WEBVTT - Sony Strikes Back with the PS4 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:17.960 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:20.600 and I love all things tech. And if you've been 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.840 listening to the PlayStation series of episodes on tech Stuff, 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:26.880 you've heard me talk about the birth of the console 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.520 from the moment that Ken Kutaragi, who was a Sony 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.159 engineer at first and then rose to the head of 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:36.599 Sony Computer Entertainment, he first started working on the project 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:41.320 in secret, even two members of Sony's own board of directors, 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:43.559 and I went all the way up to when Ken 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:47.400 Kutaragi left the company in two thousand seven. In large 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.839 part he would totally cut ties in, but that was 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.920 after the PlayStation three had kind of a lackluster debut. 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.240 It didn't go as well as the company had expected. 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.360 In this episode, my plan is I'm going to finish 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.240 off the PS three's story, then we're gonna talk about 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.400 the PS four, and we'll conclude with the little bit 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:09.720 of information we have about the upcoming PS five, because 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.560 as of the recording of this podcast, that console has 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.759 yet to come out. So let's get started, and we're 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.959 going to backtrack just a touch to talk about the 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.119 service that Sony launched in two thousand six, so that's 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.640 one year before the father of the PlayStation would leave 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.679 the company. This was the same year that the PlayStation 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.080 three came out after a couple of delays. That was 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.160 another reason why ken Kutaragi was sort of put into 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:41.199 the back seat. It's called the PlayStation Network, and this 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:46.959 is an online service, something similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live service. 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.720 Gamers can connect to the network for downloadable content and 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:55.640 services like messaging. Xbox Live had a couple of tiers 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.160 of service. There was a free tier called Xbox Live Silver, 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:03.680 which supported some features but not stuff like online gameplay, 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.160 So if you wanted to play cooperatively or competitively online, 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.800 you needed to pay for a subscription to Xbox Live Gold. 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:16.160 The PlayStation Network was advertised as just being free of charge. 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.680 You wouldn't have to pay extra for the services, and 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.720 that would allow for online play. However, when it launched, 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:27.040 the PlayStation Network had several features that only had limited support, 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.200 indicating that even at this stage, the online capabilities of 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.480 the console were more of a reaction to Microsoft rather 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.440 than a carefully designed Sony project. And we're gonna talk 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.880 a lot more about the PlayStation network a little bit 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.440 later in this episode. So one thing that was still 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.640 going on even as late as two thousand seven, when 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.560 Ken Kutaragi would leave the company, was that Sony was 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:55.720 still producing the PlayStation two. That console originally debuted way 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.440 back in two thousand. The p S three came out 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.720 in two thousand six, and Sony would keep making the 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.240 PS two until two thousand and twelve, essentially just before 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:09.160 Sony would unveil the PS four. That's the point when 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.960 manufacturing facilities finally stopped rolling off freshly built PS two 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:17.200 consoles from the assembly lines. So even as I wrap 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.080 up the PS three story, we should keep in mind 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.200 that the PS two's tail wasn't over yet either. It 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:26.040 kept going strong, And just because the PS three had 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:30.399 a rocky start doesn't mean Sony would abandon that console 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:34.640 quickly either. Justice Sony had supported the original PlayStation and 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.440 the PS two for a decade or longer, so too 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.000 would it support the PS three. One thing I didn't 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.440 touch on in the last episode has to do with 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:48.520 people finding a good use for the cell processor. That's 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.800 the processor that Sony, Teshiba, and IBM a k A 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.520 s t I developed together for the p S three specifically, 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.680 And if you remember from my last episode about the PlayStation, 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:05.280 I mentioned Kutaragi intended the cell microprocessor architecture to service 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:09.200 the foundation for lots of other Sony products. Well, that 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:11.680 didn't really happen in a big way, but other groups 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.200 found uses for the tech that went well outside the 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.880 realm of video games. This story is all about how 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:22.920 researchers managed to cluge together a network of PlayStation consoles 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.039 to act as a sort of cluster computer that could 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.960 perform calculations at such a high rate that it was 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:33.159 like having access to a genuine supercomputer. And this idea 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.880 wasn't a new one. Folks had tried doing it even 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.720 back in the old PS two days with that console's 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:42.760 Emotion Engine processor. Sony had released a kit that allowed 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.200 developers to install Linux, that's an operating system on the 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.200 PS two for the purposes of coding games, But that 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.479 meant that you could code lots of other stuff too, 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:56.719 and engineers at the National Center for super Computing Applications 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.920 or in c s A tried to turn a bunch 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.760 of PS two game systems into a computing cluster. See, 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:10.159 supercomputers are incredibly expensive to make. Even renting time on 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:12.680 a supercomputer is pricing, and there are a lot of 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.359 different research projects that could benefit from having access to 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.280 that sort of processing power. Using PlayStation two consoles, which 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.640 were insanely cheap in comparison to a supercomputer, would be 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:28.159 an amazing workaround. But the researchers found that the PS 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.880 two wasn't really suited for that kind of work, and 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.839 they frequently encountered problems, particularly with system memory, that made 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.960 the PS two sort of a non viable option. But 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.159 then the PS three came along and the story changed. 