What's with all this PS4 talk all of a sudden?

I'm starting to get anxious. I want this generation to last until at least until 2011/2012

Getting rid of optical drives wont happen next generation.

Markets like Australia would be almost completely wiped out given our download speeds and capacities.

i think they cannot drop the optical drive for next generation yet. there are still wide parts of the world where most peopel don't have internet access that allows them to easily download 40-50gb games. right now most games are not that big yet, but in 2-3 years with improved graphics and sound most games will most likely fill a dual layer Blue ray.

even with 10mbit connection a 40gb download will take like 10 hours, peopel with less than 10 mbit wil need days to download a game. also even with a terrabyte hd you would only be able to fit about 20 of these games on it (and most poeple probably want space for movies and otehr things too), without optical media you would have to redownload each game once you uninstalled it.
while i think taht digital distribution will get bigger with next console generation, i don't think any console will come with an optical drive (especially with bd drives getting cheaper fast as they enter mass market more and more it will not be that bad anymore).

thay have gotta keep the blue-ray, good quality games just wont fit on dvds anymore eg. MGS 4 was 50 GB. All they have to do is make blue ray cheaper and the graphics photo-realistic.

I would expect a PS4 in 2016. Why? Well, for a start, Sony needs to win back the $3 bln they lost on the PS3. I don't expect them to launch a new console before they make a decent profit. And the PS3 could sell that long - devs will get the hang of developing for it around 2010 or 2011 so the graphics won't be much worse than the 720's. Such stuff like wifi and HDD size - that can be easily upgraded in a new SKU. And by the way, I think that the PS3 will have 2 major hardware revisions - one in 2009, second one in 2012 or so.

I know... I just turn my eyes off the forums for about half a day.. And then I see threads about PS4... Let's not be rash about this first....

1. its impossible for them to get rid of the optical drive. even if digital distribution were to hit, not everyone has the internet power or even an internet connection at all. they would be denying too many consumers.

2. the next generation won't focus on power. i daresay that the power of the next gen will only get a minor upgrade from the current gen. the wii shows us that power isn't everything.

I think the PS4 will be announced around Q3 or Q4 of 2012 @ E3 Lord willing!! It probably would be available in 2013(Wow that sounds crazy to me "2013") We're closer than you might think. Anyway, I think it would probably keep the optical drive for Blu-Ray and backward compatibility and such; and also have 1tb hard drive (maybe SSD) WOW the possibilities/graphics. I can('t) wait!!

No, but you could cook them! Sorry, I'd be loath to miss such an easy jab!

PS4 in 2016? Right.... i think you believe Sony PR too much.