The Best, And Worst, Of Sony’s Big PlayStation 4 Reveal

Kotaku - Sony's PlayStation 4 reveal earlier this evening was one of the stranger console announcements I can remember.

We heard from a ton of developers, but some big ones didn't have anything concrete to show or talk about. We saw a lot of games, but many were games we already knew about. And we heard all about the PlayStation 4 without ever once actually seeing what the PlayStation 4 looked like.

To that end, I'm going to sort through the good and the bad, the highs and lows, and see what we can make of the whole thing.

[Gimmemorebubblez]

Saving the Knock-out-punch for E3.

[DivineAssault]

YES! Thats what ive been saying.. They arent going to show all their cards right now... I think they already knocked out everyone with this teaser showing.. That system is greatness! i just finished putting my name/# on the waitlist..

Who gives a damn what the shell looks like?? It can look like that toaster for all i care, if it does all that, im in ALL THE WAY!

[Ripsta7th]

I want my PS4 to look sexy, Not like a toaster.

[bayport]

I wonder if it is going to adopt more of a PC tower style?

That's a whole lot of power to cram into laptop-esque design. I'd imagine that they would burn out pretty quickly if they don't do a better job of creating a cooling system than they did with their 60GB PS3's. Those things had crappy thermal paste though too.

I'd imagine that some consumers would get pissed if the design wasn't something compact that they could through on to a shelf in an entertainment system though.

Oh well, I guess we will see what Sony decides to do.

[HITANDRUN]

Maybe, the only good looking console made by sony was the first PS1, the rest were awfull looking and remote never developed, not even on ps4, ugh.. time stand still with sonys remote.

[Hassassin]

You can always have a nintoaster if you want...
http://www.stupidfingers.co...

[gedapeleda]

Thanks for the laugh Divine ;D

[showtimefolks]

for me personally there was no bad, few times during the conference i laughed knowing how awesome this machine could be

i think E3 sony is gonna own the conference, they have yet to release full detailed 100% info and how the system looks

new game from santa monica
GT6 possibly
new FF game
something from kojima
ND's next game from 2nd team
last guardain coming to ps4444444444 ossibly?

also what about the new IP

Insomniac still has a tethat works on playstation so are they doing something new or Ratchet and clank?

w game from david jaffe possibly?

These 3 are my personal wish list

reboot for getaway series
eight days?
sypho Filter

[_-EDMIX-_]

GT6 will be on PS3. Sony has always released 2 GT's per PS system.

LOL! Why would TLG be on PS4? I mean...have you know heard? The PS4 is a completely a different architecture, it would take more time putting it on PS4 then finishing it on PS3. Another thing to note....why would they even waste the time? Sony is trying to make a return on this game buddy. So.....no.

The Getaway and Eight Days (thats a hugh maybe, they did say they where on hold)

Now Syphon Filter. Thats really out of left field. It would make for a huge surprised. I think Sony Bend still exist.

[showtimefolks]

_-EDMIX-_

I think GT6 will be on ps4 and ps3

the last guardian development was having a lot of tech issues so who knows maybe they will move the development completely to ps4.

I don't see TLG coming to ps3, i do see it coming out on ps4 and i do think it will launch day one with PS4.

there were enough Syphon Filter rumors so i think sooner or later we will see another SP game

getaway if done right could be a Huge IP for sony, I would love to see what a development team like ND can do with getaway 3. I know they haven't done a lot of open world games but Jak 2-3 were kind of open world games

but that's more of a wishful thinking

[Wizziokid]

People keep talking about how they didn't show the console? i'm confused as to why it matters, if it's pumping out the service they showed I don't care what the console looks like

[WarThunder]

I think not showing it is quite smart, actually. It builds up excitement and keeps people wondering. E3 is right around the corner.

Kotaku sux anyway... We saw the conference, we liked it, we don't care about Kotaku's "expert" opinion...

[GiggMan]

I'm with you. I for one was expecting to see the console and no games. As a gamer I'm glad it was the other way around. Plus Sony threw out cold hard specs to boot.

This conference was for the gamers. Save the hardware unveiling for the flashiness of E3. Nice strategy Sony.

[UnholyLight]

No doubt, keeps us salivating in the meantime on the details we did manage to get from them in the mean time.

[Kevin ButIer]

Come on guys... Kotaku is serious journalism,

"Sausage Party - Over a dozen men took to the stage to represent the cream of Sony's development crop. There was not a single woman" (Kotaku expert convinced that only 3 "Worst" points weren't enough...)

[Waddy101]

This is taken from a famitsu interview with Kawano.

