But unlike its chief competitors, Sony has decided against showing off the design of its next console. The company announced the device earlier this year, talked about its specs, but wouldn’t show what it actually looked like. And when the console was recently featured in a teaser for the upcoming E3 gaming trade show, Sony once again decided against showing off the device.

It’s not immediately clear why Sony hasn’t shown off the PlayStation 4. The company has, of course, been asked numerous times why it doesn’t want to show the console yet and each time, it has sidestepped the question. The move is unprecedented, if nothing else, and could be either good or bad.

See, now that we have seen the Wii U and Xbox One, the onus is on Sony to shock us. The PlayStation 4’s design can’t be something that bores us or doesn’t have as good a look as its competitors. And by hiding it under a shroud of mystery, Sony is only calling more attention to the console than it otherwise would.

That puts extra pressure on Sony at the E3 gaming show. If the console is truly something that blows our socks off, all the secrecy would have been worth it. But if Sony’s PlayStation 3 ends up being just another black box that doesn’t have anything special built-in and lacks some unique design quality, we’ll all be rather bored. And being bored in the world of gaming is a very, very bad thing.

Sony needs to take the attention away from its product design and start focusing more on its game library. The move the company should be making right now is to show off the PlayStation 4’s design and be done with it. To make the discussion surrounding Sony’s next console all about hardware couldn’t be worse for the company.

If history has taught us anything, it’s that software sells hardware. The Dreamcast died off because its software library was sub-par compared to that of its competitors. Sony’s PlayStation became such a hit because it had so many games available. The console’s design didn’t really matter all that much.

In this case, I’m going to give Sony the benefit of the doubt. I think the PlayStation maker truly understands the dynamics of the gaming industry and doesn’t want to take too much focus off the games. I believe, therefore, that Sony has something quite special up its sleeve. And rather than just let Microsoft and Nintendo take E3 by storm, it wants to show off something that we’ve never even thought about from a hardware perspective.

Of course, all of that could be wishful thinking. But if history serves us correctly, it tells us that Sony can pull off some miracles. And it needs another one right now.

After that, he didn’t mention PCs again, only saying that “benchmarks on just the video and audio performance are 8-10 times superior to the current gen,” saying that “the compute capabilities of these platforms and the data transfer speeds we can now bank on, essentially removes any notion of rationing of systems resources for our game engines.”

The Xbox One comes with an 8-core processor along with 8GB of RAM. We’re not told about specifics, but a good guess would that both the PS4 and the Xbox One are running AMD’s Jaguar chip. Compared to gaming PCs, most gamers have a quad-core processor in their gaming rigs, with a few 8-core chips floating around.

However, Microsoft nor Sony have revealed what graphics their respective consoles are running, but if they’ve seen the just-announced NVIDIA GTX 780 Titan graphics chip, I’m pretty sure they’d run away whimpering. Imagine two of those cards in SLI — the gaming prowess would be practically infinite.

However, it’s possible that Teneja doesn’t actually mean these new consoles are faster, but rather just have newer technology in them, meaning that the processor inside the Xbox One and PS4 are so new, that it isn’t available for PCs yet. Then again, from the way that Teneja worded his blog post, it seems to mean that PCs don’t stand a chance against the next-gen consoles, which is quite saddening to hear.

VIA: Polygon

A passage from the book is read out loud and it describes the characters in the upcoming game, giving us a little tease at who gamers are going to control while playing the game. However, we’re still not given a taste of any gameplay, which has gamers frustrated and wanting more, but it seems Activision will be milking this one out for a while.

The trailer was directed by Jon Favreau, who is best known for directing Iron Man and Iron Man 2, and his style certainly shows in this new Destiny trailer. Of course, though, we still don’t know many details about the game, other than that they’re calling it “shared-world shooter” that looks a lot like Halo, which isn’t too surprising, as the same developer is behind both games.

