PlayStation.com Redirect Suggests PS4 Is Indeed The Final Name

THE SIXTH AXIS: Wednesdays are for the PSN Store Update. Everyone knows that. Whatever digitally distributed goodies you’re shelling out for preoccupy all your thoughts. So it’s not really a huge surprise that there hasn’t been much in the way of meaningful, interesting games news today.

On days like this, we have two options. We can either give up trying and just post bits and pieces like Sleeping Dogs and Hitman Absolution being cheap on PC at the moment or Bohemia Interactive making Arma Tactics for Nvidia Tegra things and putting mocap in it. Stuff that would barely warrant a sarcastic line from Tuffcub while he’s filling up Snatch. The other option is to mess about on the internet and uncover something odd, interesting and probably completely irrelevant.

[Unztayble]

I like the Orbis name. PlayStation Orbis.

[SandWitch]

I don't. Reminds me of Orbit chewing gum.

[Walker]

lmao

[Root]

Well it was either chewing gum or a new type of mouthwash

[Red_Orange_Juice]

I never.. can't unread

They have two choices,its either PS4 or just PlayStation. I'd like their next game cases to just say PlayStation on the top, also keep current cases, they're small and awesome

[Crystallis]

@ Gynga. HAHAHA too funny!

[Army_of_Darkness]

They should call it playstation 4k.

[KangarooSam]

@Army_of_Darkness: What the hell are they supposed to call the Playstation 4,000? :P

[Nevers]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Ugh,... "Orbis" reminded me of these horrible HORRIBLE drinks.

[Army_of_Darkness]

who cares about that, we'd all be dead by then;-)

[zeeshan]

Hahahah @ Orbit chewing gum! :)

[Campy da Camper]

Can you imagine that chicks voice as you navigate through the menus? "What's this? Dirty images in your photo gallery? Clean them up you naughty boy."

[Montrealien]

Or the drink Orbitz

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

anyways PS4 is the way to go, hands down. Can't wait!

[miyamoto]

lmao

[nintendoland]

Funny? LOOL that was so shitt

[problemchild84]

@NEVERS
Awww man i remember those drinks! My science teacher thought they were the coolest thing so she brought some in for the class when they came out.

The drink wasn't very good (had a strange oil-like viscosity) so i hope Sony just sticks with PS4 for the name.

[3-4-5]

PS4 works......

[nirwanda]

Mmm not sure it works in japan it will be the 'death' of sony.

[MYRMIK]

I'd like the next PlayStation to take the name Orbis!
PlayStation "Orbis": "world" or "cycle" in Latin
PlayStation "Vita": "life" in Latin

But if it goes with PlayStation 4 (sigh), so be it.

[BitbyDeath]

Should have been obvious when Quantic Dream registered the domain singularityps4.com

[riddick33]

NO

[ape007]

nope it totally sucks, ps4 FTW

[FamilyGuy]

It's gonna be called PS4 rather than Playstation 4

Guaranteed

[Ritsujun]

Oh god, you're still in kindergarten aren't you.

[Unztayble]

why do I have to be in kindergarten to like the name playstation orbis? I'll like whatever the hell I want.

[DarkBlood]

that pic doesnt look like it can stay flat?

[sarshelyam]

It's just an artists rendition...not at all indicative of what we'll actually see. For the reason you cite alone, this would never be a viable design. Hardware manufacturers like Sony are always going to opt for a dynamic design that allows vertical or horizontal placement of the console.

[DarkBlood]

true,looks nice though, would make me wonder the purpose of it looking like that if it was real

[Ritsujun]

Come on kid, that's not the official design.

[DarkBlood]

Dont start getting pissed at a theory question now.

[NastyLeftHook0]

im sure if there was

ps1
ps2
ps3
ther is a 99% chance its going to be called ps4.

why would they change it?

why?

