Sony's brand new gaming machine has emerged from Sony's development prison, blinking in the light and bathed in the collective excitement of gaming fans. Here's what we know so far -- and what Sony has kept hidden.
DualShock 4 controller and Eye
The PlayStation 4's rumoured touch-panel controller is confirmed. It keeps the familiar controller-shape, but features a rectangular panel above the dual analogue sticks. That touch-sensitive panel is expected to work in a similar fashion to the one on the back of Sony's Vita handheld, letting you stroke and prod at the panel's surface to influence gameplay.
The DualShock 4 also has a lightbar that makes the controller motion-capable, just like Sony's older Move tech. The glowing light communicates with the PlayStation 4 Eye, a new dual-camera sensor bar that also supports Move controllers.
Streaming games and 'Share' button
The controller has a 'Share' button, which Sony says will let you broadcast your game session to online friends, via services like Ustream. Sony is gunning hard for the social crowd, with features such as the ability to upload gameplay clips to Facebook.
The PlayStation 4 will have the power to stream games over an Internet connection, which could make up for the fact that the console won't play nice with older PlayStation games. You'll likely have to pay for the privilege of streaming those old titles though, which is bound to annoy anyone who's already paid for their games once.
Graphical punch
Sony made much of the console's graphical capability. A demo for new title Killzone: Shadow Fall, (embedded below) gives a clue as to what Sony's next system will be capable of.
Pretty natty, non? The graphics don't look a monumental step forward, and PC gamers with high-end hardware may already be squeezing similar performance out of their systems, but that demo is certainly easy on the eye.
Sony showed several more demos of PlayStation 4 performance, including a tonne of bouncing blue balls and some ultra-realistic facial animation. Here's another clip, which shows off some of those features, as well as upcoming games.
Games
We already know several key titles that are promised for the new system, including Knack a game about a size-shifting robot built from scrap, and Destiny, the 'shared-world shooter' from Bungie, the studio behind Halo.
The aforementioned Killzone: Shadow Fall as well as Diablo 3, a new Infamous game and hacking adventure Watch Dogs are also confirmed, while there were strong hints of a new Final Fantasy game in the works. That's certainly enough to get excited about for now.
Hey Sony, where's the console?
While new features and graphical capabilities were detailed, Sony refused to reveal what the console would actually look like. The actual console itself, therefore, remains a mystery.
On the one hand, what the system actually looks like is hardly the most important aspect. On the other, I'm finding it quite tough to get excited about a console when I don't even know what it looks like.
Release date and price
Sony says the PlayStation 4 will be out for Christmas this year, but didn't mention specific release dates for individual countries. A pre-Christmas release around the globe is a relatively safe bet, though.
Pricing is also a mystery, at least for now. Expect more details at the E3 trade show in the summer, though we're expecting the system to be closer to the £300 mark than the PlayStation 3's eye-watering £425 launch price.
What do you want to see from the PlayStation 4? What do you think of what Sony's shown so far? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
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Comments 33
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anonymous 21 February, 2013 12:34
£300, you should be so lucky. £400 minimum
anonymous 21 February, 2013 12:39
What does it look like?
anonymous 21 February, 2013 12:42
Price around £300, I doubt it. I would agree with anonymous above, at least £400 with extra charges for the streaming service.
Arby Bryce 21 February, 2013 12:47
If the new Sony PS4 is Internet connected all the time for game dowwnloads...Will it not really depend on how fast ure actual internet speed is ??? for game downloads ?
liam_omuk 21 February, 2013 12:49
Talk about biggest non-announcement! Hey everyone we have a new console.... its not finished so we can make up the specs and show you some games.... that are also not finished.... so erm yeah its coming.... we don't know when yet and we dont know how much we'll charge your cos.... well its not finished! But we've called it the PS4 and its got a new controller that we finished a few months ago!
anonymous 21 February, 2013 13:35
I think they Sony is going to miss the mark, If they are smart they should not give up backwards capability and allow used games to be played. How about letting users upgrade their own ram and hard drives to lower cost. If they want to own the living room,they can't expect people to have a PS3 , PS4 , XBOX, and DVD player taking up all the space. I guess we will see what happens, sad to say I'm disappointed so far.
anonymous 21 February, 2013 13:37
I actually think £300 (£250 even better) is a more realistic price for this. I certainly wouldn't pay £400 for it. I was hoping for state of the art in specs. SSD? Nope HDD. 1080p (or higher) eye camera? Nope 720p. Low energy 4.0 Bluetooth? Nope 2.1. 4K? Nope 1080p still. Wireless ac standard? Nope although we do finally get n woohoo! More to the point. I think the graphics just looks the same as graphics we get on PS3 just with a bit more spit and polish. With added social features (Big deal). I was really hooping for something amazing but I've been let down and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way. Actually looking forward to seeing what Microsoft has to offer.
