Sony Reveals PlayStation 4

(The Verge) – Sony Computer Entertainment revealed during a press event yesterday that their newest console will be called the PlayStation 4 and will be released this holiday season. During the event, Sony made several announcements about the system, including hardware details, social networking integration, and a slew of new games. You can watch the entire event on the official Playstation site.

In terms of hardware specs, the PS4 will sport an 8-core 64-bit x86 “Jaguar” CPU, as well as 8 GB of unified memory, an “enhanced PC” GPU, and a built-in hard drive. The PS4 will also feature a second chip which will allow users to suspend the system in a low power mode and resume exactly from where they left off.  In addition, the second chip will used for downloading and streaming media, letting users start playing a game as soon as it begins downloading. The PS4 will also be able to predict the user’s purchasing habits and preload games that they are likely to purchase.

Sony revealed the controller to the PlayStation 4 and named it The Dualshock 4. While relatively similar to the previous Dualshock controllers, the Dualshock 4 features a touchpad, a new “Share” button, and an LED light bar used to identify players. The share button can be used to broadcast gameplay on streaming sites such as UStream, as well as uploading images and gameplay videos to Facebook.  The controller also contains a built-in microphone and a headphone jack. Although the PS4 will not support the Dualshock 3, the PlayStation Move controller will be used for certain games.

The PS4 will utilize the Gaikai cloud gaming service to stream games, allowing players to try out games before purchasing them. Sony announced plans to eventually let players stream games from the PlayStation, PS2, and PS3 libraries, replacing the backwards compatibility feature found in previous iterations of the console. Streaming games can also be done using a PlayStation Vita, where PS4 games can be played on the Vita using the “remote play feature”.

Sony spent the remainder of the press event showing gameplay demos and trailers for upcoming PS4 games. While some of the games shown were announced previously, such as Watch_Dogs, Bungie’s new game, Destiny; and Braid creator Jonathan Blow’s The Witness, Sony unveiled several new games for the first time. A live demo for Killzone: Shadow Fall was shown during the conference and immediately posted on the game’s Facebook button using the share button. Other new games included Knack, inFamous: Second Son, Capcom’s Deep Down, and Driveclub. A representative from Square-Enix came out on stage and announced that a new game in the Final Fantasy series is in development for the system, and an employee from Blizzard revealed a version of Diablo III for PS4 as well as the PS3. Finally, members from Bungie announced that the PS4 version of Destiny will contain exclusive content. Sony concluded the event by announcing that the PS4 will be released this holiday season, and that further details about the system will be revealed in the future.
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