Playstation 4 And Everything You Need To Know

By Rob Boggan

Last night Sony officially fired the first shots in the next gen console wars. Nintendo was first to market with a “next gen” console, but given the hardware and capability of their Nintendo Wii U, the jury is still out on whether or not we can truly consider that as next gen. Be that as it may, Sony went all out on the PlayStation 4, with the hardware and software mirroring what we’d come to expect with a next gen console. Noticeably absent from last night’s announcement was an official release date or a price for the system. With all that being said, here’s everything that you need to know about the PlayStation 4 as announced last night.

Let’s start with the biggest point of focus for the PlayStation 4 which is hardware. Sony aimed to create something unlike anything that they’ve ever done before, and unlike anything on the market now or headed to market later. From what we heard last night Sony achieved that and much more, and the PlayStation 4 will be a powerhouse system for years to come. For starters, there is an 8 core x86 AMD Jaguar processor running an impressive 1.8 teraflop AMD Radeon graphics engine. There’s also an astounding 8GB of RAM on board, which will allow gamers to power through games and enhances the level of multitasking available within the system. There’s also a “massive” hard drive on the inside of the PS4 but Sony didn’t specify exactly what massive meant. The Blu-Ray and DVD drive also received a slight upgrade. Rounding out the features announced for the system is a few 3.0 USB ports, and an HDMI out, along with auxiliary outs for third party peripheral support.

Everyone expected to see a revamped Dual Shock controller, and Sony delivered big time. The Dual Shock 4 sports the traditional dual analog design, but with some next gen enhancements. There’s now two buttons added for ‘options’ and ‘share’, which Sony hinted will work with the content sharing capabilities of the PS4. Share being the most obvious of the bunch, will allow gamers to essentially cut, and edit in game video and screen shots without the need of any extra hardware or software. Options wasn’t really touched on, but I’m assuming it would work similar to how the current ‘PS’ button works with the Dual Shock 3. Also front and center on the Dual Shock 4 controller is a touchpad that has a point and click mechanism along with capacitive type functionality for sending messages. There’s also a stereo headset jack built into the controller now for better communication options, along with the mini USB charging port being swapped out for a micro USB port. The PlayStation Eye is also getting revamped in order to better compete with Microsoft’s wildly popular Kinect offering. The PlayStation Eye will now support 3D graphics, and better voice recognition. The frame rate has seen a tremendous bump, moving to a maximum of 60 fps, with the capability of recording in up to 720p HD.

Gaming on the PS4, which is by far the most important piece to this next gen puzzle will look to completely change the way we interact with our systems. After Sony’s acquisition of cloud gaming company Gakai, we expected something big with the next iteration of PlayStation, but not on the level we seen last night. The PS4 will now stream video games, along with having physical playable copies. In addition, gamers will be able to play games while they are downloading, or while the system is powered off. This is done with some clever hardware magic, and not only will users be able to download games without the system being powered on, but you’d also have the capability of finishing a content upload as well. Sony announced that the PS4 will be capable of streaming PS1, 2, and 3 titles, but will not natively play disc copies of those games at launch. Sony has confirmed that they “are working” on a solution to make the system backwards compatible though. The most important announcement in regards to gaming came in the form of Sony confirming that they will not block used games. At least not yet.

After all that, I was still left wondering what the final specs will be, and most importantly how much will it cost, and just what the hell will it even look like? From the sounds of things, the PlayStation 4 will be available in time for the holidays, but I’m hoping we’ll get a full reveal before then. Let’s say around E3 maybe?