Playstation 4 Announcement

[ctophil]

Hi everyone, RSVP your spot to watch Sony's live conference today 2/20/2013 to get the lowdown on the official Playstation 4 announcement! It starts at 6pm EST. The video will be live at 5:50pm EST and will begin sharply at around 5:55pm EST. Don't miss the event, sign up here: https://us.playstation.com/meeting2013/ After the event, you guys let me know right here what you think of Sony's next generation console. :-)

[DPsx7]

I would if they showed it. Just some games and the controller. And way too much social bullshit I want nothing to do with...

[ctophil]

Okay, well, I did enjoy Sony's presentation. It was way better than Nintendo's E3 unveiling of Wii U last year. Seems Sony has got a lot more support from developers than Nintendo ever had. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Nintendo fan since the beginning. I'm just telling it how I see it. I am very much excited about PS4, can't wait for more info to come. Anyways, here are some highlights that I found interesting from Sony's Conference yesterday evening. It was 2 hours long due to the showcasing of quite a few games currently under development for the PS4.

1. PS4 will still play used games.

2. Very powerful system, it has 8GB of RAM and a CPU with 8 Cores, compared to quad cores on PCs right now.

3. Focus on social gaming. You can now share and upload your gaming accomplishments to let your friends watch it. You can also watch in real time what your buddy online is playing, as well as take over his or her controls over Playstation Network when your gaming skills are needed!

4. Some games that were announced at the show:

• Killzone: Shadow Fall
• Watch Dogs
• Drive Club (Cool concept of team-based racing)
• Destiny (Bungie's new FPS franchise)
• Infamous: Second Punch
• The Witness (by the makers of Braid, looks promising but quite odd)
• Deep Down (Next-gen Dragon's Dogma with super graphics via Capcom)
• Final Fantasy (could be Final Fantasy 15, since the guy from Square Enix just said, "watch for the new Final Fantasy at this coming E3")
• Knack (original title that has some robot that can split his body into a million pieces and put himself back together in whatever shape he wants suitable for that mission.
• The Witcher 3 (also for Xbox 720)
• Diablo III (Ah, the PC RPG that is officially coming to PS3 and PS4)

5. The Playstation Move will be compatible with PS4, but enhanced with more of a 3D, creative idea where you can actually sculpt your own 3D statues? Hehe. Basically, the Move will have more freedom of movement than before. Seems similar to Wii Motion Plus to me.

6. The Playstation Eye will also be upgraded.

7. The Dual Shock 4 Controller has a touchpad, stereo micro cameras that track your motions in 3D, and headset jack plug. PS4 will come with a headset bundled so you can plug it into the controller for online chat like Xbox 360. The old Dual Shock 3 controllers will not work on the PS4. So controllers are not backwards compatible.

8. PS1, PS2, and PS3 games are not backwards compatible. However, Sony will provide older games on Playstation Network so you can buy and play them later. Old games you bought on PS3 via PSN download will not transfer to PS4.

9. The Playstation Vita can be used like the Wii U Gamepad. You can play PS4 games on it via streaming so that the TV can be used by somebody else in the house.

10. Sony teamed up with Gaikai to do streaming games so that you play "on-demand" like Netflix with movies. You can also download the game and play at the same time, no longer need to wait for the full download.

11. What's disappointing is that Sony has not showed what the actual system looks like, no release date, and no price yet. They will be releasing those tidbits within the next few months leading up to E3.

Check out EGM's web site for more details on PS4: http://www.egmnow.com

[KiwiArcader]

There's the issue of streaming of games as large and involved as the PS3's. Countries or people with or without stable broadband connections can likely expect usability issues if their country doesn't have dedicated PSN servers. New Zealand will likely be serviced by Australia for instance which is fine when you are only streaming multi-player information but if you have to download content that streams from disc as it plays I can see all sorts of problems.

It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

You are making too much of a big deal about 8 cores monstering current PC's IMHO. AMD have 8 core CPU's on the desktop already and they aren't as powerful as their previous Phenom 4 core CPU's let alone the 6 core Phenom's. And that doesn't take into account any of Intel CPU's which beat everything AMD has to offer. I cannot see AMD ever beating Intel on that front. That makes PC's a better gaming system for my money.

