14 DAY TRIAL // A massive batch of details has arrived concerning Sony’s next PlayStation home console, the oft-rumored PlayStation 4. According to a new report, the device is called Orbis and will be released in late 2013, with a feature that will prevent it from playing used games.
The current generation of devices has been around for quite some time and, even if Sony and Microsoft are confident in their consoles, lots of rumors about the next generation have appeared in the last year or so.
Now, Kotaku arrives with a brand new report concerning the next PlayStation console, which has been rumored up until now to be the PlayStation 4.
According to the website, however, the console’s name, or at least its codename, is Orbis. In Latin, this means circle and, when combined with the name of the recently released PlayStation Vita, it turns into circle of life, which lends credibility.
According to the website’s source, the PlayStation Orbis will have both a CPU and a GPU made by AMD, with the graphics being based on the recently released Southern Islands cards for the PC.
This improved hardware will allow the console to display graphics at a resolution of up to 4096x2160 and 3D images at a full HD 1080p resolution.
The report says that more and more prototypes of the console are being sent to select developers across the world so that they can start working on games for the new home console.
Unfortunately for existing PS3 owners, the Orbis won’t have any sort of backwards compatibility with games for the current device, which means early adopters won’t have lots of things to play on it.
Just like with a previous rumor concerning the next generation Xbox console, it seems that the Orbis will have a system in place to prevent used gaming, similar to the one seen with current PC games.
Games for the console will arrive either on a Blu-ray disc or as digital downloads. Once you get a retail game and place it into your console, you need to activate it online and tie it to your PlayStation Network account, which means you’ll be able to download it from the PS Store in case something happens to the Blu-ray disc.
Those who buy used copies of a game might be served with a trial version or be forced to pay a certain amount of money in order to unlock the full title, but actual details aren’t clear just yet.
In terms of its release, the report says that the PlayStation Orbis will be launched all around the world at the end of 2013, which means an actual announcement is coming soon.
Bear in mind that all these details are just rumors, as of yet, so take them with a grain of salt.