as the title has stated the ps3 may be setting up the ps4 for global domination in sales, sort of like the wii is doing as i speak. first off it is 5 am and i am in the state of mind of thoughtful thinking, i am alittle out of it, and this sort of just came to me as i am writing this.

now ps4....we have no idea of what its actually going to be, hardware wise. but i am going to make assumptions that i find to be the course of action sony will take. so here is what i think the ps4 will be, it will be a ps3 but beefed up on steroids if you will. it will double/triple the ps3's current power, no not how much power it uses but its capabilities. the cell2 will just be a stronger cpu/gpu and of course more ram. and i do believe they will keep blu-ray till the end of next gen (unless forced otherwise by say nintendo or microsoft) built in wifi is a must. a starting hard drive of say....200gb. and i am sure that the PSN will be greater than or equal to xbox live at this point. probably an optional motion controller, sort of like the wiimote.

this will make the ps4 not only cheaper out of the gate (i see a starting point of $299, atleast i believe it will) but game developers that have worked on the ps3 will already have a clue on how to handle the ps4, assuming not much changes with the cell2 in means of developing a game with it, meaning more 3rd party exclusives or timed exclusives (but this is assuming microsoft and nintendo both take a leap in their hardware making it alittle more difficult to develop on). blu-ray will be alot cheaper. with all that sony could probably afford full B/C in all models/sku's which is infact a big selling point to costumers.

again i am in the lack of sleep and came up with this radical idea. but who knows this could be the way sony goes. do not flame me or bash me just share your thoughts and opinions in a nice fashion.

I am imagining your avatar is youwhen you say it's "5am... I'm a little out of it"

 you are indeed correct my good sir. and thanks for contributing to my seemingly pointless thread -_-;

Is that actually you then?

I thought it was the guy from "Skins" (I see you are not from the UK, not sure if you will have heard of Skins then)

Here he is:

 lol yeah its actually me.

and no clue what "skins" is. care to elaborate?

I was thinking along the same lines as you. Whilst MS want marketshare, Sony are setting up for the next gen. I was reading an article on N4g which says the next Cell chip will have 4 Cell processors with all 8 SPE's working and this time the RAM for GPU and CPU may be similar to that of the 360 where it can be distributed to whatever requires more RAm at the time. (I'll try find the article and post it for you).

Here is the Link: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/playstation-4-everything-you-need-to-know-464657

They have the foundation over a chip to which its successors will be more powerful then the Larrabee (cant be asked spelling it), meaning, next gen they won't need to spend half the money on the Cell, they will already have BR, so again money will be saved.

The PS3 is only laying the foundation to what is to come next gen. Even Home is an indication to future planning as well as the whole concept of one in all console and entertainment centre. If the quality of the PS3 is anything to go by, the PS4 will be awesome and I don't think Ninty next gen or MS will be half as successful as they were this gen.

Saying this, if Sony wants to compete, they will need to release their next gen PS before or around the same time as MS and Ninty. No more delays!

I think as soon as the next xbox comes out, so will the PS4

well you could say they're thinking about it but you have to be deluded to believe they planned that all along. They were on top twice in a row, why would they decide to "set themselves up for the PS4" when they could just sell a shitloat of PS3's?

lol that does kinda look like me. maybe he is my UK twin. maybe i will meet him at the 2012 olympics in UK :]

 no no no you get me all wrong. i do not think this was the plan along for sony, this gen caught them off guard. they made a giant leap in terms of hardware. and i think after the 2 years of this gen in the past i think the new plan has been changed to something similar i have posted. allowing them to gain top control and get all the cash back that they need to make yet another giant leap.