While talks of the next generation console is still up in the air for both Sony and Microsoft, Kotaku has unearthed some information regarding the upcoming successor to the PlayStation 3 from a “source”. Notice the double quotes since this is effectively a rumor mill.

Codenamed “Orbis“, the PlayStation 4 is expected to run on AMD x64 CPU and an AMD Southern Islands GPU (the Radeon 7000 series) and will be capable of displaying games at 4K resolutions – basically at least 4096 x 2160. Kotaku claims that Orbis – or if you prefer the longer, more complete name, Orbis Vitae – will ship in the holidays of 2013. While the report indicate that the Orbis will still retain the BluRay optical drive, it will not be compatible with existing PlayStation 3 games effectively kicking backwards compatibility outside the window.

What’s more interesting is that Kotaku’s report indicate that the PlayStation 4 will have a form of anti-used games measures built into the console. How this works is that all games, regardless of purchase (whether digital or physical) will be tied to a single PSN account. To sell the game, you’ll also need to provide access to your PSN account in order for the new owner to authenticate the game to his account. Personally, that’s a buzzkill. While it’s debatable whether or not game companies should have control over the used games market, what about late adopters? Sure, this will not be an issue if all games are available on disc as well as on PSN but if it isn’t, where else are you going to find a copy of a game that’s by a small publisher like Atlus and one that has been out of print for a while?

Now while none of the information mentioned is concrete (hence the rumor tag), killing off backwards compatibility will give the Orbis a launch window that’s worse than the 3DS and the Vita. Without a huge library of game to lure gamers and early adopters, we can expect the sales in the PlayStation 4‘s early life to be quite dismal. It is after all hard to invest in a console where you only have a handful of games to choose from.

What’s your take on this rumor? Put your thoughts in the comments below.

source Kotaku