Sony Officially Announces PlayStation 4

As rumored and predicted, at an event in New York today, Sony officially announced the PlayStation 4. Though many of the more technical details were leaked prior to today’s reveal, the device still had some secrets inside that surprised the many in attendance and viewing the live stream on the web.

Hardware

As expected the PS4 will be a powerhouse compared to current gen consoles and even many PCs. It features 8 cores running at 1.6 GHz each, carried on the back of a 8GB memory processing mule. A BluRay drive is still there, ready to gobble up discs and make movies look fantastic on your 4K sets. Built-in WiFi, HD storage, and Bluetooth also make the trek into the device. Oh, and optical audio and HDMI video, of course.

The approach to the design, Lead System Architect Mark Cerny stated, revolved around it being “informed system architecture.” The console learns user habits, likes, friends, and favorite games, and can “predict” what games they will want to play next. “The games may even be downloaded ahead of time, ready to play before you even decided.”

PS4Eye

One of the key features of the PlayStation 4 will be the improved Move capabilities provided by a new dual-camera setup. The PS4Eye has been vastly improved to pick up a wider area and allowing for improved Move interaction, depth of space, and more.

Controller

The most recent leaks centered around the PS4’s controller. The redesign focuses on a touchpad, a la those found on today’s Apple MacBooks or the Vita rear touch pad, at the top with some lite multi-touch capabilities. The familiar PlayStation button layout remains the same, but a beefier d-pad on the left should help improve the amount of pushable real estate for games that require it. The L2 and R2 trigger buttons have been redesigned to be more similar to those of the Xbox 360, rotated vertically. The start and select buttons have been pushed away for good. A speaker now lives within the controller, and a headphone jack at the bottom allows us to silently murder aliens when our wives are watching TV.

A much hyped “share” button rounds out the configuration, allowing users to post screenshots, messages, and videos to their favorite social networks.