Sony’s big reveal, which took place very early this morning, went exactly as expected with the company formally announcing and detailing the PlayStation 4 console.
Specs for the console have been revealed, as well as several features and improvements to the gaming unit. There are also one or two things that fans of the current generation are not going to be too pleased with, however.
On the specs front, the PS4 will feature a custom single-chip CPU/GPU that uses eight x86-64 AMD “Jaguar” cores for the CPU and a 1.84 teraflop Radeon engine from AMD for the graphics. It will include 8GB of GDDR3 memory, a size-unspecified hard drive for storage and a Blu-ray optical drive. It will feature USB 3.0, Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11 b/g/n support and an ethernet port. Video output comes by way of HDMI, Analog AV out or optical digital output ports.
Players will be able to play while downloads are happening, even playing DLC (downloadable content) as it comes down though a hefty connection will likely be required for local audiences to make use of this. Video uploads and browsing as it streams from other players will be possible. The controller rumours seem to have been mostly correct as well, though the light on the top is going to be used by the new PlayStation Eye camera, also announced this morning.
The PlayStation Vita handheld controller will be able to stream some games from the PS4, something which Sony hopes to extend to every PS4 game eventually, in the same manner as the Wii U’s touch-screen Gamepad.
Unfortunately the PS4 will not “natively support” previous generations of games but PlayStation 1, 2 and 3 games will apparently be able to stream through Sony’s recently-purchased Gaikai service, as will some PS4 games in a try-before-you-buy sort of scenario.
The PlayStation 4 will launch during the Holiday season in the States this year, we’ll update when South Africa is expected to get the PS4 as well as what pricing is likely to be once that information is known. Several new titles have been announced for the game and Ubisoft’s highly anticipated Watch Dogs will apparently also be a launch title.
Source: Ars Technica
