After weeks of wild rumors and crazed speculation, Sony finally announced its next console, the PlayStation 4. This event was held in New York City yesterday, on Feb. 20, 2013, and was reported by several news outlets including Chris Morris for Yahoo! Games on Feb. 20.
It his article, Morris accurately described it as the “worst-kept secret in gaming,” with several of the rumors about the PS4 being confirmed—proving that information had “leaked,” for lack of a better term.
“At a lavish press event in New York, the company showed off its next-generation console, a system it hopes will lure people away not only from competing machines from Microsoft and Nintendo, but from smart phones, tablets and other new gaming platforms,” Morris writes, going on to add Sony’s projected holiday 2013 release date.
Sony did not announce a price, nor did they actually show the console. But they did list several of its new, as they called them innovative features. While of course the console features increased graphical performance, the game also features a social network-oriented aspect not previously seen to this high of a degree: for example, gamers will be able to share videos of gameplay with each other, and this includes editing their videos in a Windows Movie Maker-like fashion.
As earlier reports had suggested, the Dualshock controller was revamped, though not to the degree originally speculated. Pictured above, the controller now comes with motion-sensor technology, a touchpad, and a “built-in ‘share’ button” that allows for instant sharing.
Other features, along the lines of new PCs, is a faster start-up time, improved integration with Facebook and UStream that gives users the ability to view other players’ progress live, and increased personalization options, “along the same lines of Apple’s Genius,” that will show you games you may enjoy and want to download, based on your current preferences.
The system will also feature a cloud-enabled network that will allow users to sample games before fully downloading them, thus cutting down on download times.
“What we’re creating is the fastest most powerful network for gaming in the world,” said Gaikai’s David Perry.
In addition, Sony showed-off several of its expected launch titles, including new entries in the “Killzone” and “Infamous” series. With these moves, Sony is hoping to regain its status as king of gaming, since the PS3, while not a failure in any regard, did underperform in terms of sales and reception.
"This was a very disappointing cycle for them," says Eric Handler, senior equity analyst of MKM Partners. "They definitely lost market share. … Their whole marketing message at the time was 'we're the most powerful machine' but what the Wii showed us was … people want to buy a console that has the most entertainment value. Machine strength isn't the Holy Grail. So they've got an opportunity here to show they have an interesting, compelling product."
For more information, check out Chris Morris’ article on Yahoo! Games.
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