Famitsu: What will the price be? Will it be a console price?
Kawano: What’s a console price? We’ll release the price in the future. We have yet to show the console hardware itself – something we plan to do in stages…

[mandf]

It's just kotaku right on time with something negative about Sony. They have posted about 10 articles with something negative about Sony. It gets old. We got specs, services and games but that's not good enough got to find something negative.

@ morganfell

Using scantily dressed women is a cheap trick and makes our hobby look childish. Same with actors, musicians and circus acts.

[morganfell]

Exactly. The already threw up a piece complaining there were no women on stage. How many write for Kotaku? And even better was this series of comments quoted at GAF (not giving Kotaku a click)

"People will notice if, like today, there are no women presenters at your event."

Then this idiot says:

"I admittedly didn't even notice there weren't women presenters until someone else mentioned it..."

He stated that a single sentence apart. Desperate much?

[Lvl_up_gamer]

Sony has a long history of over promising and under delivering.

Showing a console gives more credibility that the specs listed are actually in the system. It's not 100% creditable since Sony lied about some specs in the PS2 and PS3 where they actually showed the console and yet didn't show up in the final release, but seeing a console gives the consumer a better assurance that what they are seeing is what they are getting.

Not showing a console to simply tells me that they don't have one yet. It tells me that all the specs they listed is what they want in the console but most likely won't make it. 8GB of DDR5 RAM is going to be VERY expensive. Who is going to eat that cost? The consumer or Sony?

No console showing and the 8gb of DDR5 RAM makes me believe that Sony is once again shooting for the stars but will most likely end up hitting the moon. The final specs available at launch will be less then what was listed last night.

Mark my words.

[WarThunder]

@Lvl_up_gamer

Not marking your words, Because on E3 when they will reveal the PS4(the box) u will eat your words...

[DragonKnight]

You posted the same thing in another thread and were marked for trolling because that's what you're doing Lvl_up_gamer. Your fanboyism is showing.

[dredgewalker]

You bet I'm gonna mark your words and I'll be sure to remind you to eat it when the times comes for the PS4 to be officially unveiled. It's a good strategy to not reveal the whole console yet because they want to tempt MS into bringing out theirs. If I ever played poker with you I'm sure I'll be taking all your money.

[kenshiro100]

Really? They over promise and under deliver? Well, I'm pretty sure they delivered entertainment for the years they've been in business. I'm sure that only people like you would automatically grasp at straws just to downplay the company.

Your fanboyism really is showing.

[fsfsxii]

WHO THE HELL CARES WHAT THE CONSOLE LOOKS LIKE???
Again, if they showed the the console & specs, people would still bitch. ugh, this is getting old, the hate for sony.

[Rainstorm81]

If this was E3 then yea ok.....It's February and we just got a shyt ton of new official PS4 info dropped in our laps and its a "farce" because we didn't see the plastic box?

Come on Kotaku

So I guess save nothing for E3? One more thing for you guys to complain about...huh?

Sausage Fest!? Who cares PS4 is being unveiled!!!!

[MasterCornholio]

I agree with most people that the reason why Sony didnt reveal the console is to get people to talk about why they didnt. Its a great way to generate hype but in all due honesty if the console isnt gigantic then i really dont care what it looks like.

@Cocozero

DENIAL LOL

[Eyeco]

Certain people are trying so hard to downplay yesterdays conference like it was an E3 event. The whole point of the conference was to OFFICIALLY confirm the PS4 as an actual console, It was to convey the future of PS Brand ,they didn't have to announce a slew of launch games, price point or completely unveil the console itself the latter is completely as they announced the spec's anyway.

E3 is a few months away, then you have PAX, TGS, that's 3 major conferences this year, never mind information that will be announced in-between this isn't the last time where gonna see the PS4 before it's launch in fall this year. Sony showed more in the confrence, than Nintendo did in the last 2 E3's with the WII-U.

[Cocozero]

I want to see price, 8gb of ram, touch pad controller, two hd cameras with 3d tracking can't come cheap. I bet its cost is higher than the ps3 was. E3 will have a lot of worst.

[bicfitness]

You're trying too hard to troll. There is no way that this will cost $600. I see $399-450. Sony will announce the price AFTER MS. That's how you do shrewd business. As far as the component costs, they're mostly off the shelf, so manufacturing cost with the discounts Sony gets for such large yields won't be that much.

I bet you that MS' machine will cost more, but they'll try to subsidize it with a locked in Live subscription.

