News: Sony’s PS4 Press Event – What You Missed

After months of rumor and speculation, Sony publicly revealed in a press conference on Februrary 20 that a new Playstation console was coming: the Playstation 4. Industry heads took turns on stage demonstrating tech demos, gameplay footage, and just what Sony has in mind for the future of gaming.

A lot of big tech words were thrown around, but the big one that was constantly brought up is the word “social.” Sony is aiming to make gaming on the PS4 more socially connected with features such as being able to spectate one of your friend’s sessions (similar to watching a livestream of a LoL game), sharing screenshots and videos, and standards such as Facebook and Twitter functionality. The emphasis on social gaming was made more apparent with the addition of a dedicated “Share” button on the new PS4 controller.

I think it should be noted that the PS Vita also made a brief appearance at the event. Sony reps discussed their plans to allow any PS4 game to be made playable on the Vita. The idea is that you can pause while you’re playing on the console, then resume right where you left off on the Vita. It’s extremely similar to the Wii U’s gamepad, which allows you to play any game on the gamepad itself. Along with the Vita, the PS4 would allow mobile devices and tablets to interact with one another to stream videos, view additional content, and more. Sony really wants the PS4 to be at the center of your household network.

The actual technical specs of the system sound impressive, if not a bit vague. The console will run on an X86 processor with 8 cores, 8 GB of unified RAM, and a local HDD (no word on storage space). They were somewhat vague on the actual GPU, the amount of storage on the hard drive, among other things. It all sounds great, but until there are more specifics, I can’t say anything for certain about how well the machine runs.

The new controller, dubbed the Dualshock 4, was shown as well. The new controller has new features such as a small touchpad in between the directional and face buttons, a “share button”, and a light bar on the back that will allow the console to pick up motion (similar to the Wiimotes). It’ll be interesting to see how game developers take advantage of the new touchpad and improved motion controls. The PS3’s Dualshock 3 also had similar motion functionality with the Six Axis technology, but it was hardly ever utilized. With the Dualshock 4’s new additions, it seems Sony wants gamers to be fully immersed in the experience.

A lot of games were announced, but not too…hard-hitting. There were several surprises, such as the previously PC-exclusive Diablo III now coming to the PS4. A new Killzone and Infamous were announced during the conference, with tech footage being shown. Other games announced were Knack, Driveclub, and Deep Down. There will be no backwards compatibility with PS3 games, as well as older titles. However, Sony is preparing to offer PS1, PS2, and PS3 titles through a cloud-based streaming service called Gaikai. Whether this involves spending more money on titles you already own (PSP Go and PS Vita come to mind) remains to be seen.

The strangest thing about the entire event was that the actual console never makes an appearance. There was such a strong build in the beginning about how the next generation of gaming will be, and how much more powerful the console will be compared to the PS3, but the actual system itself is never shown. There were no photos, demo models, prototypes, or even concept art. I get that Sony’s engineers are probably hard at work developing the system and therefore too busy to concentrate on having a presentable model ready. But, considering that the whole point of the event was to talk about the new system, it’s very strange to not show the console.