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.440 The initial PS three's seemed ideal for the supercomputer treatment. 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.800 It was easier to load Linux on them, they didn't 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.520 have the same memory issues. Soon you had research organizations 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.039 around the world sweeping up PS three consoles, not to 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.839 play games, but in order to run complex processes such 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:03.960 as simulations about black holes. I'm not kidding. They really 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.640 were used to do this. That's what the University of 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:10.600 Massachusetts Dartmouth researcher garov Kana did. He worked for several 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.040 weeks developing the code that would allow him to network 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:17.360 together multiple PS three's and use them like a supercomputer 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.799 in order to run scientific calculations related to black hole research. 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:26.240 That is some seriously cool tech. Ultimately, he was able 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.360 to connect one hundred seventy six PS three consoles to 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.800 act like a supercomputer, gaining access to computational processing power. 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.440 This team wouldn't otherwise never had access to it. Just 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.679 black hole research isn't one of those areas that gets 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.560 tons of funding thrown at it, so they have to 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.000 make a little money go a long way, and this 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:46.480 was one of the ways they were able to do it. 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.039 And he wasn't the only one doing this. Not only 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.760 were other research facilities trying out similar approaches. The United 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:57.320 States military was as well. The Air Force Research Laboratory 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.520 built one of the largest networks of PS threes in 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.640 a project called Condor Cluster. But this project launched in 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.559 two thousand nine. That was right around the same time 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.120 Sony was making some decisions that made everything much more 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.880 difficult if you wanted to make a computer cluster LPs 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:19.760 three's see like other PlayStation consoles, Sony would release several 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.400 updated models of the p S three, and the newer 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:29.120 versions were typically slimmer and smaller, and sometimes had new features, 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.800 or in a few cases, sometimes they got rid of 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.320 old features that Sony no longer wanted to support. The 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:38.840 newer PIECEPS three models, the ones that were coming onto 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.800 store shelves around the time that Condor Cluster was getting started, 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.880 wouldn't let you load Linux on them the way the 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.239 old ones did. Sony had removed that capability, and even 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.360 the old consoles were affected if they had been connected 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.920 to Sony's online services because the company had released a 0:07:55.000 --> 0:08:00.000 firmware update that nullified the Linux solution on those old consoles. 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.640 So when a project like Condor Cluster comes along, everyone 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.800 working on it was left searching for older PS three 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.000 consoles that had not been updated. They hadn't had that 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.720 firmware update installed on them. Sony had a warehouse of 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:19.280 a pretty hefty collection of older PS three's that were 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:23.720 sitting in Chicago, Illinois, and initially the company's intention was 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:26.440 to recall all those old consoles. They weren't going to 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.560 let them go onto the market at all. Representatives from 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.960 the US Air Force had to actually convince executives at 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:36.680 Sony to sell off those old consoles to Condor Cluster, 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:40.160 rather than just recalling them. Apparently it took a few 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.840 phone calls and meetings to make this happen. Now, ultimately, 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:48.319 Condor Cluster did take off pun intended, and it did 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:53.559 so with one thousand, seven hundred sixty PlayStation three consoles, 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.800 so ten times the number that were used to research 0:08:56.840 --> 0:08:59.080 black holes, and these were all wired together to form 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.880 the backbone or the Condor Cluster system. The arefore stated 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.280 that the intended uses for the system included radar enhancement, 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:11.880 AI research, and satellite image recognition processes. It was also used, 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:16.160 at least reportedly to analyze images collected by surveillance drones. 