Sony’s SVP Gives New Info on the PS4’s Noise Level, Power Consumption, Media Performance and More

Sony’s SVP Gives New Info on the PS4’s Noise Level, Power Consumption, Media Performance and More

Giuseppe Nelva September 24, 2013 9:43 AM EST

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and Asia Senior Vice president and Director of Business Unit 1 Masayasu Ito isn’t as well known as Shuhei Yoshida between PlayStation fans, but given his technical role he’s the best person to ask about some of the most technical aspects of the upcoming PS4. Today he gaver some extremely interesting information about the console as part of an interview on the Japanese tech site AV Watch.

Here’s a summary of the most relevant points:

While being always online is not necessary, a network connection is important to fully enjoy the features of the PS4.

The PS4 will initially act as a stand-alone web server for the PlayStation App. In the future there’s the possibility of this to be expanded through the cloud, with the PS4 and PlayStation App interacting through the cloud, allowing cooperative play between multiple players.

The secondary chip for ultra-low power operation will mostly activate at night from 1 to 4 AM and download any required update automatically. It will also activate when software is purchased through external means like the PlayStation App.

Power consumption will vary greatly depending on the performance of the game played.

The noise level of the console during operation is generally much lower than it was on the PS3.

The PS4’s cooling fan has a low noise level and stepless speed control (meaning that it will increase its speed to match heat smoothly and not in sudden steps like the one on the PS3).

Since the Blu-Ray player is 6x instead of 2x (like the one on the PS3 was), the spinning noise is actually louder. Ito-san feels it’s not annoyingly louder and it will be countered by caching data on the hard disk drive. It’ll be mostly audible during the initial spin-up.

The Audio/Video performance (for movies and music) of the PS4 will target PS3 levels at launch, but will be improved through updates, for instance with the addition of 4K, as Sony is also an Audio/Video company.

The theme of the PS4 is “Personalization”, meaning that it will offer an experience tailored to each individual.

There you have it: looks like quite a lot of thought has gone into making the PS4 easier on your ears (the stepless fan controll is a big improvement there) and on your power consumption. We’ll have to see how this will actually work in real life, but the data provided by Ito-san is definitely interesting.

(thanks Kamuymintar for the tip)