Todd Howard's wish for the PS4, 12 pages of Skyrim scans

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim director reveals what he'd like to see for the PlayStation 4. 12 pages of PSM3's "world exclusive" are also available.

[thugbob]

I'm good with better graphics and head tracking for FPS.

Body tracking, Motion controls, etc are all just bonuses for me.

[MintBerryCrunch]

features that would rarely be used if they were implemented in the machine

if you're trying to play a game of deathmatch on an FPS, then i doubt that you would pay much attention to body tracking or motion controls

there is a time for that such as when you have friends come over, but i hope that this doesnt drive up the cost of the machine if Sony is looking into expanding on this from this gen

[NewMonday]

the 3D head set

nuff said

[blumatt]

PS4 MIght Continue Using the Cell architecture, Just upgraded RAM etc.

I have a feeling that Sony will simply continue using the Cell architecture so that devs. won’t have to re-learn new hardware to develop for the PS4. The PS4 will likely have a 32 SPU Cell architecture with around 4GB of RAM and an upgraded graphics card. The upgraded RAM will help out “lesser” developers like Activision to make pretty games without having to use the Cell. Bluray drives have come down in price significantly. They’ll likely use a quad layer (100GB) BR disc and a 8X or higher read time. Using similar architecture with upgraded components (BR drive and RAM) will help keep the price down and make it easy to develop for.

Also, I can see Sony offering all its games via PSN day and date with the retail disc release. You'll have the choice to buy it on disc or digitally. I'll go disc all the way myself.

If developers haven’t figured out the Cell by the time the PS4 comes out, I’d say it’s safe to say that they are lazy. lol That will have been nearly 8 years or so.

Also, another reason why they might continue using the Cell is because Sony bought back the factory that manufactures the Cell chips.

Backward Compatiblity with PS3 games will be a non-issue if they choose this route.

As far as motion control goes, I can definitely see them making an upgraded PS Eye 2.0 that is more “Kinect-like” and offers body only motion gaming. However, I think they’ll continue supporting the Move and not make a new Move controller for the PS4. The Move’s technology is already cutting edge. It’s good to see companies competing for our dollar and making new technologies even better through competition.

By doing what i just predicted, I can see Sony being able to sell the PS4 for $399, which would be very good for us gamers. The PS Vita is proof that Sony has learned its lesson about using developer unfriendly hardware and pricing their hardware too high.

[Arnon]

I would rather have a lean feature than simple head tracking for my FPS titles.

[TVippy]

Slow day, huh?

[SuperSaiyan4]

On Kinect and I favour PS Move because you get to hold something in your hand to give you at least some feeling of you being in control. Yet as a system I favour the 360 even though I also own a 160gb PS3.

No doubt the next gen consoles will be a lot more powerful than what we have now but I hope developers actually give us some decent games to boot along with graphics.

[MrBeatdown]

PS+ already has automatic downloading in some form, and Vita will have physical and digital versions, so I could see both of these happening for PS4.

With automatic downloads though, I'd like the option to download them in the background automatically when I start up the system, rather than having it automatically turn on at a specific time of the day.

[HammerAndSickle]

I would like the PS4 to arrive in 2 editions: gamer and casual.

The gamer edition should be priced at €800 and should have the power of a €1300 gaming pc(can be achieved trough mass production and manufacturer deals )

The casual should be €250. All games should be released on both systems but the games should always be in 1080p on the gamer edition(+ more AA, AF, better textures, lightning,..).

The power of a gaming pc, the user-friendliness of console. A winning combination imo.

Any questions?

[thugbob]

Sounds like a great idea.

Although the casual edition would be dubbed "standard edition.

[kramun]

That's a terrible idea. Seriously, that's a really bad idea. €800? I might as well just buy another pc.

[thugbob]

€800 PS4 with the power of a €1300 gaming pc.

How is that bad?

[HammerAndSickle]

On the €800 gamer edition you'll get lots more value than on a €800 pc.

No need for windows, mass production, dumping prices(Sony makes their profit on games, not on hardware) will lower the price. Also games on the console are always more efficiently programmed than on pc.

This all ads up. Giving more bang for the buck than a 800 pc.

[kramun]

Because it's a bad idea. People buy consoles to play games on because they will last quite a few years and they are affordable. €800 is not affordable to an average person for a console, regardless of power.

A console sold at that price would bomb. Simple as that.