However I do not disagree with Sony finally deciding to drop Cell and use x86. It can only be good for developers and users alike as they can port games in either direction which also makes cross platform play more likely and thus increase potential game sales for those publishers who take it on.

Now we wait for Microsoft to make their play in the next gen console market. Hoo-rah!!!!

[Areala]

I want to correct ctophil on one minor point:

Sony said they themselves will not block the ability to play used games at the hardware level, but included the caveat: "We're not responsible for anything that individual developers might do." In other words, while the PS4 will be capable of playing used software, it's entirely possible that no pre-owned software will be playable on the system due to developer choice (remember: Sony is also a developer with multiple second-party studios), and their statement that the system can play used games, legally, counts as the truth.

Maybe this is entirely too nit-picky a point, but I'm not ready to dance in the street over the announcement just yet.

*huggles*
Areala

[ctophil]

For those interested in the official PS4 specs released by Sony today. Here they are:

• CPU: single-chip custom processor, x86-64 AMD 8 Core “Jaguar”
• GPU: 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD Radeon-based graphics engine
• Memory: 8GB GDDR5
• 6X Blu-Ray Drive, 8X DVD
• Built-in HDD
• HDMI and Analog-AV
• USB 3.0
• Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11 B/G/N built-in WiFi. Plus Support for Bluetooth 2.1

So therefore, the PS4 will use the AMD chipset, both CPU and GPU in this new generation. Specs are not that important when it comes to consoles. It's the games that count. But I do want to point out that these specs are very powerful, since consoles are truly optimized for gaming, while PCs are built with many different applications in mind. Remember that most developers will not use the full potential of PS4 until much later in the generation (4-5 years later). Some will never use its full capabilities at all.

As for what Areala said, that is true. Sony left it to the developers. However, the PS4 itself won't deny used games. That's good enough for me. Because just like the music industry, all of the folks who download music for free and not pay for the CDs is actually free advertisement for the music industry in general. If people want to buy the CD or a game, they'll buy it, nothing will stop them. Just as people who want to buy used copies or download music for free, nothing will stop them either. What am I getting at? Developers for the PS4 who want to deny people from buying used games will, in the long term, hurt themselves. So I doubt developers will try to do something like that.

[Bablefish]

What gets me is the rumor that is flying around various sites over the final cost of the PS4 at around $1,000

[ctophil]

As promised, I'm back fresh from Sony's E3 Press Conference this evening. Here are the highlights that I found most interesting. This adds to my info when Sony first announced the Playstation 4.

1. Playstation 4 will cost $399.99 is available to pre-order now at Amazon. Pre-order here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BGA9WK2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BGA9WK2&linkCode=as2&tag=retromags-20 No launch date yet, but all speculations point to November 2013 as well.

So the PS4 is $100.00 less than Xbox One. Sony wins round one. :-)

2. The system looks much cooler than the Xbox One. Check out some pictures here: http://www.cinemablend.com/games/PS4-Console-Check-Out-First-Images-Here-56588.html

Sony wins round two.

3. Most of the games announced back in February are pretty much the same. But I would highlight that Final Fantasy versus XIII is still coming out and its name changed to Final Fantasy XV. Dark Sorceror also looks interesting. Kingdom Hearts III was also announced. Check the complete games list here for launch titles and beyond: http://www.ign.com/wikis/playstation-4/PlayStation_4_Games

Update: Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III will also be released on Xbox One. They are not exclusive to PS4.

Microsoft and Sony tie round 3. I like games on both consoles, especially the exclusives.

4. Sony has confirmed that the Playstation 4 will support used games 100% and does not require you go to online every 24 hours! You can play all games offline if you want.

Sony wins round 4 with a big applause for keeping the old used games model intact.

Well, as you can see, I'm much more excited about PS4 than Xbox One. If I was to buy a system at launch, it's PS4 all the way!