Tetsuya Nomura Thinks the PS4 is "Too Much"; 8 GB RAM Will Help Considerably with Kingdom Hearts III

Sony Computer Entertainment published a new interview of Tetsuya Nomura about Kingdom Hearts III, as part of the “Conversations with Creators” series. He has some fairly interesting things to say about the PS4.

[Wizziokid]

Too much is better than too little

[Cyb3r]

Totally

[cannon8800]

@georgeenoob

256 mb of ram and 256 mb of xdr ram.

They used every last bit.

oh and that's a last gen console by the way, so what makes you think that sony first party studios wont use all the ram when their games become more complex and have to utilize more ram?

[Gazondaily]

@george

It's called future-proofing.

[minimur12]

Did you see the fire spells in the D23 video 0.o

[Bathyj]

256? Were you only using half your PS3?

[nypifisel]

@gerogeenoob

You don't realise how restricted developers been due to the lack of RAM do you? Xbox One have enough memory though it's not fast enough. Evidently even with the eSRAM it will be hard to push 1080p on Xbox One

[Eonjay]

@George... the point is that they could have done more with more resources.

@nypifisel to be fair, even some early titles are gonna have a hard time getting to 1080p. It should still be noted that the Xbox One has an upscaler. I think it will be a while before the Xbox's resources are completely saturated like presently on 360 and PS3

[DragonKnight]

@georgeenoob: Oh hi there, you've been gone awhile haven't you? Firstly, there really isn't a such thing as too much memory. Devs didn't WANT 512mb of memmory, they HAD 512mb memory. They'd have definitely loved more. Secondly, no one cares about or brought up Xbox One so kindly take it elsewhere.

[SoulSercher620]

@georgeenoob

Wow that comment proves you have no idea how RAM works or what it is for that matter

[isa_scout]

^^^ I read your comment in the Bill and Ted voice...lol

[nypifisel]

@Eonjay

Upscaling isn't doing IQ that many favours though, it got nothing on native. Xbox One will hang around for a while but I still think MS did a fatal mistake not investing in more powerful hardware, the PS4 will pull ahead (hell we already see it with all PS4 titles so far being announced as 1080p while Xbox One is suffering from 720p and 900p in their exclusives, only 1080p except Forza on the XB1 as far as I know is Cod Ghost!)

[Mr_cheese]

Oi, one bubble. Be quiet.

[Ezz2013]

@georgeenoob

http://static.comicvine.com...

[GirlOnFire]

Totes! Quiet georgenoob...please. 86 and counting disagrees. ^~^

[iceman06]

LOL @ the commercial reference!

[pete007]

256mb gddr3 + 256mb xdr Rambus @3.2 ghz

[Freedomland]

C'mon guys give georgeenoob a breathing space.

[RumbleFish]

Reading first comment, seeing those two disagrees and realizing: there are two boys with way too small ducks in here. Please excuse my bad spelling.

[Anarki]

Only 'cause S-E cannot wont have something to blame when they corner cut now. Their games have been lacking lately.

[Ritsujun]

The clown of the day goes to to GGn00b, again.

[Withdreday]

Isn't Square the company that suggested both consoles use 8GBs of ram though?

I don't get the "too much" comment (unless it was tongue in cheek)

[abzdine]

i couldn't say less :D

[Magicite]

Too much of Greatness can never be too much :D

[Tsar4ever01]

Although he was only joking, He just doesnt need as much memory for the game he's creating on his Kingdom Hearts 3 engine. But I bet All devs don't share that sentiment. 3.5gb is dedicated to the OS/UX and DVR recording. Hopefully like this gen, the memory footprint may expand and more memory would be usable to games as the years go by, maybe from 4.5–5gb to 6.5gb. I BET They're OTHER game engines out there that will probably tax the PS4 memory beyond it's means further down it's lifetime. 8GB may seem like overkill now. BUT Sony made sure the PS4 had longer legs this time. But will 8gb be enough for games creation in around 2018?

