Login | Register
Lost Password

A password will be emailed to you.

 

PlayStation 4 Finally Announced!

By Chuck Roquemore on 21 February 2013 in Playstation 4, PS VITA, PS3, PS4 with No Comments

So the time has come and Sony has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging Microsoft and Nintendo to compete in the Next-Gen console war!

Today at the Sony Press Event in New York City, Sony announced the PlayStation 4. This has been a long awaited announcement to see if the gaming console would finally be able to utilize the technology of today.

 

HARDWARE

So the PlayStation 4 seems to be a legit powerhouse under the hood by showing off some sexy hardware in the event today. With over 5 years of design and architecture put into the PlayStation 4, Sony believes they have finally mastered what Gamers want out of a console, and has made something that is “Developer-led, Gamer-inspire”

Of course Sony loves to make a powerful machine, but in today’s day-and-age, power is practical unlike the times 8 years ago. So the first thing on the list was a Super Charged PC Architecture that gives the developer a worthy machine that can showcase the AAA titles that developers always wanted to bring to the players. Also, an X86 CPU built into the PS4 as an 8-core processor! An Enhanced PC GPU that can showcase newer engines such as Unreal 4 to the fullest! They showed off this power by dropping a whole bunch of balls (one million approximately) on a landscape to test the physics. This didn’t seem to impress the crowd on site much at all, but my jaw dropped thinking about the possibilities of the PS4 (even though PCs could do that years ago…). 8 GB RAM has to be the most impressive enhancement to current gen consoles. If you didn’t already know, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 do everything they currently do on just 512mb RAM. So kudos to Sony to giving developers a machine that can perform on a high level! And a “massive hard drive,” We’ll see about that, especially if Sony is planning on having players download their games online.

The Dual Shock 4

When they showed off the controller on stage, it looked no different than any other PlayStation controller. But what went into it is a whole different story. The new Dual Shock is the hybrid baby of the Dual Shock 3, the PlayStation Move, and the PS Vita (weird). However, there was something I noticed briefly that was said about the design made to not rattle the controller to make it sound cheap in a sense, but at the same time enhancing the rumble factor to make the gamer feel more engaged. All for that! The controller will also “talk” to a light bar that has stereo cameras on it to help track that location and movement of the controller in real time. This could spark some interesting gameplay. Also, there is a headphone jack on the controller just like the one on the Xbox 360 currently. This is hinting toward Sony moving away from completely unreliable Bluetooth headsets that PlayStation users are currently using.

“And while you’re in there, go ahead and throw a touchpad on the front!”

I’m sure that is what the designers of the Dual Shock 4 said when coming up with the idea of a touchpad on a console game controller. No going back now, but it seems a little forced and seems to be a bit impractical. Only time will tell if I eat my words on this one, but I say it could have been left out. We’ll see how often it is used once games start coming out on the console.

Did I mention there’s a new button? A button that has never…EEEEEVVVVVER been on a controller before? Sony has added a share button to the Dual Shock 4 in order to keep gamers connected in many ways by making it easier to share photos, communicate and even live stream directly through the PlayStation 4.

The 5 Key Goals of the PlayStation 4

Sony also talked about the key goals of the PlayStation 4 and what was the driving force behind the design of this console, the interface, and the experience:

  1. Simplicity
  2. Immediacy
  3. Social
  4. Integrated
  5. Personalization

Sony is over here making up words! But I totally agree with the being social part with the partnership with Facebook and Ustream, gamer can share what they love with the world.

Remote Play

The long term goal for Sony is to make every PS4 game compatible with the PS Vita. That way, gamers can enjoy the same experience wherever they may be. It also sounded like Sony is working toward making something happen on tablet and other smart phone devices using iOS and Android.

The PS4 is NOT natively compatible with PS3 Titles

This means that all of those PS3 games that you purchased over the last 8 years are useless on the new hardware. However, Sony is looking into or exploring “advanced technologies” to make PS3 game available on any device. But that is not concrete.

Now, there was never an actual sighting of what the console will look like. Nintendo did a very similar thing with the Wii U. And no official price for the monster of a gaming console that’s coming out this Holiday 2013. Early reports say that it will start at a cheaper price than its predecessor at around a $429 price tag. If that is true, I expect a lot of people already holding their cash out in hand demanding Sony to take their money. Sony has said to be excited for E3 2013. It’s hard to know what could best a console announcement.