Posted Fri Mar 18, 2016 at 12:44 PM PDT by Justin Clark
At least that's the rumor.
Rumors abound in this industry, and there's very few sources from which rumors have a high enough pedigree to run as fact. Kotaku has a tendency to be one of those sources, so you've got a pretty decent chance that the article they ran today is probably true: Sony's begun talking to its partners about the possibility of what is being lovingly dubbed "The PS4.5". And the PS4.5 is, essentially, a Playstation 4 with a slight hardware upgrade, and the ability to display in 4K resolution.
This isn't exactly a surprise. For one thing, with all the VR hubbub this past week, most of the sneering fromfolks dedicated to the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive is based around the fact that, yes, compared to the high end PCs required to run those, the PS4 is woefully underpowered. A bump up in hardware would make Sony a bit more attractive to anyone looking to develop for their VR rig. The same would go for regular titles as well, especially with Sony getting as many PC game hand-me-downs as they do, not having to cut high-end performance support off at the 1080p knees would be a positive all around. More than that, though, it's quickly looking like the home media industry is fast starting to see 4K as the next step forward, with 4K TVs starting to hit prices that the average Joe can actually afford, and the content starting to trickle down. Kotaku's sources don't make mention if Ultra HD Blu Ray capability is part of the package, but it's hard to imagine going through all this trouble if it wasn't.
Naturally, we're slim on details otherwise, aside from the possibility that Sony would likely charge their typical asking price of $400 for the machine, which watching the current model tumble down to a nice, attractive $250 standard. they also reiterate the rumor that Microsoft might be following suit with the Xbox One sooner than later, and it's easy to see Microsoft chasing Sony again in that regard. We'll see.
Source: Kotaku
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