[bicfitness]

I thought that there was some Japanese negative association or superstition related to "4"; hence why SCEJ wouldn't go with '4'. But I could be completely wrong on that. The internet is not always a reliable source for information.

[Rai]

Its not just Japanese, I think its most asian cultures. I think its because the number sounds the like word death. I remember my mom didn't want the number 444 on the license plate because of that. I could be wrong too though

[Root]

True but I don't see why the rest of us have to suffer

Call it something in Japan but market it to the PS4 for the rest of the world.

I'm sure in the gaming industry companies have marketed a game/product in one country but with a different name.

[Double_O_Revan]

Yes but I think it's them that the #8 is very lucky. So if Sony keeps going, PS8 will Kill.

[hazardman]

The internet is a never ending source of information. You just have to make sure the info your getting is from reliable sites. After doing some research right now I can tell you the system will not be called PS4. The Japanese skip 4 as it sounds to similar to death and the 9 because it to familiar with the word suffer. This superstition is not only in Japan but other Asian countries aswell and its called Tetraphobia. Take it easy.

[Saigon]

Does any one recall the super famicom?

Either way I understand if they change the name as long as the PlayStation Title is still applied, similar to PlayStation vita. I think, from one speculative rumor its going to be called the PlayStation Omni

[dark-hollow]

"PlayStation death!"

If I was Japanese I would have no problem with the "4". Its badass!

[girevik]

So does that mean we will have even more "PlayStation is dead!" articles? =p

[TotalHitman]

The Japanese pronounce 4 as shi. The word death in Japanese is also pronounced as shi. That's why they're superstitious about it.

It doesn't matter though as they pronounce PlayStation 2,3 as it's said in English. So, I would assume they'll pronounce PlayStation 4 as four instead of shi.

[InactiveUser]

Wow.. this Sony/Japan superstitious of the #4 BS still hasn't ended??

Gran Turismo 4 ring a bell??
See many more examples:
http://n4g.com/news/1096136...

"and the 9 because it to familiar with the word suffer"

Then why in the ____ would they specifically make a PS9 'teaser' commercial if they were so afraid of 9?
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[memots]

Call it the Playstation Tentacle

Japanese would be happy at least

[cee773]

@bic
Resident evil 4
Street fighter 4
Super street fighter 4
Super street fighter 4 arcade edition

Shall I go on with this 4 is evil in japan nonsense lol

[rainslacker]

It's just a superstition, similar to the number 13 in many English speaking countries. The majority of the population doesn't avoid the number like the plague any more than we avoid the number 13. Might make for some casual jokes or what not, but rarely does it have any real effect.

[kayoss]

That might be true... but games like resident evil 4, street fighter 4, monster hunter 4, persona 4, final fantasy 4, etc... all have the number 4 in it.

[The Great Melon]

These chinese 四 (4, sì) is nearly homophonous with 死 (death, sǐ) also.

[Baka-akaB]

yeah a change only makes sense in the minds of those among the "press" that decided the ps3 was a failure .

Did Sony screw up initially ? yeah but the ps3 was still a success and the brand definitively still strong .

[Cam977]

Playstation Vita.
The PS1 was referred to as the "Playstation" at the time until it was succeeded by the PS2. With regards to the PSP, that followed the style of the PS1 so it seems funny that the Vita wasn't named the "PSP2." See my point?

[TronEOL]

I think the reason they didn't name it PSP2 is because they released "PSP-2000/3000". They probably didn't want people to confuse the Vita with another version of the PSP. And if I remember correctly, they actually called them by the number on the box.

The Vita is named as such as to avoid confusion.

ex:
PSP
PSP-2000
PSP-3000
PSP-E1000

Your comparison:
PlayStation
PSOne
PlayStation 2
PS2 Slimline
PlayStation 3
PS3 (Slim)
PS3 (Superslim)

[psyxon]

Vita = life = a new breed of handheld.

[nirwanda]

@influxity it seems ironic as it may well be the last handheld sony will release.