A look at the trailer reveals that some of the action takes place on the Moon, as well as what looks like Mars, but as you can clearly see a close-up planet in the sky, it looks to be a fictional planet that the developers made up for the game. Overall, Destiny definitely won’t be coming to an Earth near you. The game is set to release on both current- and next-generation consoles sometime in 2014, so don’t expect it to launch alongside the Xbox One or PS4 in time for the Holiday season — you’ll want to put it on your birthday wish list instead.

EA’s newly-rebranded Ghost Games studio will be in charge of development, with help from Criterion Games, who was behind Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Need for Speed: World. Rivals will include the same experience that past Need for Speed titles have had, but EA says that the new game will go back to its roots, with the cops vs. racers modes, allowing gamers to play as cops too. You’ll be able to move up in the ranks, as well as unlock new cars and customization options.

Online multiplayer in the new game is getting a feature called AllDrive, which allows friends to drop in and out of your open world to race with or against you, as well as the ability to play as cops and chance down racers. Speedpoints will be rewarded to players for chasing down racers or eluding the police, which can be used for performance upgrades.

Rivals will also include Criterion’s social tracking system Autolog, which provides leaderboards and lets gamers challenge other friends. The system will be similar to what’s coming in GRID 2, which will be released later next week. All of these features will be available for both current- and next-generation consoles.

The Need for Speed series is approaching 20 years in the making, and while it has drastically changed over the years — going from a simple racing game to street-tuned all-out racing with multiple modes, it seems Need for Speed is finally going back to its roots of the early days of the series, which we’re pretty excited to see what EA has in store come November.

VIA: VG247

The developer confirmed the news via Twitter yesterday, saying that the game will be heading to Sony’s newest console, joining the PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC. However, publisher Activision still says that DLC for the game will be exclusive with Xbox consoles, meaning that if you want all the CoD content you can get, going the Microsoft route seems like the best choice at this point.

As for the Wii U, Activision hasn’t confirmed or denied that Call of Duty: Ghosts will come to Nintendo’s newest console, but it’s not looking good overall. If the publisher wanted the new game on the Wii U, we certainly would’ve heard confirmation by now, but judging by the poor sales of the new console, we’re guessing Activision won’t waste their breath.

Call of Duty: Ghosts went up for pre-order earlier this month, and it became the highest-selling video game on Amazon in less than a day from becoming available for purchase before its launch. While some may think the Call of Duty series is getting stale, the turnout that the pre-order received shows that many gamers are still interested. The new installment is expected to be some sort of spin-off featuring Lt. Simon “Ghost” Riley, who was known for wearing that iconic skull-laden balaclava. However, we’ll have to wait and see in November when the game officially releases to the masses.

VIA: Joystiq

We already know that Sony is sticking with its black look that they’ve implemented on all their consoles since the PS2, so now that we have that out of the way, the design is the only aspect that we’re wanting to see. One Redditor studied the teaser video and came up with a design of what the PS4 might look like. It looks pretty sleek overall, with the first thing you’ll notice probably being the giant cooling vent in the front.

The design also has a small fan toward the back on the side, and we’re assuming that there’s one on either side of the console. As for other features, we’re guessing the slim silver plate on the front is the disc tray that pops out, but we’re assuming that the PS4 will have a slot-load drive, seeing as this is 2013, but we’re not quite sure what Sony might do in this case.

Is this what the PlayStation 4 will look like? We obviously don’t know — this is merely just a piece of concept art that attempts to get as close as possible to the real design based on teaser images that we’ve seen. However, we certainly can’t say that this isn’t a design that could be close to what Sony has come up with.

As for the Xbox 720, the reveal event starts at 1 pm ET, and we’re not sure what Microsoft will show off exactly, but we do know we’ll get a look at some video games that will be releasing for the new console, including Call of Duty: Ghosts. Microsoft is planning Xbox 720 events three times this year: today, at E3, and at Gamescom in August, so the company may split up announcements between these three events.

VIA: Kotaku

SOURCE: Reddit

The teaser video, which you can watch below, gives us a very blurry view of the PS4 console box itself, although it doesn’t look like much through an unfocused lens. Throughout the video, we get treated with quick flashes of various close-up angles of the console, including its edges, corners, vents, and logos (which we’re guessing the image above is a new logo of some sort).

