A number of solid reports, including a new domain name, XboxEvent.com registered to Microsoft, are pointing to an Xbox event in April. While most console reveals happen at E3, as evidenced by Sony’s mystery-filled conference, Microsoft will probably announce specs and some launch titles and leave the money shot for Los Angeles in June.
Computer & Video Games reported the rumor today and VG247 corroborated it. Considering the timing of Sony’s PS4 announcement, it makes perfect sense for Microsoft to join in the hoopla surrounding next-gen consoles.
The next Xbox, code-named Durango, will require an improved, included Kinect sensor to play and will support game “sections” that allow you to play one portion of the game while the rest loads or downloads. It will support 1080p 3D video and run on 8GB of RAM.
There’s been some debate over the state of the PlayStation 4’s hardware when Sony declined to display the console itself at its PlayStation Meeting. As we’re quickly learning, the company had good reason to keep the box under wraps: it’s not quite done yet. Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Hiroshi Kawano has revealed to 4Gamerthat even he hasn’t seen the finished system, and he only saw the DualShock 4 the day before it went on stage. We wouldn’t worry about the design’s progress just yet, but the news hints that Sony’s timing on pulling it all together is much tighter than it was for the PS3 — although that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Whatever the PS4 looks like in the end, we know it won’t support the DualShock 3. Perpetual font of wisdom (and Worldwide Studios President) Shuhei Yoshida has warned that the PlayStation Move is the only controller making the leap to the next generation. That’s not entirely surprising given the changes in button layout and the addition of some Move technology — Sony likely wants to set some expectations, and our existing game library won’t play on the PS4 as-is. The cutoff may still be disappointing for anyone who invested in a full set of gamepads for LittleBigPlanet sessions and has to once more start from scratch.
The recent announcement of NPD’s game console numbers had me thinking about the industry and what it has become. Each month, we examine those figures to see where the market stands and fans of all three major consoles take up arms to explain why their product is best.
But all of that debate and all of the talk about the success or failure of devices like the Wii U make me question what the future looks like. We’re expected to see more game consoles hit the marketplace in the next year or so, and Steam is also planning to enter the fray. Add that to OUYA and the possibility of Apple gaming, and it becomes clear that the console market will only grow in the coming years.
All of that growth in the number of consoles might sound nice to gamers. But what if I told you that the future – the ideal future – would not rest on more game consoles, but on less?
The way I see it, a single, universal console should dominate the future.
I know I’m not the only person to ask for a universal game console, but I think it’s for the best. In order to get the most out of our gaming experiences, we’re forced to buy several devices costing hundreds of dollars. From there, we need to buy extra controllers and sign up for Web-based services. And that’s all before we even buy different games for the consoles.
In a world I’d like to see, all of that would be stripped away. We’d have just one new console to buy every few years and the top game publishers in the world would deliver titles for that device. We’d only have to buy one set of controllers and sign up for one online-gaming experience.
Industry observers might reason that such a scenario would actually hurt the gaming industry. After all, we’d be spending a lot less cash in that scenario than the current one, they say.
“Hardware savings would increase spending across the software market”
But is that really true? By saving all of the cash on hardware and online services, we might be able to dedicate the same amount of money to the games themselves. All of the savings would increase spending across the software market. The result? The possibility of an even stronger game industry.
Of course, which company would actually deliver the console is up for debate. Some might say that Nintendo is the best option, since it’s been building consoles for years. Others might suspect that Microsoft or Sony could get the job done. Even Apple might be a candidate.
The nice thing about a universal console is that it really doesn’t matter which company builds the hardware. In my dream world, gaming goes back to, well, gaming, and does away with the obsession with hardware.
The game industry needs to change. And it needs to realize that the console wars need to go. If they do, we all win.
You’ve blasted your way through the 20 games that come built into the Neo Geo X, so what’s next? Last month, rumors the handheld had been discontinued suggested that was your lot, but the truth was less worrying: the limited edition Gold bundle run had come to an end. Now, Tommo Inc has detailed the first of five additional game cartridges for the portable. Neo Geo X Classics: Volume I will add 15 titles for you to wear your thumbs down on, including Metal Slug 2, King of Fighters ’96 and Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves. The cart is due to hit North America in April for an unspecified price, and those that pick one up will get a “Rocket” high-speed data transfer and charging cable gratis, as well as the Neo Geo X System Update 1.0, which we expect to hear more details on shortly. A travel case for the handheld is also in development, and is expected to be released the same month. Hit up the PR to see the full games list for Volume I, although chances are, some of you are playing them already.