[Dread]

I am psychic

I called it

no one suspected it, but I stood alone against the currents.

Playstation 4, I told you so./s

lol

In fact, I am going to take a chance and say that the next one (if there are more gens of consoles after this one) will be called:

Playstation 5,

I said it first
lol

[Conzul]

u sed it -.-

[xXBlondieVanHarlowXx]

Playstation 5??? o.o

I never would of guessed (,_, )

[C0MPUT3R]

PS4 markets itself.
.
SONY would be total morons to not call it PS4.

[mike32UK]

Could not agree more. Sony would be foolish to name the next playstation "orbis". General consumers will only see it as an incremental upgrade, like a playstation 3.5, going to playstation 4 solidifies everything straight away without having to give any explanation. One of the main reason i feel that the wiiU hasn't been selling as well as they expected. wii2 would have been better. But lets face it wii is a stupid name they should have scrapped it altogether!

On a lighter note BRING ON PS4 & NEXTBOX!

[mi_titan27]

i agree with the wii statement, i know of several people that think Wii U is just a controller add-on for the wii.

[Sheikh Yerbouti]

Whatever Sony calls it, people will call it the PS4.

[psyxon]

So wrong. "Playstation" markets itself. That's like saying the Vita won't sell because it doesn't follow the naming trend of the PSP. People buy "Playstation", they don't buy numbers.

[mike32UK]

Playstation markets itself yes, to loyalists. But to the average customer, like i said they will just see it as an incremental upgrade, especially not worthy of spending £300-£400 on.

[DonFreezer]

PS4 markets itself in Japan.Since in countries where people play games are not fanboys PS4 doesn't market anything.

[ziggurcat]

it's not going to be anything until sony officially announces the damned thing.

@ tentonsoftube: logically it makes sense for them to just continue the number sequence, but i have a feeling that they're going to keep it in line with the vita so that there's a coherency in their branding - they could have just called the vita the PSP2, afterall...

[rainslacker]

The PS# scenario is much better for marketing and brand recognition than a secondary name. Numbers tend to be incremental, although things like "Super", "Ultra", etc can serve the same purpose to indicate an upgrade. SNES was obviously an upgrade to the NES, PS2 was an upgrade to the PS1, etc. Some may say that Sega went the way of using secondary names, however during their time making consoles, most gamers were gamers, and it wasn't required to sell these systems to the general public to recoup investment like today.

Coherency in branding would only matter if people knew what the hell Vita meant in the first place, and it can be rightfully assumed that the masses don't really know, or even care, about the actual reasoning behind the name.

Given that Orbis is just as arcane as Vita, it would serve no purpose other than to confuse the consumer, and require spending money to just get people to understand it's purpose.

[psyxon]

Opinionated, but good theory. The Xbox 360 sold great, nobody was confused about which console it was succeeding. Why? Because of "Xbox". The Nintendo Wii is outselling all consoles and it follows absolutely no naming trend. Is anyone confused about which console it's succeeding? No. Why? Because of "Nintendo".

Contrary to what is often seen in the gaming community, gamers do have enough common sense to distinguish between what's old and what's new.

[rainslacker]

I don't disagree with you. However 360 is an incremental increase over just Xbox. 360 also has some meaning when in both gaming and culture in general. Notice that people often call the nextbox the 720. It's an established pattern, although I doubt MS will go with that name, and it isn't required for them to do so.

Wii sold well because people recognized the name Nintendo, and it was heavily marketed to a new market. In their case, previous names didn't matter, because the N64 and gamecube didn't have the brand recognition that their NES systems had. Casuals understood it was a new Nintendo system that was appealing to them.

It's not really the gamers that these companies have to worry about when it comes to marketing. By the time these systems come out to market, we will know pretty much every nuance of the system and why they are doing the things they are doing.

[lovegames718]

It can still be called ps4 and have it all along the packaging but can also have the Orbis name along with it.

