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This evening Sony announced its next-generation console, the PlayStation 4 and its accompanying new controller, the DualShock 4. The company had a few surprises up its sleeve, like the fact that its recently-released PS Vita would be capable of playing PlayStation 4 games via streaming technology it acquired when it purchased Gaikai. The news is still coming, so check back with this StoryStream for everything you need to know about the new hardware, latest games, and more.
27 updates and 3013 comments below.
May 01 2:17p
Activision is continuing its tradition of releasing a new title in its marquee first-person shooter franchise every year: the company has just officially announced Call of Duty: Ghosts will be available on November 5th. The game is being trumpeted as a new Call of Duty for the next generation of game consoles — the new Xbox and the PlayStation 4 — and it will be fully unveiled at Microsoft's May 21st next Xbox event. (The game will also be available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.)...
Apr 25 2:47a
When Sony unveiled the PlayStation 4 two months ago, many were impressed to see Mark Cerny fronting the presentation as lead system architect; the industry veteran first made his name by designing the classic Marble Madness at the age of 18, and has since been described as "the closest we have come to a modern-day da Vinci." Cerny hasn't spoken much about the PS4 since, but now a lengthy, in-depth interview with Gamasutra does a lot to explain the thinking behind the system's design.
Mar 01 11:52a
We didn't hear much about the PlayStation Plus subscription service at last week's announcement, but Sony Europe CEO Jim Ryan tells the PlayStation Blog that the company hasn't forgotten it. "We’re not yet in a position to disclose our plans for the future of PlayStation Plus," says Ryan, "but there will definitely be a prominent role to play for it in the PlayStation 4 landscape." Currently set at around $5 a month, the service gives players discounts on the PlayStation Store, cloud...
Feb 28 5:16p
Sony is still being secretive about its forthcoming "world's first" 4K movie download service, but it sounds like it will eventually work with the equally-mysterious PS4. That's the word according to Sony Electronics President and COO Phil Molyneux, who said "I promise you will not be disappointed" when asked if the service would support his company's new console. That certainly makes sense, and it lines up with previous reports that the PS4 would support 4K photos and video, but not games.
...Feb 26 3:03p
Seven years ago, Nintendo made a crazy bet. With the Nintendo Wii, the company decided not to compete with the then-upcoming Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 when it came to gaming graphics. Instead, Nintendo made the console experience more accessible, and kept the price tag hundreds of dollars cheaper than the competition. The result: record sales, record profits, and an expansion of the gaming audience unlike any in history.
Feb 25 10:45p
With the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, you could certainly download quite a few games. With the new PlayStation 4, however, it sounds like digital downloads will be a primary method of distribution. Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told The Guardian that every single PlayStation 4 title will be available digitally.
"PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc," he said in an interview...
Feb 22 9:18a
At Sony's big PlayStation 4 announcement earlier this week, the company made it clear that it was going to rely on the cloud for many of the console's new features. Sony talked up the ability to play online games while they download, uploading and sharing gameplay video on the fly, and a lot of other cloud-based features that appear inspired by the recent purchase of Gaikai. Unfortunately, it's not yet clear what exactly will work out of the box. Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony...
8:44a
Sony's big PlayStation 4 event on Wednesday was highlighted by an extended playthrough of one of the new console's launch titles, Killzone: Shadow Fall. While the game exhibited all the lovely graphical detail you'd expect from a next-gen title, it was still being played with the calm and methodical hand of an experienced Sony demo man. Last night, however, Jimmy Fallon managed to get his paws on one of the touchpad-equipped DualShock 4 controllers and tried the new Killzone out for himself....
Feb 21 3:03p
The day after announcing the PlayStation 4, Sony has been parceling out more information on the still-unseen console. Though the "final specs and design" are still being tweaked for a release at the end of 2013, we now have a long list of planned features and specifications, including answers to some of the most pressing pre-release questions. Sony initially focused on wowing audiences with connectivity and specs: it's touted a custom AMD Jaguar processor, 8GB of RAM, a 6x Blu-ray and 8x DVD...