The reason they didn't show the console is obvious. They don't want to give Microsoft an advantage by changing or refining their console to improve upon the PS4. Also the price hasn't been announced because they want to see what the market speculates for the console and that way they can price the product at the top end of that margin.
anonymous 21 February, 2013 13:47
Another reason they didn't show it is that you NEVER show all the cards you're holding - they have to keep things back for E3! Expect to see the first party game demos, clarification of spec, pricing and more specific release dates
If Sony had shown everything last night, Microsoft would have the advantage at E3
anonymous 21 February, 2013 14:05
Do we know if the HDD is removable or whether it is SSD?
anonymous 21 February, 2013 14:12
anonymous 21 February, 2013 14:05
It's definitely not SSD. They said it was a fixed HDD so they must be going the way of Apple and the device must be in an enclosed construct.
anonymous 21 February, 2013 14:12
PC Gaming FTW!
anonymous 21 February, 2013 14:40
HAHA BEST PS4 CAN DO IS RUBBISH. MY PHONE HAS BETTER POWER THAT PS SO THEY CAN KEEP CHEAP RUBBISH AND I BUY MICROWAVE INSTEAD FOR MORE PROCESSOR POWER HAH HAH
Arby Bryce 21 February, 2013 15:16
See...The GAME shop is taking pre-orders for it already,lol...
Damien2701 21 February, 2013 15:19
The game demos look breathtaking to me and don't forget these are launch titles. If we look back at the ps3 launch titles and compare them to ps3 games today there is a huge leap so we can expect more. The crucial thing now is pricing. I hope Sony don't repeat previous mistakes £500 ps3 at launch was ridiculous and it was the size of a baby elephant
anonymous 21 February, 2013 15:19
anonymous 21 February, 2013 14:12
One of the best things about the PS3 was the easily upgradable harddrives, it they expect people to download loads of full PS4 games like they seem to want people to do which can be 50 or even 128Gb if they discs are BDXL then I want to easily and cheaply be able to upgrade, or at least make the biult in drive big enough (a few Tbs) - hopefully they have learnt their lesson and wont make it a propitery format like on the 360!
anonymous 21 February, 2013 15:44
It will more than likely be 1 TB 2.5" HDD, given the fact they cost pretty much the same as a 500GB (which is whats in the current PS3) whereas 2TB drives are double that which rules them out
3.5" drives are larger and tend to use more power so I think we can forget them too
Sony will hopefully learnt from the Vita fiasco that consumers do not tolerate proprietary rubbish anymore so I doubt the drive will not be replaceable
Using non standard parts pushes up the cost of the device due to economies of scale
Allen Plate 21 February, 2013 15:59
I'm sure we'll have to wait for E3, but I'm anxious to see if it will be reverse compatible & if there are going to be more at home opportunities. I know they love the "connected playing" but how about families/friends at your home to play together? I, for one, am tired of buying 1 player at home & up to 64 players on-line games & having to take turns to play at home with others.
The other thing would be "used games". The big rumor, at least for the other new console, is that it won't allow used games. Really? $60+ for a game, get done or tired of it & no one will buy it because they can't play it or save money to purchase? Deal breaker, in my opinion, & I'll stick with the PS3. There will be plenty of good games I've not bought yet that will come way down & maybe by PS5, they will get a hint. I would imagine plenty of complaints will come in from players & stores that sell used stuff to push this (if it actually happens) & sales should (hopefully) fail. Those who want the "new tech" will spend the money but unless you're a die-hard 1 or 2 game lover & play it for years, even you will see a downside to this decision (again, only speculating if it happens this way). If they want me to buy it, this had better not happen. Just my 2 cents.
anonymous 21 February, 2013 16:15
Its been confirmed by Sony World Wide Studio's president that the PS4 WILL play used games
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/22266-sony-worldwide-studios-shuhei-yoshida-says-used-games-can-play-on-ps4/
anonymous 21 February, 2013 16:28
the price is going to be $999 US DOLLARS!!
anonymous 21 February, 2013 17:42
I want smaller, cheaper games... bringing back the arcade feel and excitement of completing the game in one sitting rather than spending forever trying to figure out a world.
I want bigger games that get regular updates (not just bug fixes) and continue to surprise me, rather than having to repurchase the latest version and store the rest on a shelf to be redundant when a PS5 comes out.
I want bespoke moves... if they can make it so a face looks 'more real' I also want to be able to tailor how a character interacts and how it fights etc... not just selct from five kicks and a couple of punches.
Thanks.
x
anonymous 21 February, 2013 18:03
Are we really going to see anything groundbreaking compared to the PS3 or current Xbox, not really blown away yet
anonymous 21 February, 2013 18:29
Those arguing for SSDs, be quiet. The technology is not yet reliable or cheap enough to merit a place in a games console that needs to last for at least 3 years; and as it has already been said HDD's are more easily replaceable.
4K? Get real 1080p is plenty, 4K would but unnecessary stress on film makers and developers to produce 4K content when we've only just got a reliable source of 1080p content.
Sony have said that all the old games, even from PS1 (Crash Bandicoot anyone?) will be availble for download, which is a huge win for gamers.
More interesting will be what Microsoft does with its own social side, what with its large infrastructure, ownership of Skype and sucess last time around.
