The PS4 is a “Supercomputer” According to Japanese Regulations, Xbox One is Just Under the Threshold

According to Japanese regulations, the PS4 qualifies as a "supercomputer" due to its computational performance. On the other hand the Xbox One falls just under the threshold.

[Kayant]

Looool nice find Abriael. Japan is such a peculiar country.

[Abriael]

That's why I love it and miss it. The time I worked there was one of the best of my life. There was always something fun and interesting to find out beyond every corner.

[Kayant]

Yh same :) Japan is an awesome country I hope to visit one day..... It's even funnier because of what's written here ("Play with peak performance" section) --> http://www.xbox.com/en-US/x...

[Pintheshadows]

This isn't a slight at all but when I visited Tokyo for a holiday I felt like I was on a very surreal drug. The modern and the feudal really struck me as remarkable but also daunting and so amusingly at odds. Going from an ultra modern city to a temple will never not be awesome.

It may be a bit weird though that I live in a small city called Norwich that has a castle in the centre which was built in 1100 and I don't even notice it anymore.

Anyway, that is pretty damn off topic so, wooooo supercomputer or some such.

[loulou]

@ abriael

taling tips from rashid? 5 paragraphs of rubbish just for n4g??

tell me, if you knew that you couldn't get hits from n4g, would you have een bothered?

sorry, but dualshockers is normally better than that

[Langkasuka]

I'm going to Japan this Dec for a university exchange program. I signed up the trip in September, after PS4 release dates for NA and EU came out. I was pinning hopes that Japan gets Nov/Dec 2013 release date as well, so I can watch PS4 in the wild on its native habitat :)

Didn't went as expected. PS4 for Japan is coming out in 2014 and lo behold, my region gets PS4 in Dec. While I'm gone.

I planned to go to Japan for a PS4 expedition, only to find that they are all migrating south for Christmas. Awww, damn it Sony... :P

[UltimateMaster]

I don't know what a "super computer" means anymore.

[Abriael]

@loulou: I posted it because I found it interesting. Interesting enough to go research on the Japanese legislation on the matter for a few hours.

Maybe we just find different things interesting? :D

[HighResHero]

There is a person/people who have some kind of problem with your dualshockers site and other sites (like gamingbolt).
It is not as simple as gripes about sensationalist headlines, etc.
Everyone knows that newspapers have been using catchy headlines for many decades to attract readers.
Maybe your site is getting too popular for some people.
Just a heads up.

Edit: No problem. I think you have every right (within reason) to promote, just like I would one of my websites.

[Abriael]

@HighResHero: I don't mind. I just report on things I find interesting, for those that may find them interesting as well.

Haters gonna hate, but thanks for the heads up :D

[horndog]

So why not pack up and move there?

[Ritsujun]

horndog should just pack up and move to the dogworld.

[sAVAge_bEaST]

Don't worry, at least 63 people agree with you, to the 7 that don't. I call that the Mass Majority.

[tee_bag242]

Japan is great. I've been here for 3 years and still can't get enough .

[decrypt]

We heard the same rhetoric with the PS3, in the end it struggled with most of its games at 720p or below lol.

[SniperControl]

Abriael, i am off to Japan(Tokyo to be exact) in a couple of weeks on business, anything to avoid or do?
I cant wait, always wanted to visit Japan.
Also hoping to pick up Vita TV on the 15th.

OT: Power of the beast unveiled, lol

[ChrisW]

I've been living in Japan for over 10 years. And I can say it's the cleanest, safest, easiest (provided you speak the language) developed country I have ever lived in.

But I will warn you, if you plan being here for longer than a tourist visa allows (i.e. work here), start learning the language before you come! Otherwise your experience here not only be incomplete and unfulfilling, but it will more than likely be less than enjoyable.

@SniperControl,

Tokyo? There are the obvious places to visit; Akihabara (the electronics district), Shinjuku, and Shibuya (both entertainment districts)... But if you really want to enjoy the culture and history, visit Meiji Shrine, Yasukuni Shrine, the Emperor's Palace (from outside only) and the Ueno Park Museums. And if you have plenty of time on your hands, make a visit to Kamakura City, formerly one of the capitals of Japan. It's about an hour by train southwest of Tokyo.

