Editorial: Hey MSNBC, Quit Making Sh*t up, PS4 Will Be Called PS4, Not Orbis

Nothing gets me more riled up then when big media companies think they understand technology and decide that, because they have some big title, they are now deemed as a credible source of information in that area. This sequence of thinking further expands when big media thinks it understand gaming, gaming companies, and the culture that follows. Usually, as they fall pray to false information or misconception of what the gaming landscape looks like, big publications like MSNBC will write or air articles news pieces without much fact checking or even worse, relying on a single source of information. Sadly, even if they are proven wrong, there isn’t much internal integrity to go back and address their mistake, minus Ira Glass from This American Life who did the right thing when he found out the false information they had aired on Apple. So what specifically has me going today? The fact that MSNBC just assumed now, without a single strain of evidence, that the PS4 will be released under the name of Orbis and not PlayStation 4.

It was revealed in the past week (and even we reported on rumors) that the PlayStation 4 carries the Orbis name as its internal codename. It should come as no surprise that Sony is working on the PS4 but, beyond that, anything else should be taken with a grain of salt. Now, we can’t even confirm that Orbis is a real codename as Kotaku (regular posters of fud) was later on called out as the analyst who stated the company’s source was boloney. Even if Orbis is the real deal, of course it will see its name changed when it becomes public. Every big internal project has code name attached to it to allow internal communication while keeping leaks to a minimum. Remember the NGP? Yup, that’s the PlayStation Vita now.

It’s no secret that the PSP didn’t perform as well as Sony had envisioned so while many thought the NGP might in fact be the PSP2, Sony decided to change things up and breathe new life into the handheld and set it apart from the previous version, and thus the PS Vita came into being. The core PlayStation units from Sony, however, are a different story. The PlayStation One and PlayStation 2 sold like bananza and set the bar for console sales. Despite the PS3 getting off to a slow start, the console is still one of the best Blu-ray players in the market with 3D gaming and movies, PlayStation Move and home to the industry’s leading exclusive franchises like Uncharted, God of War, Gran Turismo, and LittleBigPlanet to name a few. With now over 63 million units sold, it’s hard to call the PlayStation 3 anything but a success for Sony.

Now, the PlayStation 3, nearly 6 years into its release cycle, continues to impress both visually with new games like The Last of Us and technically with new video services and features like Vudu and Movie Unlimited. So the thought that the PlayStation brand is in need of new life is quite ridiculous. The only reason the Xbox followup was called the Xbox 360 and not Xbox 2 was that Microsoft didn’t want people to think Xbox 2 versus PS3 and assume the higher numbering scheme was indicative of quality.

So on what does Matthew Hawkins from MSNBC base his theory that the next PlayStation console will indeed be called Orbis and not PS4? Because the PS4 is rumored (and again nobody even knows this for a fact) to not support backwards compatibility with PS3 titles, which will:

reminds us how the PS3 system — which at one point was backwards compatible with PS2 games — was dropped early in its life cycle.

So it’s easy to believe Sony’s desire to “start fresh,” and lose PlayStation 4.

Yes, the PS4 will be called Orbis because if the title 4 appears, it will somehow have gamers thinking backwards compatibility, despite the PS3 not having supported for most of its life and despite most gamers buy next generation consoles to play next generation games. If that’s not enough fud, Matthew goes on to say that:

when placed alongside the name of Sony’s current handheld, the term “Orbis Vita,” or “the circle of life,” emerges.

I see, this makes total sense. Sony is now basing their entire naming strategy on placing Latin words next to each other and not on what has made the previous 3 consoles so successful. This would all be alright if Matthew didn’t write the article as if it were fact. As a journalist, you have a duty to be forthcoming to your readers and base your story on facts, not on what Kotaku may have heard. I’ve heard that the PS4 will also support flux capacitors but you don’t see me writing that into my articles, despite what my sources say. So to take rumored information and present it to one’s readers as pure fact is what makes me lose further faith in big news outlets which allow their journalists like Matthew Hawkins to write so much bullshit.

Update:

It seems a great many of you are assuming that I think the PS3 did not have backwards compatibility. Being an owner of the PS3 from launch date, I’m quite aware that the original 20GB and 60GB models offered the ‘Emotion Engine’ built in while the later 80GB model offered this via software emulation, much like the 360 did. However, seeing how for the first 2 years, the PS3 was priced above competitors and only in the last 3 years the system has been selling in large volumes, after which Sony had dropped all forms of backwards compatibility, it’s safe to say that most don’t own a PS3 which can play PS2 games, hence me writing: