Earlier today,playstation blog posted an article titled See the future, announcing...an announcement? The video posted teases an event for journalists & investors happening February 20th in NYC at 6pm EST. Various game journalists tweeted about receiving invites to Meeting 2013, & implying that they know what’s coming. Video game sites are saying all signs point to a Playstation 4 reveal, therefore throwing their hat into the next gen ring. With a suspected launch window of 2 years, it is safe to assume development kits are already in the hands of 1st and 3rd party developers. A couple of dev kit specs have been leaked (current specs are not indicative of final retail model specs) but final numbers may not be far off:
System Memory: 8GB
Video Memory: 2.2 GB
CPU: 4x Dual-Core AMD64 "Bulldozer" (so, 8x cores)
GPU: AMD R10xx
Ports: 4x USB 3.0, 2x Ethernet
Drive: Blu-Ray
HDD: 160GB
Audio Output: HDMI & Optical, 2.0, 5.1 & 7.1 channels
With the cost of HDD being much cheaper than when the current gen of consoles started, we can expect a higher capacity storage in the ps4. Since this is a dev kit, the multiple USb & ethernet ports are likely for testing purposes.
Last year, Sony acquired cloud streaming service Gaikai for $380 million. This service makes sense on a console for instant stream of game demos without eating up precious disc space & skipping installation times. This could also vastly improve their hit-or-miss compatibility for Remote play on the ps vita & other devices.
Sony has also confirmed that the controller will be getting a redesign, which ends the reign of the dualshock design that originated on the ps1. Playstation engineers will be integrating some of the UI philosophies of the ps vita, which could introduce the rear-panel touch input panel from the handheld on the next controller. Since the dev kits have dualshock controller included, this could mean even though the new controller design may not be final, a similar button layout could be expected. There is also speculation on the addition of a new button, labeled Share. This could potentially be used to capture a screenshot or share a trophy on social networking sites. The other potential use could be for multi user simultaneous logins. This would ideally allow for users to sync their PSN id to the controller which could then sync the controller to a friend’s console. This could allow for co op play in which unlocked trophies would go to all the players, for instance.
Sony originally stated in their E3 ps3 conference that this console cycle would last 10 years,which if there is some overlap like the ps2/ps3 had, is still technically true.
Check back Feb 20th for the big reveal!
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