As for places to avoid... IMO, Gaijin sports bars in Shinjuku, Shibuya, and more importantly Roppungi. That is, unless you enjoy being around rowdy soccer and rugby hooligans. But do understand there are decent Gaijin bars in those areas.

[SniperControl]

@ChrisW

Thanks for the tips.

[Kayant]

@loulou

Really dualshockers 10x better than gamingbolt which most of the time has titles that don't reflect what it's in the article or things like "PS4 GDDR5...." When in reality the dev is just talking about increased ram in general and nothing specific to GDDR5.

Also this is a bit of fun because anyone that isn't a blind ass Sony fanboy will know that while PS4 is a very capable machine it just doesn't have the power of a supercomputer or PC that's £500/$600+.

You really need to read the title harder because this is far from hit grabbing.

[loulou]

yeah i was a bit harsh there.

its gotten beyond old seeing the rubbish that rashid/gamingbolt posts on here day after day.

gamingbolt needs to feel the banhamer imo.

i did say that dualshockers is normally better than this though

[BBBirdistheWord]

@ kayant

dude, Abriael didn't find this.

Abriael is a staff writer at Dualshockers.
He literally makes these stories up and then posts them here. That's how he gets paid.

I caught him one time because one of his mates from dualshockers came and backed him up in a debate on one of his stories which he submitted to n4g.. I thought something was fishy... and wouldn't you know it? Both of them are staff writers on dualshockers and they were pushing the same agenda.

It seems dualshockers has somewhat of a pro Sony agenda and this goes some way of explaining the common theme in n4g submissions from that site and the theme of comments on their stories.

They write their own stories, then post them here and then get into the N4g comments on their own stories to heat them up and generate further interest from the community.

I feel it's important for people to know what's really going on.
Nothing wrong with making a buck from hits on n4g, but at least we need transparency so that users know what's really going on.

Can you confirm this for us, Abriael?
https://twitter.com/abriael

edit: you can see on the twitter account that abriael is abusing the n4g approval system by asking his friends to approve his submissions for him. That is disappointing and it appears to be against the rules.

Does Cat know this is happening?

[Abriael]

Wow, you're really somewhat of a stalker.

It's never been a mystery that I write on DualShockers. As a matter of fact I'm the news editor. All the major moderators know. Not only there's nothing wrong with it, but N4G encourages it. We aren't on reddit.

By the way, I don't "make up" stories. I research them. This story is fruit of extensive research on the Japanese legislation that took several hours, mind you. There's nothing "made up" there, so you may want to hold your horses and keep your personal vendettas at bay :D

Stalking people out of a personal vendetta is bad, you know?

[HighResHero]

@BBBird: Why focus so much on these people when people are doing much sneakier(more questionable) things right under our noses? It makes me wonder if YOU might have some kind of agenda.

I'm even more excited for the PS4 now and I love the unique Japanese culture too. Keep it Japanesey Kyoto.

[rainslacker]

I've known this for some time. He's never hidden it. He readily addresses comments that people make about the article as if it was his work.

If you can find stuff to write about that's more interesting, the by all means go ahead and write it up and post it here. It's not against the rules, and it's not fishy.

[BBBirdistheWord]

@ abriael.

Sorry you seem to think I am stalking but I am just posting the information that many users seem not to be aware of.
The submission of stories seems to be a big problem on here and I think it's exceptionally important that users are aware of how the monetising system really works.

I already said there's nothing wrong with monetising n4g hits so you don't need to get all defensive and start with the ad hominem attacks on me. I am just exposing the underlying truth, which is the beauty of a free society.

BTW, you didn't address the part about how you ask your friends to approve n4g articles. That's not how the approval system is supposed to work. What's with that, dude?

I just think a lot of the users on this site are ignorant to the source of these stories.
It's important to know that people like you who write and publish and stand to make money are seen for exactly what you are.

