Home Gaming Sony to release an external processor for the PS3 instead of a PS4?

Sony to release an external processor for the PS3 instead of a PS4?

1 min read
14

I’m going to chalk this one up to a technically possible idea but massively bad move if they really do it.

According to a patent granted to Sony, instead of releasing a PS4 in the next few years they could rather release an accessory that would boost the power of the PS3 allowing it to play next-next-gen games without the need to replace the entire console.

The idea sounds pretty good at first but the problem is if Sony did something like this they would immediately be segmenting the market and you would no longer be able to play any PS3 game on your PS3 and the developers would be very hesitant to utilise it fully.

Can you imaging the developer kick off meetings,

Cecil – “So Fred we are going to make Uncharted 15 now, should we target the PS3 or the PS3.5?”

Fred – “I dunno Cecil there are around 50 million PS3’s in the world and about 4 million have the new power processor”

Cecil – “Yeah so if we go for the PS3.5 our market is effectively 4 million people or we can just stick with the PS3 and target 50 million”

Fred – “Yeah… not much of a choice is it”

Source: Playstation Lifestyle

Last Updated: December 10, 2010

14 Comments

  1. Uberutang

    December 10, 2010 at 11:08

    If they make the most awesome games for it, gamers will def buy it.

    Reply

  2. Geoffrey Tim

    December 10, 2010 at 11:12

    Maybe if the PS3 had a dedicated, high speed bus/port on PS3’s already, I’d say it was feasible. An external processor relying on USB’s available bandwidth? Not such a smart idea.

    Reply

  3. Fox1

    December 10, 2010 at 11:20

    There’s no IGP on the PS3 so this idea is fail.

    I wonder if this tends more to create an add-on device that plays PS2 games with PS3 graphics which would be another fail.

    Or it could just be there’s no more juice left in the PS3 thanks to GT5 :tongue:

    Reply

  4. Ringo

    December 10, 2010 at 11:22

    Basically they’ll be turning the console into a very basic PC. Hardware upgrade and software troubles.

    Reply

  5. Noodle

    December 10, 2010 at 11:25

    Consoles are becoming pc’s again, the circle is almost complete…

    Reply

  6. Alki

    December 10, 2010 at 11:59

    NEVER ever would sony do that!!!never ever!write this down…NEVER!

    Reply

  7. Slave

    December 10, 2010 at 12:06

    It didn’t work for Sega 20 years back, I’m sure it won’t work for Sony. They’d be insane to try it.

    Reply

  8. Milesh Bhana

    December 10, 2010 at 12:41

    It’s a silly idea, because phase 1 would be this upgrade accessories.

    Phase 2 will be standalone units for new customers. So why bother. It’s like the BC debate. It only matters for a few months then it’s irrelevant.

    (and yes USB will not be sufficient anyway)

    Reply

  9. Jeebers

    December 10, 2010 at 12:45

    Same problem back when some Xbox’s had hard drives and others did not. That was quite a fail. Doubt Sony would do something as stupid as what Microshaft did.

    Reply

  10. ewie

    December 10, 2010 at 13:40

    Always said the next versions of consoles should be the same platform , what developers can do then is release
    2 versions of the same game – like pc gameong, one at 720p running on current hardware and one at 1080p on future hardware.

    Reply

  11. RSA-Ace

    December 10, 2010 at 18:18

    We’d know about it if their was. It’s pretty easy to check the components on the board.

    Anyway it would likely use the gigabit ethernet which is way faster than USB.

    Didn’t we already see the patent pictures ages ago?

    Reply

  12. Hitman47

    December 11, 2010 at 16:56

    I agree totally, Instead of buying another console, why not uprade it instead.

    Kudos SONY!. I’ll support that move/plans

    Reply

  13. kiz

    December 13, 2010 at 18:40

    If you do your research you will find out that the ps3 has 2 unused SATA ports on the inside of the machine. now, theoretically you can connect this new “hardware” through the PS3’s internal HDD bay, providing a sufficient bandwidth for a new CPU/GPU. Either that or you take it to your local sony centre and they upgrade internal components for you. 🙂

    Reply

  14. Stuart Counter

    January 3, 2011 at 22:15

    It sounds like PIE in the sky to add a powerful processor or GPU with even a SATA 3 connector. But you could I suppose re-use the drives from the PS3 and release a console that would hijack the Blu Ray and Hard Disc from a PS3 and could also work with some new breed of standalone Sony BLU-Ray players.

    That would make the new console functional either as an add on to new Sony BLU-Ray players or old PS3’s. Which would mean the console itself had the advantage of not having any moving parts and the drives could be replaced without replacing the console itself. Meaning as all the old PS3’s continue to break down the PS3.5 owners could buy Sony Blu-Ray players to continue to play PS3.5 games.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

EA pulls the plug on several older Need for Speed games this week

It's official: Several Need for Speed games are about to be "retired", as EA prepares to h…