So I was one of the millions that got to watch the Sony Playstation 4 two hour conference live on the web.
Now normally I wouldn’t sit through any kind of 2 hour conference, but somehow this one actually kept me entertained and if I could have been there in person I would have been.
Sony release quite a bit of details about the next generation console. Including the new Dualshock 4 controller, the actual system specs and their plans for future cloud based gaming. Now by no means would I consider myself a fanboy but I have been with Playstation since the beginning and have purchased just about every generation of the console as close to release as possible since its inception. This console I am paying very close attention to, closer than any of the others.
First the important part, system specs. So far everything seems pretty impressive., note that they have massively stepped up their RAM and video capabilities.
Main Processor | Single Chip Custom ProcessorCPU: low power x86-64 “Jaguar”, 8 coresGPU: 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD Radeon™ Graphics Core Next engine |
Memory | GDDR5 8GB |
Hard Disk Drive | Built-in |
Optical Drive (Read Only) | BD 6xCAVDVD 8xCAV |
I/O | Super-Speed USB (USB 3.0), AUX |
Communication | Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)IEEE 802.11 b/g/nBluetooth® 2.1 (EDR) |
A/V Output | HDMIAnalog-AV outDigital Output (optical) |
To me the next in the line up in importance is backwards compatibility and sadly, no, you will not be able to play your PS1,PS2 or PS3 disc based games on the system. However, during the conference David Perry the CEO of the Sony recent acquisition Gaikai stated
“Over the past 6 years Playstation 3 has built an incredible catalog of titles that is unmatched in the industry. Although PS3 titles are not natively supported on PS4, we are exploring some very unique opportunities enable by cloud technology, with the long term vision of making PS3 games ubiquitous on any device. The technology is so advanced, that someday we could easily put PS1, PS2, PS3 and the PS mobile games on any device, including the Playstation 4”
Depending on how this concept is done it could be good or it could be bad. I am one of those gamers that doesn’t really trade my games in, I buy them play them and keep them. Who knows I may want to play it later. If I have to repurchase old games to play on the PS4 I will be greatly upset. Now if they set it up in such a fashion as I input my PS3 disc into the PS4 and it automatically understands that I own the game and either lets me download it for free OR at a substantial discount then I will be happy. I don’t mind paying something just not paying full retail for a game I already have. That being said I will still have my PS3 I can play the old games on that if I have to.
What about the dualshock 3 controllers? From everything I saw and read again a solid no. The new PS4 will come with the dual shock 4 controller featuring a new wider design, dedicated share button, light bar for almost a PS move type camera, a headset input and a touchpad. While everyone at the conference touched on this new touchpad, nobody gave any examples of how it will interact with a game. I suppose this is something that will be seen in the coming months.
Less important to me before watching this video conference was the aspect of Social Media. I have to admit that I despise facebook. Twitter is not so bad but I just cant stand facebook. However during this unveiling the touched on the fact that they have partnered with several social networks including facebook to build a Gamer specific social platform. This new platform combined with the new share button on the controller, and another partner uStream will allow us to stream our gameplay live and with multicast. Add that to the mention of native recording capabilities and I am intrigued. Right now I use a HD PVR 2 a bunch of extra wires and all that Jazz to just record my gameplay for this site.
Then Mr. Perry goes into the concept of when you are having a hard time in a certain level reaching out to a friend for help and they take over your controller, a little scary but still cool by all means. He further says that there will be the ability for game developers to put in areas where you can drop your friends health packs, or equipment. Holy frijoes de papas Batman, I can drop my daughter heath packs so she doesn’t die as much, or better yet my Girlfriend cause she really sucks at games (hopefully this is the one post she doesn’t read).
Now the little more scary part is they mentioned the the PS4 will get to know you and be able to predict your next game purchase, automatically download it so that when you pay, its already there to play. No wait time. All I can say is I hope they enable an OFF feature for this. I dont even allow my computers to do software updates automatically I surely don’t want auto downloads on my console.
Whats missing though? Yeah the price point, nobody seems to know. Some experts say that the magic price point would be $299. WHAT, WHEN was the last console released at that price point, especially from Sony? I am think more of a $500 to $600 range at launch realistically. Amazon already has a PS4 link on their site, Game Stop PowerUp members can get on a first to know list but it is all still up in the air.
Will Gun Geek be on the list to pre-order the PS4? That is still to be seen but the answer is, most likely. Either that or I will wait until the bugs get worked out as all consoles launch with issues. I will try to keep up with the PS4 happenings and news and report on them to the best of my ability. For now keep watching the site as I am editing some gameplay tutorials.