[Deadpoolio]

Uh If your talking about the PS4 you know that rumor that 3.5gb dedicated to the OS was debunked right....It's 5.5gb for games with a flexible 1gb extra with the rest going to the OS

[Jazz4108]

Too little and too much are all opinions. In my opinion I would rather have a perfect balanced console then having a unbalanced console that's great in certain areas but gives up other important areas. I feel neither the xboxone nor the ps4 are a perfectly balancd console but I do believe they will both have there pros and cons and it will be about this time next year that we have games that can significantly use the consoles strengths which is memory, and 8 cores to name a few. Off topic.. I tried to trade my ps3 in at gamestop for new system next month since they have a 30% bonus right now and I know my system is the smaller one at fat 40 gigs but the offer was for 50.00. I kept it as the bluray player is worth more than 50.00. My point is gamestop has been ripping off gamers from day 1.

[Beastforlifenoob]

Then why cant PS4 play battlefield 4 at 1080p?

And no its not ecause devs dont know the hardware its X86 architecture jsut like PC's. X86 means it has pretty much been already optimized.

So yeah why is it not running @1080p, im not trolling im still buying a PS4 but im simply not believing its "too much"

[AbortMission]

Call it, the "Wii u syndrome"

[TheSaint]

It's all about future proofing it, in 4 - 5 years the games will use most if not all of this RAM.

[sephiroth420]

yeah they prefer these god damn tablets now ey?

[first1NFANTRY]

Better to have more than less. Even if devs don't use the whole 8gigs it's still better to have the option.

[Furesis]

wasn't it something like 4.5 gigs that they can use? i can be wrong i don't know

[first1NFANTRY]

you may be right i have no idea at this point. guess we'll find out at launch

[itBourne]

I forget, I think it was like 4.5 gigs, and some sort of extra 1 gig for things too.

[Dmagic]

it was 6.5 and the other went to os

[Brix90]

4.5 was a rumor it's 6.5 believe

[hazeblaze]

It's 4.5 GB by default, but there is an extra 2GB free floating that devs can allocate if necessary.

[Deadpoolio]

It's 5.5gb for games with an extra 1gb flexible so basically 6.5 for games and the rest goes to the OS

[Chard]

I understand that Kingdom Hearts is a much loved franchise, but I really don't wanna hear Nomura talk about anything other than Final Fantasy XV for now. For the love of Jeebus just get that game done!

[Magicite]

I must agree on this one and btw I really hope that FF15 will be at least superb game, FF series been in stagnation for too long.

[noctis_lumia]

ppl waited more than 10 years for a Kingdom hearts myself included

so i believe it deserve all the attention
we all know a new FF game is coming every 2-4 years so let KH3 shine

[Irishguy95]

Hopefully by Jump festa in December

[DigitalRaptor]

It has to be out by the end of next year at the very latest, it just has to.

It feels like Square Enix have found their focus again.

[Eamon]

Now guys, just imagine a game that fully uses all 8 Gigs of RAM.

Monster.

[scott182]

uncharted 4... :o

[AsunaYuukiTheFlash]

Let us wait for Naughty Gods next IP.

[My_Name_BTW_Is_Dante]

By the end of PS4's lifespan it won't be enough and it will be canceled and put on the PS5 instead.

[MysticStrummer]

By the end of any console's lifespan, whatever tech is inside won't be enough for what certain devs want to accomplish.

I wonder if you'll get another bubble or make a relevant point by the end of the PS4's lifespan...

[ApolloTheBoss]

He can't even handle the awesomeness that is PS4. Can you blame him?

[Evilsnuggle]

Having too much ram is like having too much money !!!! NUFF " said

[MasterCornholio]

Better that they complain about having too much than to little.

@Georgeenoob

Oh knock it off already no matter what you say or do it won't stop the PS4 from being successful.

Nexus 7 2013

[pyramidshead]

Let him one bubble whine. The more he comments the faster he gets banned again lol. He brings it on himself.

[r21]

Oh man, still cant believe KH3 is FINALLY coming out. Still in awe.

[Cryptcuzz]

Yeah me too, it has been a long time I've been waiting for it to be announced.

Did you see the new trailer? It looks so awesome and its still early in development, so it can only get even better.

@For those making a big deal about this, Nomura said it in a joking way, hence, the laughter at the end of his quote. No need to down play the PS4 and Nomura since the other console has 8 GB too!

[r21]

Saw it and it looks close to those CG cutscenes from KH2 :)

[THC CELL]

Naughty dogs are going to blow us away like. Always

[Pain]

Good for you Nomura.. now hurry up and and releases a bloody game already.. last time people talked about this guy *cough* FFXII vs *cough* my friends didn't have kids and where not married.

