PlayStation 4 'redefines the top tier gaming experience for gamers'

Gara was asked about the old catch phrase they used for the PS3 and then talked about why people will want the PS4."The it only does everything strap-line has become hygiene factors. We touched on video services etcetera during the event, but what we deliberately focused in on was the reason we started in this business. We’ve kind of gone back to the start, how we got started down this road."How do we make that the centerpiece and make that centerpiece as compelling as possible and as powerful as it possibly can be? So we want to talk less about the everything – even though, rest assured there will be plenty more and we will flesh that out as go down the road."We have redefined the top tier gaming experience for gamers. We have unleashed the creativity of the development industry by creating a machine that is easy to develop for and that incorporates their feedback – five years’ worth of feedback."I am incredibly reassured these guys will bring real talent back into this industry. I have seen bits of everything going along, but what really knocked my socks of the other night was the graphical quality of every game, really. I was expecting really good things, but I came away thinking: 'wow was that awesome.'"Every single game, third-party, first-party, really looked like it had stepped big time. It was neat to see," Gara said. Gara then talked about how people will surely understand the relevance of the sharing features as they reveal more and more about the system."People will start to understand this more over the coming months, but I think it’s all about relevancy and I also think – well, we’re the marketing and commercial team in the UK and one of the things we think about a lot are how do we get more miles on our games; how do we get people talking about them."I saw loads of features last night that enable ease of access to games, peer to peer promotion of games. If you are sharing clips of your race or battle or whatever it is you’re playing – you are effectively showcasing games to your friends."But it also provides an even greater value to the consumer by enabling others to join you in a race, or to help you out."This way, the user is making another aware of the game, and providing them with great value because at that stage you don’t have to buy anything as it will be something for them to pay down the line."It’s creating flexibility for the gamer and fantastic word of mouth and awareness which I think is a win-win," Gara said. Gara went on to explain the PS4's "Share" button further and why it works so well with the world today. "Being able to push a button and share is just one of the compelling social aspects of PS4, but for me, first of all, it’s just recognizing the lifestyle people live today and that puts PS3 in a little bubble of its own."It’s got its own special community and infrastructure and what we did during the event was show commonly used tools which we’ve embraced; how we can connect people with that; and how it will just weave into the daily fabric of their life."That is one of the big things that have changed since the PS3. During the PS4 event, Facebook was the main one we focused on, but my understanding is that we’ll be able to adapt to what the right networks are at the right time and satisfy the needs of the user," Gara said. View the list »
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The PlayStation 4 has been revealed and one of its executives took the time to discuss every aspect of the upcoming console in great detail.

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According to a report from VG24/7 on Friday, PlayStation UK managing director Fergal Gara talked about how it felt to finally announce the PlayStation 4.

"Great. It’s been years of preparation, but particularly in the last few weeks with the planning, and it stayed a good secret up until the invite stage, and there were only two weeks of frantic speculation.

"But it was great to get it out there, and to illustrate things many of us have known about, and do it clearly – the feature sets what it’s all going to do, what it does for the gamer, what experience you get, what’s cool about this game that makes it different," Gara said.

Gara talked about how people will be incentivized to purchase the system even if they may have slower download times than other people.

"Our brands and our machines sell across the whole world and infrastructure differs greatly in every country across the world, so one of the things we emphasized form the start is that it must be a compelling, stand-alone experience and a lot more has been added in in terms of the online services and technology and we expect that will be less effective if you’ve got a less than powerful broadband.

"As we flesh it out more over the coming months, I think we’ll start to see how experiences might differ, but it has been a goal and remains a goal to make sure PS4 is a great experience whether you are connected or not.

"And if you’re connected half well, there will be some compromise, but you’ll get most of the experience. That’s my expectation," Gara said.

Check out the list above and below as Gara goes on to talk about plenty more details and topics currently surrounding the PS4, such as why they revealed this past week, how much games will cost, what other features people don't know about and what they will unveil at E3 2013.