The Sony PlayStation 4 press conference has just wrapped up and with it a plethora of huge, and great news for the upcoming game console. Sony stated that the PlayStation 4 will inspire the next generation of gamers, and that the living room is no longer the center of the PlayStation universe. With the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation Network, everything will center around the gamer.
The PlayStation 4 has been confirmed. It will have 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, an x86 CPU, an enhanced PC GPU, a local storage hard drive, a feature a supercharged PC architecture. Sony says the new PS4 will represent a “significant shift from thinking of PlayStation as merely a box or a console.” The PS4 will be a “gamer-centric” system, made by game developers for game developers. The gamer is in charge.
The new Dual Shock 4 controller revealed at the event gives players more in-depth control when they’re playing their games. It features a touchpad on the front that allows players to do many things, like control the player’s camera during cinegraphic events. It has a 3.5mm headphone jack for connection to products that will improve social gameplay, and a “share” button that lets you live-broadcast your gameplay to your friends on the PSN network.
The “share” button also lets you share games with your friends, meaning if you’re having a tough time in your game, you can invite a friend to help you out. Along with the “share” button feature, there is also a feature called “Remote Play” that lets you share games with others, or lets you play games from your PlayStation Vita device. If there are distractions in your general area, you can pause your game and switch on over to your PS Vita. You’ll start right where you left off.
The sharing feature is all part of Sony’s 5 key principles for the PlayStation 4′s UI. The principles are: Simple, Immediate, Social, Integrated, and Personalized. Sony’s new user interface emphasizes simplicity and speed, with everything you need to do only being a “button click away”. The user interface also emphasizes social gameplay, with Sony’s goal for the PlayStation Network to be one of the most powerful social gaming networks around.
While the PlayStation 4 won’t natively have backwards compatibility with PlayStation 3 games, it will definitely have it through the Gaikai cloud-gaming service. Sony and Gaikai are working together to bring a revolution to cloud gaming. Sony says that Gaikai is an investment in its players, and that millions of players would love to have all of their PlayStation games, from the past, present, and future, be available to them at any time. All of the old PlayStation games, from PlayStation 1 to PlayStation 3, and even the PlayStation Portable games, will be available in Gaikai’s cloud storage in the future. Not only will you be able to play these games on the PS4, but you will also be able to play it on your PS Vita, smartphone, tablet, and even PC.
Besides all of the new features and hardware shown off at the event, Sony also invited a lot of its partners on stage to show some of the new games you can expect on the PlayStation 4. There was Killzone Shadowfall, which looks absolutely beautiful in terms of graphics, and is complimented with intense gameplay, both of which will fully utilize the PlayStation 4′s hardware. Knack, which is a graphic’s intense game, blurs the line between story-line and gameplay. DRIVE CLUB, a team-based racing game, is filled with extremely detailed sports cars and challenged-filled tracks for all of you car-fanatics. InFamous: Second Son, an action-packed game filled with lots of killing and special abilities, is sure to bring back fans of the franchise as well as bring in a whole new audience.
While the PlayStation 4 event was jam-packed with new and exciting information, it was still disappointing that we didn’t actually get a look at what the PlayStation 4 will look like. However, from all of the features that we learned about, and all of the games we previewed, the PS4 looks to be an amazing and promising console.
Sony has just unveiled its new controller at its press conference today. Thew new controller, dubbed the Dual Shock 4, gives players a much “tighter sense of control” in gaming interaction. It will give players the ability to have more in-depth control while they’re playing video games on their Playstation 4. Its one of the PlayStation 4′s newest features to make the system more personalized.
The Playstation 4 Dual Shock 4 controller brings in a whole bunch of new features to make gaming interaction much more personal. There is a new touchpad in front that can be used in a variety of ways, including the ability to manipulate the player’s camera during cinegraphic events in the game. There is a share button that allows you to share your latest achievements through social media or with your fellow PlayStation Network buddies, a 3.5mm headphone jack that will allow players to have better social interaction during online gaming, and a light bar that helps identify players.
There is also a second peripheral that will interact with the Dual Shock 4. This peripheral is a stereo camera that senses the player’s interaction with the Dual Shock 4 and tracks the controller’s movements through the front-facing light bar. There is a suspend/resume button that can make your PlayStation 4 go idle.
