Sony Not Ruling Out “Improved Performance” PlayStation 4

The PlayStation 4 has already received a number of minor hardware revisions designed to reduce power consumption and make the console quieter. Sony hasn’t disclosed information about the various chassis in a concise manner, so it’s difficult to deduce which model is being sold to customers from various retailers. Nevertheless, the fixed hardware of consoles allows for specific optimization and helps make the buying process seem less daunting to those who aren’t technically minded.

However, the current crop of consoles are already lagging behind and starting to show their complete lack of graphical horsepower. For instance, games consistently struggle to maintain a solid 30 frames-per-second at 1080P. It’s highly likely, console generations will become shorter and could be based on a 5 year life cycle. During an interview with 4Gamer, Sony Computer Entertainment Senior Vice President Masayasu Ito discussed the idea of an “improved performance” PlayStation 4. While this is all theoretical, Ito was open to the idea and suggested the X86 platform would make performance improvements a viability.

It’s unclear if this refers to enhanced hardware specifications as scaling could be used as well as backwards compatibility. It’s an interesting notion though and makes the consoles closer to PCs which employ a wide range of specifications. Realistically, I can’t see this happening, and the “improved performance” could simply end up being the next PlayStation console.