Sony made an official press release of almost two hours, whitout actually showing the console and gives us a price idea. They only showed the new controller, a couple of exclusives games and some specs. This is unusual, but still, a new era begins with the official announcement of the long awaited PlayStation 4.
Sony introduced the original Playstation on December 3rd 1994 in Japan and a few month later, in United States. The PlayStation has many iconic games like Twisted Metal, WipeOut, Ridge Racer, and Grand Turismo. Almost 6 years later, on October 26th 2000, the PS2 came to US market. The PS2 sold a million consoles only in a few days, making breaking record sales. Still today, The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling home console of all times, with nearly 154 million units sold worldwide.
A year later, a new competitor appeared. A mysterious black box with a green X logo on it. Microsoft was entering the video game industry with its Xbox. Playstation and its new competitor where almost tied in their sales. Then came the Xbox 360 in 2005 and the PS3 in 2006. At the end of 2012, the PlayStation 3 had sold 77 million units and the Xbox 360 was at 75.9 million units.
And today February 20th, 2013 Sony start something that, we all hope, is going to change the industry of gaming.
First, they showed their new DualShock 4 controller on which they included multiple fonctions, an integrated heaphone jack and a new tactile sensor like the one on the PS Vita just to name a few. They also integrated a share button directly on the remote to let you share screenshots and video clips in only one click. They also mentioned quickly the new camera that will also be released with the system that will be use both as a regular camera while tracking the movement of the new PS4 pad via its light bar at the same time.
Then, the focus on the fact tat the PS4 is focused on the social gaming. You can live stream you game so that people can see you and help you with comments that will appear directly on your screen. Not only your friends can help you solve a hard level or help you spot your enemies, but they can also help you remotely.
The new console will have two different processor, one for the main gaming and the other one to download in background while you are playing. The playstation 4 will also be able to predict what kind of game you like and download them in the background, or if the console is closed. Think about it, you will turn on your new console and it will say ” Welcome player one, the new Call Of Duty is available would you like to play?” Boom! The game will start and while your playing it will keep downloading the complete game content.
Two other things they introduced is the Remote Play which enable your PS4 games to be playable on your PS Vita with a wifi connection and included services like Facebook, Netfilx or Amazon directly on your PS4.
They presented a couple of cool exclusive titles like Killzone: Shadow Fall, Driveclub (a social driver game), InFAMOUS: Second Son revealed an Braid (a puzzle game).
Everytime PlayStation has lauched a new console, they focused on the graphic and on the specs of the machine. This time, it seems like the social aspect of it is what they will try to focus on to differentiate themselves from the competition.
The PS4 will be available for the Holidays 2013 and in the meantime, more information will probably be released at the E3 on June 11th to 13th, 2013.
You can get more information on PlayStation’s official website
Let us know what you think of the PS4 lauch conference in the comment section below.
Leadergeeks 