E3 2013 – The PS4 is Revealed
The policies Microsoft announced have made the games, look, and hardware of the Xbox One irrelevant to a lot of people. Every gamer on social media was waiting to see what type of restrictions Sony would have on its brand new PlayStation 4.
In answer, Jack Tretton, President of Sony Computer Entertainment America, made these points during the E3 conference:
“We’re equally focused on delivering what gamers want most, without imposing restrictions or devaluing their PS4 purchases.”
“PlayStation 4 won’t impose any new restrictions on the use of PS4 games.”
“When a gamer buys a PS4 disc, they have the rights to use that copy of the game, they can trade in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend, or keep it forever.”
“PlayStation 4 disc-based games don’t need to be connected online to play.”
“If you enjoy playing single player games offline, PS4 won’t require you to check in online periodically.”
“And it won’t stop working if you haven’t authenticated within 24 hours.”
Sony is taking the opposite route to almost every restrictive Microsoft policy. Their new policy supporting used games is aimed exactly at the Xbox One.
The PS4 will cost $399 – $100 dollars less than the Xbox One!
Sony’s console doesn’t include a Kinect camera or the Windows kernel and TV features which may have allowed Sony to price the PS4 at $399. This price point may make a difference in the market as $100 dollars is significant when pricing next generation consoles. The Xbox One may have to make some sort of price cut or offer other incentives if they want to remain price-competitive with the PS4.
Sony was keeping very quiet on their new camera accessory. The device is available for an extra $59.99 according to GameStop’s website.
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Tech Specs
Main processor
- Single-chip custom processor
- CPU: low power x86-64 AMD “Jaguar”, 8 cores
- GPU: 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD Radeon™ Graphics Core Next engine
Memory
GDDR5 8GB
Hard Disk Drive
Built-in
Optical Drive (Read only)
- BD 6xCAV
- DVD 8xCAV
I/O
Super-Speed USB (USB 3.0), AUX
Communication
- Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T)
- IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
- Bluetooth® 2.1 (EDR)
AV output
- HDMI
- Analog-AV out
- Digital Output (optical)
E3 Pres conference in Full
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PSN multiplayer is no longer free
Sony played down the fact that fans of multiplayer will now be required to pay for PlayStation Plus on the new PS4. A year’s worth of PS+ will cost about $50 dollars. This will count for membership on your PS Vita, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and every other PlayStation device.
Free games, exclusive betas, demos, and more perks will come with a new subscription, and current subscriptions will also carry over on to the new console.
Sony’s used game instructional Video
In a YouTube video that went viral, Sony shows just how “easy” it is to share a PS4 titles with your friends.
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Games
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In total there is about 65 announced titles for the PS4. This number includes titles announced for next year. The Xbox One has similar numbers if we count third-party titles.
The list below contains most launch titles and some other titles that will be available.
Exclusives
Exclusives include: Killzone Shadow Fall, Drive Club, Knack, Infamous Second Son, The Order: 1886, Daylight, Deep Down, The Witness, Primal Carnage: Genesis, Super Stardust HD, Blacklight: Retribution, Basement Crawl, PlanetSide 2, and Warframe.
There are exclusive indie games for each of the new consoles and some of these titles will also be released for the PC.
Third-party online passes
Sony was clear on its used games policy – for first party titles. In many interviews, PR for Sony has stated that third-party publishers may have the ability to implement online passes for multiplayer games.
They still claim that no matter what, disc-based games will work on the console. The hardware will never restrict used games on the PS4. Companies like EA are notorious for charging $10 for an online pass for used games. This practice may continue on the Xbox One console.
Conflicting reports on this subject say that their might be some form of third-party DRM attempts for used game sales on the PS4. Here is quote taken from Scott Rohde, software product development head for Sony Worldwide Studios America:
“We’ve already come right out and said we’re not going to allow online pass. And the word “allow” is key there. Specifically with online, with PS+ requiring a charge to play online, we would not want any publisher [to charge.] In general, we’re all businesses. Sony or Microsoft is never going to be able to tell EA or Activision exactly what they can do. What we like to say at PlayStation is that we set the precedent. The way we are approaching this is that we want this to be extremely consumer-friendly, extremely retailer-friendly, and extremely publisher-friendly. My personal opinion is that it’s hard for me to believe that any major publisher is going to put an extra set of used DRM onto game titles because that wouldn’t put them in a good spot, right?”
The answer seems to be no on the online pass front. The conflicting reports show that Sony may have changed their mind at the last minute. We will never know, but they seem to be taking a strong stance against allowing publishers to charge gamers to play used games.
Gaikai and Ustream
Sony paid $380 million to acquire the cloud gaming company Gaikai last year. Gaikai’s plans for the PS4 were partly revealed during the E3 show.
PlayStation 4 owners will be able to use Gaikai to stream titles directly to their PlayStation consoles in the future. There is no word on pricing or what titles will be available for streaming.
This may be a huge plus for Sony. The Xbox One has announced no plans to offer streaming titles from the cloud as of now.
Ustream is not exclusive to the console, but Ustream is another new feature for the PS4 that will be exclusive at launch.
The controller of the PS4 features a share button. This button allows sharing to multiple networks, Ustream will allow you to automatically stream what you are playing to their service at the touch of a button.
Both sides have some interesting features and exclusive games. There were games on both sides that excited many gamers. The future looks less promising for Microsoft if they can’t make their policies more attractive to the core gamer. The Xbox One and the PS4 are powerful machines that are going in very different directions and mindsets.
The company behind a great machine can make or break it – regardless of its features, exclusives, or advertising. However, both consoles seem to have sold out of day-one machines on Amazon.
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