Sony’s two hour February 20th conference has now concluded. You can view our coverage of the event as it happened below.
Here we go, folks. The PlayStation 4 will be revealed in just a few minutes. There have been a lot of rumors about the PlayStation 4, Vita, and even game titles. While I doubt we will get the answers to all of our questions tonight, we are going to have live coverage of the biggest announcements here in this post, so stay tuned and keep refreshing throughout. The post will run in reverse chronological order – the stuff at the bottom will be older than the things posted up top. I am curious what your comments will be during and after the event!
Wrapping Up
- The show concluded with a brief PlayStation 4 trailer.
- Andrew House returned to introduce Activision’s Eric Hirshberg. Hirshberg expressed his excitement for the PS4. He discussed the collaboration with Bungie, Destiny. The game is a first-person shooter with heavy player customization and a focus on fun with friends. Several members of Bungie took to the stage to discuss the accessibility to Destiny. Both PS3 and PS4 versions will be available simultaneously.
Developers Step In
- Blizzard will be bringing Diablo III to both the PS3 and PS4. The games have been optimized greatly for controllers. There is a four player split-screen co-op mode. The game will be formally shown at PAX East down the road.
- Blizzard’s Chris Metzen casually discussed the company’s early days. Metzen expressed the desire to return to console players rather than sticking with PCs. Ubisoft stepped up to talk about Watchdogs and making video games that will bring communities together. A live demo for the game was shown. More details were teased for “later this year”.
- Square Enix’s Yoshihisa Hashimoto headed to the stage. He showed a real-time cinematic demo that further demonstrated the PS4’s graphical abilities.
- A video of a new Capcom IP called “Deep Down” played. It uses the Panta Rhei engine. It featured advanced visuals and much destruction.
- Yoshinori Ono from Capcom showed up on stage. With a translator, he discussed creating games for the various PlayStation platforms in the past. Capcom has a new engine running code named “Panta Rhei”.
- “Virtually every major third party developer” across Europe, North America, and Asia will be developing for the PlayStation 4.
- A video played that demonstrated the PlayStation 4’s creative prowess mentioned by Media Molecule.
- A rep from Media Molecule discussed bringing creativity to the PS4. He assessed how 3D programming could be improved. A sculpting application was shown that utilized the PlayStation Move that makes sculpting “fun” and “easy”. It can be used for creating levels and more.
- Quantic Dream’s David Cage was introduced to discuss video games in a broader sense. He went through the history of cinema briefly, discussing the depiction of human emotions without words. He says the PlayStation 4 will allow video games to truly reach that point.
- A new puzzle game featuring more than 20 hours of gameplay was shown.
- SuckerPunch showed off a new project.
- A trailer for a game called Driveclub aired. It’s based around competing against other clubs around the world. Races will vary greatly in length. The cars are based heavily on the real-world equivalents, right down to “microscopic” details.
- Killzone Shadow Fall was revealed. A CG trailer aired that showed off a city landscape and an ensuing gunfight. Some actual gameplay footage soon followed suit.
- Various developers and representatives (such as Double Fine’s Tim Schafer) reiterated the PlayStation 4’s new features and their potential.
PS4: Info Galore
- PS3 games will not be natively playable on the PS4 via disk but there are plans for playing PS1, PS2, and PS3 games via the system’s cloud service.
- The PlayStation Network will integrate with Sony’s own services and those of other companies, such as Netflix.
- PS Vita will enable players to put PS4 games onto the screen via Remote Play. The transition is near-instant.
- You’ll be able to broadcast your games live via uStream.
- The PS4’s share button can broadcast your screen in real-time to your friends.
- With Gaikai, you’ll be able to instantly experience any game on the PSN instantly. Sony’s vision is to produce “the first gaming network with meaning”.
- The system will learn your likes and dislikes based on your actions and coordinate system content accordingly. Cerny introduced Gaikai CEO David Perry before leaving himself.
- The system’s social network will be usable outside of the PS4 itself.
- You’ll be able to play the games on your friend’s systems when they need help and share images
- It can play games right as they download.
- On the PlayStation 4, you can turn the system off and continue playing from that point later
- A trailer for a new title called “Knack” aired.
- The PlayStation 4 will have an easy conversion path from the PC. House spoke in-depth about the system’s GPU.
- Cerny showed off the new Dualshock 4. The controller has enhanced rumble capabilities, a touch pad, a share button, a headphone jack, and a light bar. It was designed in tandem with a camera peripheral.
- The PS4 will have 8GB of high speed memory backed by the “massive storage” of a harddrive.
Introduction
- Mark Cerny (who worked on franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Crash Bandicoot) walked onto the stage. He mentions how past gaming systems like the Atari 2600 were focused solely on video games. The PlayStation 3 was limited in the non-gaming experiences it could provide, Cerny says. Sony surveyed many different developers to get an idea of what the PS4 should offer.
- House specifically mentions the PlayStation 4. He hypes the options for developers and multi-dimensional experiences for gamers.
- Andrew House showed up on stage. He says today marks a bold step forward for the company. Sony will showcase the connectivity between the PlayStation ecosystem, internet, and players. Today we will get a glimpse of the company’s “developer-lead, consumer inspired” vision.
- An opening trailer aired featuring NBA, Final Fantasy X, LittleBig Planet Karting and more. PlayStation wants to “win the war”.