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.920 So um, this isn't a period of American history that 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.520 gets kind of dicey, especially when it talks about, you know, 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.880 drone surveillance and and potentially attack drones. But anyway, at 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.679 the time of the systems unveiling, it was estimated to 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:32.640 be the third most powerful supercomputer in the world, although 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.240 other reports disputed that and said it was much further 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.800 down the list, ranking it around number thirty five for 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.160 fastest supercomputers. Though I guess you could also make an 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:46.120 argument that powerful and fast are two different metrics, so 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.600 it really just depends on what they were actually measuring, 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:53.040 and neither of the press releases I found got into specifics. Anyway, 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.319 I should use the past tense for Condor Cluster because 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.240 that project ended around two thousand fifteen. By that time, 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:05.000 other computing model power capabilities were outstripping what seventred or 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.000 so PS three's could do. The Air Force would donate 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.640 some of the p S three's to other research projects, 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.000 and then they sold off the rest. And there are 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.160 some projects that still use PS three's to help run processes, 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:18.080 but a lot of those projects have then moved on 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:21.240 to different approaches in processing or moved operations into the 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.680 cloud for example. Just turned out that the rest of 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.320 computing power kind of caught up and then surpassed the 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:33.240 PS three, making it less useful. In two thousand seven, 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.200 the same year that kN Kutaragi would leave Sony, the 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.199 company introduced the PlayStation I periph role for the p 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.000 S three. Now you might remember that when I was 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.199 talking about the PS two that the company experimented with 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:49.160 a webcam PERIPH role called Eye Toy. Well, in many ways, 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:54.480 the PlayStation I was the next generation of that webcam technology. 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:56.880 It could capture video at a higher frame rate, which 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.240 means more frames per second that gives you a much 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:03.040 more smooth video quality, and also had a higher resolution 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:06.000 than the earlier Eye Toy. It also had a more 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.480 sophisticated microphone than the earlier Eye Toy. And on the 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:13.600 software side, Sony included facial recognition support, which the company 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:18.800 claimed could only recognize faces and expressions, but also recognize 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.319 the orientation of a face, such as where you are 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.559 looking at any given time, kind of like a very 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:28.400 primitive version of eye tracking technologies. One year after Kutaragi left, 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.440 so we're talking around two thousand eight. At this point, 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.760 Sony would release the dual Shock three controller, which officially 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.840 replaced the six axis controller. The dual Shock three was 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:43.480 essentially a six axis controller with rumble motors. So if 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.320 you listen to the last episode in this series, you'll 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.000 remember Sony released the six axis itself was a last 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:54.080 minute replacement for a boomerang shaped controller that was never released, 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.560 but they released it without a vibrating motor because there 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:04.400 was this big intellectual property lawsuit that was leveled against Sony. 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.120 But by two thousand and eight that lawsuit had been settled, 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.720 and so the little vibrating motors were back in the controllers, 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.319 restoring haptic feedback to the PlayStation line. And while we're 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.040 on the subject of controllers, Sony would introduce a new 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.119 type of controller in two thousand nine. It's the Move controller, 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.520 which looks a bit like a handheld microphone or maybe 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.080 a flashlight. At the end of the device is a 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.600 small globe which can light up many different colors thanks 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.960 to an LED on the end of the gadget. It's 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.400 meant to work with the PlayStation I the webcam that 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.920 I had mentioned earlier, So the PlayStation I could detect 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.040 the globe at the end of a Move controller and 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:46.600 track it in three dimensions, so not just up, down, 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.320 and left right with respect to the view of the camera, 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.560 but also closer or further away from the camera, because 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.880 it could detect how the size of the globe was changing, 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:57.880 whether or not it was coming closer to the camera 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.640 further away. In addition, the Move has a pair of 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.840 sensors in it inside the controller itself that tracked changes 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.640 in movements, so it could measure stuff like a change 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.400 in the angle it was held or in rotation, and 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.480 I could dedicate an entire episode to all the sensors 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.000 and technologies that make the Move controller work, but that's 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.000 gonna wait for a later date. We're going to stick 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.679 to the consoles for now. So in addition to this 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:26.640 wand like controller, Sony also released a companion controller called 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.679 de PlayStation Move Navigation Controller. You would hold this one 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.720 in your other hand, presumably you would hold the Move 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.720 controller in your dominant hand, and the navigation controller has 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.520 buttons and a thumbstick on it to give players and 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:44.040 game developers more options when it comes to game interface 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.840 and controls. The Move was in many ways a response 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:51.719 to Nintendo Wee's success that we had launched in two 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.480 thousand six, and the novel motion based control system was 0:13:55.600 --> 0:14:00.360 an enormous breakout hit among an audience that traditionally wasn't 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.960 really into video games. So these were all the casual 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.000 gamers and the non gamers who went crazy for the Wii. 