Edit: And typical of Kotaku to completely gloss over the streaming capabilities. The MOST POWERFUL GAMING - David's words, not mine - network that Gaikai is building. Or the off the shelf, developer friendly nature of the hardware. Their declared "openess" to F2P and indie developers is also worth a mention.

Edit @ Oni: There is no way that the the console will be as high as you think. The GPU is nearing 2 years old (launched Q1 2012, but is still quite good and AMD delayed their 8XXX). CPU is low power, low cost, picked specifically so that the GPU can take most of the grunt. RAM will be the most expensive component and the camera is still made of standard tech, not highly specific components.

I've been building computers for years, and I know what components cost on a RETAIL or even WHOLESALE level. Manufacters pay a frigging pittance compared to what I do, even if I'm deal hunting.

All that tech in one box should cost about $350. Then you add marketing and production costs. They can sell it for $450 easy and probably still make a profit.

[--Onilink--]

i think you are underestimating the potential cost of all those components. DDR5 memory is definitely not cheap, especially not 8gb, the CPU/GPU are pretty good as well, it has that secondary one for background processes, Hard Drive, Disc Drive and all the extra little components needed start to add up.

And then you add the improved Playstation Eye, plus the Move tech on the DS4 AND the touchpad... if we are getting that new PS Eye on every console and you expect a $400 version i think you might be dissapointed.

The least I could see it is $450/$550 if they go the double bundle way again, though im guessing they will just do a $500 version.

As for the streaming capabilities, it sure sounds amazing, but right now its nothing but theory, until its actually working as advertised i would wait to call it THE MOST POWERFUL GAMING NETWORK...

[Jek_Porkins]

If you think they are going to release those specs, probably at least a 500 gig HDD and that controller for $399, you might need to be committed.

At the very cheap end we might see a $450 price point, and at the high end I'd say $599. Some of what they have seems like overkill, but we'll see.

[bicfitness]

Jek, I said $399-450. Yields increase and prices on components go down daily. If you think that components cost that much you haven't been around a computer in the last decade.

There is no way that Sony will release another $600 box. The lack of custom parts and the reliance on off the shelf components in the design can tell you that.

[Information Minister]

@ Onilink:

GDDR 5 is just a version of standard DDR3 SDRAM optimized specifically for graphics calculations. Manufacturing costs are slightly higher but nothing to write home about, and probably cheaper than the XDR memory currently used in the PS3. It's actually the integration of that amount of memory on a PCB that could present the challenge.

Rumor has it that there will be 2 SKUs at launch. The cheaper one probably will not include the new camera.

The inclusion of a touchpad and an extra LED on the Dual Shock 4 shouldn't be too expensive, considering the remaining motion sensors are already a part of the Sixaxis/DS3.

You are right on the streaming capabilities, though. Those will always depend heavily on the quality of your own internet connection.

[andibandit]

@bicfitness

I dont know what kind of computers you've been building, but from your post it's pretty evident you've been smoking alot of weed too.

[PurpHerbison]

Loosely throwing around the word troll is awful.

[juandren]

God bless you son :/ PS3 had then-new Blu-Ray, Cell processor, pointless card readers and PS2 hardware. Not to mention NO subscription-based online like PS+ which is fields of money for Sony. I expect a $399 release. Sony lost $200+ off every PS3 sold. If they sell PS4 for $399 they will lose $100 max, while making money from the PS3, PS+ and first-party game sales

[R_aVe_N]

Worst = D3 coming to PS3/PS4 and Capcom announcing a game announcement for E3...
Best = Everything Else

[cervantes99]

How is any game coming to a platform a bad thing? You don't like then don't buy it.

[R_aVe_N]

It was my opinion plain and simple I didn't ask you to agree with it now did I?

[talisker]

Witcher 3 just got announced for PS4 http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

[FullMetalTech]

I think price wise theyll keep it at a competative price like 399 and 499 . They probaly will have 2 skus with one having the camera and one not. I think theyll want to offset the price cost with the software features , games and plus.

[feels]

i agree with shank there is no worse sony doesnt make mistakes

god bless sony they make our lives better and happier

[TIER1xWOLFPACKx]

http://gadgetshow.channel5.... to all the people that beleived the rumours about blocking used games they are not read this!! used games will be playable!!

[WarThunder]

Someone post that in the pending news!