Also, the approval system is somewhat broken on here and it's important for all users to see how it is being abused.

To summarise, here's how your process seems to work:

1. you write a story on Dualshockers like a paid blog.
2. you ask your fellow friends and dualshocker staff (who also appear to be paid) to approve your stories, thereby skewing the approvals in your favour.
3. Then you and your friends comment in the stories to heat them up and make them front page news. When someone posts a negative about this, your friends and fellow staff come to the rescue and no one is the wiser that there is actually a pretty clever submerged little network at play here.

There is no need to get nasty and accuse me of stalking just because I have exposed your little network and scheme. I am trying to do a favour for the casual readers on here that may not be aware how they are being duped at times!

All the information I have provided is publicly available on the internet for all to see. Not sure how that is stalking? I assure you I have no interest in anything about you except to expose how you seem to abuse the system to make a quick dollar.

Btw. I was forced to block you because I am a little concerned that you would harrass me again via PM.

[MorePowerOfGreen]

Atleast it's not "10X the powerful than a supercomputer" PS4 is just a "super computer* ;)

[kraigslist_killa]

Its smells good tho...Japan has a wonderful smell to it.

[rainslacker]

I remember the day, vaguely at least, when it was reported that the PS2 may not be able to sell in America because importing supercomputers required special provisions from the gov't and required extra taxes...or some other such nonsense. The articles made it seem like you couldn't import supercomputers into America, and at the time, the PS2 was considered a super-computer.

[JohnS1313]

Don't be racist.

[AndrewLB]

I guess it's a supercomputer compared to the smart-phones and tablets the Japanese do almost all their gaming on. PC gaming is dead in Japan, consoles are on a rapid decline, and everyone is all about hand-held devices.

[MuhammadJA]

"Japan is such a peculiar country."

what does that have to do with the article? is it because they talked good about the ps4?

[Hakoom]

every article is praising the ps4 this month more than x1
i just hope the X1 doesnt hold back the ps4 this gen with multiplat games

[EXVirtual]

I know how you feel, but let's not make this a console war article pls.

[XtraTrstrL]

Well, looking at it there's a few reasons 360 held back PS3. Part of it was PS3's fault, the notoriously hard to program for issue. Then, there was Microsoft's ridiculously restrictive rules to publishers/devs, that the games couldn't have anything about them that made them seem superior on another platform.

That particular restriction won't work this time around, seeing as PS4 has the popularity and preorder lead, so Microsoft would be just shooting themselves in the foot to try and force such rules. Also, this time around, the PS4 is the easier console to program for, so regardless of how hush hush and political publisher's answers are to questions about platform parity, there'll definitely be many multiplats that perform and/or look noticeably better on PS4 compared to X1.

[JimmyLmao]

the XB1 won't hold back the ps4 with multi-plat games

trust me, you will see in about 1 months time. =)

[TechMech2]

You should be more concerned with Wii u

[Hercules189]

I also hope that the Ps4 wont hold back X1 games because of the lack of free dedicated servers or lack of Kinect.

[pixelsword]

The only thing that could hold back Xbone games is kinect itself.

[ShowGun901]

yay! im gonna have a SUPERCOMPUTER!!!

LOL

i guess the extra $100 dollars you spend on an xbone will all be for the kinect 2.0, plus probably another $50-$100... sorry not interested lol

[Goku781]

Let us rain doom down upon the filthy heads of the Second Class Xbox One!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?...

[ShowGun901]

Me: if they would bring back invader zim, i'd do anything!

guy in crowd: woud you buy an xbone?

Me: lets not get crazy now...

[first1NFANTRY]

Didn't u know? The extra $100 is for the secret sauce in the power brick lol jokes.

MS is just too easy to make fun of nowadays.

[MasterCornholio]

The power brick isn't the secret sauce its the top secret secondary GPU.

Lol

Nexus 7 2013

[Golden_Mud]

Good to hear that......

