Next-gen Playstation, Xbox news touches on possible announcements, cost
Published: 1/14/2013 10:10 AM
Last Modified: 1/14/2013 10:10 AM
The companies are planning “special Apple-style press conferences” for late March, according to a report from Game Informer magazine that was picked up by videogamer.com. The announcements would come around the same time as the annual Game Developers Conference, which will be held march 25-29 in San Francisco.
According to Game Informer, the rivals want to avoid announcing the system at one of the big annual conventions, like E3, so that they can unveil on their own console without sharing the spotlight.
This would seem to contradict another report out of CES that Sony Home Entertainment vice president Hiroshi Sakatomi told a Spanish website that an announcement for the PlayStation 4, codenamed “Orbis,” wouldn’t come until “May at least.
According to a Game Spot report, financial management firm Robert W. Baird industry watcher Colin Sebastian sent a note to investors predicting the initial cost of the consoles would range from $350 to $400, which would be slightly higher than Nintendo’s Wii U ($300) but right in line with the debut prices of the Xbox 360 ($400 in 2005) and PS3 ($500 in 2006).
Some game developers already have dev kits (versions of a platform sent to game makers) for each console, so March announcements would allow those companies to pitch their own plans for next-gen games at GDC and to unveil them at E3.
Both consoles are expected to be released later this year, but Game Informer hinted that Sony is looking to get its platform out ahead of Microsoft.
“We hear that Sony in particular is determined not to come out last this time like the PlayStation 3 did this generation, so we'll have to see how soon it can get the PlayStation 4 out the door, and whether Microsoft is motivated to prevent this from happening,” the report stated.
The PS3 struggled to meet expectations in its initial release in November 2006. The Xbox 360 had an advantage with hardcore games since it had launched a year earlier and had a much larger library of games at the time, and Sony also lost ground to the Nintendo Wii, which launched about a week after the PS3 and, thanks to its appeal to casual gamers, went on to be the highest selling console of that generation.
So, gamers, what are you looking for in the next Xbox or Playstation?
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Written by
James Royal
Staff Writer
