2013 is coming, the PS3 is not getting any younger, and rumors on the PS4 are increasing. Some people were expecting an announcement at the Tokyo Game Show this year, but that didn’t happen, so we’re now all looking toward E3 2013 for some sort of public announcement from Sony themselves.
I was discussing with a source close to Sony’s game division, and we were commenting on some random article on the web that claimed the PS4 kept changing names. As far as I can tell, there as always been only 2 somewhat “official” names for the PS4: PS4, or Orbis.
This led my source to explain the PS4 would probably not actually be named the PS4.
That was for internal reasons at Sony he couldn’t immediately remember, but after thinking for a few seconds we all reached the same conclusion: the number 4 being an unlucky number in Japan (depending on the context, it is pronounced the same way as the word death, which is why you’ll never give 4 flowers as a present in Japan, or why some buildings don’t have a 4th floor), the next Playstation will probably not be named the Playstation 4, for cultural reasons.
Will the name Orbix stick? Not sure, as this might still be an internal codename, just like the Vita was initially codenamed NGP (Next Generation Portable)
Just thought this was an interesting anecdote to share, and we will see if it turns out to be true… I mean, Final Fantasy 13 was crap, so clearly number superstitions mean something (ow, just kidding, stop throwing me those rocks! Ouch!)
(Thanks to my source, he’ll know who he is)Tweet this!