Ps4-Orbis

[Shanks]

stupid article.
http://us.playstation.com/i...
http://us.playstation.com/l...

[LNDCalling]

No.. its the '.gif' which makes the first link redirect to the main page, but the second link will eventually throw up an error even though it may seem or say its 'redirecting'.

[Munky]

As it should be. There is no need to change the name now, the PlayStation brand is one of the most noticeable and familiar names in gaming.

[hazardman]

Man I was hoping for a new name. Every other video game game company has always changed the name of their respective console. PS1,2,3, and now 4..I mean what are we little kids that we need to keep count? Some of you guys have the excuse of it marketing itself. I don't buy it, its Sonys fourth console, it not like people don't know the brand.. as long as the Playstation is on there. Does it really matter what they called it? Anyway, Sony need to let's us know when we can get our hands on this PS4.

[rainslacker]

Are most people smart enough to make the distinction? Probably so. But look at the Wii U. That U is a secondary name to the Wii, thus indicating it's an upgrade. However there is some confusion among the general consumers that it is an entirely new system. On two occasions I have been in gamestop and saw people who don't realize that this is the case. It didn't help that every peripheral that came out for the Wii had the Wii name stamped before it. But Playstation also did this with move, so it is easy to see that some confusion may be incurred from it, although probably less so than with the Wii U as Move isn't really a household name.

On top of that if they called it the PS Orbis, people would start to refer to it as the Orbis, much the way many people refer to the Xbox360 as the 360. It takes the brand out of the equation, and Sony's PlayStation brand is incredibly strong.

[strigoi814]

dont change the name..go with the PS4..continue the legacy

[e-p-ayeaH]

PSP2 didn't happen for some reason so i wont be surprised if sony´s next home system its called something else.

[Elda]

This is true.

[memots]

agreed, like i said on one of my previous comment

"They should have called it psp2, not just for the moms out there , but when i told people i got myself is Ps Vita for Xmas, got a lot of peoples asking me "whats a vita" when i tell then its basically a psp2 they know what i am talking about."

[Eck0]

4LAYSTATION. ? maybe.. and the 5th one maybe "PLAY5TATION"..naw.. ignore me..im high

i mean.. "PL4YST4TION" ... i dont know.. or PSfour.. or.. PS4-U .. lmao.. just to copy the wii U.. im high..never mind...

[Y_5150]

Stop thinking your more creative when you're high. -_-

[Eck0]

you're***

[Y_5150]

"you're***" ???

Check the full sentence. I spelled it correct and incorrect, so your correction is.. never mind, you're high. -_-

[Eck0]

i see what you did there... i aint even mad... 0_o

[Captain Tuttle]

PS4 is good, "Orbis" sounds like it was designed by committee.

[DivineAssault]

just show it!

[jacksheen0000]

I like the name Orbis a lot more than PS4, but I think is better to use a lesser character brand name because it would saves money on the printing cost.

[arbitor365]

"PS4" is fine. its a safe name choice. they didnt need to get crazy with it. having a simple number system is good.

[Campy da Camper]

I dont care if its called Film Flam Head, just as long as it plays uncharted 4, Infamous 3 and the new Metal Gear.

[Chaoslegion8]

Of course by changing the name in conjunction with the "rumored" dropping of the dual shock

In an attemp to sort of rebrand would make sense from a marketing standpoint. But logic would dictate that if it isn't broke don't fix it. "P.S# has been synonymous with gaming for nearly two decades now. Sony go with ps4 and win the war!

[TheCopyNinja]

Playstation & then the number is fine the way it is. It's simple yet awesome. Just like the controllers, don't change them.

[BDG]

I followed the link and came across this https://us.playstation.com/...

Feb 20th??????
Is this the day we been waiting for??

[LakerGamerEnthusiast]

:o

[Unztayble]

ello ello, wuts all this then?

