Last week, these amazing images emerged of the top-secret PS4 and XBox 720 and came on the back of game developer Crytek admitting they’ve already begun designing games for the new consoles. Despite that, Sony’s official line is, “There won’t be a PS4 until 2018,” but emails leaked from their Japanese headquarters suggest otherwise. And their newly appointed CEO Howard Stringer added fuel to the fire by announcing more resources will be funnelled into it’s gaming division, despite the global financial crisis.
But what will these awesome new gaming beasts be capable of? We spoke to industry insiders from Japan, America and Hong Kong to find out exactly what’ll be inside them and just what they’ll be capable of.
Xbox 360 vs Xbox 720
Power: 3 symmetrical Core Processors vs 2 Intel Quad Core Processors
RAM: 0.512 gigs vs 8 gigs
Hard drive: 60 gig vs 1,000 gig
Connectability: 3 USB ports vs 4 USB ports
0 Firewire ports vs 2 Firewire ports
Disc technology: 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM vs 24X HD-DVDRW Drive
Controllers: Wireless controller vs Wireless controller with Wii-like accelerometer
TV: No TV tuner vs HD-TV tuner
RRP: $999
Conclusion: With a whopping amount of storage space and almost six times the computing power of the 360, the 720 is designed to be a media hub as well as a gaming console. You’ll be able to surf the web, chat, store all your movies and music, as well as use it for video calls in XBox live and possibly through Skype. The built-in HD-TV tuner will also allow you to watch HD TV through your console, while recording up to six programmes. Sadly, it won’t feature a Blu-Ray player.
PS3 vs PS4
Power: 3 cell processor vs 3 cell processor
RAM: 0.25 gig vs 1 gig of RAM
Hard drive: 20-160 gig hard drive vs 1 terabyte hard drive
Disc technology: Blu-ray player vs Holographic Versatile Disc
Controllers: Wireless controller vs Wireless Wii-like accelerometer and 3D motion sensing, plus mind control.
Connectability: 4 USB ports vs 4 USB ports, Bluetooth 3.0, TransferJet
TV: No TV tuner vs HD-TV tuner
RRP: $1200
Conclusion: The PS4 is going to be truly amazing, but you’ll pay for it. It’ll be an impressive media PC and will allow everything from your mobile phone to your TV to interact with it. The OLED touch screen makes its incredible technology user-friendly and it will offer an interactive gaming experience that’ll make the Wii look like the kid’s toy it was designed to be.
