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Report: PS4 Will Come In 2012, Features Kinect-Like Controls
People have been speculating about what's next for Sony's PlayStation hardware, and recent reports are sure to add fuel to the conversation. According to Taiwan-based component manufacturers, the PS3 successor will support motion-based controls that will be similar to what's offered by Microsoft's Kinect peripheral.
Manufacturing journal Digitimes is reporting that production is slated to begin on the fourth PlayStation system by the end of 2011, with a supposed launch sometime in 2012. Digitimes' sources add that the console will be assembled by the same companies that work with the PS3, and that Sony plans to ship at least 20 million systems next year.
If this turns out to be true, it's definitely an interesting strategy for Sony. The company has positioned its Move as the sweet spot between casual and hardcore interfaces, saying that the controller's buttons give it an edge over Kinect's purely gesture-based inputs. Of course, if the PlayStation 4 (or whatever it's called) does indeed use a Kinect-like interface, that doesn't necessarily mean that it comes at the expense of something like Move. There's no reason that the system wouldn't be able to handle both types of inputs, similarly to how Nintendo's Wii U features backwards compatibility with existing Wii controllers.
What do you think? Are you ready for a new PlayStation console? Do you think adding motion controls would make it the ultimate system, or is it too late to gain traction in that area? Does 2012 sound too early for you?
[Via the Wall Street Journal]
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