[DoubleM70]

Let's see one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world thinks the PS4 is a Super Computer. While in the USA it would be considered a middle of the road PC that 3 years old. They uplift their Japaneese product, but you all this credit the American product. Yeah ok! Gotcha!

[NeoTribe]

Sorry but that particular american product is trash.

[G20WLY]

OMG are you seriously suggesting they set this regulation based on the power difference between PS4 and XBone? lmao!

The definition was already set for this regulation, then PS4 and XBone were announced and XBone falls short of the threshold - there's no patriotic conspiracy here!!

...Although I am sensing an idiotic conspiracy theorist... ;P

[Abriael]

Lol the latest revision to the regulation, that set the 1.5 Tflops threshold, is from 2005 :D

[saikorican]

Your comment doesn't even make any sense.

[snitch_puck]

...and my friends said it wasn't worth it pre-ordering the PS4. What the hell?? I get to play games early and experience this "supercomputer" albeit some games are delayed at launch. So yep, PS4 is worth every penny.

[G20WLY]

Well you're clearly better informed than they are.

I guess they'll be spending a lot of time at your place very soon!

[snitch_puck]

True dat mate! true dat.

[dmeador]

And an article that says the PS4 is a supercomputer proves what exactly? The specs have been out forever, its funny that once this label is on it somehow people think its performance doubled, its all perception.

[G20WLY]

I'm getting a PS4 and this news gave my balls a tickle.

That alright with you? :P

[fOrlOnhOpe57]

If Sony revived the Folding Home project then that would provide some SERIOUS numbercrunching horsepower.

[Goku781]

Xbox One

http://m.youtube.com/watch?...

[first1NFANTRY]

Oh boy here they come!

OT: seems everyone and their grandmother knows the ps4 is the most powerful console ever conceived by man.

[Pintheshadows]

And that says a lot as my grandmother is dead.

[first1NFANTRY]

U and I both my good man/woman

God bless their lovely souls

[Ratty]

I'm PS4 all the way but calling it a supercomputer is just ridiculous. Supercomputers are supposed to be 100x more powerful than anything you can own at home and are usually used in research by universities or the military. That is, unless Japan has a different definition of the word.

[DoubleM70]

Exactly I don't know why I just got all those disagrees. It's a Japaneese product and they stay faithful to their products. Come on guys be smarter than that.

[G20WLY]

Apple..?

[AceofStaves]

The Japanese buy American products. Look at the success of Apple products over there. I'm also pretty sure that a lot of Japanese people use computers that run some version of the Windows OS.

Like everyone else, they prefer to get value for money. If they feel MS doesn't provide it with their game consoles, they won't buy them. If they feel MS does give them their money's worth, they will. It's as simple as that.

[Pancit_Canton]

If PS3 is considered a supercompuer that makes the PS4 supercomputer2. The U.S army even bought 2,000 PS3 just to do complex calculation.

[MightyNoX]

Microsoft: Japan is a tier 2 country.

Japan: Xbox One is a tier 2 console.

s'like karma, man, ya know?

[Welcome2Die]

Well said!

[Elit3Nick]

Sony: Japan is a tier 2 country.

Hypocrite much?

[MegaRay]

Lol poor xbots has nothing to say. Anyways ill wait longer till I buy one maybe at infamous's release tho

[okmrman]

Maybe xbots are busy with their lives. Only scums scour the internet to troll

[GTgamer]

But your here :/

[no_more_trolling]

im neutral
im still on the fence whether to get a ps4 or an xbox

shut up and go back to being scum

[MegaRay]

Thats not my point. Anyone who's buying xbone over PS4 is dumb cuz your paying more for a weaker system.

[ambientFLIER]

Yes MegaRay, it was also dumb to buy a PS1 because it was weaker than the N64, and the PS2, which was weaker than both the Gamecube and the Xbox. Right??? Right????

It comes with Kinect and more entertainment and media console features.

Troll.

