Sony Computer Entertainment Executive Vice President Masayasu Ito spoke with 4Gamer to talk about future possibilities of an enhanced PlayStation 4 for Ultra HD Blu-ray compatibility.
During the recent interview, 4Gamer brings up the topic of Ultra HD Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray, and asks the Executive Vice President about Sony Computer Entertainment’s thoughts on the subject, and whether we’ll have some sort of compatibility with it in this era of the PlayStation 4.
“The Blu-ray disc drive that is currently installed in the PS4 is made exclusively for the Blu-ray disc player, so it cannot read the 3-layer media that is standardized by Ultra HD Blu-ray,” says Ito. “For this reason, the PlayStation 4 models that are out in the market cannot be compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray.”
However, Ultra HD Blu-ray compatibility is something that the company is currently considering. Ito says, hypothetically speaking, they can indeed think of a way to make it possible, by making an enhanced PlayStation 4 model that is compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray—but there’s more to it than that.
For example, “how many units of this enhanced PS4 will we be able to sell?” and “how much will we sell them for?” are just some of the questions that factor in the possibilities of making a new and improved PlayStation 4, which must carefully be examined through various perspectives. These are some of the topics that are currently in consideration.
4Gamer notes that Ultra HD Blu-ray display require 4K or UHD TVs to get the best out of it, and not many people own such high-end TV sets, so it might be a rough market to jump into; however, they don’t rule out the possibilities of perhaps seeing SCE release a cheaper PlayStation 4 model alongside a more expensive and enhanced model that is Ultra HD Blu-ray compatible, sometime in the future.