[Dazel]

The same old games with better graphics, Sony (and no doubt MS) really have to up their game if they are gonna convince me to buy into the new "next gen"

[juandren]

I don't think they care as much about you as you might be hoping. Good luck with finding another next-gen console experience then

[MYSTERIO360]

Well SOny are trying to intergrate move functionality into next gen games. The new DS4 has a touch pad that will be incorporated into probably a large portion of their games which may add to the gameplay experience. Plus all PS4 bundles will ship with a new PSeye toy camera device which will relay things such as your position,body movement and motion of movement i.e hand movement as game input. That is good of course if your interested in those things.

[CRASHBASHUK]

omg did this person just say vita? there was a bit of vita and the vita press confrance was a few das ago in jpn and also they would not call it the playstation 4 meeting that be giving it away

[talisker]

To me, it doesn't actually matter if the price is 300 or 400 euros. Not that I have too much money to spend but hey, I'm buying a console which will give me thousands of hours of entertainment for several years as gaming is my primary hobby. 50 or even 100 euro difference isn't that important. Better be it more RAM and quality components than 1 or 2 games at launch I'll have to wait a bit because I can't spend that much.

[Adolph Fitler]

@Cocozero
"I want to see price, 8gb of ram, touch pad controller, two hd cameras with 3d tracking can't come cheap. I bet its cost is higher than the ps3 was. E3 will have a lot of worst."

Good to see your a glass half full type guy. Maybe you should do some research, as all the features you just mentioned are off the shelf parts that's costs pale in comparison to that of the Blu Ray tech & Cell architecture that Sony was into for R&D & production costs. This cost them billions upon billions, as they had to set up entire factories to produce the products they developed, or co-developed for PS3.
PS3 is the reason Krazy Ken has gone (god bless that total genius of a man, as I can't fault the man, he was right, I would have done overtime, if need be, to get the PS3, as it was a groundbreaking console.....I mean, the U.S. & Jap versions both launched with the tech to faultlessly play PS1 & PS2 games, & thanks to Emotion chips inclusion, they played without fault....but the whining Americans carried on about price & surprise, surprise, Sony omitted features that were not detrimental to the machine. Now had yanks just manned up & paid the extra $100 or $150 over 360's price, then Sony would have left the machine as is, & we all would of been happy, not only that, but Sony would have had incentive to throw the now dirt cheap Emotion chip in PS4, along with a basic version of the Cell, & we would of possibly had a console in PS4 that had b/c spanning back 3 fricken gens....& 3 awesome, AAA+ heavy, quality & quantity game laden gens).

Sony are smart not revealing the consoles look at this stage, as style changes pretty quick, so Sony are better off keeping there designs to themselves, as keeping it to themselves allows either small or huge changes to the design favorites they obviously already have. There are some awesome designs very talented people have done on the web.....& I actually think that Sony should have run a comp. to find the best design, then allowed US, the consumers to vote on the top 10 or 2o designs. This would be a huge positive for Sony, as it includes the community in there project, & it would cause massive media buzz & online buzz. '

But, the fact is, that Sony needed something special up there sleeve for E3, & it was an incredibly smart choice to generate the buzz Sony did with this reveal of specs, controller design, & some pretty exciting games (I mean, what Sony PS fan, didn't get a little excited for a new infamous & Evolution racer, to mention just 2).
Sony have left a nice little stone unturned, & sent a message to MS, to try better these specs for an affordable price, suckers.
I mean, PS3 has 512mb of shared ram, which means 256mb in reality, not to mention 360's 512megs, & then Nintendo's new console having just 1gig of ram, now Sony comes along with 8 gigs....I mean, PS3 running games like Killzone 3, Unchartered & Crysis 3 with just 256mgb's, now PS4 comes along with 8gigs.
Anyone saying that the jump won't be that big needs to share there supply of crack with me, as only a crackhead can't see that even PS4 & 720's 1st gen games, are gonna put PS3 & 360 games to complete shame. I mean, the PS4 specs are monstrous compared to PS3/360.

[Adolph Fitler]

It seems that Sony are leaving no stone unturned, & in what is an unusual move for a Japanese console manufacturer, the PS4's R&D & final specs were heavily influenced by both there 1st party developers, as well as 3rd party developers.
I read 2 years ago, that Sony had heavy influences from outside developers, & this was formally just a no chance in hell situation, but Sony knew that it was so needed to work with these developers, as another console with propriety, hard to develop for innards, like PS3 & PS2, would surely spell disaster for Sony. I mean, Sony were there to see Nintendo come unstuck 1st hand with N64 for doing such things, both making it hard to develop for, & notoriously not offering any help to 3rd party developers with heavily overpriced development kits & other costs, & no software support to help developers get the most from the machine...And foreign 3rd party developers copped even worse treatment from Nintendo.
So, Sony obviously have learnt that developer input will be detrimental to getting good ports, so as the 1st 6-12months won't see negative reviews & internet negativity about bad ports, like PS3 saw & still rears it's ugly head from time to time, when bad developers either get lazy, rush ports, or just aren't good enough developers to want to bother.

