The fourth PlayStation is out later this year. PlayStation #4. Pl4St4tion. PlayStation: The Fourth of Its Name. Sony has talked quite a bit about its next console, and although we don’t know everything there is to know about the Pee-Ess-Four, we do know quite a bit.
We’re rounding it all up for you right here — keep this page bookmarked, ’cause we’ll be updating it regularly over the next few months.
The Console
Meet the PlayStation 4:
Vertical view:
The Controller
This is the DualShock 4:
That big thing in the middle is a clickable capacitive touchpad. On the top is an LED that can interact with the PlayStation Camera (and change colours based on which player you are in a multiplayer game). Also on the controller are a Share button — to let you record and share video footage of games as you play — and an Options button — essentially the replacement for Start and Select.
It’s also quite comfy, in case you were wondering. Here’s a video look:
The Specs
We’ll quote Sony’s official website for this one:
The Price
$US399, $549 in Australia, €399, £349.
The Games
Like the Xbox One, Sony’s next-gen play machine has a bunch of multiplatform games (like Metal Gear Solid V, Final Fantasy XV, and Thief) and a bunch of exclusives.
Here are the big exclusive PS4 games we know about so far:
- Knack, the action-platformer
- Killzone: Shadow Fall, a shooter that involves killing in some sort of zone
- Driveclub, a club in which you learn how to drive
- The Order: 1886, a cyberpunky alt-history action-adventure
- The superhero-packed open world game Infamous: Second Son
A lot of PC games are also getting console-exclusive PS4 versions, like Final Fantasy XIV, The Witness, and Octodad: Dadliest Catch. Presumably the eternally-delayed Last Guardian will make its way to PS4 as well.
The DRM
It seems like so long ago, but at E3 2013, Sony released an instructional video explaining the detailed process behind sharing games on the PlayStation 4:
And, yeah, basically everything will work like it did last time around.
Region-Locking
The PlayStation 4 is region-free, just like the PlayStation 3. But… game publishers will be able to region-lock their games, just like they could last generation. (This doesn’t happen very often: Atlus caused some controversy in 2012 when they chose to region-lock their PS3 fighting game Persona 4 Arena, but they were the first publisher to add regional restrictions to a PlayStation 3 game.)
Sharing
The PlayStation 4 will automatically record video footage as you go through games, and you can hit the Share button on your controller to send that footage to other PSN players. It’s currently unclear exactly how many minutes of gameplay the machine will save: reports have claimed 15 minutes, but Sony says they’re not revealing the number yet: “At this point, we’re not officially specifying the timeframe of the gameplay recorded beyond saying that it’s the last several minutes,” a spokesperson told Kotaku.
PlayStation Camera
Also known as Sony Kinect, the PlayStation Camera is a motion-sensing TV-mounted camera that won’t come with the PS4. You’ll have to buy the device separately for any games that might use it. It looks like this:
Remote Play
In theory, this is a game-changer: Sony is promising that you’ll be able to stream all PS4 games on your Vita (except the ones that wouldn’t work on Sony’s handheld, like games requiring the camera). PS4 games playable on your portable, whenever you want — if it works, it’s a killer feature.
You’ll also be able to interact with PS4 games using your smartphone/tablet as a supplemental device, like SmartGlass on the Xbox.
Miscellaneous
- No word yet how much we’ll have to pay to play PS4 games online, but we will have to pay. Could be a tier system like on Xbox Live; could be binary — we don’t know yet.
- Sony says you’ll actually be able to play games while they install to the PS4’s hard drive, which could make up for the whole super-slow download speed thing that’s been plaguing the PlayStation Network for the past few years.
- No backwards compatibility, but you might be able to play PS1/PS2/PS3 games through Gaikai’s cloud-streaming service, if everything works right.
- PS4 games are $US60.
- Current PlayStation Move controllers will be supported on the PS4.
- A headset is included with the console.
Comments
35 responses to “PS4: Everything We Know”
Remote Play being a game changer? The PS3 does this right now …
I guess it’s no longer optional.
the PS3 barely does it now, but it will be all games on the PS4.
I hope, but am not very confident, it will allow seamless transition to remote play.
The difference is that the PS4’s hardware is dedicated to remote play – including Vita and Gaikai (compression/decompression), where the PS3’s hardware is not, meaning that (in theory) it should be a smoother experience with less latency. Of course, it all depends on either your local wireless network or internet connection, so I guess the experience will be highly variable but will gradually improve over time.
i’m still down for the xbone. live stream straight to twitch.tv goes well in my playbook
“No word yet how much we’ll have to pay to play PS4 games online, but we will have to pay. Could be a tier system like on Xbox Live; could be binary — we don’t know yet.”
Wasn’t it mentioned that it would just require a Plus+ subscription? And that the Plus+ subscription cost would remain the same?
This is what I’m wondering. I’m pretty sure they’ve made it clear that PS plus will be mandatory to play games online, at roughly $5/month.
