[News] Sony announces PlayStation 4!

Yep, it's official. After weeks of speculation, Sony officially announced its next generation console from an event in New York yesterday. However, despite the huge hype preceding the announcement, Sony did not unveil the actual console, smashing our hopes of catching a glimpse of what it would look like. 5 years in the making, according to Lead System Architect Mark Cerny, the PlayStation 4's goal is freeing game developers from technological barriers by offering a console that was 'by game creators, for game creators'. He further stated that the architecture of the PS4 was 'like a PC, but supercharged'.

A new Secondary Custom Chip allows better background processing, which will let players download games in the background while playing. Games can also be played as they're being downloaded! Yep, you no longer have to wait for an entire 10 GB to be downloaded to start playing.

The system will also feature a new controller : Dualshock 4, with a touchpad similar to the back of a PS Vita. Powered with motion capabilities, the ergonomics are quite similar to the controllers we've played on in the past, but they've added in a new 'Share' button so that players can seamlessly share screenshots and other data on social networks. You can also broadcast video of your game live for friends to watch while you play.

Photo credit: The official PlayStation blog

Photo credit: The official PlayStation blog

Remote Screen via the PS Vita will allow players to play their PlayStation 4 titles on the go.

Sony also gave us a preview of some new PS4 games including Killzone, Drive Club, Final Fantasy, Diablo and Destiny. As expected, the graphics look rather stunning, fully utilizing the system's 8 GB RAM and enhanced GPU. It will be interesting to see how the touchpad will be incorporated in games. There's more good news: Sony will NOT be blocking used games, as rumoured earlier.

Again, Sony did not reveal the base price for the console that we can expect to pay at launch. However, they did hint that the price wouldn't be as high as the PlayStation 3 was initially. This leads me to believe that the PlayStation 4 will probably be priced at around $450.

The next generation of consoles is here! PlayStation 4 is scheduled to be released during the holiday season later this year.