View the list
  • Gara went on to explain the PS4's "Share" button further and why it works so well with the world today. "Being able to push a button and share is just one of the compelling social aspects of PS4, but for me, first of all, it’s just recognizing the lifestyle people live today and that puts PS3 in a little bubble of its own."It’s got its own special community and infrastructure and what we did during the event was show commonly used tools which we’ve embraced; how we can connect people with that; and how it will just weave into the daily fabric of their life."That is one of the big things that have changed since the PS3. During the PS4 event, Facebook was the main one we focused on, but my understanding is that we’ll be able to adapt to what the right networks are at the right time and satisfy the needs of the user," Gara said. 
  • Gara then talked about how people will surely understand the relevance of the sharing features as they reveal more and more about the system."People will start to understand this more over the coming months, but I think it’s all about relevancy and I also think – well, we’re the marketing and commercial team in the UK and one of the things we think about a lot are how do we get more miles on our games; how do we get people talking about them."I saw loads of features last night that enable ease of access to games, peer to peer promotion of games. If you are sharing clips of your race or battle or whatever it is you’re playing – you are effectively showcasing games to your friends."But it also provides an even greater value to the consumer by enabling others to join you in a race, or to help you out."This way, the user is making another aware of the game, and providing them with great value because at that stage you don’t have to buy anything as it will be something for them to pay down the line."It’s creating flexibility for the gamer and fantastic word of mouth and awareness which I think is a win-win," Gara said. 
  • Gara was asked about the old catch phrase they used for the PS3 and then talked about why people will want the PS4."The it only does everything strap-line has become hygiene factors. We touched on video services etcetera during the event, but what we deliberately focused in on was the reason we started in this business. We’ve kind of gone back to the start, how we got started down this road."How do we make that the centerpiece and make that centerpiece as compelling as possible and as powerful as it possibly can be? So we want to talk less about the everything – even though, rest assured there will be plenty more and we will flesh that out as go down the road."We have redefined the top tier gaming experience for gamers. We have unleashed the creativity of the development industry by creating a machine that is easy to develop for and that incorporates their feedback – five years’ worth of feedback."I am incredibly reassured these guys will bring real talent back into this industry. I have seen bits of everything going along, but what really knocked my socks of the other night was the graphical quality of every game, really. I was expecting really good things, but I came away thinking: 'wow was that awesome.'"Every single game, third-party, first-party, really looked like it had stepped big time. It was neat to see," Gara said. 
  • Gara then talked about what it will help Sony with as they are the first company to unveil their new system."Well, yes it’s great, but we also chose to reveal PS4 when we did because that’s what fits in with the timeline."That’s the right time in terms of enough games being ready to show, being able to pull it all together and say: 'look, here’s the vision, here’s some of the experiences you’re going to see.'"If it was much earlier, it wouldn’t have been in a polished state and if you go later, well you just don’t gain the traction or awareness you would otherwise," Gara said. 
  • Gara spoke about a topic many gamers want to know now, and that is how much PS4 games are going to cost."PS4 is developed for developers by developers, and while you would need someone on the hardware end to answer that question for you, developers will have this feature set to use in order to create amazing games for the consumer, yet, the system will also be easy for them to get their hands around to develop with. And those are our two major priorities."So, I couldn’t tell you how those two balance each other out in terms of your question."But in the end it will be a high-end experience that will be easy for developers to create."Now, what that means in terms of the costs of a big, meaty project, you’d have to have one of our studio leaders to give you more detail around that," Gara said. 
  • Gara was asked how Sony plans to generate revenue out of Gaikai, but he said they are not quite ready to unveil that."It’s still too early for us to talk about that, along with how much the machines will cost."Of course, there is an economic model, or idea we have in place, or at least something to work with but we still aren’t close to the final stage in that and not able to provide any details."But we will, all in good time," Gara said.
  • Gara was then asked what type of bundles gamers will be able to purchase once the PS4 is released, but again, he said it's too early to discuss that."Again, the packaged part is something we can’t go into detail on yet, but I can expand on DualShock."The pad will bring all sorts of possibilities to life with flicks, and pinching and zooming in and out- stuff everyone has gotten used to with numerous devices."There is a fair bit of functionality there, and how it works with the camera, is it will associate the player with a specific controller and takes a leap on from where we have been."For example, say we’ve been playing something and I accidentally pick up your controller I can really mess up our stats so, the new controller recognizes the user," Gara said. 
  • Gara was then asked about when Sony will begin their big push for the promotion of the PS4. "We have kept the information pretty tight even internally so, some of my team only found out about certain aspects today."Soon, we will start discussing details and planning and a build before release, but it will be a while yet before we really start to advertise it."We want to decide what’s the best launch, what’s the best plan – there are so many strands to that," Gara said. Gara went on to talk about what the company's plans for E3 2013 are and whether or not they have nailed anything down. "What exactly gets revealed and when I don’t know, other than that there is plenty more to tell and we’ll be telling the full story between now and launch as there are still a few things not pinned down."I think there’s this perception that we’re deliberately holding back tons, but there are some final decisions that haven’t been made or are not appropriate to be made just yet. There are still variables there to be grappled with, pinned down as it were. All of that is still being worked through."I was delighted we were able to show as much as we did the other night. And rightly people are asking were the other bits are and all I can say is that we will continue to add flesh to the bones. The other night was just the start," Gara said.
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, Video Games Examiner

Steve Ruygrok has been in the journalism world since 2008. In addition to attending major events for the video games industry, he specializes in features, reviews and interviews. Subscribe for the latest feature he has to share regarding the video games industry. You can follow him on Twitter ...

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