SPECS
Tonight
at a PlayStation Conference in New York City claiming to disclose information
about the “Future of PlayStation,” Sony’s Andy House announced the PlayStation
4, proclaiming it to be the “most powerful platform ever.” Next, PlayStation 4 Lead
System Architect and video game industry veteran Mike Cerny revealed the
systems specs. The PlayStation 4 reportedly boasts an X86 CPU, enhanced PC GPU,
8GB unified memory, local storage HDD, a “supercharged” PC architecture, and
utilizes APU technology with GDDR5 memory. Unfortunately the console itself wasn't shown at all during the conference. As President of Sony Worldwide Shuhei Yoshida puts it, "...we have to save something for later."
DUALSHOCK4
Fortunately Sony did allow the unveiling of the completely redesigned
DualShock 4 controller. Some of the changes include more sensitive concave joysticks that allow for higher accuracy, a PlayStation Move-esque light bar that interacts with a stereo camera called the
PlayStation Eye, a bottom-facing headphone jack, a“Share” button, a change to more of "trigger-style" R2 and L2 buttons, and a front
facing touch input similar to the one featured on the back of the PlayStation
Vita.
GAMES
After
they had finished with the hardware section of the conference, the direction
was quickly switched to what will ultimately make or break the PS4- games.
Games shown at the conference include trailers for Jonathan Blow’s new 3D
puzzler The Witness, Mike Cerney’s action-platformer Knack, Guerilla Game’s futuristic FPS Killzone: Shadow Fall, Evolution Studio’s realistic racer Drive Club, the third
installment of Sucker Punches’ critically acclaimed franchise inFamous: Second
Son, Capcom’s working title Deep Down which was used to show off their
Next-Gen engine titled Panta Rhei, Bungie’s first cross-platform game Destiny.
Also shown was an announcement from Blizzard confirming a PS4 verion of
Diablo 3 plus a warning to look for more news at PAX East, a live demo for
Ubisoft’s technology-based open-world title Watch Dogs, a demo of Epic Games’
new Unreal Engine, and Media Molecule’s brief tech demo showing their sculpting
tool/game that utilized the PlayStation Move. Sony also included a giant image of all the 3rd party developers currently working on PS4 games, including Atlas, SEGA, 2K, Electronic Arts, and many more. Overall the game-related section
of the conference took around and hour to complete, which is pretty impressive
for a first look at next-gen games.NEW SOFTWARE
During
the presentation, Sony also made a big effort to spotlight the PS4’s new
software, especially the social aspects, with the motto “Immediate, Social,
Integrated, and Personalized.” This with shown very well through the creation
of many new socially connecting initiatives such as Facebook integration,
seamless upload of gameplay via the DualShock’s Share button, spectating
friends gameplay in real time, and integrated chat. Sony also showed off the
PS4’s raw power when combined cloud computing being led by Gaikai, a company
whom Sony acquired back in July of 2012 for approximately $380 million. With
Gaikai and PlayStation combined, it allows PlayStation Network users to
download and upload files and games in the backround via a secondary chip, purchase
a game on the PSN and jump in immediately while it downloads, and even allow
the PSN to access your purchased game and customize itself to your liking.
All in all the conference was very enjoyable and showed off how great the "Future of PlayStation" could be. Sony says to look for the PlayStation 4 console to hit stores the "2013 Holiday Season."
@DrMrPHD