[baraka007]

wow how stupid... did anyone read the article? They even put sony down because they didn't have a female on stage... I wonder if they wrote most of these troll articles before the event even happened?

[juandren]

Kotaku...

[KumquatGOATBEEF]

Especially when they refer to said female absence as a "sausage party." The article lost all credibility at that point.

[Captain Tuttle]

Those were fair complaints, I would have liked to see the actual console.

I'm digging the new dual shock though, Sony has me leaning towards dumping MS next gen. The ball is in Redmond's court. I think it'll come down to price for most. If the rumored specs of Durango are true (no reason to believe that they're set in stone, 24 hours ago we thought that the PS4 would have 4 gig of DDR5) then it should be a good deal cheaper than Sony's console.

I don't know but as of now I'm leaning Sony

[fsfsxii]

The complaints didn't make any sense.
No women presenters???
WTF???!!!
No body cares how the console looks like if we have the specs.
Sony still has something to show

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

The Quantic Dream Tech Demo was very impressive- but everything that company does impresses (IMO).

I wonder what the cost for making games on that graphical scale will be- and if the warnings of Ubisoft will turn-out to be true.

At any rate, Quantic Dream's PS4 project makes the system a must buy (even if they only used PS3 graphics).

By the time I buy a PS4 however (Unless it is waaay cheaper than I'm suspecting it will be), the PS5 will be announced and Quantic Dream will have 3 to 4 Gems on market.

[r21]

They're keeping the top dog developers for huge events like E3. Same for the console. Vita will probably be taking GDC's time.

[stuntman_mike]

I remeber when ps3 was first shown it had 2hdmi slots, something like 5 usb sockets. I wonder if sony are pulling our legs and by the time it comes out the specs are lower. Even tho they havent told us the clock speeds and stuff. Just a thought.

[Blade Runner]

really sad

[stuntman_mike]

do you want a tissue.

[TheOneEyedHound]

I am happy with the conference.

This was a huge early reveal, we got an early present.

[TheOneEyedHound]

Sausage fest WTF, no wonder people hate kotaku.

[Dark5tar1]

The worst in the conference was Blizzard and Square Enix but overall, I was pleased with the reveal. The only thing I hoping is that Sony learned their lesson with the PS3 launch and don't botch up the PS4.

[mydyingparadiselost]

The WiiU had the same overall coming out to the world. Here's some videos, check this controller out, developers love us wnd our console is social. Only difference is spec announcements.

[shinrock]

best= Destiny(will be buying on the nextbox though),new system coming this year, background dl'ing(about time Sony),drive club(PS ver. of Forza).

worst:boring KZ game play,flaunting games that are not exclusive.

also, if watchdogs,destiny, and so on are multi platform, where does the thought come in that the PS$ will blow away the nextbox as far as performance? i don't get it, doesn't that mean they are equal in performance?

[ElitaStorm]

grow up and have fun

[cervantes99]

What are you like 10 years old? You can post and I can post on N4G doesn't that make us equal in intelligence?

Answer: HELL NO!

[cervantes99]

I really wish the internet had a compentency test for users. My head hurts after reading the stupidity of some of these posts.

You know why no price was mentioned? They are waiting to see what Microsoft has on tap first. It's called a strategic business move.

[Blade Runner]

sad

[Bigkurz85]

Look, the lack of backwards compatibility is a bummer for sure. But it's a necessary evil. Sony is just righting the mistake it made with PS3 and "The Cell." When PS3 was released, developers griped about the difficulty programming for it. If you can remember those early PS3 days, there were many shoddy ports (EA games, THe Orange Box) due to the learning curve.

So now, Sony had two choices:

a) Continue the proprietary architecture, allowing for BC for making life more difficulty for developers. Or,

b) Go with standard chipsets and specs the developers want. They will turn out better games faster, but you sacrifice BC

The choice was a necessary evil. Sony made a mistake with the PS3...no need to compound it with PS4.

[stuntman_mike]

I thought this summed it up nicely lol.

http://www.videogamer.com/v...

[tweet75]

i found out today you wont be able to transfer all psn games to ps4. No thanks I dont want one because of this big mistake sony.

[fsfsxii]

Why were there no aliens presenters at the conference???
The article mentioned bad stuff which made no sense at all.