Sony chose New York as its venue to officially unveil its next-generation console: the PlayStation 4. People will be able to get their hands on this new hardware holiday 2013.
If you hadn’t heard, Sony planned for Feb. 20, 2013 to be the date where it showed the world “the future” and it did just that in the form of a two hour presentation. During the presentation Sony and other guests, notably David Perry, founder of Gaikai, and Evolution Studios, developer of MOTORSTORM, focused on how the PlayStation 4 would evolve the gaming experience.
Described by president of Sony Computer Entertainment Andrew House, the PlayStation 4 will be a console that will create “experiences that surpass gamer’s wildest expectations.”
To evolve the gaming experience Sony focused on three points: social gaming, streaming games, and what games will be offered on this next-generation platform.
To create a more social experience Sony also unveiled an new PlayStation controller dubbed the DualShock 4 and it will host a “share” button that will allow gamers to share video clips via Ustream. People will be able to upload these clips through there social networks, no specific network was disclosed besides Facebook and Ustream, and people from around the world will be able download them and comment on them.
The PlayStation 4 will keep track of video content as you progress through a game and players will be able to go back and cut segments together and upload those segments seamlessly.
Last year Sony bought cloud-based streaming company Gaikai and during the pretension they definitely capitalized on their investment.
Seeing how the PlayStation 4 won’t be backwards compatible, PlayStation 3 games won’t be playable on next-generation hardware, Gaikai plans to offer a new service to replace the incompatibility which involves steaming games.
“[Gaikai is] exploring some very unique opportunities, with the long term vision of making PlayStation 3 games ubiquitous on any device,” says David Perry.
He went on to say that the streaming technology “is so advanced that some day we could easily see PS1, PS2, PS3 and the PS Mobile games on any device, including the PlayStation 4.”
Sony’s focus throughout the duration of the presentation was the PlayStation 4 being a machine that offered you the best gaming experience possible and consequently what comes with that are having quality games.
Their presentation delivered in this regard.
Demonstrating the power potential of the PlayStation 4’s developer-in-mind architecture, Sony showcased games like KILLZONE: SHADOW FALL and WATCH DOGS. It’s also worth noting that DESTINY and DIABLO 3 will be coming to the PlayStation 4.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUZJTjns6Qg[/youtube]
No surprise though, every game looked amazing and introduced people to what they can expect from the coming generation of consoles.
So what does this mean for the constant battle for supremacy between Microsoft and Sony?
Sony pulled off exactly what it needed to pull off during the duration of their presentation. It separated itself from Microsoft by distinguishing itself as a console focused on delivering the best gaming experience on the market. This is in contrast with Microsoft whose focus is taking over your living from by providing everything you need in terms of entertainment in one box.
Sony came out with a bang with this conference and asserted that its console was the future. A factor it needs to reinforce as it attempts to take back the market from Microsoft’s grasp. The PlayStation 4 is fighting an uphill battle, but after tonight the battle looks a little less steep.
Tonight’s presentation has me very excited for the PlayStation 4 and what it’s capabilities will be. Sony executed its unveiling perfectly, it did everything it had to and more. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft responds now that the ball is in their court.
I suspect we’ll see something from them soon with the impending Game Developers Conference (GDC) on the horizon.
Keep it locked in at neverendingradicaldude.com for more information from this presentation as we dissect the massive amount of information that came out of New York.
