At Sony’s Electronics Entertainment event E3 press conference on June 10, the company finally lifted the lid off its previously-announced PlayStation 4 gaming console. Attendees got a first look at the newly-designed console, introduced to compete directly with Microsoft’s Xbox One.
“One of the highlights of our event tonight was the official unveil of the PlayStation 4 system and price of £349/€399. The PS4 design is sleek and functional, and contains a powerful system architecture that will enable the industry’s best developers to create amazing titles,” Sony said in a press statement.
Apart from the design and minor specification changes, the major difference between Sony’s PS4 and the Xbox One, is that Sony opted not to implement any form of Digital Rights Management (DRM).
Where the Xbox will require gamers to connect to the internet once every 24 hours, the PlayStation 4 is capable of playing games while completely offline.
The issue of DRM on the Xbox One has caused a bit of a furore among users, and Sony listened to their fans – gamers will be able second-hand games and trade with friends without any monetary implication.
But what caused a bit of a stir is the fact that Sony will now be charging gamers to play online with friends. “We also announced that PlayStation Plus memberships will carry over to PlayStation 4, so members will have access to all of the benefits across PS3, PS Vita and PS4 for one price. These benefits include online multiplayer access, exclusive discounts, cloud game saves, and Instant Game Collection, which gives members a selection of games to discover and enjoy with their friends,” Sony said.
Touching on the titles that will be made available for the PS4, Sony highlighted The Order: 1886, #DRIVECLUB, inFAMOUS: Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall, and Knack. “Our Worldwide Studios team has more than 30 PS4 exclusive titles in development, 20 of which will launch during the first year of PS4. The PS4 games feature 12 completely new IPs,” Sony continued.
“It’s truly a remarkable time at PlayStation. We’re on the verge of launching the most powerful gaming system ever built with the PS4 and the entire PlayStation ecosystem is expanding with the continued growth and strength of PS Vita, PS3 and PlayStation Network.”
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
Check out the trailers below for some of the games Sony announced last night.
PlayStation E3 Press Conference 2013 (in it’s entirety)
The Order 1886
DRIVECLUB
Killzone: Shadow Fall
inFAMOUS Second Son
Knack