[clouds5]

All I care about is wether they release it to PC. It just seems so stupid that they develop a game on the PC and have it running and then don't release on it. Makes no sense whatsoever. I already missed out on enough KH titles because i didnt have a perticular system.

[Furesis]

i don't think they'll do it but that would be cool

[xXxSeTTriPxXx]

I thought that console games where developed on dev kits with pc being a catalyst of sortz?...

[clouds5]

I have no idea how they actually program a game like that :) But I do know that the Nomura guy was talking about Directx11. And that's obviously a PC thing (and XB1). If it runs on Directx11 it should run on PC...
I mean xb1 and PC, the chips are made by the same manufacturer (AMD) they have the same CPU structure, same kind of ram, and they even use the same API. I'm no expert but that doesnt sound like alot of "porting" to me. It should just run with minor modifications.

[Hicken]

Been waiting long enough.

[MightyNoX]

Forgive me, people, but I'd like to run an experiment. I once read in an article that though KH games are loved, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who understands the story.

Click Agree if you DO understand the plot of the entire saga or Disagree if you do not.

[clouds5]

I love deep stories but I'mnot prepared buying 5 different ssystems just to play all of them...

[thejigisup]

That's why i waited to get a collection and now they have 1.5 remix which im playing now and loving. Now they have announced a 2.5 which should really fill the gap and give you the ability to play KH and not have to buy 5 systems.

[Ron_Danger]

The plot is simple:

Sora lives on an island with his best friend. He wishes there was more to life and explores the island. Then his boss drives up in a Porsche golf cart and drives him around for a little bit. Then his boss does and Sora and Adrien Zimmed have to pretend he is still alive. Antics ensue...

Oh wait... That's the movie Weekend at Bernie's... Nevermind...

[KonsoruMasuta]

It not that hard to understand. I understand the whole thing and I haven't even played all the games.

[Hicken]

It's not TOO complicated- though the details are pretty in-depth- but I couldn't explain it to you because it's been years since I've played.

[noctis_lumia]

more complicated now that this game is released also on xbox one

anw ps4 day one for me and if there is a spcial edition then thats the way to go

[Infamous298]

true that.

[Clarence]

More powerful and cheaper. Can't ask for a better console. Hope there's a limited edition of KH3.

[Ron_Danger]

When I read "too much RAM", I thought "too much rum," and was like "so what's the problem?"

[MightyNoX]

You need to hide it from Elizabeth.

[Shakengandulf]

You need to hide Elizabeth from me.

[akurtz]

Just finish it! You skipped a whole generation, i miss sora :(

[metalgod88]

I think that while more memory is a great thing for developers, at the same time I think it's a burden for gamers. A curse if you will. Let me explain.

With the Playstation 3 only have 256 mb of ram to work with at any given time, the developers had optimize the hell out of all of their code and get it running as efficiently as possible. This may have been extremely difficult to do, but it helped shape the best games we've ever seen.

Now with more memory comes games with the possibility of less optimization and less focus on quality. Now, I'm not saying that studios aren't going to try their best to make sure they create the best game possible, but I'm saying that I think we're going to see a flood of terrible games. With all that memory, It's no longer an issue really, so developers won't have to focus so much on optimization as they will getting the game to run properly.

With that said, I can't wait to see what we get next gen.

[AceBlazer13]

If any game can make use of the ps4's power it's kingdom hearts, make it happen nomura max it out.

Besides that ram is gonna fix one of my few problems I had with ps3, that browse.The ram is also gonna allow the ps4 to pull off everything the ps3 was limited from, like playing music from the xmb menu in game.

[mediate-this]

Some of the best p.c games utilize only 4-5 gb of ram, so i think thd console devs should be happy with three to four gigs of ram let alone of 8, what a leap from lmast gen to this gen.

[ZHZ90]

He also want the PS4 touchpad to work KH3, he really he'll do so as well with FFXV.

No one can deny the power of PS4.

[yewles1]

'WHAT' 8GB? You don't HAVE 8GB to work with, just like X1.

[noctis_lumia]

ps4 can still use more ram than microsoft

[TheGrimReaper0011]

Fine, just get a steady framerate (60 would be sexy smooth)
I cant wait till it comes out

[cyguration]

If 8GB is too much then does that mean this game could come to the Wii U?

[TechMech2]

Compared to current gen, the Xbox one and ps4 are incredibly powerful. While Xbox one will probably have worse graphics on first party games, both systems will be welcomed by developers as more power is necessary in a new generation

[EXVirtual]

Good to hear that the PS4 is running the game well.

