Is now the wrong time to buy a ps4?

[robemcdonald]

I'm thinking of getting a ps4 to play the latest uncharted game, but have been told that it's the worst time to buy as a new version is imminent.
Anyone know when the new version is out? Will the current version reduce in price?
If I were to buy one now where can I get the best deal? (I've seen a 1tb machine with uncharted 4 for £299 is this a good price?)

I don't pay a lot of attention to the gaming industry anymore, so help and advice would be most appreciated.

[Durzel]

There is an big exhibition coming up on June 14-16 called E3. This is traditionally where new consoles and significant console news is announced.

There have been many rumours of an upgrade of both PS4 and Xbox One being announced here, with the latter very recently having been discounted.

These rumours might come to nothing, or there may be something as simple as a refresh (eg slimmer, quieter, etc) which is pretty typical at this point in a console's life.

Either way I'd wait until after June 14-16 myself.

[robemcdonald]

Oh well a couple of weeks wait won't kill me.
If they do announce a new one will the old one be discounted?

[Vitorio]

robemcdonald said:

Oh well a couple of weeks wait won't kill me.
If they do announce a new one will the old one be discounted?

What has happened before is that the old model simply is discontinued, and some retailers will eventually drop prices to clear old stock. BUT, the new model may be worse in some aspects (the slim and superslim PS3s both reduced some features), so in some cases the old models might still be somewhat more desirable to certain buyers.

The rumours are that this revision will be different though, as it will be the first time a mid-gen revision will actually make the console faster, so who knows what will happen? perhaps the new one will be priced way higher, perhaps the old one will drop to a budget level, perhaps a new budget model will be introduced etc...

[The Beaver King]

Vitorio said:

robemcdonald said:

Oh well a couple of weeks wait won't kill me.
If they do announce a new one will the old one be discounted?

What has happened before is that the old model simply is discontinued, and some retailers will eventually drop prices to clear old stock. BUT, the new model may be worse in some aspects (the slim and superslim PS3s both reduced some features), so in some cases the old models might still be somewhat more desirable to certain buyers.

The rumours are that this revision will be different though, as it will be the first time a mid-gen revision will actually make the console faster, so who knows what will happen? perhaps the new one will be priced way higher, perhaps the old one will drop to a budget level, perhaps a new budget model will be introduced etc...

Most of the rumours point towards a big performance and graphical increase (4k and 60FPS); I'd be inclined to believe this, given the criticism both consoles received at launch for not being able to do either (well, no 60FPS @ 1080P).

As others have said OP, wait for E3. There will be plenty of consoles appearing on Ebay if you don't mind a second hand one; that will get you best bang for buck.

[Monty Python]

I'd be surprised if any of the consoles can manage 4K @ 60fps without downgrading quality - even the new 1080 can't manage it.

[robemcdonald]

Monty Python said:

I'd be surprised if any of the consoles can manage 4K @ 60fps without downgrading quality - even the new 1080 can't manage it.

What's a 1080?

[Moog72]

robemcdonald said:

What's a 1080?

I think he's referring to the new PC graphics card released recently or in the very near future - the NVidia 1080 GTX. Nothing to do with consoles

[Vitorio]

Monty Python said:

I'd be surprised if any of the consoles can manage 4K @ 60fps without downgrading quality - even the new 1080 can't manage it.

They *might* be able to render current games at that res, so no increased texture res or polycount etc..

But yeah, im sceptical as well, current consoles dont cut it for 1080p for most games (exceptions are available off course), 4K is 4 times the pixels..

[Steve Evil]

There is an update to the PS4 coming out this year, currently code-named Neo, I don't think it will be capable of 4k at 60FPS, the idea is that it will have the potential for outputting to 4k and will achieve higher framerates than the current model. It will also allow for greater performance with Playstation VR when that arrives in October (expect both to launch at the same time). You may remember the PSVR was originally code-named Morpheus, so they're going along the Matrix line with these code-names.

The PS4K or whatever it ends up being called will likely come with the ability to play 4K Blu-Rays, so that makes it interesting in my eyes.

[conkerman]

As a PS4 owner I would say that any time is the wrong time to buy a PS4. A deeply disappointing bit of kit. imho of course.

Spend a little more and go Gaming PC.

[Steve Evil]

conkerman said:

As a PS4 owner I would say that any time is the wrong time to buy a PS4. A deeply disappointing bit of kit. imho of course.

Spend a little more and go Gaming PC.

Not sure I agree with that, love my PS4. Seem to buy up every console and I couldn't tell you the last time my Wii U was on, Xbone saw some action over Christmas to play Rise of the Tomb Raider, but my PS4 has almost daily use.

That said, I've just forked out for a new PC with a 1080 card that should arrive next week, just like shiny bits of tech I guess. The fact that you can buy a PS4 for less than half the price of the graphics card in the PC alone says a lot.

