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While the Playstation 3 has been designed from the outset as a multimedia console for games, video and music, was again mainly the gaming in the foreground for Sony in the development of the Playstation. 4 Meanwhile, there are at Sony considerations for a new version of the Playstation 4, which is also suitable for playing back Ultra HD Blu-ray discs.
In an interview with the Japanese magazine "4 Gamer" said Sony Computer Entertainment's Executive Vice President Masayasu Ito that at present the possibilities for Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc support would investigated. These are not yet at an early stage. So there is still no concrete plans for a Playstation 4 with Ultra HD Blu-ray drive. Ito also stressed that while the question of costs is relevant. So both the sale price and the sales expectations would have to be taken into account when such a decision.
Sony has announced a price cut for the PlayStation 4 from 399 to 349 EUR in Germany just in the last week and thus performs the usual strategy, initially to lower after the introduction of a new console generation costs through new revisions and with a lower selling price, the console also over the competition to make attractively priced.
Since the current Playstation 4 not yet enough has neither a drive for the new Ultra HD Blu-ray discs with 66 and 100 GB of storage processing power for HEVC / H.265 decoding at 60 Hz, would for a new PS4 revision with new technology arise initially back costs. Since Sony in the Playstation 4 is a x86 architecture with AMD CPU and graphics processor uses additional and dedicated HEVC / H.265 decoder now are already cheaper, but these costs hurdle could soon diminish in importance.
Although Sony itself is involved in the development of ultra-HD Blu-ray in the Blu-ray Disc Association, there has been no statement from the company to support the format. Unlike Samsung and Panasonic were shown at IFA still no prototype.
In addition to the Ultra HD Blu-ray itself Ito shows also open for further technological innovations in the Playstation 4: So Ito confirmed in the interview also that support for HDR and Dolby Atmos are also currently being considered for the Playstation 4 under consideration. But here it must be emphasized that this is not yet dealing with concrete plans but only initial thoughts.