Just how close do you think we are to PS4??

[Steelmaker]

Just pure speculation of course. But how far away do you think we are from PS4 being at least announced? We are in year 4 of PS3 and I know in generations past, companies would announce new hardware around year 4 or 5 in the current console's life. Of course this generation is a little different with the PS3 already having been designed to be more "future proof" than previous consoles. Plus I'm sure Sony wants to try and reoup as much of loss from PS3 as possible before announcing anything new.

My prediction, I believe new hardware is announced at E3, 2012. New hardware is launched worldwide in November 2013.

[Gamma_Winstead]

2013 or 2014 at the earliest.

[Musashi]

I'm thinking late 2013 is the earliest launch point, more likely to be 2014, maybe October 2014.

[Silo5]

The PS3 is an excellent system because it does so much. I think the PS4 would have to be a huge improvement over the PS3 before I would consider an upgrade.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Announcement = some big conference in 2012

Launch = November 2014

[Snake_XRS]

not sure but I'll definitely be holding off of new hardware, especially this generation. The first year or so is very mediocre in terms of game selection, and I'm really happy with the quality of the PS3's library.

Now that I look back at some of my first few games, Fight Night 3, Virtua Fighter 5, Resistance 1, etc, I made a lot of purchases to games I normally wouldn't just because of a lack of selection. I guess I'll have to see, if a product totally blew me away, I'd consider it, otherwise i'll wait.

[Elandyll]

Also depends on when MS and Nintendo will announce theirs.

I'm thinking an announce in 2012 for a 2013 release in Japan or world, because I'm fully expecting a new BoBox announce either at this year's E3 (the 360 is already close to 6 years old) or next.

[steve1971]

I think the question is is do we really need a PS4? I mean the PS3 pretty much is an awsome machine. What more can they do with it except make it cook our food for us! lol

[Terjyn]

Originally Posted by steve1971

I think the question is is do we really need a PS4? I mean the PS3 pretty much is an awsome machine. What more can they do with it except make it cook our food for us! lol

I'd upgrade in a heart beat for true 1920x1080/60 FPS games.

[Rike255]

Hopefully not for a while. I'm happy with the PS3...don't want to go through the expense of a new system again.

[BlackMamba]

Considering I think that the next-generation will constitute more than just the standard leap in visuals, both Sony and Microsoft (not sure about Nintendo) will be holding off on the release of new consoles for the foreseeable future.

REVOLUTION, NOT EVOLUTION:
I guarantee the next-generation will offer users a higher degree of interactivity out-of-the-box/standard... whether that means 3D, touch, and/or motion functionality, both companies are testing the waters with excursions on their current-gen offerings (e.g., Kinect, Playstation Move, 3D w/games like Killzone 3, etc.). Each is waiting for the underlying tech to evolve (if they're not already taking a direct role in trying to improve it) into something more practical than what some currently view as "gimmicky" (albeit improving).

PHASING OUT PHYSICAL MEDIA:
Another thing they might be waiting for is widespread adoption of high-speed internet. Physical media may never be completely phased out, but trust me when I say that both Sony and Microsoft would be extremely happy if they could distribute a majority of their titles and related offerings online. Not only would this allow them to maintain tighter control over their content and increase potential sales (much like online shopping has been a boon to the retail community) but it would be a revolutionary cost-saving measure reducing expenses on...

1) shipping
2) physical inventory
3) distribution
4) packaging
5) manufacturing

Of course, in order to do this without sales flagging, you need to make sure that people have the bandwidth to be able to handle large file downloads at reasonable speeds.

SO...
With that said, I don't think we'll see the next generation until late 2013. Breakthroughs in technology (see Toshiba's glasses-free 3D televisions) could hasten the timeframe, but that's my conservative estimate at this time.

[AutomaticDriver]

Ill say a PS4 will be released 2015-2016.

They may come out next year at E3 and announce they are working on a new system. But not give a release date.

Then give a couple of teaser screenshots to show what the graphics will look like.

[Monkey]

Nov of 2013 at the earliest in my opinion. Best guess would say 2014.

Uncharted 5, Warhawk 2, Killzone 4, here I come

Bring back Maximo!!!!

[Nielsb90]

In the PS2 days I could see room for improvement with a lot of things about the system! I just don't see any major flaws or any features that the PS3 lacks! As things are now - this is, IMO, a near perfect console

[Monkey]

Still plenty of room for improvement (not that I'm not more than impressed still with PS3 exclusives):

1080p 60fps on every game (it is rare).
More objects on screen, more enemies, cars, vehicles
HUGE improvements can be had in the area of A.I.
Destructible environments, cars, etc, Huge room for improvement.

Things like FPS, Fighters where shooting a guys arm, he stops using his arm to battle, arm falls off. Kick a guy in the leg, it effects his ability to do cerain moves with leg.

Persistant marks when walls are shot, bodies that are killed stay there and don't disappear.. Blood stays, tire marks stay,

Texture quality can still be improved quite a bit (not complaining, looking at Uncharted )

[DonRSD]

i could care less about the graphics, whenever the next system comes out the console makers need to beef up the ram to unheard of amounts/speed

ram is what kills a game from reaching its full potential

[master_8ball]

There is always room for improvement, 1080P/60fps and more RAM are the big ones in my eyes.

I don't think we will see a new one until 2014, but who knows the box has been out for awhile and MS may want to get a jump on the market again.

I think the better question will be will the major systems be released at the same time with similar tech or will we be stuck again with programming for the lowest common denominator.

[Monkey]

Originally Posted by master_8ball

There is always room for improvement, 1080P/60fps and more RAM are the big ones in my eyes.

I don't think we will see a new one until 2014, but who knows the box has been out for awhile and MS may want to get a jump on the market again.

I think the better question will be will the major systems be released at the same time with similar tech or will we be stuck again with programming for the lowest common denominator.

seriously That is the biggest problem with a ton of games. Large gap between multiplatform and exclusives in terms of quality. Heck no multiplat game is even close to Unchartedrake's Fortune and that is like 3 years old now.

[BlackMamba]

All these suggestions sound nice, but they are (perhaps lamentably) not going to be the focus of the next-generation consoles. First off, they're not marketable ideas that the average consumer takes notice of. Second, with the focus of the industry on emerging tech (3D, motion, touch, etc.), 1080p/more RAM/better textures is not going to cut it (i.e., warrant a new piece of hardware). These companies are not looking to put out the next Neo-Geo... rather, many in the industry see this next generation as a turning point in the evolution of videogames... much like the N64/PSX/Saturn generation changed gaming, so will this upcoming one...

[thePhoenix]

Hopefully not any time soon!