That’s sounds about right
Well, they did say that current plus subscriptions will carry over to the ps4, and that ps4 will require plus for online gaming. It would seem that it’ll cost whatever plus costs now. I’m a sub, so as far as I’m concerned, I’m good for the launch
Does it have a USB port in the back? Having a PS3 Slim this was a pain point, having to have the PS3 TV adapter hanging out the front.
At this stage no.
Both of the USB ports are on the front, I would of though 2 wouldn’t be enough anyway depending on what you plug into it, especially if they want to use to use it for multimedia. Surely it cant be that hard to put a couple at the rear for its release revision, the xbone has rear USB!
I was pretty sure that the ‘rear USB’ on the Xbone was not USB but instead a proprietary socket for the Kinect.
Yes, the xbone has a Kinect proprietary socket, but also 2 rear and 1 side-front USB ports. PS4 has 2 front and that’s it currently, oh and it also has a proprietary for its camera’s and such.
Yeah, this annoys me too.
I wonder if they’ll make the PlayTV work on PS4, even if we have to buy a new version of the software. My TV is a little old now, so it’s HD but without an in-built digital receiver, PlayTV is the only way I can watch plain old free-to-air.
Woo! 10BASE-T and a Built-in HDD! 😛
Hang on a second… Didn’t Mr. Trenton in his E3 interview say that the DRM policy outlined in the video only applied to Sony published games (first + second party) and that third party publishers had access to implement their own DRM which could include online checks or one-time use keys?
He said they wouldn’t restrict publishers from doing their own DRM but the console has no system built in to facilitate DRM. Which is the opposite of what MS had before they back peddled.
So yes publishers can still use keys and junk, but it has to be third party and built into the game, it wont be Sony’s software, which is how it is with the PS3 anyway.
Which is the same for any platform available.
Recent Interviews have stated that NO ps4 games will allow any DRM.
At the start I wasnt sure if it was just Games developed by Sony Worldwide Studios, but recently Ive been convinced that Sony wont allow for any DRM from and Developer\Publisher.
If so, this could mean the PS4 will get alot of support from Consumers.
Yeah its pretty much confirmed that Games like the Crew and The Division will be always online, but, to be fair, games like that need to be online for the games full potential to be reached.
Minor point: the PS3 was initially completely region free, they patched in the ability to region lock later on (around about the time of the PSN hack) so this time there’s a good chance that because there’s no initial precedent set, we’ll see a lot more region locked games because especially the Japanese publishers love to lock everything down 🙁
Gosh it looks ugly 🙁
Not as ugly as the Xbox one
You’re right… it’s uglier.
The Xbox One isn’t ugly. It’s a square box that’s entirely forgettable. It will blend in well to whatever home entertainment system you’ve got set up. Sony are still trying to be artistic but blend, which is stupid.
God I hate Sony’s obsession with putting USB ports on the front.
The back is so much better, at least aesthetically. Hat ehaving the ugly PSEye cable just sitting there constantly.
While back is handy, I would hate for there to be no front facing USB, getting yours friends dongles out from behind is a terribly pain in the…. well yeah
Pretty sure there’s a dedicated port in the back for the camera.
Not on PS3. Hopefully on PS4.
Oops, yeah, that’s what I meant.
I like the USB Ports being at front.
Atleast I dont gave to worry about Microsoft milking me of my Money.
What the hell does that have to do with anything?
I question some of the phrasing in this article.
“The Playstation Camera, also known as the Sony Kinect”? Come on. How about “Also known as the evolution of the PS EyeToy that existed during the PS2 era, and was used during the PS3 era”
Also interesting that between the two articles, only this one says “WEll…some publishers might add their own region locking!” when on the Xbox one, it simply said “The console is completely region free”. Which is not at all true if the PS stance needs a justification.
As others have pointed out: “We don’t know how the new PS system will work”. Kinda do.
“Downloads in recent years on the PSN have been super slow”. Yet that would not be tied to the PS4 – assuming that the mandatory PS+ fees for online go to provide better servers as well. Given that they’re investing heavily in digital, you’d have to think that they’d be ensuring it works.
“Driveclub – a club in which you drive” isn’t really a good blurb to give of that game to someone who might not know about it, and how it works.
I hate to sound like a fanboy here (very much not), but come on. A bit of balance would be good.
yeah i can agree that a lot of the phrasing is unnecessary. but hey, this is Kotaku Australia, the only gaming website that seems to have a large amount of people that actually like the Xbox one… You should definitely check out some other websites =D
I dont know why people think the PS3 is slow at Downloading content.
I have a Max download soeed of 1/mb a second, but I can downloadva 15/gb game in an Hour-2hours.
An update for your article: “..free-to-play MMOs DC Universe Online and PlanetSide 2 won’t require PlayStation 4 users to subscribe to PlayStation Plus in order to play them..”
http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/13/4424908/dc-universe-online-planetside-2-ps4-playstation-plus-not-required
I do like the look of the ps4, but from certain angles it looks ugly. The first pic is an example; reminds me of a club sandwich.
That’s what I’ll be looking at under my t.v. – a giant sandwich 🙂
the console sounds good but paying for online gaming is stupid