PlayStation 4 Announcement!

20/02/13 15:00 Filed Under: Gaming News

Sony has announced the PlayStation 4 will be released later this year, at an announcement during the publisher's PlayStation Meeting 2013, broadcast live from New York.

The PS4 is centered around a custom chip that contains eight x86-64 cores and an enhanced PC GPU graphics processor. Sony says the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) has been enhanced to allow for easier use of the GPU for general purpose computing (GPGPU), including physics simulation. The GPU contains a unified array of 18 compute units, which can reportedly collectively generate 1.84 Teraflops of processing power that Sony says will be applied to graphics and simulation tasks, or a mix of the two.

The new console is also equipped with 8GB of unified system memory using a GDDR5, giving the system 176 GB/second of bandwidth and reportedly providing a "further boost" to graphics performance.

Sony also revealed the PS4 will provide "always on"video compression and decompression systems that enables seamless uploading of gameplay via the share button on the new DualShock 4 controller, which will feature enhanced rumble capabilities, a touch pad, a headset jack, and a dual camera that senses the position of the controller.

The console will also reportedly reduce the lag time between players and content with a "suspend mode", which keeps the system in a low power state while preserving the game session. Gamers will need only to hit the power button again to be returned to the point where they left off. Additionally, users can reportedly boot a variety of applications including a web browser when playing PS4 games, and can download or update in the background while playing.

Digital titles will also be playable as they are being downloaded.

"The long-term goal of PS4 is to reduce download times of digital titles to zero: if the system knows enough about a player to predict the next game they will purchase, then that game can be loaded and ready to go before they even click the 'buy' button," Sony said.

Sony also focused on its second screen strategy, unveiling a remote play functionality that will allow players to use the PlayStation Vita as a companion device to the PS4, pulling PS4 titles from the TV directly on to the Vita.

The publisher also unveiled a new iPhone, iPad, and Android application titled "PlayStation App", which will allow users to see things like maps on their second screens when playing a PS4 title, purchase games for the PS4 when not in front of the console, and remotely watch other gamers playing on their devices.

Sony announced the PlayStation 4 will launch holiday 2013.