At the end of the teaser, we’re treated with a date of June 10 at 6 pm PT, which is during Sony’s press conference at E3, meaning that we’ll get treated with the full PS4 treatment at E3, including more details about the hardware, as well as a release date for the console. Microsoft is also expected to show off its next-gen console at E3 this year.

Speaking of Microsoft, the company is set to announce their next-generation Xbox console tomorrow, so we’re pretty sure that today’s teaser from Sony was strategically timed to attempt to take a bit of day-before excitement away from Microsoft. However, come tomorrow, all eyes will be on the Redmond-based company and their new gaming console.

The PS4 is planned to release in time for the holiday season, and we can only expect Microsoft to do the same with their console. However, it’ll be up in the air on who out-shines who when Santa comes to town. Needless to say, it’ll be nice to have the console wars heated up again after neither company has released a new console in quite some time.

GT6 was given the official nod earlier this month, the most ambitious of the Gran Turismo series so far. The game will include 33 different locations, seven of which are new; there will be 71 different layouts to choose between, of which 19 are new.

On top of that, racers will be able to modify and customize their favorite cars using in-game accessories and upgrades. Sony hasn’t given specifics, but there are said to be “thousands” of possible add-ons to choose between.

The new cars will include Alfa Romeo’s TZ3 Stradale ’11, the classic 1971 Ferrari Dino 246 GT, the pared-back KTM X-BOW R ’12, and Mercedes’ SLS AMG GT3 from 2011. Geek-favorite Tesla will also feature, with the new Model S Signature Performance (though not the Performance Plus version) also making its debut.

As for how those cars will drive – virtually speaking – Sony is particularly excited about its new suspension and kinematics model. There’s also a new tire model – in partnership with Yokohama Rubber and KW Automotive – to make the handling more realistic, and a fresh aerodynamics model.

Gran Turismo 6 will launch on the PlayStation 3 initially, in time for the 2013 holiday season, but Sony has already dropped some significant hints about a PlayStation 4 version.

Thanks Zak!

Much of the summary is dedicated to how much more straightforward it is to develop titles for the PS4. The console uses the same concurrency model as the PS3, for instance, with a main “orchestrator” thread and then the rest of the code running in jobs across all the cores; on the PS4, though, Guerrilla found that 80-percent of all code could now be run in jobs, versus 20-percent on the current-gen console.

To show how well the game ran, the developers had to cook up their own CPU and GPU profilers, since the official tools still aren’t quite ready. On-screen, there’s a physically-correct lighting model and volumetrics supported on every light, along with real-time reflections. Some of the most obvious improvements are in characters, with far greater detail allowed.

Killzone Shadow Fall PS4 tech demo:

“Our aim for [the] announcement event was to run on PS4 hardware” Guerrilla writes, meaning “1080p, solid 30FPS, [and] no cheats.” The latter is presumably a reference to the Killzone 2 for PS3 demo gaffe, where what was later revealed to be rendered game footage was initially portrayed as running on the console itself.

Killzone Shadow Fall PS4 gameplay demo:

“PS4 is really easy to program for!” lead tech Michal Valient concludes, and the “GPU is really fast” while “GDDR5 bandwith is awesome” assuming you handle the memory mapping properly. “We’ve only scratched the surface” he says.

Sony didn’t show off the final hardware at its PS4 launch event, only the peripherals and some game demos. It did, however, confirm the core specifications: 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, an x86 CPU, an enhanced PC GPU, and a hard-drive; there’s also WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth, USB 3.0, gigabit ethernet, and a Blu-ray drive.

Thanks Zak!

The so-called transition Kotick describes is one of an evolving gaming industry, where players aren’t perhaps so wedded to their dedicated, heavy-duty consoles as they were at the launch of the Xbox 360 and PS3. Factor in the remaining questions that surround even Sony’s officially announced PlayStation 4, and Kotick is readying for an uphill struggle.