The Dual Shock 4 will bringing gaming alive for you and your PlayStation 4. Its design and features will personalize every game for you and follows Sony’s new theme to make the PlayStation 4 more gamer-centric, rather than just something you play in your living room. Catch up on more of the PlayStation 4 news announced today in the timeline below!
After months of anticipation, Sony today announced their next-generation PlayStation console, the PS4. Despite showing off the controller (which we’ve already seen,) Sony continues to be evasive about showing off the console itself, or discussing pricing. We’re guessing they’re saving that for E3 this Summer.
Kicking off the presentation with the tagline “Playstation Wants to Win the War Against Reality,” Sony wowed a massive crowd gathered in New York and on the web to see the reveal of the new console with an epic, 2+ hour stage presentation.
The PlayStation 4 is a completely revamped gaming system and ecosystem, running on a “simplified and streamlined” platform, designed for ease of development while providing a tremendous amount of technical power. PS4 Lead System Architect Mark Cerny – producer behind Marble Madness, Crash Bandicoot,Sonic the Hedghog 2 and designer on numerous other popular games showed off the new platform’s architecture, which has more in common with high-end gaming PCs than previous consoles.
Similar to PC architecture, the PlayStation 4 will run on a high-end X86-based CPU, with a “highly-enhanced” PC GPU, and 8GB unified GDDR5 RAM, with 176GBps bandwidth. The system will have a powerful 8-core 64-bit AMD CPU and its 1.84 TFLOP Radeon GPU will reside on the same die to enhance performance. In addition, the system will use a hard drive to provide ample storage capacity. It will also sport a 6X speed Blu-ray drive, as well as USB 3.0. Here’s a quick spec chart, courtesy of Sony:
To give you an idea of just how powerful the new hardware is, here’s a face rendered using Quantic Dream’s incredible facial animation and shading technologies, running on preliminary PS4 hardware. While the still image is impressive, it’s even more incredible in motion. Could we finally be at the point where console graphics are as good as what you can see in the movies? Probably not, but I’m still excited to see the final hardware in action.
The new DualShock 4 controller is exactly as we saw a few days ago, offering improved analog sticks, enhanced rumble, lower latency, a headphone jack, a small touchpad, player color illumination, and a “Share” button for instantaneous sharing of gameplay videos and other content.
In addition, the system will come with a stereo depth camera that can detect the position of controllers from across the room.
Perhaps one of the coolest features Sony revealed was the ability to suspend and immediately resume games in RAM. The PS4 hardware even has a specialized background processing chip for uploads/downloads.
In addition to background downloads, this will enable you to start playing newly-installed games as they are are being downloaded, so you won’t have to wait for massive downloads to complete before you can play. Though I doubt every PS4 title will support this technology. The new PS4 user interface seems very clean and easy to use, almost like the Microsoft Windows 8 “Metro” interface. Maybe it’s just the blue background and the fonts, but it seems very similar to me. An odd choice coming from one of Microsoft’s biggest competitors.
To support sharing and social interaction, the PS4 will have a dedicated “always-on” video compression and decompression technology, which will enable instantaneous sharing and spectating of video content directly within games. Plus the console will offer a new “Friends” interface based on real-world friends, with less emphasis on avatars, likely to incorporate relationships from existing social networks (I’m assuming there will be Facebook integration of some sort.)
Sony continued to drive home the idea that the PlayStation ecosystem will be less about being tied to your couch, and player-centered. With that in mind, they will offer companion apps for tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices, as well as an improved Remote Play capability on PS Vita. According to Sony Gaikai CEO David Perry, “Our longterm goal is to make every PS4 game playable on PS Vita using local Wi-fi.”
Gaikai’s PlayStation Cloud gaming solution will also play a big part of the PS4 experience providing features like an instant free trials of games, and also involved in some way with real-time spectating of your friend’s gameplay. You can even allow other players to take over your controller remotely to help you get through a difficult part of a game.
Unfortunately, Perry also let slip that PS4 hardware won’t support backwards compatibility with PS3 games. Boo! Hiss.
I’m guessing this is to keep the complexity and cost of the system down, but I don’t want to have to keep my old PS3 around in order to play my collection of current-gen games. That said, Sony is looking at ways to play old games from the PS1, PS2 and PS3 via the Gaikai cloud platform, which will roll out in phases over time.
