Sony announces PlayStation 4

Written by David Hing

February 21, 2013 | 08:26

Tags: #console #next-generation #playstation-4 #ps4

Companies: #sony

Sony has officially announced its entry into the next console generation, the Playstation 4.

The limited technical specifications revealed show that the next generation console will feature a custom eight-core CPU, a GPU capable of generating 1.84 teraflops of processing power and 8GB of system memory. The GPU and CPU are both being manufactured by AMD.

Announced at a New York press conference, what the machine will look like is still however a mystery, although the new console's controller was discussed.

The Dualshock 4 controller will feature a touchpad on the face of the device and a lightbar built in to the rear to allow its movement to be tracked with a camera. Sony also boasted about the "share" button, allowing players to instantly upload recent footage to social media sites.

There will also be possible integration between Sony's Vita handheld and the next generation console with the Vita being able to function as a second screen and additional contorller.

The Playsation 4 will leverage the cloud technology from Gaikai, a cloud gaming firm which Sony acquired last year for $380m. Players will have the option of allowing their friends to access their consoles in some form of gaming remote assistance to either help them out or simply spectate their progress.

Backwards compatibility appears to be off the cards for the new machine, although Sony is apparently exploring the option of allowing Playstation 3 games to stream on the console through the use of Gaikai's cloud platform. It is unclear if the lack of backward compatibility includes all of Sony's previous consoles or just the Playstation 3.

Titles discussed at the press event included WatchDogs from Ubisoft, Killzone Shadowfall, Infamous: Second Son, Bungie's newly announced Destiny and surprisingly Blizzard's Diablo 3 which will also receive a Playstation 3 port.

A price for the new console was not discussed, but Sony did state that it was aiming for a "holiday 2013" release, implying that the first launches will start in December this year.

This announcement makes Sony the second of the big three to launch its next generation efforts with Nintendo's Wii U being first out of the gate last December. Fans of Microsoft's console will now be eager to hear what's next for the Xbox.

Rumours of specifications of next generation Playstations and Xboxes have been doing the rounds of late with a suggestion that the new machines will work to clamp down on the second-hand game market. Nothing from Sony's announcement has lent any weight behind this suggestion.
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