Breaking: First Official PlayStation 4 Details

February 20, 2013 - 4:08pm

Update: The event ended without showing the console itself. More importantly, we now have a solid official release date: Holiday 2013.

Original Story:
As expected, Sony’s February 20th event witnessed the official PlayStation 4 announcement.

Sony started the event by reaffirming its commitment to PlayStation Vita and PSN before acknowledging that there is demand for a new platform.

The company made it clear that it has learned from PlayStation 3’s greatest pitfalls, and hence it made sure to make PlayStation 4 as developer-friendly as possible. Developers’ input was shaped all aspects of the console from its hardware specs to its software, tools and programming APIs.

To that end, Sony used a familiar X86 CPU and a “super charged” PC GPU as the main components at the heart of PlayStation 4. The console will ship with 8GB high speed GDDR5 RAM and a (large) hard drive of yet unspecified size. To showcase PlayStation 4’s strength, Sony showed an impressive Unreal Engine-powered graphics demo and a physical simulation of 1 million bodies that were all simulated using “a fraction of the GPU.”

Just like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 will be a multi-purpose entertainment device with more focus on transparent social integration and interaction with different devices such PlayStation Vita and (hopefully) smartphones and tablets. But don’t get fooled: PlayStation Vita is “PlayStation 4’s ultimate companion device.” Sony’s as of today, most PlayStation 4 games can be streamed and played through PS Vita, with the company’s long term goal being to enable that functionality for all PS4 games.

Sony also confirmed that the controller we’ve seen a few days ago is indeed the PlayStation 4 controller. Special attention was given the controller’s “Share” button which Sony claimed to be a revolutionary feature that was never possible on consoles before. Regardless of the validity of this claim, using the Share button, PlayStation 4 players will be able to let their friends watch them play in real time. Friends are also able to comment and write notes on your PlayStation 4 game’s interface directly (if you allow them to, that is). Even more, friends can drop items and supplies at certain in-game locations if the developer allows it.

The company also confirmed that PlayStation 4 is not backward compatible natively and that it is investing in cloud computing technologies that would make all PlayStation 1, 2 and 3 games playable.

Comments

whatever, in the horsepower

whatever, in the horsepower race the PC is always ahead because the PC is always innovating. Consoles always stagnate, it's the nature of what they are; a compromise so poor people can afford to play games too. Did you sign your post as 'worthless fanboy' or are you accusing him of being a worthless fanboy?

As far as I hate consoles I

As far as I hate consoles I have to admit I'm glad Sony finally realized that a beefy CPU without anything else does not make good graphics. This look like something much more balanced this time. Of course they could have boosted the spec higher.. but they want to get mainstream right from the start after their PS3 launch mistake and I think they might have found the good spot.

RAM

x86 with 8GB RAM? or 8GB VRAM? If it where possible to reference 8GB RAM with an X86 CPU why haven't we seen it on PC? And why am I bugged by this? I should be complaining about a stupid share button, it'll be the most underutilised button ever... we can hope

sss

They think it's awesome to have a share button. God.... share gameplays?! Why would I want to share that? I want to play, vs mode and coop mode, watch movies, chat, consult the internet, facebook and stuff but not that...

so thats it then...

so thats it then..., gaming is turning into some facebook bullshit... and everything is online... no hacking, fucking or anything........... guess i will not need one. besides why the hell is the World going backward the cell should have been coupled since all that efforts went into making it energy efficient etc. I'm having trouble understanding what is wrong with PS3. I mean as technology starts to max out where you can barely realise the difference even in graphics, the days of the old ps1 to ps2 (big leap or improvements) is long gone. only the wii needed to be updated because it was so weak in terms of power. Well i say good luck, these lot just want to sell a new hardware to people but some of us are still going thru recession and cant afford the new bullshit or want ot need it either... just look at the sales of the wii U, they thought all 100million plus wii owners will run to the shops and empty the shelves and throw away a good working wii, while nintendo line their pockets.... what dumb ass gave them that idea. The grandad dont give a shit he is happy with his atari green screen titles, the mother is still trying to lose the child baring flab blobby belly (weight) on her wii fit, and she dont give a shit about wiiU........ same thing with 3DS, nintendo need to understand, just because they got lucky with the popularity with brain training and the like... remember these game have no end so can keep going, its not like finish the game after 60 hrs and take it to a secondhand shop or ebay... well things are changing and some one else will do a Sega on us soon................could be nintendo!

Facebookware.. well said. But

Facebookware.. well said. But the scariest part is when they say the following: 'The long-term goal of PS4 is to reduce download times of digital titles to zero: if the system knows enough about a player to predict the next game they will purchase, then that game can be loaded and ready to go before they even click the 'buy' button,". Say hello to limited bandwidth fees!

Well I liked what I saw, and

Well I liked what I saw, and it will be nice having my friend watch me play a game and talk to them at the same time while I show'em how it done. Then smack talk them when I watch them try to do the same. One platform can't do it all so until then not one platform is better.

"investing in cloud computing

"investing in cloud computing technologies that would make all PlayStation 1, 2 and 3 games playable." So in other words... We're a bunch of Wii loving fags who want to bank on the idea that people are willing to over pay for games that they have already played... we also wanted to make it so you can't go out and buy these games for cheap at game stores.... Fuck GayStation and their shit box of old technology. Silver Bells bitch.

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