Although there has been much talk with regards to future consoles of Nintendo and Microsoft, Sony has stayed relatively adrift of media coverage.
Nintendo has been decidedly open about its future plans, with the Wii U launching later this year, and although Redmond-based software maker Microsoft hasn’t let much on to the public, there has been plenty of coverage, with the consensus being that there will be two separate consoles releasing at different times.
Kotaku has gotten its hands on alleged details of the PlayStation 3 successor, code named Orbis, which, if the report is to be believed, will be released during the holiday period of next year.
As The Verge points out, the ‘Orbis’ pseudonym may not necessarily be dropped by the time the new console launches, since "Orbis Vitae" (i.e. PlayStation Vita) is Latin for "circle of life". In an age where every device comes attached with some form of cryptic meaning or play on words (in Apple’s case, terrible puns), the Orbis moniker may be one Sony wishes to keep on board.
Anyhow, enough about names and words, since these are negligible issues to the hardcore (and even casual) gamer. Purported hardware includes an AMD x64 CPU and AMD Souther Islands GPU capable of chugging out 4096 x 2160. In industry terms, those kind of numbers fall into the 4k resolution.
The report keeps an open mind as to whether the Orbis will distribute games through Blu-ray discs or PSN downloads, but our better judgment suggests the latter to be the more likely outcome. Nonetheless, as is rumored to be the case with future Xbox consoles, the Orbis will more than likely lock titles to PSN accounts – adding a further nail into the coffin of the used game market.
Only earlier this week, UK retailer GAME, which relies heavily on used games in order to keep the bottom line in place, sank into administration, and with the used-game market being eradicated altogether by the console vendors, the future certainly looks bleak for GAME and others like them.
But I digress, what do you make of this Orbis talk – could Sony really be preparing a console for as early as next year, or do the rumors seem fabricated? Please share your thoughts with us via Facebook or Google+!
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