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:10.120 Microsoft would have its own gesture based motion control system 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:14.360 to connect, but that would launch a year after PlayStation Move, 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.160 so Sony got the jump on Microsoft even though they 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.560 were trailing behind Nintendo. The Move would also play a 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.000 part in a future VR system for the PS four, 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.160 but I'll get to that in just a moment. In 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:38.960 the meantime, let's take a quick break. At the three conference, 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:44.160 Sony announced it was launching an online service called PlayStation Plus, 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:48.720 built on top of the PlayStation network. PlayStation Plus introduced 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.280 a subscription based element to Sony's online platform. The subscription 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.760 would give gamers access to free content each month, or 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.880 really not free content, is rather content that was included 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.360 in the subscription fee each month because you were paying 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:08.040 for this stuff, but that included game titles. So let's 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.640 say you'd picked up a PS three, but you never 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.560 got around to buying that one launch title. Well, there 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:15.840 was a chance that Sony might make that very game 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:20.000 available for download one month on the PlayStation Plus program, 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:21.800 and you could just snag it. Then you wouldn't have 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:23.800 to buy it yourself. You just get that as part 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.840 of the subscription service. All it took in return was 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.840 that monthly subscription, and when a debut, it cost forty 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:34.560 nine cents for a year of service in the US. Now, 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.480 some months you'd say, Wow, this is incredible. I got 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.480 a great game or a couple of games on this 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.080 month's PlayStation Plus. Some months you'd say, wow, I never 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.600 want to play that game. Ever, but I guess I've 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.760 got it now. Same thing is true with Microsoft's service. 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.000 By the way, it's not like Sony's alone in this. 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.680 A year later, in two thousand and eleven, the PlayStation 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:01.040 network was the target of an intrusive AC, meaning an 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:05.480 unauthorized person or group of persons managed to penetrate Sony's 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.640 network security, and they gained access to an enormous amount 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.360 of information, including the personal data of around seventy five 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:18.560 million PlayStation network users. The attacks started around April seventeen, 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.760 two thousand eleven. Sony would shut down the network on 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.560 April twenty so, three days later, and it would remain 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:30.480 offline a total of twenty three days, the longest outage 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:34.600 in the network's history. Making matters worse was that Sony 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:39.760 admitted that while credit card information was encrypted, other personal 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:45.120 identifying information wasn't, which meant the hackers potentially had access 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:51.360 to millions of users personal information in plain text data. 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.920 As for who committed the hack today, that still remains 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.760 a big mystery. According to Sony, the company had reason 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.720 to believe that the people connected with online activist group 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:07.919 Anonymous were responsible, but Anonymous denied responsibility. However, This is 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:14.400 incredibly tricky because Anonymous is a largely decentralized organization. In fact, 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:19.600 calling it an organization might be a little bit um 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.719 misleading because Anonymous is historically more like a group of 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:28.960 hackers and activists, anarchists and troublemakers who share some but 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.560 not all, points of view. So there's not even a 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:38.560 unifying ethos or philosophy and Anonymous um other than you know, 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:42.480 big companies and big organizations shouldn't have that much control 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:47.080 over everybody. That's generally a kind of unifying theme, but 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.439 there's a lot of splintering within that group. At the time, 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.440 the general wisdom was that Anonymous had a motive to 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.360 hack Sony because the company had recently filed a massive 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.080 lawsuit against a packer named George Hotts a k a. 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.879 Geo hots. He had found a way to alter a 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:10.720 PlayStation three so that it would play pirated or unauthorized software, 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.040 and then he published how to do it, and Anonymous 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:16.080 was largely on the side of the hacker. However, the 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:18.720 entire matter had been settled out of court by the 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.720 time the PlayStation network hack happened, and as far as 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:25.440 I can tell, no one has ever been positively identified 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:29.480 as truly being responsible for that hack, so that person's 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:35.080 identity remains a mystery, or those persons identities because it 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.880 could be multiple people. The hack and corresponding data leak 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.560 would prompt the U S Government to call upon Sony 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:44.440 executives to explain what the company would do for all 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.919 those who were affected by the breach, and Sony arranged 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.879 to offer identity theft protection policies essentially insurance policies against 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:55.960 identity theft, with a company called all Clear i D 0:18:56.240 --> 0:19:00.240 to everyone affected. The hack set Sony back up pretty any. 