12:06p
Sony's PlayStation 4 announcement last night notably included no footage of the actual console — and now, Sony Computer Entertainment of America CEO Jack Tretton says that's because the company still hasn't got it ready. In an interview with AllThingsD, Tretton said that "we’re certainly capable of showing playable game content, but we don’t have a mass-production box that we can bring out and pull out. That’s still in development in terms of final specs and design."
He defended the...
12:45a
Before today's PlayStation 4 announcement, rumors had flown about whether or not Sony would implement a system to block users from playing second-hand games on the console. It wasn't addressed in the company's presentation, but now Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Worldwide Studios, has denied the reports.
Feb 20 10:15p
Sony is working on a second screen app to work with its upcoming PlayStation 4 that will let users use their smartphones and tablets as companion devices while playing, and watch their friends’ gameplay wherever they have an internet connection. The new software is called PlayStation App (not to be confused with the existing PlayStation Official App), and while there aren’t many details right now, Sony suggests that users will be able to use it to do things like view in-game maps while...
9:43p
We still have absolutely no idea what the PlayStation 4 looks like, but we're getting a better picture of what's within: Sony's just released a list of tech specs for the console. Confirming months of rumors, the PS4 will primarily have AMD silicon inside, in the form of a "single-chip custom processor" with eight AMD Jaguar CPU cores, and a next-gen Radeon graphics engine capable of 1.84 teraflops of performance.
Here's the full spec sheet:
8:23p
Sony just took the wrappers off the PlayStation 4 at a blowout event — but something was missing. Bizarrely, the company elected not to show any glimpse of the console hardware itself, instead focusing on internal details and a showreel of upcoming games. We did get to see the new DualShock 4 controller and the depth camera that it works with, but as for what you'll actually place under your TV come holiday 2013? We're none the wiser.
Perhaps Sony is attempting to avoid the eventual...
8:04p
It's the Future of PlayStation after-party! Chris Grant (Editor-in-chief, Polygon), Ross Miller (Senior Editor, The Verge), and a gaggle of special friends break down the biggest news of the night (spoiler: it's the PlayStation 4) with relevant and irreverent insight.
8:02p
Famed developer Bungie just unveiled its latest project Destiny a few days ago, and now they have confirmed that it'll be making its way to the PlayStation 4. While this isn't a huge surprise, it's still one of the biggest new game announcements Sony made today. It'll also be coming to the PS3, as we already knew, but we also learned that the game will offer some exclusive content for those who buy the game for Sony's latest hardware. Not surprisingly, the game looks great, but there still...
7:53p
The biggest surprise of Sony's PlayStation 4 event wasn't even the PlayStation 4. Blizzard has just announced a strategic partnership with Sony, beginning with a port of Diablo III to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 game consoles. After years of only supporting PCs, the company behind World of WarCraft is dipping its toe back in the waters of the game console. The game has been updated for console controllers, and will have a four-player co-op mode.
"Many of you are probably wondering...
7:19p
Sony has shown off what appears to be the first gameplay footage from its new PlayStation 4 console with a demo of the upcoming Killzone: Shadow Fall game. Killzone is developed by Guerrilla Games and is a first-person shooter set in a futuristic environment. Sony spoke to great length about the PlayStation 4's hardware capabilities, and Killzone takes advantage of them with very detailed environments, loads of lens flare, depth of field effects, and realistically modeled water effects. It's...
7:12p
The PlayStation 4 is coming, and gamers around the world have gotten their first look at titles they'll be playing on Sony's new console when it hits retail shelves. The first title showed off was Knack (below), developed by Sony's in-house Japan Studio. Clearly a showcase of the console's horsepower, a brief demo featured hundreds of objects whizzed around the game's main character with nary a hiccup. In terms of visual style, the game takes on an animated movie-like appearance. Knack was...
