Who's ready for the next generation of gaming hardware? I know I am—and let's face it, the Wii U doesn't count. According to a report from VG247, it looks like we may not have too long to wait for the PlayStation 4, erm… excuse me, Orbis.
That's right, according to an unspecified source who spoke to the outlet, not once did Sony utter the words "PlayStation 4" during an alleged "disclosure meeting" for US developers. They did however use the aforementioned Orbis branding more than once. Early builds of the console are believed to be making their way to devs now, with a near final version to be available in January and the fully complete version "this summer".
To no one's surprise, the console will allegedly come equipped with a Blu-ray drive and pack a powerful little processor from AMD based on the company's A10 APU series. Apparently Sony's "ultimate goal" with the platform is to run 3D games at 1080p "no problem".
In addition, the dev kits are arriving in two flavors, “either 8GB or 16GB of RAM." As far as hard drives go, 256GB of storage is said to be the standard, though we don't know whether or not it will be solid state. In an effort to prove that they've learned their lesson from the PS3 launch, Sony is allegedly aiming to offer a "very affordable" console that "isn't a slouch".
Finally, it is believed that the console will have a brand new UI that focuses on providing an experience that is "as fluid as possible". They suggested being able to access the PS Store and purchase DLC mid-game as an example.
Once again, we must emphasize that these are merely rumors for the time being, so keep that in mind. That however doesn't mean we aren't interested in hearing what you have to say about the report—after all, speculating is fun! Sound off with your thoughts on the Orbis in the comments below.