And the idea for 2 editions of a console as HammerAndSickle described it would be commercial suicide for any company that decided to take that approach. The devs already spend a lot of money to make a game as it is, how much extra would it cost them to make two different editions of a game on two different editions of a console from a single manufacturer?

I don't know how you could even think it's a good idea.

EDIT:Dude that's not even close to market research. The agree and disagree button is there for people who either agree or disagree with what you have said, not for which theoretical edition of which theoretical console you want them to decide on.

[HammerAndSickle]

@kramun

Well I would buy it.

let's do a quick market research

The people here who would buy the gamer edition please agree, the people who would buy the standard please disagree

[Arnon]

Your comment doesn't add up.

Let's start with the fact that you somehow know the value of a PS4 before anything is even announced.

PC gaming in general is cheaper. If anything, the prices of games will go up since they know they can get away with it, while PC games will remain at a $49.99 average pricetag. Let's also remember that a PC is not JUST a gaming machine. It can do millions of other tasks.

If going off of anything, by the time a PS4 launches, we'll have better hardware in our PC's, unless Sony wants to dump another ridiculous pricetag on their new system and tell everyone they need to have a second job to afford it (hint: they won't).

And lastly, games on the console are NOT more efficiently programmed. They're locked in place because of the bottleneck the consoles reach. A PC is limitless, so saying that a console title is more efficiently programmed doesn't even make sense. They might have a more steady framerate, but that's due to once again, the bottleneck.

[DARK WITNESS]

wow..$800, bad idea is an understatement !

people have short memories... does anyone remember the original price point the ps3 launched at!

Does anyone remember how many versions there were when it launched ?

Does anyone remember the pricing being such a huge issue that sony announced a price drop for the console in Japan before the system had even Launched !! AND it got a price drop within it's first year of release over here. None of it's competitors dropped their price that quick.

Sony tried to justify it with all the tech jibberjabber.. and yes for the tech that was in it at the time the price was actually quite reasonalbe... But quite simply Gamers, GAMERS, you know the people who the machine was aimed at in the first place just could not afford it.

Remember Ken saying people would get two jobs if they had to in order to buy the PS3, well most people didn't. They just waited...and waited.. and waited until sony finally got the message and dropped the price.

$800 for a $1200 PC sure sounds great on paper, but it just won't work and I am sure sony have learned their lesson and wont be trying that again.

[kreate]

wasnt both the ps3 and xbox 360 launched with 2 different editions?
both seems pretty successful to me o_0;;

[DARK WITNESS]

@ kreate

yes they both were.

infact it was the 360 that first announced there would be 2 models. Sony first responded to the news by saying it was a bad idea and went on about how it didn't make sense. This was very early days mind you.. next thing you know sony announce they are launching 2 sku's as well. it was funny as hell at the time.

The funny thing was the difference between the 360 sku's was nothing more then the HD really.

The ps3 had a few differences such as the number of usb ports, memory slots and backwards compatibility... and sony said it was stupid to have two skus, lol.

I remember it well because everyone was like who in their right mind would want the cheaper sku, unless you were like really really short of cash. ( incase you are wondering, I picked up the 60gig unit which I still use till this day )

Anyway, thats all in the past.

The 360 is not the issue here, Sony is not the issue either. I personally believe sony have learned their lesson and I cannot imagine they would make such a mistake again.

the subject was about the sony and what we may or may not see with their next console.

As some thought it would be great if sony release two sku's on for "pro's" and one for "noobs" with differences in specs and price... I just thought I would point out history and the fact that it had been done before and the result was not great.

People are just to quick to forget the past, if sony did the same I fear it would suffer for it and quite frankly there is no need for that to happen.

Sony has more then proved this gen that they are flexible and they keep track of their fanbase. They didn't make all the best choices when this gen started but they have more then made up for it.

[Fishy Fingers]

A consoles strength is in it's unified hardware. Multiple versions of the same console would be disastrous.

[HammerAndSickle]

2 should be manageable. The architecture should be the same, the gamer edition should only have more ram and higher clock speeds. In theory a casual edition game shouldn't even be reprogrammed for the gamer edition.

[PS360PCROCKS]

more ram and higher clock speeds? You're kidding me right? That wouldn't do a damn thing, you can't add AA, AF, textures and higher quality lighting from some ram and clock speeds. You know what the difference between 4GB ram in my pc and 8GB and one clock speed and the other? Um crysis 2 won't lag as much on 8gb and I get about 3-5 extra FPS. oOoOo ya thats worth hundreds of dollars more.

