It’s been seven years since the giant, boxy, expensive, hugely-fun and hyped PS3 first arrived. Seven years is a long time. But the next expensive, gorgeous era of gaming is here: the PlayStation 4. Everything looks better, yes, but it’s definitely more of the same. More »
Sony unveils its next game console, the PlayStation 4, arriving in holiday 2013
Posted in: Today's ChiliSony tonight announced its much-rumored next video game console, the PlayStation 4. Sony Computer Entertainment prez and CEO Andrew House announced the console with little more than a logo and a handful of concepts, though he did say it’s coming in holiday 2013. We’re sure to hear more as the night goes on, and we’ll be updating this post as we learn more.
Lead system architect Mark Cerny — legendary game dev and, to us, creator of Marble Madness — came up next. He said that development of the PS4 started five years ago. Cerny said he’s been exploring how to evolve “the PlayStation ecosystem,” and he started by speaking to the limitations of PlayStation 3. Cerny said he’s been aiming to make sure “nothing gets between the platform and the game.” An image of an old-timey hunter shooting space invaders in the sky is used as an example — here’s hoping the PS4 doesn’t mean we’ll be taking plastic guns and shooting pixels in the sky.
“We were able to create in PlayStation 4 a system by game creators, for game creators,” Cerny said. As far as specs, he said it runs on x86 architecture, a “highly enhanced” PC GPU (with “almost 2 teraflops of performance,” he added), an unknown amount of local HDD storage, and 8GB of GDDR5 system memory. Cerny next unveiled the DualShock 4, which looks an awful lot like the leaks we saw recently — it features a touchpad, a light bar, and what looks like rubberized grips. Otherwise, it looks an awful lot like a DualShock 3 with some new bells and whistles.
Sony tonight announced its much-rumored next video game console, the PlayStation 4. Sony Computer Entertainment prez and CEO Andrew House announced the console with little more than a logo and a handful of concepts. We’re sure to hear more as the night goes on, and we’ll be updating this post as we learn more.
Lead system architect Mark Cerny — legendary game dev and, to us, creator of Marble Madness — came up next. He said that development of the PS4 started five years ago. Cerny said he’s been exploring how to evolve “the PlayStation ecosystem,” and he started by speaking to the limitations of PlayStation 3. Cerny said he’s been aiming to make sure “nothing gets between the platform and the game.” An image of an old-timey hunter shooting space invaders in the sky is used as an example — here’s hoping the PS4 doesn’t mean we’ll be taking plastic guns and shooting pixels in the sky.
“We were able to create in PlayStation 4 a system by game creators, for game creators,” Cerny said. As far as specs, he said it runs on x86 architecture, a “highly enhanced” PC GPU (with “almost 2 teraflops of performance,” he added), an unknown amount of local HDD storage, and 8GB of GDDR5 system memory. Cerny next unveiled the DualShock 4, which looks an awful lot like the leaks we saw recently — it features a touchpad, a light bar, and what looks like rubberized grips. Otherwise, it looks an awful lot like a DualShock 3 with some new bells and whistles.
Cerny’s talking software now — the PS4 can pause and resume mid-game, allowing players to multitask at any point. There’s also a second chip dedicated to managing uploads and downloads, meaning you can download games in the background or when the system’s off. More importantly, however, you can start downloading a game and begin playing it as the download goes — pretty great! As far as sharing goes, PS4 is heavy on social interactivity; Cerny said its social network will extend beyond the console to mobile and Vita. He’s ambiguous about which platforms that’ll mean, but it sounds like Sony’s aiming to make it platform agnostic. There’s also a Pinterest-esque social app for friends to share screens and video, which Cerny said applies to the PS4’s “personalization” angle. “You’ll see real pictures of your real friends,” he said.
David Perry went next, and he talked about Sony’s acquisition of Gaikai (he was the former head of Gaikai, but now he’s working with Sony). His game streaming service is being employed to run demos on PS4, allowing people to try any game they want instantly. He also said that both Facebook and Ustream are being employed on PS4, using the DualShock 4’s Share button. But how much? He didn’t say. Beyond just sharing games you’ve already played, you can also livestream — to the point that a friend of yours who is spectating can actually jump into your game, via streaming, and help you out.
But wait, there’s more! Despite Remote Play being a function in the previous PlayStation console, Perry said it’s also heading to PlayStation 4. A brief demo of Mark Cerny’s PS4 game Knack was shown — Perry said latency should be imperceptible, using Gaikai’s streaming tech. Perry gave one last tease: “everything everywhere.” He’s hoping that PlayStation Cloud will apply to more than just PS4 and Vita, but also to mobile devices as well. The service will roll out “in phases,” Perry said, without giving more detail, though he did say that Cloud will power PS1, PS2, PS3, and PlayStation Mobile games.
Check out our liveblog of Sony’s event to get the latest news as it happens!
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.
It’s finally time to find out what Sony’s got in store for us. Playstation 4, baby! Watch the embedded stream below to find out what awesome games and features Sony’s gonna unload on us. Get pumped. More »
We are about to live blog today’s major Sony PlayStation event, so if you are unable to sit around and watch the event in video, you can keep an eye on live.ubergizmo.com to get the text + images updates. For those who can spare an hour from work, we’ve included the video stream below. Just sit back, relax and watch history unfold. PlayStation 4 may be only minutes away… What do you expect? Leave a comment below as this unfolds.
Free desktop streaming application by Ustream
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sony Explains Why PlayStation 4 Console Was Not Shown During The Event, Some Diablo 3 Gamers React Negatively To Console Idea,
The New, New PlayStation: Watch The 2013 Sony PlayStation Meeting Live At 6pm Eastern/3pm Pacific
Posted in: Today's ChiliJoin us live at the 2013 PlayStation Meeting where Sony will hopefully unveil what’s next for their iconic gaming console. The event runs from 6pm Eastern/3pm Pacific and I’ll be posting images and commentary in our liveblog below. You can also watch it live right here thanks to Ustream.
Engadget’s Sony PlayStation pre-event broadcast: live from New York City! (video)
Posted in: Today's ChiliWe don’t know for sure that it’s going to be the PS4, but Sony sure as heck has something PlayStation-related to show us tonight, and we can’t wait to find out what it is. Join the editors of Engadget and Joystiq for a pre-event live video broadcast in which we’ll break down the myths, the rumors and the actual information we have on the console codenamed Orbis. Join us after the break where we’ll be talking all things Sony.
Update: And that’s a wrap. You can now catch it all over again below. Up next: the liveblog.
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.
Transparent PlayStation 4 concept via Tia Chiem
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.
Opinions
We’ve got a few opinions you should have a peek at before continuing on to the real deal as well, starting with Why Motion Gaming Should Be Left Out of the PlayStation 4 and continuing on with Why the Used Game Model Needs Fixing (But Not Banning). You should also read the column called PlayStation 4: What Sony Must Do for some pre-event anticipatory action and discussion – the chat rages on!
Event Time
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!
PlayStation 4: your full pre-event guide is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Sony Playstation 4 will be released in November this year, with two versions priced at $429 and $529 according to rumors. The console codenamed Orbis, whose official name has not been released yet, might be unveiled at tonight’s Playstation event in New York City. However pricing for the units might not be released until the third quarter. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: PS4 Sports 6x Blu-ray Drive, 8-Core AMD Processor And 8GB RAM, Sony PlayStation 4 Event Wrap-Up,