Sony naming next Playstation console the ‘Orbis’ ?

Rumours are circulating that Sony may call the next Playstation console the ‘Orbis', rather than simply Playstation 4. Developers have apparently already received the SDK's.

Kazuo Hirai will be taking over as Sony President on April 1 and according to insiders he seems to have a more aggressive thinking on the release. His history is obviously based on the console platform, so it is obvious that his mindset will still be focused on this sector as a primary revenue stream for the company.

Various sources claim that the upcoming console will be focused as a multimedia hub, to counter whatever Microsoft might be planning with the Xbox 720 (name not confirmed). Motion sensing technology is a must and cross platform game support with the Vita handheld.

Kotaku spoke to an unnamed source who said the name of the console will be the ‘Orbis'. They said “The details in this story come from a reliable source who is not authorized to talk publicly about next-gen hardware but has shared correct information with us before. What they're telling us in specifics matches much of what we've heard and reported in generalities in recent weeks.”

If you combine this name with VITA, to get Orbis Vita, it means ‘Circle of Life'.

The source confirmed the specifications, which have already been discussed. An AMD x64 CPU and an AMD Southern Islands GPU. There was mention of AMD's support for BlueStacks. This is an Android emulator for Windows 7 which means the user can purchase and use Android Apps from four available markets, or even import these apps from their smartphone.

The AMD GPU can reportedly support games at a resolution up to 4096×2160, far past the range of current 1080p televisions (1920×1080). This means they are preparing for the launch of 4k television sets which should become the standard in 2013/2014. The GPU can handle 3D gaming at 1080p, according to the early reports. We would expect this would be more like 720p.

Kotaku add “We've heard from multiple sources that the Orbis will likewise have some kind of anti-used games measures built into the console. Here's how our main source says it's currently shaping up: new games for the system will be available one of two ways, either on a Blu-Ray disc or as a PSN download (yes, even full retail titles). If you buy the disc, it must be locked to a single PSN account, after which you can play the game, save the whole thing to your HDD, or peg it as “downloaded” in your account history and be free to download it at a later date.”

We can imagine this won't be warmly received by the gaming audience.

Kitguru says: We would expect to see the Playstation 3, or Playstation Orbis sometime in 2013, perhaps at E3 2013, which will be big news as it could possibly be featured along with the new Xbox console.

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