PlayStation 4 could run games at 240 frames per second: analyst

Gamers all over the world are waiting in anticipation after Sony’s recent teaser about the future of PlayStation. New rumours are flooding in, the most prevalent of them being that Sony will officially announce the PlayStation 4 on February 20. According to Bloomberg, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Prachter says that Sony “is 100 percent certain to announce the PlayStation 4” during the event.

Citing sources in the game development industry, Prachter says that the next-gen PlayStation will be a considerable upgrade from the PlayStation 3. “They’ll be able to put a lot more characters on the screen and allow for hyper-realistic games,” he said.

While it is already known thanks to the devkit that the PS4 will run on AMD's chips, speculations say that the console will be able to render games at 240 frames a second. This would be an extreme upgrade, as the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 can only run games at 30 or 60 fps. While it is possible for a high-end PC to run games at 240 fps, it is only possible in many cases if the graphics settings of the games are stripped down to their lowest. Even many PC games these days are locked at 30 or 60 fps.

A lot of PS4 concepts seem to incorporate some amount of glass in the design (image credit: FocusDesign)

Sony had released the teaser video at the start of February, and while the video didn't make any mention of the next-gen console, it has been highly speculated that it will be the reveal of the console. According to the WSJ, both the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s next console will be going head-to-head during the holiday season.

The report also states that Sony will “incorporate more social gaming aspects into the new machine.” The company is said to be more focused on "changes in how users interact with the machine," rather than beefing up the specs. This could mean that Sony has taken a look at the Xbox 360 with the Kinect, and how Microsoft has made motion-control and voice recognition a normal part of navigation in the 360’s menus.

However, this does run contrary to what Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai had said during CES. Hirai stated, "It's a ten-year life cycle. There is no reason to go away from that." This basically means that the PS3 will still be a viable platform as late as 2015. Keep in mind that the PS2 is still an important platform for Sony, especially in countries like India where the console sells a lot, despite the fact that it was launched back in 2000, giving it a thirteen-year life cycle. It all seems like an elaborate red herring on Sony’s part.

It would have been foolish to assume that the company hadn't started work on the PS4 in some respect, as according to earlier reports, developers have gotten their hands on the developer kits for the console. Sony may be trying to keep the progress of the console under wraps, if for no other reason than to build up hype.

Sony may also be waiting for Microsoft to make its move first. Recently, CEO of PlayStation France, Phillipe Cardone said that Sony would probably be the last company to announce a new console. On the flip side, Microsoft France’s Cedrick Delmas said, “The Xbox 360’s cycle is not over at all.”  This may very well cause a stalemate between the two companies, with Nintendo reaping profits thanks to its recent launch of the Wii U.