[stellarock420]

just think that few years from now 8gb of ddr5 will be nothing we will all be running 12-16 ddr5 in our computers. i am running 6 gb ddr5 and 6 ddr3 in my system.and besides kh3 looks like a game you would find in a box of luckey charms or a ps2 or wii game for that matter

[LordDhampire]

lol wut? you mean 6 Gddr5? Do you have a titan?

if not you do realize that memory in crossfire/sli does not stack so if you only have two 3 gig cards you don't have 6 gigs of GDDR5 for use

[stellarock420]

actually yes in a custom build is possible i can use eather 6 gb or 12 for games works fine
for me

[EXVirtual]

Just what you'd expect from PC players.

[nope111]

fvggtt6544ewa bji8 877ytCCCDR%

[stellarock420]

if your ram is worth more then your graphics card that should put up a flag right there

[filchron]

if its too much then they should release the game in 1080p 3D at 60fps. should be the standard with the PS4 and xbox one IMO.

[kevnb]

the games would have to be less demanding then they were last gen, but they could do it.

[cell989]

sweet!!! this is considered good news

[swerve121]

I can't wait till the 2 systems come out. So people will really see the truth about how these games will look on both systems. I'm sorry but this big difference everyone is talking about is mostly Sony fan boy crap

[ZHZ90]

Truth really hurts to Xbox fanboys. :)

EDIT: Even if PS4 is more so powerful than Xbone doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy Xbone. And it's funny to me because people like you are being sensitive about this. :D

[noctis_lumia]

say that again once naughty dog release their game
also check those game informer the order 1886 pics from real time gameplay it rapes everysingle xbox exclusives games easily and with style.

[thawind]

The Order 1886 is looking pretty amazing!!

[buynit]

I'm sorry I just have to say it...

"What else is he supposed to say? It's a ps4 exclusive"

[Tooly]

no its not

[Godz Kastro]

Too much what? Undeserved hype? Yeah... true that

[noctis_lumia]

kingdom hearts 3 undeserved hype ?
it deserve all the hype it can get

[kevnb]

a good part of that ram is for the os and social features.

[Deltaguy]

lol and this people is the reason good Japanese developers are on the decline...how the hell can a console be over kill...

[tulholdren]

KH3 I'm so ready to play it and after this Nomura maybe you could made a PS4 exclusive game I want to see what you can do with all that power and your mind...

[Ghostdogg]

Then KH3 will be a very smooth running game to say the least

[cunnilumpkin]

the ram is overkill for a 1.6 ghz cpu and laptop gpu

4gb would have been fine

its the cheapest part, that's why they went 8gb, it "sounds" impressive, great marketing

totally useless but great marketing

[0pie]

Too much or not... i guess its not a problem for japenese dev. since they still make games that could run on a ps2.

[Dante81]

How much RAM will the PC version need?

[fullmetal297]

I really think 8GB of ram is too much of an overkill. If I had the choice picking the specs for the PS4 without breaking bank, I have gone with a better GPU with less RAM. 6 GB is plenty enough for gaming and the decrease in 2gb of RAM would have probably given Sony the financial headroom for a better dedicated GPU like the HD 7950. In gaming, a GPU will overshadow RAM. And seeing as the the current OS that Sony already easy the resources, the decrease in RAM wouldn't be much of a problem.

[wishingW3L]

while you're right you have to remember that the PS4's pretty small and the bigger the GPU the more heat and higher wattage. The GPU it has right (especially AMD's which often run hotter than Nvidia) is probably the biggest they could fit in there without causing a fire within the APU.

Another thing is that you have to account for the space available in the APU. These APU are designed for integrated cards and not for these kind of medium-end GPUs. In fact, the PS4 and Xbox have a dual APU cluster probably for this same reason. To accommodate the GPU, but of-course I'm not an engineer so I wouldn't know for sure. There are still tons of details that neither Sony or MS want to talk about.

[chazjamie]

yeah well this explains why the game look like a ps2 game

[wishingW3L]

the game's not even running on a console though. If you read the interview he says the game's still in a very early stage being made on a PC with DirectX 11.

[RVanner_]

Cannot bloody wait for this machine

[feraldrgn]

This is on both consoles, as indicated by the D23 demo, right?

Is he going to use all the PS4 has to offer?