PS4: What We Know So Far

This month the internet and gaming community has been talking about one mysterious thing that will change gaming, the possibility of a PS4.

Information about Sony’s newest rumoured console has had been getting leaked more and more, leading up to an announcement which will be made by the company on February 20th. Take into consideration that everything so far has just been rumours and hints to something large, and Sony has yet to confirm any of it. Some of the more important leaks this month have been the new controller for the PS4, the rumour of backwards compatibility via cloud interface, and the use of AMD x86 chips.

The controller looks very similar to the other designs we have been used to over the past decade and a half, but with a few minor changes. It is thicker than the other dual-shock controllers, and there seems to be some sort of space in the middle that could be a LCD screen area. But, given that the picture is a prototype, it could be nothing.

The cloud interface with the new system would allow streaming of old games through the system, so we still have access to our old library of titles all the way back to PS1. This would also allow the full download of new titles as soon as they launch instead of waiting in long lines for useless DLC.

The AMD x86 chips that would be used in the system are low power consuming, but are still able to produce massive power to deliver the type of gameplay we will expect with future titles.  With these in the PS4, it will hopefully be able to compete with some of the higher end PC gaming graphics.

Sony may be avoiding announcing this at E3 and jumping the gun with two new competitive consoles on the horizon. The two new consoles are the indie gamer console the OUYA, and the child of everyone’s favourite developer, Steam, the Steam Box. With all this competition now entering the marketplace, Sony needs to get something out there to show everyone who is boss of the console gaming wars.

PlayStation themselves have set up a website that you can sign up at for news about the upcoming announcement, along with a hashtag #playstation2013 on twitter.