Sony announces Playstation 4 (PS4) but does not show it

Martin Brinkmann
Feb 21, 2013
Updated • Feb 9, 2016
Games
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While Nintendo managed to get a head start by releasing the Wii U gaming system in 2012, both Sony and Microsoft are expected to release their next generation consoles this year. Rumors have been floating around for a while now but since neither company commented on those rumors, they were just that.

Sony announced the new Playstation 4 yesterday in a show that provided us with information about what we can expect the company to deliver. Before we take a look at what that is, I'd like to point out that Sony did not show the Playstation 4 console during the show or reveal a final price.  While that is certainly disappointing, Sony at least revealed information about the PS4 system architecture.

Sony moved away from the Cell cpu architecture of the Playstation 3 to the x86 architecture with an 8 core cpu. The most likely reason for that move is to drop production costs and maybe also to make it easier to bring PC games to the system (and PS4 games to PC).

What this also means, and this is without doubt a negative, is that PS3 games won't run on Sony's Playstation 4 on launch. That's a big issue for current generation Playstation users who want to keep playing their large collection of games on the new system. While they could simply keep the PS3 and switch between both systems, it may not always a viable solution.

Sony's PS4 console will have 8 Gigabytes of GDDR 5 RAM, local hard drive space (no mentioning of how many Gigabytes), and a 3D camera. Sony did not reveal many technical information about the gpu (graphics processing unit), only that it almost reaches 2 Teraflops of computational performance. Information about other hardware related features, if a disc drive is used, the connectivity features, how much power it consumes, have not been revealed during the announcement.

playstation 4 architecture screenshot

The new Dualshock 4 controller was revealed during the show. The biggest change in design is a touchpad that Sony added to the top of the controller. The controller on top of that features a share button, a  headphone input jack and a light bar that is being used by a sensor unit to determine the controller's position in the room.

ps4 controller

 

As far as other features go that were introduced: Sony's PS4 supports suspending and resuming of game sessions with the press of the power button. The game data is preserved in RAM, and when gamers want to continue playing the game, they can do so almost immediately according to Sony.

Another interesting feature that was announced during the show is the share option. What this makes available, basically, is an option to hand over the controller to a friend so that this friend can jump right into your game to continue playing where you left of. This can be interesting if you are stuck for instance and want your friend to help you overcome a particular scene in the game.

What's also interesting is that you can tap right into streams of games that other users or friends are playing right now. We all know that live game streams are highly popular, and this seems to be Sony's way of making those available natively on the console.

playstation 4 interface screenshot

By now you are probably dying to see what the console has to offer in terms of games.

Killzone: Shadow Fall

Deep Down

Watch Dogs

The trailers look really nice and some even include in-game scenes. I personally think that it is still too early to come to a conclusion. The missing information, hardware specs, price, and first-hand experience with games are puzzle pieces that are needed for this.

The feature that I find most interesting right now is the streaming video option, that you can watch other people play games.

Sony revealed that the Playstation 4 will come out this holiday season but failed to mention if it will be a worldwide release. Expect to see more footage of the PS4 and games produced for it in the coming months.

Summary
Sony announces Playstation 4 (PS4) but does not show it
Article Name
Sony announces Playstation 4 (PS4) but does not show it
Description
Sony revealed information about its new gaming console Playstation 4 (PS4) yesterday.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. McCann said on February 21, 2013 at 11:41 am
    Reply

    Here’s the link to the full description of the Dualshock 4 controller with hi-res pics from Sony of the final design (varies from the above post).

    http://goo.gl/7NyKb

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on February 21, 2013 at 11:44 am
      Reply

      Thanks. Link points to the official Playstation blog.

  2. ilev said on February 21, 2013 at 11:22 am
    Reply

    Windows 8 PS4 app?

    Sony Sony Vaio Duo 11 with Windows 8 connected to PS4.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5hjx2Sd52U4

    Sony announced PS4 apps for iOS and Android
    http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/130221a_e.pdf

  3. Lindsay said on February 21, 2013 at 5:01 am
    Reply

    Anandtech’s got a bit of technical info; an eight core AMD Jaguar CPU and an AMD GPU with 18 compute units, about which they speculate a bit. If it’s current generation tech that puts it right between the Radeon 7850 and 7870.

    And that GDDR5 provides 176GB/s to BOTH the CPU and GPU.

    So how long will it be available before you can buy the next Gran Turismo title?

  4. Massacred said on February 21, 2013 at 4:35 am
    Reply

    This is basically a moot point. This was just the unveiling, presumably the console will be show at E3 this year.

    This was Sony’s best press conference in years. They focused on what the core gamers are looking for games! The new controller looks beautiful and added everything gamers wanted; headphone jack, improved grip, sticks, d-pad, and triggers. (Aside from the share and options buttons [seriously bring back start and select])
    In fact the only thing that most people I’ve talked to were disappointed in, was in regard’s to 3 games:
    Agent
    Final Fantasy Versus XIII
    The Last Guardian

    1. Flamered said on February 21, 2013 at 4:37 am
      Reply

      I don’t know who you are or anything about you. But let me just this man (woman?) nails it on the head so well that no other comments are needed.

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