“There are still many unknown factors,” he explained on the call, “such as pricing, launch dates and quantities, the level of first-party support and, importantly, consumer purchase intent in a world where consoles are no longer just competing with each other, but also with new platforms, such as smartphones and tablets.”

Those mobile platforms have risen in gaming prevalence over the intervening years, with more casual titles at the $0.99 price point in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play market gaining traction on iPhone and Android. Apple’s iPod touch has also become a compelling gaming system, with improvements in the company’s homegrown processors leading to more impressive, near-console-quality titles.

In short, it’s a very different market from what Microsoft and Sony are used to, and one in which Kotick seemingly suspects they may find the reception to the Wii U to be the rule, not the exception. “All of these factors further heighten our concerns heading into the back half of the year,” he concluded, “particularly during the very competitive fourth quarter.”

Activision has already warned that World of Warcraft online multiplayer subscribers are dropping, though the game publisher says it is confident its other projects will maintain sufficient momentum to keep profits up.

[via ExpertReviews]

Speaking with Eurogamer, Kato says that much of the chip development for the PS4 has already been in place, whereas the PS3 required all-new development processes for the console’s chip. The PS4 will still see a new chip (and development is still happening for that), but Kato says that many existing technologies will be implemented in the PS4, cutting down on R&D costs.

Sony turned its first profitable year since 2008, but its PlayStation division was down during the 12-month period. Sales were down 12.2%, with operating income down a staggering 94% to just $18 million for the year. However, Kato says that income is expected to “increase significantly” for the company, with the PS4′s launch coming later this year.

Operating income is another story, though, as Kato expects it to be stagnant year-over-year due to R&D and marketing costs for the new and upcoming console. However, the PS4 is expected to turn a profit in a shorter amount of time than the PS3, which took several years before the console was finally in the black for Sony.

[via Eurogamer]

The concept has already been experimented with on the PS Vita, which normally has the ability to take screenshots of gameplay. However, if developers wish, they can temporarily shut that off, meaning final puzzles, battles, or other details of gameplay can be kept more secret.

“For example, on Vita, developers can in certain scenes disable the feature that lets users take a screenshot, and (the Share function) will have a similar mechanism” Yoshido said. “The creator may not want to make video of the final boss sharable, for instance.”

It’s unclear to what extent game developers will be able to limit use of the Share functionality. Gamers are likely to accept the odd moment where the Share button does nothing, but that understanding might pale if the key is locked out for longer periods.

Sharing was, Yoshido explained, something of a serendipitous addition to the PS4. The team had been looking at different ways that gamers could share footage of their play online, and a dedicated button became the most popular solution. “I felt that sharing videos is a really important part of enjoying games” the exec says.

[via Ars Technica]

Such demand already might surprise some folks. After all, it took a long time for the PlayStation 3 to truly get off the ground and although it’ll likely end this generation with more worldwide sales than the Xbox 360, in the U.S., especially, it’s no match for Microsoft’s console.

To make matters worse, it appears that gamers aren’t all that excited about the next generation of consoles across the board. The Wii U, after all, has been watching its sales slow to crawl and even GameStop said publicly that it’s been disappointed by the Wii U. What in the world would make the PlayStation 4 different?

Well, I think there are a host of reasons. I’m a firm believer that Sony is still a household name in the U.S. and in Japan – its two key markets – and people buy products from the company solely because they trust the name. And despite the PlayStation 3’s initial troubles, the console turned out to be quite a success, allowing its predecessor to deliver solid results next time around.

It’s also unfair to compare the PlayStation 4 with the Wii U. Nintendo’s console is one that’s a barely updated alternative to the predecessor. As I’ve said here before, I believe the Wii U is a catch-up device. And historically, catch-up devices don’t really perform all that well on store shelves.

The PlayStation 4, however, is a high-end product with all kinds of graphical firepower; it’s the kind of device that true gamers really want. And chances are, Sony will once again have the full support of the developer community to ensure it doesn’t fall short from a library perspective.