The real question, is this: how are Sony going to put 8GB or RAM on a 32 bit processor?!?
Damien2501 21 February, 2013 19:04
No PS4, no release date, no price, what was the actual point of last nights event?? I'd really like to see the PS4 integrated into Sony's TV's and form a larger part of it's smart TV strategy. But they should also continue developing console's.
Apple are launching a TV this year and they will encourage their hundreds of thousands of developers to develop games & apps for their TV, and also encourage PlayStation & XBox devs to make games for it's new platform, Sony has got to realise the world has changed a lot since 2006.
anonymous 21 February, 2013 23:26
pc gaming all the way!!
Demented 22 February, 2013 00:31
Some of you don't think before typing, do you? Sony never said that this was a revealing to begin with, thats why it was called an announcment. I could have even told ya that Sony wasn't going to show the console, just announce that they were planning on coming out with it. I was even surprised when Sony revealed the new controller, which looks nice by the way, and demoed a few games live with it. There are still some questions about the hardware, and some other features which probly won't get answered till E3, in which is why Sony didn't reveal the console yet. They got to show something at E3 instead of spilling it all out early in the year. I think Sony announced early to get a jump on production, so the shortages are not as bad, everyone is getting sick of that. Stand in line for hrs, and get no console......not very cool. =)
anonymous 22 February, 2013 07:41
It seems that this event was purely so Sony could get ahead of Xbox. There was no console or other details just, look what we have been making. I am not that interested to be honested, I have an Xbox 360 and I may not buy a new console. Just get an up to date phone or tablet and you can play plenty of games already. But there are obviously games you can only get on a console.
It's one of those wait and see moments really, if they have tried to jump ahead of Microsoft like they did the Dreamcast with the PS2. They are probably hoping the that the new Xbox is not better than their new PS4.
anonymous 22 February, 2013 14:33
I've seen nothing that impresses me so far - quite shocked about that actually. I hope that they are still holding some innovative features to their chest because so far I think I'll just stick to using steam on my pc
James1973 25 February, 2013 09:25
I have to say that graphically I wasn't impressed with the new PS4. I'm looking for a console that can beat the best PC computers in graphics power when it is launched even if its only for a month.
anonymous 8 March, 2013 14:55
A fixed HDD? You can't replace it on your own when it breaks (which WILL happen eventually, simply because it has moving parts)? As a green gamer, I think I'll pass on this one. If you can't fix it, then you don't own it!
Also, I spend A LOT of money on PS3 games and DLC, and now they want me to form over even more cash for a new system than won't even play them? Are they high?
anonymous 8 March, 2013 15:05
And another thing: what's with the social media crap? Me thinks that if console gamers wanted this, they would have switched to PC-gaming by now. Sony just needs to stick to what their current fanbase wants, not try to entice a whole new target group that already has their needs being met by tablets and smartphones. If you are used to gaming on the go and paying only a few bucks while doing so, you are not going to buy a home-use console with 60+ dollars/euros/seashells (Sony: "currency conversion? what is this 'currency conversion' you speak of?") games and overpriced DLC. Just as someone used to Dark Souls will be hardpressed to trade their disk for a copy of Farm Ville. Everyone else seems to get this; why not Sony?
anonymous 8 March, 2013 15:06
And another thing: what's with the social media crap? Me thinks that if console gamers wanted this, they would have switched to PC-gaming by now. Sony just needs to stick to what their current fanbase wants, not try to entice a whole new target group that already has their needs being met by tablets and smartphones. If you are used to gaming on the go and paying only a few bucks while doing so, you are not going to buy a home-use console with 60+ dollars/euros/seashells (Sony: "currency conversion? what is this 'currency conversion' you speak of?") games and overpriced DLC. Just as someone used to Dark Souls will be hardpressed to trade their disk for a copy of Farm Ville. Everyone else seems to get this; why not Sony?
anonymous 8 March, 2013 15:06
And another thing: what's with the social media crap? Me thinks that if console gamers wanted this, they would have switched to PC-gaming by now. Sony just needs to stick to what their current fanbase wants, not try to entice a whole new target group that already has their needs being met by tablets and smartphones. If you are used to gaming on the go and paying only a few bucks while doing so, you are not going to buy a home-use console with 60+ dollars/euros/seashells (Sony: "currency conversion? what is this 'currency conversion' you speak of?") games and overpriced DLC. Just as someone used to Dark Souls will be hardpressed to trade their disk for a copy of Farm Ville. Everyone else seems to get this; why not Sony?
anonymous 10 March, 2013 12:19
The reason why people bought the ps3 over the 360 was 2 reasons. First ps3 had blu ray whilst 360 did not. The other was obviously the 1080p support which was mind blowing when it first came out. The ps4 should have had 4k supports from day one. 4K technology is just around the corner. Sure it’s expensive, but o was the first batch of HD ready TV’s going back several years now. Technology changes so quickly, prices will drop drastically, 4K TV’s will be affordable in less than a year, the ps4 should have had 4k support from day one. They should have beefed up the graphics card more, I would have paid a little more. Just a shame the ps4 is a little disappointing.