6:43p
Unfortunately, Sony just announced that the PlayStation 4 won't play PS3 games natively out-of-the-box — all of the games you've accumulated over the last few years will be stuck on the older console. However, Sony did say it is exploring "advanced technologies" to bring PS3 support to the PS4 eventually. That backwards compatibility could come via Gaikai-powered streaming, just as we heard last week. According to a Sony tweet, it sounds like that compatibility won't be limited to just the...
6:42p
Sony has just announced a complete overhaul of the user interface for the PlayStation 4. The XrossMediaBar is totally gone from this iteration (it's also notably absent from the PS Vita, too). Aesthetically the redesign looks a lot like the latest PSN redesign, with a notification bar at the top of the screen. The interface relies heavily on social and video features, with mobile companion mobile apps that look almost identical to the PS4 UI. Real-name profiles, likely pulled from existing...
6:40p
Sony has announced a new "remote play" feature for the PS Vita, which will allow PlayStation 4 games to be played directly on the Vita. "Our long term goal is to make every PS4 title playable on the Vita," the company says. It's a strategy similar to what we've seen on the Nintendo Wii U and Nvidia's Project Shield, where home console or PC games can be streamed to a smaller second screen. Though we're not sure exactly how it works yet, Sony says it's integrated Gaikai technology that...
6:35p
At its PlayStation 4 event, Sony announced that its new console will feature unique video-sharing features, including the ability to stream video from games as you play them and watch other people's games over the PlayStation Network. Sony says that its "goal is to make sharing of video as popular in PS4 as screenshots are today." Sony says the PS4 features dedicated, always-on video compression that can seamlessly upload gameplay as you use the console.
The console will allow users to watch...
6:31p
Once upon a time, Gaikai was a tiny, optimistic company throwing everything at the wall, desperate to find a use for its cloud gaming technology. Today, those dreams have been fulfilled: Gaikai founder David Perry walked out on stage at Sony's PlayStation 4 event, confirming that the new PlayStation will use that tech to stream games over the internet.
Previously, we'd heard that Gaikai would just be used to deliver legacy PlayStation 3 titles on the new platform, but that's not the case...
6:26p
During its PlayStation 4 announcement, Sony revealed that users will be able play online games before they are finished downloading to the system. Gaikai showed off a feature like this last year, but Sony tells us it doesn't use Gaikai's service, but rather secondary background processors. Additionally, the system has the ability to download games in the background, even while it is powered off, using the same chip. Sony says that users can even upload videos to the internet while playing...
6:18p
Sony has announced the DualShock 4, a new controller with a touchpad and headphone jack. The controller will come with a dedicated share button and a light bar that identifies players or changes color during play, and it essentially looks like a sleeker version of the classic DualShock. The light bar, which rotates between three different colors, can actually be used to provide feedback during gameplay — to notify a player if their health is running low, for example.
The DualShock 4...
6:09p
On stage at the "See the Future" event in New York, Sony has just announced its latest gaming console: the PlayStation 4. "We believe that PlayStation 4 represents a shift from thinking of a box or console," said Sony's Andrew House. "PlayStation is the best place to play." The console will be arriving in the holiday season of 2013, though unfortunately no pricing details were given, and Sony didn't provide any glimpses of the new hardware.
As introduced by lead system architect Mark Cerny,...
May 09 2:15p
Unlike the PS3, Sony isn't expecting to lose money on the PlayStation 4
Back when it launched, Sony's PlayStation 3 was something of a technological marvel for a home console — and it had the price to match. Despite a starting price of $499, Sony still lost money on the console, but it doesn't plan to have the same issue this time around with the PlayStation 4. As reported by Eurogamer, Sony addressed the issue on its earnings call this morning after announcing that it made its first net profit in five years. "Unlike PS3, we are not planning a major loss to be...
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