While Sony steered clear of showing actual PS4 hardware, they did introduced a number of new game titles, and showed PS4 demo footage of many of them. Here are a few of the titles coming to the PlayStation 4:
Knack – an action platformer produced by Mark Cerny, the Systems Architect behind the PS4. It wasn’t really clear from the demo what the gameplay will be like, but if anyone is going to get the most out of the PS4 hardware, you’d think it was its own architect.
KillZone: Shadowfall – an incredible looking new FPS from Guerilla Games, with graphics and physics better than anything I’ve seen. One can only hope the final game looks as good as these in-game screens:
DriveClub – a new racer from Evolution Studios, focused on team-based racing. The game will feature asyncronous and real-time group play, and will work with a companion DriveClub app on mobile devices, which will allow you to initiate challenges and view stats. The game is all about an immersive first-person driving experience, and the brief demo footage didn’t disappoint.
The game will feature insanely detailed cars, every element of which are based on real-world parts and physics. Just check out the detail on this carbon fiber:
inFamous: Second Son – Developed by Sucker Punch, the PS4 exclusive game is a sequel of sorts to the popular franchise, featuring an Orwellian future in which police monitor everything, and people with superhuman powers roam the streets.
The Witness – a cool looking exploration/puzzle game from Jonathan Blow, Creator of Braid. Its challenging puzzles are designed to guide you deftly ”from confusion to understanding.” The game will first arrive on PS4 before it hits other platforms.
Media Molecule, creator of LittleBigPlanet demoed their “record your dreams” concept. By combining the PlayStation Move controller with PS4′s powerful hardware, they were able to sculpt items in 3D space with ease. These objects can then be combined to build larger sets and game levels. This wasn’t from a specific game, but still showed off some impressive interactions. I can see this showing up in the next LittleBigPlanet or a similar world-building adventure.
In addition to first-party and indie studios, Capcom showed off its new PS4-specific gaming engine, codenamed “Panta Rhei”, along with its first title, tentatively titled Deep Down.
Square Enix is also on board for the PS4, and showed off its “target quality” for the new platform using its new “Luminous” engine. Though it showed no specific games, only describing the PS4 as “a game developer’s dream,” and mentioned that an as yet unnamed Final Fantasy title was in the works.
UbiSoft showed off real-time gameplay from its hotly-anticipated Watch Dogs running on PS4 dev hardware. We’ve already seen earlier demo footage, but in case you’ve missed it, here it is again:
PC developer Blizzard Entertainment announced a strategic partnership with Sony to launch games on both the PS3 and PS4, with a console version of Diablo III currently under development. Activision is committed as well, and confirmed that Bungie’s epic new FPS Destiny will be released on the PS4 (and the PS3).
It’s clear that Sony means business with the PS4, launching not only a completely new hardware architecture, based on high-end PC gaming, but a variety of new IP and game titles to take full advantage of the enhanced hardware.
While it wasn’t actually part of the festivities, Sony revealed that the PlayStation 4 is expected to hit stores for the “2013 holiday season” on the very last slide they presented. Now that they’ve whet our appetites, I want to see the actual hardware, and find out the pricing and final release date.
Your move, Microsoft. Time to show us what you’ve got up your sleeves with the Xbox 720 – or whatever it’s called.
Activision has announced that they will be moving away from the licensed games, meaning there will be fewer games from the James Bond, Transformers, Men in Black, and Spider-Man series. Rumor has it that James Bond will be seeing its end really soon. Activision is following the same move that Electronics Arts made back in 2008. EA Games president, Frank Gibeau, said at the time that “the days of licensed-based, 75-rated games copies are dead like the dinosaur.”
Along with its move to back away from licensed games, Activision will also be laying off 30 people from its company. That’s about 0.5% of the company, and those that are being let go will be offered “outplacement counseling services” to help them find a new job. Activision made it clear though that the cuts will barely affect Treyarch. The company says that there will be “minimal reduction in staff to better align our development talent against the needs of DLC development.”
Like EA Games, Activision feels that the licensed-games industry isn’t bringing in enough revenue to make the projects worth it. Due to the high-costs of making the movie-based games, and the decreasing demand for them, the games started becoming more trouble than they were worth. Activision will still be releasing a few licensed-based games this year, including games based on The Walking Dead, Deadpool, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I can see why companies are beginning to stray way from licensed games. The licensed games as of late aren’t as amazing as games from the older generation (does anyone remember Goldeneye 007?). Even 007 Legends, which was highly anticipated, turned out to be a let down, which is why the James Bond series might be the first of the licensed games to get the axe.
