Rumor: Sony Playstation 4 Codenamed Orbis – Details Surface

Details of Sony’s next generation Playstation, codenamed “Orbis”, have surfaced. According to Kotaku, the console is planned to release during the 2013 holiday season. In an interesting twist, “Orbis” latin for circle, ring, or even orbit, when paired with new Vita handheld, creates a common term: “Orbis Vita”, or in strictly latin “Orbis Vitae” which means “The Circle Of Life”. The rumored specifications for the new console have it using an AMD x64 CPU paired with an AMD Southern Islands GPU, more commonly known as AMD’s current Radeon HD 7000 series. This combination of hardware will supposedly let the PS4 render games at a resolution of 4096×2160, furthermore it will be capable of playing games in 3D at 1080p. More disheartening for gamers, though, is the rumor that the PS4 will not be backwards compatible with PS3 games. If our readers remember, Sony removed PS2 backwards compatibility from later revisions of the PS3, this time it seems Sony wont bother with backwards compatibility at all. Of course, that’s not all, much like Microsoft it appears Sony will not allow used games, instead the games will be tied to a PSN (Playstation Network) account similar to how Steam operates on PC. It isn’t all doom and gloom though, as a fee to unlock said used games would be likely as it could be pushed off onto Gamestop and thus releasing the burden from Publishers and their need for screwy online passes.