+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted March 30, 2013 Subscriber² Share Posted March 30, 2013 While Sony Corp. wants to be very open about the PlayStation 4 video game console to attract maximum attention and get positive image for the brand, the company remains tight-lipped over a number of aspects. One of such aspects is whether the firm actually will introduce the PS4 globally, or only in Japan this year. According to a GameStop exec, the PS4 will be launched worldwide in 2013. However, the company will unlikely meet the initial demand. ?We know that Sony will introduce the PlayStation 4 globally in 2013*, but we are still waiting to see what Microsoft's final plans are. We have scenarios with one console introduction, as well as with two. Even a single launch in 2013 will drive double-digit console growth in 2014; and two launches would likely drive the console category north of 20% growth,? said Michael Hogan, executive vice president of strategy business and brand development at GameStop, during a quarterly conference call with financial analysts this week. ?With Grand Theft Auto V and Battlefield 4 releasing in the third quarter, and the PlayStation 4 launching in the fourth quarter, we expect a return to growth for the back half of the year,? said Robert Loyd, chief financial officer of GameStop. Previously, it was expected that Sony will release the PlayStation 4 in Japan only, or in Japan and the U.S. this year, whereas Europe and Australia will see the console sometimes in early 2014. Since GameStop does not own any retail businesses in Japan, but operates 6700 retail stores in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, when it says ?global availability?, it should mean availability for at least the bigger part of its shops. According to the company?s internal consumer research, there is extremely strong consumer interest in the new consoles. Based on the survey of loyal customers of GameStop, 34% of them expect to get a PlayStation 4 in the next twelve month. Moreover, nearly 900 thousand of GameStop clients signed up to receive information about the PS4. Give so high interest towards the console, GameStop does not expect Sony to be able to meet demand towards the PlayStation 4 initially. ?Although we have been given no official numbers by Sony, we do believe that demand will far outpace the supply of this product during the launch window,? said Tony Bartel, the president of GameStop. Financial analysts from Macquarie Equities Research recently estimated that Sony would ship around 2.5 million PlayStation 4 video game consoles this calendar year, which also points to global launch and limited supply. Screenshot from Killzone Shadow Fall, a PlayStation 4 exclusive title. Sony PlayStation 4 is based on a semi-custom AMD Fusion system-on-chip that integrates eight AMD x86 Jaguar cores, custom AMD Radeon HD core with unified array of 18 AMD GCN-like compute units (1152 stream processors which collectively generate 1.84TFLOPS of computer power that can freely be applied to graphics, simulation tasks, or some mixture of the two), various special-purpose hardware blocks as well as multi-channel GDDR5 memory controller. The PS4 will come with 8GB of unified GDDR5 memory sub-system (with 176GB/s bandwidth) for both CPU and GPU as well as large-capacity hard disk drive. Sony PS4 will be equipped with Blu-ray disc drive capable of reading BDs at 6x and DVDs at 8x speeds, USB 3.0 connectivity in addition to a proprietary aux port, Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR wireless technology as well as HDMI, optical and analog outputs. The new system will also utilize new DualShock 4 game controller with integrated touchpad as well as better motion sensing thanks to new PS4 Eye tracking cameras. GameStop?s fiscal year ends in early February, hence in case the executive mentioned fiscal year 2013 (the most likely scenario), the chances that Sony launches the PS4 globally in calendar 2013 are high since a) no new major products are launched commercially in January, b) the company already expressed expectations to boost its sales thanks to the PS4 launching in Q4 FY2013, which suggests actual availability during a high spending season. Source: http://www.xbitlabs...._Executive.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLegendOfMart Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Doubt it, it will probably launch in Japan and US Nov-Dec, Europe Feb-March, EU always gets screwed over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elessar Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 makes sense to release this year. You don't build hype this early if you intend to ship early 2014. I just hope no backwards compatibility for PS3 games doesn't hurt sales. Especially considering GTAV is releasing a couple of months before... That said, I'll need to see features (and games) before deciding to upgrade to a PS4 from my PS3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alwaysonacoffebreak Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 There is no such thing as "AMD Fusion". They dropped it last year already. Also Sony said before that PS4 will be available this year holidays so why is this news? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambroos Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Doubt it, it will probably launch in Japan and US Nov-Dec, Europe Feb-March, EU always gets screwed over. Not likely. Sony's new strategy is much, much more global. The release won't be more than a few weeks apart (I think). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted March 30, 2013 Author Subscriber² Share Posted March 30, 2013 There is no such thing as "AMD Fusion". They dropped it last year already. Also Sony said before that PS4 will be available this year holidays so why is this news? First hint at a global release, it's not usually global. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceelf Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Doubt it, it will probably launch in Japan and US Nov-Dec, Europe Feb-March, EU always gets screwed over. I wouldn't expect this when Europe has such a strong PS3 following, but we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alwaysonacoffebreak Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 First hint at a global release, it's not usually global. I think they have no choice to actually release it in a week interval if they actually want to take over Xbox this time. Shortages shouldn't be a problem on AMD's part but could only be on Sony's part (AMD still can use GloFo and TMSC when they really need 2 foundries, not really sure which one are they using for PS4 APUs anyway, I'm guessing TMSC?) But time will tell. Also if I may ask nicely please fix that Fusion part in the original article, it doesn't exist and people get confused by it sometimes. They (AMD) are referring to them as APU's or HSA (the later is said very little, mostly it's APU). :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyLarry Veteran Posted March 30, 2013 Veteran Share Posted March 30, 2013 I will be preordering it pretty much as soon as one can do so. I am an early adopter, have no issues at all saying that or spending the money (thankfully), so I plan on having it on launch, whenever that may be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motoko. Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 I'm actually a little excited for the PS4 but I'll have to wait till E3 and the console launch to see what the PS4 will be in its entirety Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheLegendOfMart Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 I used to be an X-bot but PS3 really won me over with its stronger catalogue of exclusive IPs, can't wait to see what Naughty Dog can do with PS4 and I'll be getting one on day one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dead.cell Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Doubt it, it will probably launch in Japan and US Nov-Dec, Europe Feb-March, EU always gets screwed over. Wow, you guys really do get screwed over. I know for many releases of software and hardware, Europe sees delays, but I didn't think they were that substantial with game consoles. :/ Hopefully, they are able to get some portion of Europe along the same release for the NA and Japan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceelf Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 I think they have no choice to actually release it in a week interval if they actually want to take over Xbox this time. Shortages shouldn't be a problem on AMD's part but could only be on Sony's part (AMD still can use GloFo and TMSC when they really need 2 foundries, not really sure which one are they using for PS4 APUs anyway, I'm guessing TMSC?) But time will tell. Also if I may ask nicely please fix that Fusion part in the original article, it doesn't exist and people get confused by it sometimes. They (AMD) are referring to them as APU's or HSA (the later is said very little, mostly it's APU). :) The term may not be used anymore but AMD Accelerated Processing Unit, formerly known as Fusion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Fusion I don't see why it needs to be fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azusa Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Anyone have any idea what it's RSP will be in ?/?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compl3x Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 Anyone have any idea what it's RSP will be in ?/?? Don't think it has been announced yet. I'll get mine next year sometime. I like to wait a little while before jumping in and buying stuff straight away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceelf Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 Don't think it has been announced yet. I'll get mine next year sometime. I like to wait a little while before jumping in and buying stuff straight away. I'd like to get it at launch but I imagine supplies will be shot for some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compl3x Posted March 31, 2013 Share Posted March 31, 2013 I'd like to get it at launch but I imagine supplies will be shot for some time. That is another reason :p. I cannot be bothered fighting crowds and I don't really pre-order things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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