Last
night, after weeks of speculation, Sony officially unveiled its next console
from a live event in New York: the PlayStation 4. Straight away I can tell you
that this conference confirmed release of the new hardware during 2013.
Sony's
Andrew House explained to the masses that the new console will create
"experiences that surpass gamers' wildest expectations," which in
other words is a standard tagline.
The
various members of the PlayStation 4 team highlighted that their goal was to
produce a platform for “game creators by game creators” and that the hardware
has the architecture of a PC.
The
PS4 (we know that’s what it’ll be labelled) uses the X86 CPU and has 8GB of
memory alongside a local hard drive. It’s use of APU technology and GDDR5
memory means that it sit in line with the top end graphics cards.
Again
we are treated to the ‘entertainment system’ tagline that Microsoft and Sony
have both be frivolously stating at every opportunity over the last few years.
However while Microsoft has gone for the all-in-one approach - Sony have
simplicity at the core.
The
PlayStation 4 supports suspending and reloading play sessions, uploading and
downloading in the background during play (which is a function that needed to
be built in – especially with this being a standard on the current Xbox 360
console).
The
system supports seamless uploads of gameplay, spectating friends' gameplay
sessions in real time as well as integrated chat. Players will have profile
pages like Facebook integrated to the "full PlayStation ecosystem."
PlayStation
4 offers personalization and will "get to know you" although the
specifics of how are yet to be known.
Sony
did not release the design of the console or the price for the unit as they
look towards Microsoft’s release (expected to be April) before anything
concrete is announced. I said going into the evening that Sony would have to
price Microsoft out of the market – and potential expect losses from each sale
– if they were going to fire off a price guide on day one.
Reading
through a lot of the major Video Game sites reviews it seems that they expected
the whole ‘play on words’ style announcement that we were given. Each member of
the Sony team spun off word plays using ‘consumer-centric’, ‘cultural
advantage’ and ‘personal habitat’ as if they’d be contracted in by some sort of
cult.
It
all means that PlayStation will do some smart things, things that will make my
gaming life less frustrating, more enjoyable. Behind the bland words were
actual benefits.
There's
a cool new controller that works with motion-control too. You can now play
games while they are downloading just like Steam. You can share videos of
games, without any actual effort. You can try games without downloading them,
or paying for them. You can spectate and play someone else’s game from a
distant location – and of course you can play PS4 games on your Vita.
The
PlayStation ambassadors came out again and showed off some of the games – here
is a quick overview for those that haven’t logged into YouTube recently to see
them for themselves.
·
The only really
great game was Watch Dogs – definitely a world-beater.
·
Killzone: Shadow
Fall looked lovely but seems to be a nothing special shooting game.
·
Infamous Second
Son looks exactly how you imagine it to.
·
Drive Club looks
like the best car game since the last one and was quoted exactly in this manner.
·
The Witness looks
like a game we’ve been waiting ages to play, and now will have to wait longer
as we still saw no gameplay of the darn thing.
·
Deep Down looks
like Dark Souls only with prettier animations and less grey.
·
Destiny was also
confirmed for PS4 but still nothing but concept art was shown.
·
Diablo 3 is
coming to consoles and looks exactly the same as it’s PC counterpart.
It
did dawn on me though that although the PlayStation 4 will be neat it’s nothing
more than we originally expected. It’s not smashing any barriers like the PS1
to PS2 generation change.
This
PS3-PS4 leap requires something extra. And that something extra is services,
connectivity, ease-of-use, social abilities and other useful things.
We
found out when the console is coming, but there were words missing too. Words
like 'PlayStation 4 will be priced at...." and "look at the pretty
box you'll be putting by your TV soon".
What
did you think of the showing? Is there anything you’re really excited about?
(Concept Art)