Tonight is the big night for Sony, with a rather solid expectation of the PlayStation 4, a new set of controllers and functionality to with it, and a swath of new game announcements to boot. What we’re going to do for you here and now is make it all real simple in a guide that’ll get you pumped up and prepared for the event [6PM EST right here on SlashGear]. It all begins with what we’re expecting the actual console to present – and yes, we are expecting a new console.
PlayStation 4: a whole new machine
The next-generation console from Sony is being tipped to be a lot of different things, so before you jump in here, know this: the lot of these tips are rumors. Unless it’s written here specifically that we’ve got confirmation of anything, you’ll want to follow the link back to the post where we first encounter each bit of information. Take everything here with a salt block. Also remember that Sony has promised commitment to the PlayStation 3 through the year 2015.
With Microsoft’s own Xbox 720 hot on its heels, Sony will likely set a release date for sometime inside November. There you’ll find a remote control for TV-related content and a new set of wireless controllers as well. You can also expect pricing on the PlayStation 3 to be slashed almost immediately after the announcement of the PlayStation 4 as well as surprisingly low prices coming with the PS4 itself.
Concept PS4 via Yanko Design (designer: Joseph Dumary)
We’ve seen more than one PlayStation 4 controller leak with a rather similar-looking overall body to the classic PlayStation controller design. The big differences will be in touchpad controls not unlike what we’re using currently on the PS Vita which, also, has seen some price slashes as of late. This touchpad tip has come more than once.
Also take note that the PlayStation 2 is now no longer being manufactured. The code-name for the PlayStation 4 has been tipped as “Orbis” several times over the past few months and has been suggested to be working with an AMD processor. We’ve also seen a rather unbelievable tip for a Sony PlayStation EyePad for 3D control of the PlayStation 4 – not to mention the Dual-Shock/Move hybrid that, once you see, you’ll never be able to un-see.
Software Features
You’ll be seeing some backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 4 that’s entirely virtualized. In this case that means that you’ll be able to play PlayStation 3 games and legacy games galore, but they’ll all be downloaded from the cloud in one way or another. You can expect Gaikai technology to be in full effect for streaming content as Sony picked them up last year. PlayStation Home Arcade should give you some more clues on this futuristic universe – sort of like a microcosm.
The Sony Entertainment Network Online Store has been ramping up with games, movies, and more and will certainly be re-addressed at the event tonight. The PayPal bump for the PlayStation Store earlier this year also points toward larger anywhere-purchase strategies for Sony. There’s also a rumor of a Sony online TV service launching soon.
The one-owner-only rumor for games on the PlayStation 4 rages on – that one’s still a toss-up, mind you – see the discussion on this in the “Opinions” section below.
Games
You will be seeing Destiny on the PlayStation 4 after it hits the PlayStation 3. That’s all but confirmed by everyone and their mother now that a legal document was made public surrounding a case that involved Destiny content and the companies that will work with it. Have a peek at this Destiny trailer and freak out about it!
One game you can expect will not be optimized for PlayStation 4 is Grand Theft Auto V – its creators have specifically addressed the idea that they’re waiting for the PS4 release and have said no way! You can expect The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt though in all its REDengine3 glory.
The event starts at 6PM Eastern Time – that’s New York City time, if you did not know. If you’re living in Minnesota like your humble narrator, you’ll be tuning in at 5PM (CST), and if you’re in England, you’ll be tuning in at 11PM. Over in California you’ll be seeing this event at 3PM (PST). We’ll have the whole lot of announcements ready to rock as they pop up straight from Sony right here on SlashGear – don’t miss it!
Kill Screen wanted to jumpstart OUYA game development with its Create Game Jam, and it turns out that there were more than a few takers — 165, to be exact. That makes the grand prize winner, FreeLives’ Strange Happenings on Murder Island, something special. Thetop-down action game’s dinosaur rampages and Minecraft-like art were wild enough to earn the developer $20,000 and a head start in what’s increasingly becoming a crowded field. Other developers weren’t entirely left out, as winners in specialized categories still received $5,000 each. There’s no guarantee that the results of Create will resonate with gamers in the long run; if they lead to a better selection for an untested console, though, they’ll have been worth the effort.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