[dmeador]

Every time a start a rebuttal to someone like this, I always end up deleting it bc I realize my discussion would be turned to an argument by a 12 year old

[HugoDrax]

"Anyone who's buying xbone over PS4 is dumb cuz your paying more for a weaker system"

No need to insult people. Why are you trying to make people buy your product of choice? You don't need N4G to help you justify your purchase of a PS4. Geesh! Everyone values money differently, and will choose to spend their money on whatever pleases them. I for one will be spending my money on Nov 15th, and Nov 22nd. Why? Because I'm a gamer, not a fanboy who let's a popularity contest decide which games he should play and buy.

[MegaRay]

Im not getting any next-generation console including wiiu. Ill wait longer untill I finished all the games my ps3 has. KH2.5 will be llikely my last game however if I were to pick a product it will be PS4 cuz you know M$ will probably take the kinect off and reduce the price by 150 usd next year. Only dumb people, fanboys and misinformed people will pick it i mean I can understand getting both but getting x1 over PS4 is just... just... ugh forget it.

[HugoDrax]

@MegaRay

I understand exactly where you're coming from. My back catalog is enormous, I have plenty of titles that I have yet to finish hahaha! I literally just began Arkham City two nights ago lol. Off the top I need to complete

Bioshock Infinite
Dead Space 2 & 3
Lost Planet 2
AC III
Borderlands 2
Halo 4
Uncharted 3
Darksiders 2

All of which I have begun, just haven't finished yet. I have 3 weeks till I pick up my PS4 with Killzone, and I'll end up getting Resogun. Then the following week I'll be picking up my XB1 with about 6-7 games. Only because I'll have two consoles in my house at launch will I have so many XB1 titles. I'll post pics on here at launch of my XB1 & PS4 setup.

Next gen is upon us, I can't wait :-)

[DoubleM70]

Just to even out the PR in this Article. The PS4 get labeled a Super Computer in Japan.

The other goes out to NASA and actually does number crunching

http://www.polygon.com/2013...

[PFFT]

Next article will be about the PS4's ability to launch nukes. And how that console will not be sold in Afghanistan or Russia.

[Ricegum]

BOOM

[Mrveryodd]

This is silly
The phone I buy next year will be considered a super computer

[kewlkat007]

Supercomputer....LOL

Does my Mid-range PC qualify to? Exactly what these new consoles compare to.

[Drainage]

those arent built for games.

[Mr_Luke]

Great, my "super computer" is getting closer!! 29th November, here i come! Oh wait, it's the opposite... the day comes, i have to wait... nooooo ;(

[ambientFLIER]

"In Japan every computer with a computational performance over 1.5 teraflops is considered a “supercomputer” and goes under special regulations for procurement (purchase, rental and lease) by institutions and similar entities. You can check the full set of regulations here. It’s worth mentioning that the document identifies 300 megaflops as the threshold, but that’s because it was initially drawn in 1990. The limit has been raised several times since, up to 1.5 teraflops in 2005."

So...it's a supercomputer based on an 8 year old revision? LMAO. Ok. My laptop must be a supercomputer too then!

[THEMIGHTYDOOVDE]

PS4 is a “Supercomputer”....... I want whatever those Japanese 'regulators' have been smoking!

If the PS4 is a supercomputer then my gaming rig must be HAL 9000!

[givemeshelter]

LMFAO... This can't be real? That would mean my gaming PC from 6 years ago is a SUPER COMPUTER by Japan's standards? LMFAO

[Oh_Yeah]

neither are a super computer, a locked down computer being told what can and cant run on it, yes they are that

[Tzuno]

A brand PC with exclusives.

[TechMech2]

I'm not sure which system to buy, but by any standard, the ps4 is not a super computer. It's a powerful piece of hardware, as is the Xbox one, but these two gaming systems will be both outdated in 5 years.

[Yomaster]

Both of these consoles are ALREADY dated by PC hardware that came out at least a year ago. >_<

[TechMech2]

Yup

[urwifeminder]

What's with all the pics of ps4 on the xbox1 page more sly n4g advertising it just makes the page look messy to me supercomputers lol..