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.880 The estimates on losses went around the hundred and seventy 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:08.840 million dollar range, which is a princely sum. Indeed, and 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.560 the US was not the only country to call Sony 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.000 to task for this. The UK did as well as 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:17.359 did other places. Now, before we move on to talk 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.119 about the PS four, I do want to say that 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:24.600 several predictions made by Sony executives, such as Kutaragi's replacement 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.880 Katsu Horai, ended up being true. Harai said in interviews 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:33.000 that while developing for the PS three was definitely complicated, 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.920 that it really was hard to make great games for 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.879 the p S three. He said it would lead to 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.760 really incredible games as long as developers took the time 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:45.399 to learn how to do it now. I mentioned in 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:47.600 the last episode that if you do a side by 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.920 side of the first Uncharted game and Uncharted three, both 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:55.960 of which were developed four and debuted on the PlayStation three, 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.760 you'll see a world of difference despite the fact that 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:02.280 they're but two games that are playing on the exact 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:06.120 same hardware. The same is true for the last huge 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:08.679 title to come out on the p S three. That 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:11.399 would be the last of us. So yeah, the PS 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:13.760 three had a pretty rocky start, and a lot of 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.760 gamers and game developers and game journalists criticized Sony for 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:21.480 putting out an expensive console, missing a launch date in 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.480 the process, and it was hard to code for than 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.960 other systems, and they all said, or not all, but 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:30.520 many of them said, this is a recipe for them 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.520 to fail. However, in the long run, the PS three 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:36.560 would prove to be a very strong system and it 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.440 would sell enough units to rest second place away from 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.600 Microsoft in the console wars. For the seventh generation of consoles, 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:47.720 Nintendo's we was still in a league of its own. 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.119 It was still in first place with a bullet, but 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.240 Sony PlayStation three would take second place, and this is 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:58.600 despite the fact that the uh the Xbox three sixty 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:02.600 had a heads art of like half a year or 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:07.320 more really over the PS three, So that that's food 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.040 for thought right there. It also helps that Sony supported 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:14.080 the PS three for more than a decade. Now for 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.840 the PS four, the company would serve again. Now, I 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:21.160 don't know how much input Kutaragi had on the development 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.119 of the PS four, He surely was working on it 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:27.040 by the time he decided to leave the company. However, 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.680 game systems are in development for years before they debut, 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.240 and the PS four would launch in North America in 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:38.240 two thousand and thirteen, so six years after Kutaragi left. Now, interestingly, 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:41.679 it wouldn't debut in Japan until early two thousand and fourteen, 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.080 so it might have been because of PS three sales 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.600 in Japan and Sony you didn't want to hurt a 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:51.680 good thing. Now, I would imagine that had Kutaragi had 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.480 a large influence in the development of the PS four, 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:57.440 it would have taken further steps down the same path 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.920 that the PS three had established. But instead, the p 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:06.280 S four's architecture was much more like a standard personal computer. 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:09.760 In fact, it would be extremely similar to the architecture 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.440 used in Microsoft's Xbox one. And here's where, yet again 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:18.199 I complain about Microsoft's naming conventions. The Blaze station is 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.679 sensible because Sony just adds a higher number with each generation, 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:24.880 so it's very easy to talk about them. Meanwhile, over 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:28.879 at Microsoft we get Xbox, the Xbox three, six D, 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:35.000 the Xbox one, the Xbox Series X. Knock it off, Microsoft, 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:39.080 There's no way to meaningfully talk about generations of consoles 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:41.200 with these sort of names. And I say that as 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:45.959 someone who tends to play more Microsoft consoles than Sony consoles. 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.359 Get your act together, all right? Also, what happened to 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:52.679 Windows nine? Why don't we go from eight to ten? Anyway, 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:55.080 this isn't an episode about Microsoft. I'll get back to 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:59.800 the Sony now. This design decision was deliberate by so 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:03.720 many engineers and executives. The company used components manufactured by 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:07.159 Microprocessor Company a m D. So under the hood, the 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:10.080 PS four is similar to a typical personal computer, but 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:13.400 during development it did have a more mysterious code name 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:17.840 at least orbis. Now what this means in a practical 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:21.280 sense is that developing games for the PS four was 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:24.639 more straightforward. It was easier than developing them for the 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:28.200 PS three and taking full advantage of the PS three's capabilities. 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:31.480 It was also easier to develop a game for multiple 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:34.600 platforms because the differences between the PS four and the 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:38.600 Xbox One weren't so great that it would be an 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:42.480 enormous strain on a game development company. So for companies 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:45.520 that were looking to maximize their sales by reaching as 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:48.640 many gamers as possible, it was much easier to port 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:52.280 a title over from one platform to another in this generation. 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:54.760 On the downside, this would mean that there would be 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:58.800 fewer features that really distinguished the PS four from its 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:02.600 chief competitor, and it's also why the research organizations that 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:05.960 have been using PS three consoles didn't show any interest 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:08.120 in using the PS four in the same way, because 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:11.800 the new console didn't offer any substantial benefits over a 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:14.960