On Wednesday, February 20 Sony unveiled information about its new video game console simply entitled PS4. Along with information regarding new features, Sony showed off its upgrade to the almost 20 year old controller simply called the DualShock 4. Last of all Sony kind of threw in its updated motion control system simply titled Playstation 4 Eye. See a theme at all? What Sony did then took up over half the conference. They showed beautiful games. Not jaw dropping but definitely inspired with such new technology. Read on for the low down.
System Specifications:
➢8-Core 64-bit x86 “Jaguar” CPU by AMD
➢Radeon GPU comprised of 18 “Compute Units” Capable of 1.84 TFLOPS
➢ 802.11n Wifi
➢USB 3.0
➢ Bluetooth 3.0
➢ HDMI
➢Optical Out
➢ Legacy AVI Out (PS1, PS2 AV Cable for SDTV)
➢ No information on Storage Capacity yet
Something of note here is that the main CPU architecture is based the same as a PC. This will allow virtually any game in the future that is developed for PC to be seamlessly Ported to the PS4 and vice versa. Another key note of interest is the 8GB of GDDR5 RAM. This amount of high quality RAM will make the PS4 highly competitive with any any mid to high level PC currently in production at launch.
The Features:
With the new PS4 Sony is trying to get every single gameplay feature that current gamers love under 1 console.
➢ PSVita can play PS4 games (via Remote Play) out of the box
➢ Will not require an Online Connection (but will Suck without)
➢ Will eventually stream entire back library of PS1, PS2, and PS3 games
➢ Can play used games, but publisher can block content online
➢ Will come with PS4 Eye, capable of recognizing up to 4 players
➢ Can cross game chat
➢ Will allow you to watch a friend play a game and seamlessly join in
➢ Will allow games to be played as they are downloading
➢ Can recharge your controller while system is off
➢ Light based motion controlls will be available out of the box
➢ Has a “share” button on the conttoller for uploading videos
➢ New touchpad on controller allows pinching and zooming
➢ Full integration with Facebook (gamers will have faces!)
➢ Available holiday 2013
Media Services Available thus far:
Facebook
Playstation Plus
Netflix
Hulu Plus
Vudu
Amazon Instant Video
Crackle
Crunchyroll
NHL
MLB.tv
Epix
CinemaNow
Games Announced:
Deep Down Destiny (Capcom)
Destiny (Bungie)
Diablo 3 (Blizzard)
DriveClub (Evolution Studios)
Final Fantasy (Square Enix)
Infamous: Second Son (Sucker Punch)
Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerrilla Games)
Knack (Japan Studios)
Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red)
The Witness (Thekla, Inc)
“Everything, Everywhere,” “the fastest most powerful network for gaming in the world,” “simple,” “Personalization,” “Immediacy,” “Integrated,”
These were just words that flew out of the main screen at the beginning of the presentation. Sony addressed them as such and then gave you the information you just read. Did they succeed? Personally I cant wait to see what team Bill Gates has up its sleeve. That and E3 should be amazing this year. It is a good year to be a gamer. That is for sure.
-JJ David