Sony has held the line publicly regarding the PlayStation 4, but today a new rumor suggests that the next generation console from Sony could come as early 2013. According to Kotaku, an inside source has spilled the beans on what to expect from Sony in the next generation, and those details include raw power, no backwards compatibility, and no used games measures where new copies are tied to a PSN account.
The inside source supplied some basic system specifications for the unannounced console, but these could definitely change as there is plenty of time between now and holiday 2013. The chipset will include an AMD x64 CPU and an AMD Southern Islands GPU. The Southern Islands GPU moniker is attached to many of the company's high end graphics cards that are set to arrive in 2012 and beyond.
The leaker outs the next gen console as "The PS Orbis" or "Orbis", but its unknown whether this is just a codename or whether Sony will be following the lead of the PS Vita, straying from their conventional hardware names. The source also indicates that the next console's GPU will be capable of displaying games at a resolution of 4096x2160, playing 3D games at 1080p.
Development kits are already said to be in the hands of some developers, and aside from the technical specs that are shipping with the beta kits, it is said that there are a couple of features that might be industry changing inclusions.
First and foremost, similar to what was rumored out of Microsoft, Sony's next console will eliminate the used game market. Said to be built in to the console, buying a new game will lock that game to your PlayStation Network account whether it is a digital purchase or traditional boxed buy. Whether or not you'll need to be connected to the PlayStation Network during gameplay was not explained in the leak.
Of course, none of this information has been confirmed nor denied by Sony. It very well may false, things could change going forward, or it could be entirely true... its hard to tell.
