The PlayStation 4 is Sony's fourth PlayStation-branded home console.
Contents
Announcement
The PS4 was announced on February 24 by Sony in New York City, where they held a press gala and streamed the presentation online for everyone to watch.
At this announcement, Infamous Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Driveclub and Knack were revealed, along with unnamed Capcom and Square-Enix projects.
Controller
The console's controller, the DualShock 4, was also revealed in New York.
The controller makes numerous changes to the DualShock 3 that came with the PS3.
Changes
The changes made to the DualShock 4 are as follows:
Analog Sticks
The sticks of the PS4 are spaced slightly farther apart so as to avoid player's thumbs touching when pointing both sticks in the same direction. The play of the sticks has also been made slightly more rigid, and the surface area which they have to move in is smaller than that of the DualShock 3. Finally, a lip around the edges of each stick ensures that it's much harder for your fingers to slip off while in the middle of an intense game.
Sensor
A colored sensor much like that of the PlayStation Move controller rests atop the controller, and serves to tell the PlayStation Eye accessory, sold separately, where the controller is in space. This can allow characters in-game to speak directly to the player relative to his position, and allows splitscreen gameplay to be executed more intelligently based on player position to the TV screen.
The Share button replaces the Start button. One press of this button will allow players to stream video of their gameplay online. Ideally this can be combined with the PlayStation Eye camera and built-in editing tools so that players can livestream to Uplay or Twitch.
In-Hand Feel
The PS4 controller's in-hand feel is slightly more comfortable than that of the PS3's thanks to a deeper back.
Triggers
The triggers of the DualShock 4 are more pointed, and give more play than the mushy triggers on the DualShock 3. They were designed more in vein of the Xbox 360's triggers.
System Specs
The full PS4 tech specs were revealed at E3.
CPU
x86-64 AMD Jaguar Single-chip custom processor
8 Cores/8 Threads
1.6Ghz frequency
Shared L2 Cache: 2 x 2MB
Manufacturing Process: 28nm
GPU
AMD next-gen Radeon based graphics engine Peak Shader Throughput: 1.84TFLOPS
GPU Cores: 1152
Memory
8GB GDDR5
Frequency: 5500MHz
System Memory Bus: 256-bits
System Memory Bandwidth: 176.0GB/s
Hard Drive
500GB HDD, removable
Dimensions
275 x 53 x 305mm
2.8kg
Blu-Ray Drive
BD x 6 CAV, DVD x 8 CAV
Input/Output
Super-Speed USBx (USB3.0) port x2, AUX port x1
Networking
Ethernet
Ethernet x1
Wi-Fi
IEEE 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
MSRP
The price of the PlayStation 4 is as follows in the following countries:
United States
399 USD
Canada
399
Europe
399
Accessories
DualShock 4
Described above.
Retails for a recommended $59.99USD.
PlayStation Eye
This camera attachment uses two 1080p cameras to position the player in space and cut them out from the background.
Few if any official games have been announced that take advantage of this camera yet, though.
Launch Titles
The list of confirmed launch titles is as follows:
InFamous Second Son (Launch Window)
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag