For the PS4, Sony wants pre-owned games to go Bye Bye

[Fire$torm]

Hexus: Sony looks at disc-tag technology to block use of pre-owned games (Link (http://hexus.net/gaming/news/industry/49893-sony-looks-disc-tag-technology-block-use-pre-owned-games/))

[Mike029]

I guess I'll be going over to Microsoft then.

[trigggl]

But, will it run Linux? :-B

[Mumps]

But, will it run Linux? :-B

Probably not, but this associated link just may. ;)

http://hexus.net/gaming/news/hardware/49781-kickstarter-funded-android-powered-ouya-console-ships/

[John P. Myers]

Steam, Gamefly and "apps" pretty much ended the stock of used games anyway. Also you can often find games on Steam cheaper than the used price would be. Guess i just figured this news didn't really apply to me :p

As far as the validity of this news though:

Analysts still believe, in the USA at least, that Sony won’t implement a used games blocking system.
Sony would be pretty stupid to implement this. Instead it's believed they're implementing it so if the game maker themselves decide to make this feature active for their game titles, the unit will be able to read it. It basically turns the game into a licensed product like an OS, instead of the disc itself being the proof of ownership. Also it would be unlawful to implement it in Europe at all. Either way, i never sell my games. They'll be collector's items some day :p

Overall though, i'm with Trigggl:

But, will it run Linux?
Since it'll have an AMD CPU and GPU, we can only hope :D


...This customized kernel may support specific versions of Linux only as a part of beta testing. Subsequently Sony will enable all version support after successful completion of beta testing.

But this time Sony is confident that they won’t block this feature, and that they have an alternative to block the security threats. An inside source also says Sony’s firmware upgrade during the release of PlayStation 4 will re-enable the other OS support in PlayStation 3 as well. So it’s good news for PlayStation 3 owners too after suffering for couple of years. Moreover it’s believed to be a gamble to boost PlayStation 4 sales.

[zombie67]

Sony has a long, long history of trying to implement proprietary formats, intended to give them more control, and make them more money. Anyone remember the memory sticks for their PDAs?

Almost every one of them has failed, thankfully. The notable exception is blu-ray.

[Mike029]

Sony has a long, long history of trying to implement proprietary formats, intended to give them more control, and make them more money. Anyone remember the memory sticks for their PDAs?

Almost every one of them has failed, thankfully. The notable exception is blu-ray.

Betamax= fail

[Slicker]

Betamax= fail

You can't blame the technology there through. Betamax was better than VHS in most ways but VHS on SLP mode could record an entire movie and I don't think the betamax could record more than an hour.

[Fire$torm]

You can't blame the technology there through. Betamax was better than VHS in most ways but VHS on SLP mode could record an entire movie and I don't think the betamax could record more than an hour.

Not true at least for the Sony Betamax unit I owned. I could fit 3~4 episodes of STTNG on a single Betamax tape. Also, I still have the studio release of ST:TOS's The Menagerie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menagerie_%28Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series%29 ) on Betamax :D

The real reason for Betamax's failure? Royalties. JVC was basically giving away rights to VHS, pennies per unit sale (tape or machine), while Sony wanted a Kings ransom per unit sale, though I do not recall the figures. Since Pre-recorded movies were the true driving force of market penetration, VHS was vastly outpacing Betamax on new releases. Some times I had to wait weeks/months after a VHS release of a feature film, before I could rent it in Betamax.

[John P. Myers]

Dun dun dunnnnnnn....

The next Xbox: Microsoft’s next console will require an Internet connection in order to function, ruling out a second-hand game market for the platform. (http://www.edge-online.com/news/the-next-xbox-always-online-no-second-hand-games-50gb-blu-ray-discs-and-new-kinect/)

[Fire$torm]

Just another reason to stick with the PC. Open Source Gaming!!!!

[John P. Myers]

Since the "no 2nd-hand games" rumor has been debunked by Sony themselves, it may be worth mentioning system specs:


Sony Senior Staff Engineer Chris Norden told GDC attendees that the 8-core 64-bit x86 CPU was capable of running 8 hardware threads. The machine can run graphics and computational code synchronously providing up to 1.843 teraFLOPS of graphics processing power while still leaving headroom for computation. Even so Norden stressed the chips will be low power consumption and low heat emission parts.


CPU: 64-bit x86 architecture, low heat & power consumption, 8x cores, 8 HW threads, 2MiB L2 cache per 4 core group, 32 kib|1 I/D-cache
RAM: 8GB 256 bit GDDR5
PS4 Shader Language is very similar to HLSL, allows features BEYOND Direct X 11 and OpenGL 4.0

The 8GB of GDDR5 is shared between the CPU and GPU, reducing time spent by the GPU asking the CPU for something from RAM. Assuming you can install Linux, this will be a very useful cruncher.

[zombie67]

"8x cores, 8 HW threads"

I assume that means a non-intel CPU then. Are there any 8-core intel CPUs that aren't HT?

[John P. Myers]

The CPU and GPU are both AMD this time, same with new Xbox, except all you get is DDR3, a severely bloated OS, and 1/3 less processing power.

[DrPop]

The 8GB of GDDR5 is shared between the CPU and GPU, reducing time spent by the GPU asking the CPU for something from RAM. Assuming you can install Linux, this will be a very useful cruncher.

So would this be something of a hybrid - CPU projects with more GPU type RAM speed, or is that too much to hope for?