[HammerAndSickle]

@PS360PCROCKS

Crysis 2 doesn't run faster because it can't use more than 2 gig RAM as it isn't a 64 exe, like most games.

[PS360PCROCKS]

wow your kidding me right? Do you actually believe the things you type?

What are the suggested system requirements for the DX11 and/or High-Rex Textures packages?

DX11 Package Specs
Minimum:
o DX11 compatible graphic card with 768MB Video Memory

High-Res:
Minimum:
o 64-bit Operating System
o DX9 compatible graphic card with 768MB Memory

Recommended:
o 64-bit Operating System
o Fast HDD or even SSD
o Quad Core CPU
o 8GB of RAM
o DX9 compatible graphic card with 1GB Video Memory

Having both installed and active:
Recommended:
o 64-bit Operating System
o Fast HDD or even SSD
o Quad Core CPU
o 8GB of RAM
o DX11 compatible graphic card with 1.5GB Video Memory

maybe you should know what you're talking about before you disagree and pretend to be intelligent.

[I_find_it_funny]

as stupid as it gets

[Skynetone]

OS Version: Windows 7 64 bit 38.57%
System RAM: 4 GB 28.98%
Intel CPU Speeds: 2.3 Ghz to 2.69 Ghz 30.80%
Physical CPUs: 2 cpus 51.43%
Video Card Description: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 5.16%

According to steam this is your average pc specs

ps4/xbox will have little trouble beating the average gaming pc, for the 2 million people how buy the gamer editions of the ps4 will have very little support when it comes to games

[Darkfocus]

and that average is above ps3/360 spec right now. by the time the ps4/720 launch the average will be a quad core i architecture and a 6870/480...

[Darkfocus]

also it's not an average...it's the most common hardware... 56% of cards are DX10 right now and 5.6% are DX11...

[adamant715]

That's a terrible idea..

[FreydaWright]

Your idea would work just as well as Communism - not well at all.

[kreate]

china seems to be working out ok? o_0;;

[FreydaWright]

@kreate Tell that to Tibet. Also, tell that to North Korea.

[zero_cool]

casuals are still considered gamers & motion controls like playstation move don't water the experience down it makes it more fun because nobody wants to spend the time figuring out the controller layout most gamers wanna pick up & starting play it & it enhances the experience in ways you can't with a dual shock 3 controller!

[peowpeow]

If you don't want to learn the ropes with games go play pong

[Chocoboh]

No you're wrong and stupid. If sony wanted to name a casual system it would be called the PS3. No use making 2 system with different specs. God damn n4g and people with no brain now a days.

[zero_cool]

This is coming from somebody that can't even make an intelligent response & resorts to insulting people instead!

[zero_cool]

Also Games are suppose to fun to pick up & play not home work!

[ThrazN7]

worst idea ever! dev's and publisher's would hate it. and so would sony

[Jamaicangmr]

Sorry clicked disagree by accident but i whole heatedly agree.

[Jamaicangmr]

i've heard some ridiculous ideas in my life but you seriously have thought this one through.

That would destroy the PlayStation brand completely.

What you are talking about is the problem with this console generation. We need 1 unified console one box across the board. Reasonably priced around $400, one box for everyone.

[tee_bag242]

@ HammerandSickle - what you proposing about 2 ps4's:
Low spec 250 bucks and a
High spec 850 bucks allowing extra AA etc.

With all due respect that is the most rubbish idea iv heard.
That means you could buy 3 low tech consoles and a launch
game for the same price as the High spec - that for an extra 600 bucks
will only sort out a few jaggies and HD installs.

Without even mentioning developing issues do I really need to go into this or are you starting to see the workings of a bad idea.
Of course market would have the last say, but using your disagree's as a crystal ball I'd say.. " keep brainstorming tiger"

[WhiteLightning]

I don't think were quite there yet fully downloading games. Besides I bet I'm not the only one who likes to have a game I can hold in my hands. Arcade/PSN games are fine but not full games.

I hope when the PS4 comes out it dosen't have any motion device along with it. Fair enough AFTER the consoles have come out but having motion controls in the box when you buy a next gen console....no thanks, I don't want to pay for crap I'm not going to use.

