The PlayStation 4 Announced

Sony began the latest announcement with a look back at the history of PlayStation, the gaming system that changed how we played video games. Playstation promised improvement of the Vita, as well as strengthening of the PlayStation Network. PlayStation strives to be innovative and current, and to never fall behind; they want to us keep wanting them.

With the demand of social media, and changes in the consumer, PlayStation determined that there needed to be a change in how they deliver the gaming experience to their customers. With a build up of promises and what they wanted to bring to next gen, the PlayStation 4 was announced!

Ex-Atari Developer and Lead Architect on the new PS4, Mark Cerny, took the stage and explained the road up to the announcement. Mark explained that they cannot limit themselves with what technology is available and the design innovations that were available. The x86 will be powering the system, with a PC GPU to push out the graphics, 8gb of memory, and a hard drive we can load with everything we want. To show this off, they showed a glimpse of Unreal 4. Another new title that Mark Cerny was excited by was a game “Knack”; this looked to be PlayStation‘s latest attempt to create a new IP for the new system.

One cool feature they were talking about was a suspension mode, that when you press the power button, it will pause the game and hibernate the system. When you are ready to play again, resume it with the power button and away you go into your game.

(New PS4 Homescreen)

Integration to all social media was a big point on this system; it seems PlayStation wants to keep us in the loop as much as possible. Flawless integration with the Vita and new “tablet” product that may come soon. Also there will be a feature to predict the type of games you will like to play, based on history. With this, the console will have a game ready for you by the time it is released in order to almost eliminate download times for the newest games.

A remote play feature was announced between the PS4 and Vita. This would be a way to drop what you are doing on the TV and take the game with you, much like what the WiiU has done with their system. A rumor from earlier was confirmed as well with the plan to be able to play any old game in the PlayStation library on the PS4 via cloud technology.

Developers were interviewed to explain the challenges and hopes for the next gen system. Some that spoke were Quantic Dream, Worldwide Studios and Ninja Theory about what they want from the platform, and how they want to make these new games for the gamers. You could hear the passion in their voices and the excitement of what they can bring to the new system.

Micheal Denny from Worldwide Studios came to the stage to discuss the possible game creativity available with an untouched system. It lead into sneak peaks of new games, Killzone: Shadowfall, Driveclub, InFamous: Second Son, and indie game The Witness.

Move is also back for the PS4, but not as you would expect. Not as a controller to play, but something used to create. This would be used with a multiplayer social game to assemble and create whatever you want. A short video was shown of what can be created using this new tool, and it was extremely promising for the digital artist, or the hobbyist wanting to play.

Other games such as Deep Down, Watchdogs, a new Final Fantasy game and Street Fighter game were also hinted at as well.

There was a big surprise when Chris Metzen from Blizzard came on stage and announced a partnership with Sony. With that he also announced that Diablo 3 was being put onto the PS4 as well as the PS3. Introducing more co-op play, reminiscent of Gauntlet. Also Activision/Bungie came out with that they also partnered with Sony to bring the new game Destiny to the PS4.

(possible first look at the console itself)

The conference ended with a collaboration of everything that was shown that night. Unfortunately, the console itself was not shown, but I expect more in the coming year with E3 right around the corner.