive controllers similar to Nintendo’s Wii…” the site reported. The PS3’s current controller, the Sixaxis, already has motion- and tilt-sensing capability.

The PS3 may also come with a keyboard and mouse in the future, be able to download third-party operating systems, and become “as much a media center for the home as it is a gaming machine,” said Holman. His words echo statements made by Sony executives that the PS3’s online store will offer downloadable music and video content, much like iTunes and Xbox Live Marketplace currently do.

Eventually, we’re going to have to stop calling the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii “next-generation consoles” because before too long, a whole new generation will be upon us (time travels fast, friends). And according to GameSpot and Pacific Coast Securities’ Evan Wilson, we can expect that next generation to kick off in 2010.

Wilson was talking about EA’s ambitious revenue predictions, and then he moved into his expectations for the new set of consoles that will become available in due time. He thinks Nintendo will launch theirs first (presumably, in 2010), followed by Microsoft a year later…but interestingly enough, Wilson made no mention of a PlayStation 4. He moved on to say the next set of Nintendo and Sony portables will drop in 2010 as well, although he didn’t specify whether he was talking about whole new systems or just new versions of the DS and PSP. But getting back to the consoles, does it strike anyone else as a little strange that Wilson picked 2010? That’s only two years off, after all, and perhaps the reason he didn’t mention the PS4 is because Sony keeps saying the PS3 is at the start of a 10-year life cycle.

So if he’s correct, it means we’ll see something like the Xbox 720 or the Wii2 in a couple years time, and the PS3 will just continue along for another six years? Wouldn’t Sony be more inclined to produce another competing system earlier? Well, we know the PS3 hasn’t fully realized its exceedingly high potential, so perhaps the PS3 is capable of producing software on par with Xbox 720 titles. Oh well, we’ll have to see what transpires over the next few years…and the waiting is half the fun.