PS4 Announced, details within!

Today Sony held the 2013 PlayStation Meeting Conference. Andrew House, Sony Computer Entertainment's CEO began the event discussing the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation Mobile and ahahahahaha who cares? Sony today announced the PlayStation 4!


A snapshot of the PS4 logo from the stream

So far what we know is that it has a PC-like X86 architecture, 8GB of ram and a PC style GPU - meaning developers will have a much easier time developing for it than they did for the PlayStation 3. We'll update the post with more information as it comes in, but for now start figuring out which of your children you are going to sell, or your neighbour's children if you don't have any of your own!

The Dual Shock 4 has been announced - it has a touchpad in the middle, a 'share' button, a headphone jack and a light bar which allows the PS4 camera to track the position of the controller as you play.


The new Dual Shock 4

The PS4 has taken a giant leap in processing power, with the GPU capable of rendering a million physics objects in Havok at once. When you hit the power button the system is suspended - and when you go back and hit it again you are back in the game, right where you left off - like the PS Vita or Nintendo DS, but finally available on a console.

The system also has a second backup type system, which can download and update games in the background. Like several MMOs and Blizzard games these days, digital titles on the PS4 will be playable as you download them.

The new UI looks a lot like the PSN Store (let's hope it loads a bit quicker.) Like everything these days, the PS4 is jam packed with social features. You can stream and upload clips as you play and the system will learn about you, like a Tivo - downloading the kinds of games it thinks you'll like.


The PS4's UI - sadly lacking the cross bar

The share button on the Dual Shock 4 will let you broadcast your game to everyone, and allow your friends to interact - giving you comments and no doubt spamming your screen with kekekekekekekekekekekekeke.

Remote Play will be used a lot between the PS4 and PS Vita - with the aim being for every PlayStation 4 title to be playable on the PS Vita, along with streaming music and video providers like Netflix and Hulu and all those other things we can't touch in Australia.

The information on backwards compatibility seems a little confusing. From what I gather, no non-PS4 games will be playable from the start, but Sony are determined to use Gaikai technology to allow people to play all of them in the future.

Now it's time for some games. Due to the way they are doling this info out we can't show you them all right now, but check our videos library later and you should see trailers of all of the games mentioned.

First off the list is Killzone Shadowfall - I can't say I know exactly whether this looks any good, because I can't find it in me to care, but I'm sure Killzone fans will be pumped.

Driving Club is a racing game in which you play with real clubs across the world asynchronously and you are rewarded in the style of Call of Duty or Battlefield - you get stuff for being in the race, whether you finish first or not. Racing takes place from a first person to enhance immersion.

Suckerpunch have announced their new addition to the InFamous franchise - InFamous: Second Son. It looks to be more about a fight against the state of fear we live in today than a fight against um, yourself from the future - and it will be a PS4 exclusive.

The Witness is revealed next - Jonathan Blow's next title. Taking place on a mysterious abandoned island, it looks like a more in depth and prettier version of Myst - lots of puzzle solving and beautiful views and it will be a PlayStation 4 exclusive!

Yoshinori Ono announced Capcom's newest game, which is currently under the working title Deep Down - it looks like a bit of a blend of Monster Hunter and Dragon's Dogma - it looks pretty kick ass.

Square Enix is next, showing the Agni's Philosophy trailer they displayed a couple of months ago, displaying the power of their Luminous Engine. Which is to say, they are not showing off a Final Fantasy VII remake god damn it. However, it does look like they will be announcing a new Final Fantasy title at E3 this year.

Ubisoft is up next, showing off the surprise hit of E3 last year - Watchdogs. Good lord this game looks fantastic. They displayed a live demo in which the player scans npcs all around him for info, hacks an atm and then attempts to catch a criminal who was mugging a lady. The player uses objects throughout the environment to assist him, raising traffic pylons to crash a police car and finishing by stopping a train to get away. Freaking amazing.

And now here's something new - Blizzard are now at their first console presentation. The game Blizzard are bringing to the PS4 is dun dun dun - Diablo III. Oh well. I'm sure someone is happy about that.

Ah and here we come to the big guys - Activision is up next explaining that several of their most popular franchises will, of course, be coming to the PlayStation 4. This week however, they are talking about Bungie's Destiny, the game announced earlier this week which nobody really knows anything about. Destiny will have exclusive content for the PS3 and PS4 and we saw maybe one and a half seconds of actual game footage!

And that's the PlayStation 4 reveal conference! I expected something from EA, but it was not to be. At no point did they actually show the console, although we did get to see the controller, the UI and a bunch of cool games. We also have no idea of the cost, although it is expected to arrive in time for Christmas this year. What do you think, are you going to get a PlayStation 4 or are you not particularly thrilled? Let us know in the comments below!