[J-D-Stagpump]

I have the money to upgrade my pc but I also know that AMD (my manufacturer of choice) are bringing out the next generation of their products. If I wait till October time I know I'll get the same upgrades for less.

With the new PS4 coming out soon I personally would wait till the 4K ps4 comes out and see what you can get in your budget then. It's a killer waiting but it'll be worth it I'm sure.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Steve Evil said:

There is an update to the PS4 coming out this year, currently code-named Neo, I don't think it will be capable of 4k at 60FPS, the idea is that it will have the potential for outputting to 4k and will achieve higher framerates than the current model. It will also allow for greater performance with Playstation VR when that arrives in October (expect both to launch at the same time). You may remember the PSVR was originally code-named Morpheus, so they're going along the Matrix line with these code-names.

The PS4K or whatever it ends up being called will likely come with the ability to play 4K Blu-Rays, so that makes it interesting in my eyes.

I'm going along with this.

I think the uprated internals will really only show on games coded to take advantage. I could be wrong of course but I think some form of control over how the extra power is used is necessary to ensure consistent experiences. I suspect all the VR games will have access to the extra power in order that the VR experience actually works.

[Monty Python]

Moog72 said:

I think he's referring to the new PC graphics card released recently or in the very near future - the NVidia 1080 GTX. Nothing to do with consoles

Who makes the GPU for consoles? AMD and Nvidia use the same technology in both so what happens in the PC GPU market has a direct impact on what ends up in consoles.

[TommoAE86]

Sorry conkerman, going to have to disagree with you there. It took my £1200 PC to unsurp my PS4 as my go-to gaming machine and while I'm happy paying 4x the price of the console others might not.

Personally I would wait too if I was in the same position and see what Sony announce at E3

[conkerman]

Fair enough, but you don't need to spend a fortune to get similar gaming performance to a PS4. A GTX960 is ample for decent performance at 1080P

Just priced up a system at £410 (Exc OS, but Steam OS/Linux can be used) Its a slow day in the office

AMD FX-4300
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3
RAM - 8GB Kit DDR3 1600 CL10
HDD - 1GB SSHD
GPU - GTX960 4GB
Case - Deepcool Tesseract
PSU - EVGA 430W 80+

You could add a DVD drive for about a tenner.

[Boring_Chris]

My guess would be a little extra power for dedicated VR stuff, the ability to play 4k Blurys, but the core system (i.e. the for use with existing and future none VR games) will remain the same.

Nobody ever upgraded their consoles mid generation.

PC's are cool but a pain in the arse. An absolute royal pain in the arse!!!

PS4 is the best of the current consoles, but even then, they're not that great. This generation is piss poor. Seriously, if I gave it any thought (and I don't want to) I could rant for hours. Piss poor. But what can you do?

I'd hang on and buy the upgraded PS4. You're not missing anything major currently, but with the VR and 4k, could be a nice little bundle of tech.

[robemcdonald]

I appreciate the effort in speccing up the PC, but it's £100 more than a ps4, doesn't have an OS and won't play uncharted 4 (which is why I wanted a ps4 in the first place).
I will wait a couple of weeks and see what is announced at E3, but as lots have mentioned I can't see how the new system can be 4K. Even if it is new software will probably still be developed on the original and upscaled.

[Steve Evil]

robemcdonald said:

I appreciate the effort in speccing up the PC, but it's £100 more than a ps4, doesn't have an OS and won't play uncharted 4 (which is why I wanted a ps4 in the first place).
I will wait a couple of weeks and see what is announced at E3, but as lots have mentioned I can't see how the new system can be 4K. Even if it is new software will probably still be developed on the original and upscaled.

Just like the 360 and PS3 were advertised as doing 1080P, they can, but the framerate is terrible. It's only rare cases that you'll have a game on the current generation machines that is 1080P and 60FPS. This new PS4 will be capable of 4k, but the framerate won't be anything to write home about.

Developers are already being asked to make sure that any future software published from October onwards will take advantage of the new functionality offered by the new machine. There are a bunch of important caveats, including, but not limited to:

1. All games must be playable on the original PS4, to stop scenarios where you need the PS4K to play them.
2. Games cannot include any new modes or features that are only available to the PS4K.

So what you'll see is games with a bit more graphical fidelity, perhaps scraping a 4k resolution, but more likely offering a nice sheen to what is on the current version, a bit like playing The Last of Us on PS3, then firing up the PS4 version. Devs will probably go back and patch certain games and I'd put money on there being a patch for Uncharted 4 to take advantage of the extra power being offered by the PS4K when it arrives.

PC developers already have to account for a huge range of graphics cards when developing their games, so having another version of the PS4 to develop for isn't going to add quite the same overhead to the development workload as a PC developer would have.

On the subject of Uncharted 4, I enjoyed it, acting was great and it was a nice finale to the series, but I have to say that Rise of the Tomb Raider was the better game overall.