[TristanPR77]

Have you people notice? For Microsoft, specs are not important, teraflops are not important and resolution is not important. You then have to wonder if gaming is important to Microsoft at all. How on earth Microsoft pretend sell an inferior console at $500 when they has clearly said they don't care about specs at all.

Really, only a blind fanboy would consider an xbone.

[Kennytaur]

PS3s were bundled together to form supercomputers, I think the same may happen with PS4. But the Cell was the big reason, so who knows.

[badkolo]

we can finally get that 4d we were promised last gen, yeahhhh

[Kuse]

Its Jspan..what did you expect?

[sAVAge_bEaST]

"The Japanese corporation known as Sony based its name on an acronym formed from 'Standard Oil of New York.'-
-The More You know.

[Yomaster]

If the PS4 is a supercomputer, then what is my $2,000 gaming PC? A time machine? O_o

[feraldrgn]

A more powerful supercomputer.

It's only saying that the PS4 fits into that "category".

[assdan]

Well Japan has some pretty low standards for what a super computer is then lol.

[Lykon]

the comments under the article made me lol

[jah-Fu]

The ps4 can suck its own cock, the X1 barely lick the tip.

[Maxor]

A super computer with a low grade laptop CPU....

[wishingW3L]

the pandering of N4G is so awkward to read.

[RedHawk02]

Japan has the best technology available so please stop saying shit like "Japan is not as good as others" and things like that

[Consoles4kidz]

If ps4 is a supercomputer, than my custom built gaming pc is a SUPER DUPER COMPUTER.

[iceman600]

hahah yeah

[Belking]

Japan is falling apart at the seams when it comes to anything game related.

[ATi_Elite]

If the PS4 is a SuperComputer in Japan then my Gaming PC is GODZILLA!

In reality a Supercomputer is usually a computer that can do over 1 Pflops per second. P = Peta T = Tera P>T

PS4 is 1.8 Tflops MY PC is 8.6 Tflops

http://upload.wikimedia.org...

China currently has the worlds fastest SuperComputer that runs at 33.86 Pflops but it can't run Crysis.

Only a couple of SuperComputer can run Crysis and one is the USA's Titan because that Supercomputer uses AMD Opterons and Nvidia Tesla GPU's unlike most other SC that just use CPU's

United States has 252 SC's

The Rest of the world Combined = 249

[iceman600]

lol yeah according the the Japanese...didn't they say the same thing about the ps3?

[jmc8888]

Doesn't really mean anything. Supercomputer status is a floating benchmark.

I think they said the same thing about consoles in the 90's. I do specifically remember the PS2 was called one.

Anyone else think the PS2 is a supercomputer? ROFL

[static360]

We must have version diff definition of super computer, i ge that the console is awesome but come on really?

[BABY-JEDI]

It's always good fun to read the term super computer. I find putting the word super in front of any other word normally produces a positive result! Hence I will say all people on N4G are super. There you go. You got a super complement.
; D

[fullmetal297]

Quit hyping the PS4 with these articles. It's has decent hardware inside, but we all know the PS4 or any other platform can't possibly compete with a system running the latest Xeon CPU. This illusion that the PS4 will be this supercomputer will only bring disappointment to those who believe it.

[josephayal]

Well, this isn't a surprise, to be honest

[oODEADPOOLOo]

This reminds me of a certain video.
http://tinypic.com/r/22no9/...

[Condemnedman]

wasn't the ps3 meant to be a supercomputer Yeh we know how that turned out.

[ghostrider32]

PC gamers worldwide fell out their chairs laughing. Super computer........So was the PS2.

[Krosis]

Looking at Sonys specs I can only say Japans "threshold" to qualify as a "supercomputer" must be low. Not trolling, simply saying ps4 ability is being grossly inflated much like its predecessor. My pc is way more powerful than a ps4 and isn't a "supercomputer". I guess it is in Japan.

[TheKayle1]

wtf ahhahah so the world is freakin full of supercomputer for japanese....(pretty much every pc around nowdays do more than 1.5tf)..

this news is hilarious and the op let ppl think the they r seriously talking about supercomputer....

ps4 as the xbox have nothing of super