Sony Press Conference Review

Hey Otakus and Geeks fans, Today was the Sony Press Conference to give everyone a first look at the PS4. Now although we didn't get to see what the console it self looked like, they did show us: The Console Specs, Online features, Gaming Features, New Games and Trailers, and the Dual Shock 4 controller. Now with that said let's review the conference.

Console Specs:

X86 CPU an advanced, x86-based personal computer, which means that it should be easy for developers to build. All of this is clearly an answer to a major complaint from studios about the previous generation, which was infamously tricky to master from a software perspective.

Enhanced PC GPU with almost 2 teraflops of performance. Which should give us some great looking graphics.

Local Storage HDD nothing was said about the amount of Storage space the PS4 would have.

8 GB Unified Memory 8 gigabytes of on board GDDR5 memory.

 Superchared PC Architecture

It was also confirmed a secondary chip that handles all downloading, so that downloads can be performed in the background. PS4 titles are also playable as they're being downloaded.Overall it looks like the PS4 will be great for Gamers and Developers.

Controller:

 
This was the only thing from the console that Sony reveiled. It's has a touchpad, motion control and a "light bar" for identification. There is a Share button so players can share game footage and other info with friends or social networks.

Speakers:

 Lead system architect Mark Cerny -- legendary game dev and, to us, creator of Marble Madness. He said that development of the PS4 started five years ago. Cerny said he's been exploring how to evolve "the PlayStation ecosystem," and he started by speaking to the limitations of PlayStation 3. Cerny said he's been aiming to make sure "nothing gets between the platform and the game." An image of an old-timey hunter shooting space invaders in the sky is used as an example -- here's hoping the PS4 doesn't mean we'll be taking plastic guns and shooting pixels in the sky. "We were able to create in PlayStation 4 a system by game creators, for game creators" A brief demo of Mark Cerny's PS4 game Knack was show.

 David Perry went next, and he talked about Sony's acquisition of Gaikai (he was the former head of Gaikai, but now he's working with Sony). His game streaming service is being employed to run demos on PS4, allowing people to try any game they want instantly. He also said that both Facebook and Ustream are being employed on PS4, using the DualShock 4's Share button. But how much? He didn't say. Beyond just sharing games you've already played, you can also livestream -- to the point that a friend of yours who is spectating can actually jump into your game, via streaming, and help you out. He also said that in time he's hoping the PS4 will have gamers playing their favorite games from the previous consoles ( PS1, PS2, and PS3 )

Games:
Sony also showed us a few games coming to the consle. They Look great, but I'll save my Judgement till game play.

                                           Knack

                                           
                                           Drive Club

                                          Infamous: second son

                                          KillZone: Shadow Fall                                           

                                          Watch Dogs





Social Networking:

 Sony also talked about some of the Gamer interaction and Social features. Sony has spent a lot of time this evening talking about social integration and how the system will be a fundamentally a social system. The PlayStation 4 is expected to include a new set of social features that will allow users to share their in-game achievements over Twitter and Facebook, features the PlayStation currently has one step further. 

 
 Overall the conference was good, I know gamers will have mixed opinions about what they saw. Some will be pleased that Sony is stepping up the console to be more developer friendly. Others will wonder why Sony is pushing Social Network Features instead of gaming experience. One of the things I wish Sony would have addressed is how the online servers will be handled. Will everything be on one network or will each game and feature be on it's own server like Microsoft. And if so, will we be paying more for it. Well we will just have to watch and see what the future this next Gen console will hold.

 Check out the Sony Conference articles from our partner at 8bit Drum:

 http://www.8bitdrum.com/2013/02/the-5-most-important-playstation-4.html