Rumor: Sony source reveals next generation plans?

Posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2012 at 11:17 AM by dbrunner

Rumors and speculation about the next generation of consoles has been filtering to gamers more often lately, and we’re all interested to see what the big three – Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft – have in mind.  Recently, Kotaku revealed information about Sony’s next generation plans, which the gaming publication claims it received from an unnamed source that has been reliable in the past.

Kotaku’s source reveals a few key points: firstly, the successor to the PlayStation 3 may be named Orbis. It’s still unclear whether this is a code name or a final name, although the existence of a website named orbis.scedev.net seems to hint at the latter – especially since the PS Vita had a site similarly named before was officially announced. Secondly, the system is expected to be out in time for the holiday season in 2013. Kotaku’s source says that select companies have been receiving development kits since the beginning of the year.

The new Orbis is rumored to not be backwards compatible with the PS3. The Sony source also said that games will be Blu-ray or downloadable only. As expected, thanks to industry outrage about profits from used games not getting back to developers and publishers, the system will not allow used games to work; purchasing the disc will lock the game to a single PlayStation Network account. If a buyer purchases a used game, he or she will only have access to limited content and must pay a fee to access the entire game. And gamers must have both a PSN account and Internet connectability to be able to play any game; it’s unclear whether gamers must have a paid PSN account or the free version.

The rumored specs of this new console are AMD x64 CPU and AMD Southern Islands GPU. The GPU would allow the new Sony system to display a resolution of up to 4096 x 2160, a number beyond what current high-definition TVs offer. The Orbis is also said to be able to play 3D games in 1080p, which is true HD and beyond the capabilities of the PS3.

Whatever the truth is, it looks to be an interesting next go-round with Sony!

Source: Kotaku

Are you looking forward to the next generation of console gaming? Will you put the PS Orbis on your Christmas list next year? Let us know in the comments!