Curiously, a Digital Foundry article has appeared on the Portugese version of Eurogamer that claims – it appears – that the PS4’s operation system reserves 3.5GB of the system’s 8GB total [via] – that’s nearly half if the post is to be believed.

The article’s language means it’s difficult to translate accurately, although there’s a Google one here. It’s also difficult to pin down a source – and screenshots in the article point to the recent Killzone presentation – so at the moment take this with a pinch of salt.

Both the PS4 and Xbox One will launch with 8GB – although the PS4’s is faster – but both with significantly lower than that amounts for actual games, leveling the playing field somewhat. The Xbox One reserves 3GB, by the way, effectively giving Microsoft’s console a little more room to breath.

A difference presumably only used in first party exclusives.

Update: it’s now available in English. It also states there’s a 1GB ‘flexible memory’ section that developers (which seems to be limited to first party studios just now, it appears) can claw back “only if the background OS can spare it.”

The article cites a “a well-placed development source” so it’s presumably not based off the old Killzone slides. Chances are this is part of the current dev documentation which somebody has passed onto Eurogamer. Sony haven’t made an official comment yet.