[kma2k]

There are so many conflicintg ideas of what the next gen is going to be/offer that honestly who knows what we are going to get & at what price point. I for one just know i am not looking forward to another $500+ consle any time soon. Ive already sunk over $1000 into this generation from both systems, games, aceesories & what not. Damn when you add it up I spent alot of damn money on gaming. Then throw in the fact i bought a big screen mostly for games the price more than doubles!

[Raendom]

How much money do you make from posting stolen articles to your sh't website valay?

[IRetrouk]

MOAR POWAAAA!!!!!!

[Kennytaur]

Who cares about dragons when there are Mumakils! :-P

[abczby]

The Elder Scrolls.

The Elder Scrolls: Arena AND The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall were out before GTA even existed. I hate incompetent gaming journalists...

[koehler83]

Don't really give a damn about what Todd Howard thinks one way or the other.

[madpuppy]

of course he would love everything to go digital, it is a win all around for the developer and/or publisher and the worst thing to happen to the consumer. $60 and up pricing for digital downloads and no way to trade or sell or even save a copy of the game.

[NotSoSilentBob]

Everyone should just push bethsada to learn to release a game that isn't a bugged out glitchfest. And then, and only then maybe would console makers take their wishes into consideration.

[jag_stilvecchio]

Hey Todd, getting a bit ahead of yourself, don't you think? This is the same Bethesda that releases games with critical bugs/glitches? How about this wish - some beta testing for Bethesda games? I'm not talking about using your customers a guinea pigs either.

[PS360PCROCKS]

Watching how Origin's terms say "hey if we go under you have no games muahahah!!" I'd rather NEVER see this option. But financially it makes sense, logistically it makes none whatsoever. Call up Comcast Howard and ask them if they want gamers downloading massive GB's of games daily/weekly/monthly/yearly.

Everytime I download a 8-16GB game for my PC, they handicap me for a whole day, my DL's go to like dial up speed. It was so slow it took me 8 hours to download a 45mb Witcher 2 patch to even start the game. Lol now i download patches, than the game...

[yamzilla]

Bethesda had every intention of waiting until next gen for Skyrim, but the next gen was not coming, all along they were developing the pc version assuming new console hardware would be out by 2011, but, no new console hardware guess what.......

release it on last gen consoles at a reduced resolution,let it have all the pop-in, muddy low res textures of oblivion, so all you kids that never want the ps3 and 360 to go away......hurray for you, now you get to play skyrim in its WORST form!

The PC version will be as it always was intended to be, I know that the devs came out and said it will be the same except way higher resolution and higher quality/much larger textures, but what are they going to say??

The Truth

Skyrim on consoles will look a tiny bit better than oblivion on consoles and still have all that;

pop-in, screen tear, jaggies, 20-30 frames, agitated terrible shadows

Skyrim on PC, a whole GEN ahead of anything on console, just like bf3, the witcher 2, bfbc2, crysis 2, bulletstorm, stalker c.o.p., metro2033, (basically every AAA game from the last 4 years)

Stunning 1600p
32x anti aliasing
60 smooth frames per second
high quality hdr
soft shadows
ssao
ect....ect.....

by the way, the ps4 and Nextbox will not even be on par with that

for next gen consoles you will be lucky, LUCKY to get;

1080p
4x anti aliasing
30 frames per second

hell, thats a 3-4 year old pc by my book...lol

[theone26]

Stunning 1600p
32x anti aliasing
60 smooth frames per second
high quality hdr
soft shadows
ssao
LOL that's pure wishful thinking even if you have a tri sli gtx580 set up. The average PC gamers or 99% of PC users would not have a rig even close to that, in fact they would be lucky to run at 1080p 4xaa and 30fps.
Nextgen consoles would piss on high end PCs at least for a year and it's also cost effective for long last experience.

[ViserysTargaryen]

1600p, 32x AA @ 60 fps? Thats some serious pipe dream BS there. Maybe 3 to 4 years from now yeah, but not this year or the next. You can throw three 580 GTX in SLI inside one comp and you won't even get near that kind of performance.

[ThreeShitsty]

dovahkiin!!!

[RandomDude655]

What I want to see for PS4 controls is the combination of these two:
http://www.electronista.com...
http://www.siliconera.com/2...

1:1 hand/finger tracking and full body....yes please

[kingslayer1000]

digital is the best way to go

[modesign]

you must of missed the playstation hack. great idea, give hackers a excuse to cripple the digital markets. nice plan retard.