[Cryptcuzz]

Holy smokes, could it really be true? Damn good find man, I am so hyped for the 20th now.

Watched the trailer and it does not hint at anything other then PLAYSTATION itself.

The only thing thing else I can think it could be is a major unveil of PS3 or Vita games that would blow everyone away. Then again, that is what other gaming events like E3 is for.

Maybe a Vita and PS3 price cut? Who knows, what I do know is I hope it is the Ps4 unveil or even just a sneak peek. Cheers.

[leemo19]

Staying optimistic on this, it would be great if it was a hint at the ps4, but far as I know it could just be something being added to Vita or Ps3 that may or may not be good.

[lex-1020]

It's possible. It would certainly go with the current tread for Playstation. But what we need to remember is that Playstation, and Sony, is a Japanese based company, and in Japan 4 and 9 are considered unlucky numbers.

[blackmanone]

I could have sworn I saw a PS9 advertisement years ago. I feel cheated and robbed and we should all sign a petition to stop Sony... oh yeah and a letter to the President. That's what we do these days, right?

*sarcasm for those that didn't get it*

[Beastradamus]

I don't know why they'd name it anything else. PlayStation has brand recognition.

[Ps_alm3k]

I think for this reason it might be manufacture and launch here this time. maybe?

[cyberninja]

Keep it classic, ps4!!!

[V0LT]

sounds like a sex toy to me... Orbis

[Kos-Mos]

It`s bad, but it`s better than dancing tango with durango.

[dafegamer]

yup its the good ol(new)ps4.Here are some screens from neogaf i've found. http://www.neogaf.com/forum... and this one http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

[LordHiggens]

What precisely am I looking at here?

[dafegamer]

parts of the console, the ps4 might just look similar to the ps2 in design

[Deku-Johnny]

Did anyone actually ever doubt their next console being called PS4? I'm throwing this out there now, their 9th gen console will be the PS5, it's like I'm a psychic or some shit.

[wiiulee]

lol playstation redirect uh..they will never stop copying nintendo...but haters will hate though

[LordHiggens]

Playstation is leaps and bounds over what Nintendo is and ever was...deal with this.

[Arai]

Here's a even funnier thing, type this in and see where it takes you :D

www.psorbis.com

[BarrelRollGaming]

"There were concerns that Sony might drop the ’4′ due to superstitions in Japan, where the number is sometimes pronounced ‘shi’, which is also the word for death."

Name confirmed to be PlayStation 4T?

[black911]

PS404

[DonFreezer]

Oh my god February 20th is so close.Prepare to face the failure in Nintendo and Microsoft fans eyes as the beast is unleashed.Wii U and the 720 will fall to the last place this gen since Sony will sure get the best third party exclusives the best online system and of course the best graphics you've ever seen on a video game platform.Sony is the best they rock they're the beast and even if they got my friends and relatives as slaves working on their factories I would not care.Hail for Sony the greatest company on earth. SUMMARIES WHAT MOST GUYS ON HERE LIVE BY.
Can't wait for my 720 and Wii U and of course for the disagrees.

[deadlydragon121]

I do a lot of web development and well this redirect could easily have been made a long time ago. Then again I don't even think web developers would have access to the new PlayStation name so soon, so maybe it was put up just in-case?

[Kaiou]

I always thought that one of the best things about the PS brand is that we don't really have to predicted the name of the next machine , there's no doubt that it's gonna be called PlayStation 4 . period.

[x5exotic]

They asked M.Night Shalalala to do this plot-twist?

[kesvalk]

i thought i read somewhere they wanted to go away from the playstation name for some reason.

it would be a stupid idea anyway so it's better this way.

[GABRIEL1030]

Uhh I want three words for the next machine: Playstation powerful cheap.

[AshleeEmerson]

Just wondering... I have google alerts turned on and this site came up http://harmonybeforedisrupt... I was wondering if what's on it is true or not?

[Tzuno]

well duh!!!