Most importantly, though, I think the strong demand for the PlayStation 4 tells us that, despite conventional wisdom suggesting that mobile and casual gaming is the future, console gamers are still extremely engrossed in their favored way of playing games. And that’s not going to change anytime soon.

The fact is that console gaming has a long way to go to ultimately match the promise gamers have been hoping for all this time. And companies like Sony and Microsoft are willing to push the envelope and put themselves in a position where they can capitalize on customers that want a true next-generation device, and not something that’s simply labeled as one.

So yes, I understand the excitement surrounding the PlayStation 4, and I can say without any hesitation that I’m one of those folks that’s excited to see what’s coming next from Sony. The future is now. And Sony is one of the few companies in the gaming industry that’s willing to embrace it.

That won’t be the only personnel change, with a shuffle of the SVPs and a number of combined positions handling business administration, development support, quality and product management, and credit management across both regions. However, other divisions will retain their specific remits: marketing, sales, customer relations and online services teams will continue to focus on either Asia or Japan.

As well as the staff shake-up, there will be a number of structural and unit changes as part of the merge. That includes a new product management unit and a new loan management unit, and there will be an Asian Network Planning Department to hunt down new business in the region.

It’s set to be an interesting few years for Sony, as the PlayStation 4 is readied for its release. The next-generation console faces not only the challenge of Microsoft’s new Xbox, but the growing relevance of casual and mobile gaming, not to mention affordable start-up challenges like OUYA snapping at its heels.

Any turnaround can’t come soon enough. Sony announced a net loss of $115m in the last financial quarter, struck particularly with poor sales of the PSP and PS Vita; the company slashed Vita pricing in an attempt to boost demand. Meanwhile, Sony Chairman Howard Stringer will retire this summer.

Hardware suffered the worst blow, decreasing 36-percent over last year, with a total of $244.2 million in sales. Software was next in line, falling 27-percent over last year to $369.9 million in sales; that represents sales for both gaming consoles and portable units. All in all, consumers are making about 50-percent of their overall game purchases via retail.

Overall, NPD Group says February video game sales came in at approximately $1.2 billion. While Sony and Nintendo tend to be tight-lipped over their console sales, Microsoft is more than happy to reveal its numbers. According to the company, it sold 302,000 Xbox 360 units, which represents a fairly significant drop over last year’s sales of 426,000.

Microsoft is responsible for a significant amount of gaming console sales, according to a statement from the company earlier today, representing about 41-percent of all latest-generation consoles being purchased. Meanwhile, Sony’s PlayStation 4 is slated for release this upcoming holiday season.

[via Bloomberg]

Senior Vice President of Content and Technology at NVIDIA Tony Tamasi told GameSpot that the company “came to the conclusion” that they “didn’t want to do the business at the price those guys were willing to pay,” referring to Sony and the amount of money they were willing to dish out to NVIDIA to allow the console maker to use their chips.

AMD ended up getting a deal with Sony to use its chips in the PlayStation 4, and it’s rumored that the next-generation Xbox will also be running AMD components, but it seems NVIDIA isn’t phased by all that. Tamasi says that the company is “building a whole bunch of stuff,” including Project SHIELD that we took a look at during CES back in January.

Overall, NVIDIA looks at the console business as an “opportunity cost.” Essentially, NVIDIA had to weigh the pros and cons of developing their own products versus implementing their technology into other products. In the end, the company decided not to pursue the PS4 and instead focus on their own products.

[via GameSpot]

Analyst Michael Pachter from Wedbush Securities thinks that Microsoft is primed to win the next-generation console wars with the Xbox 720. The analyst made his predictions in Austin last weekend during the SXSW festival. Patchter believes that Microsoft’s TV tuner and Skype applications will be big for the Xbox 720.

He does believe that Sony will thrive with the PlayStation 4, but will be playing catch-up to Microsoft. Patchter does believe that Sony’s Gaikai technology will be an advantage for the company. Patchter also thinks that Nintendo will continue to face major challenges. The analyst says that the choices the company made with the Wii U will pose significant challenges to the company.

He also expects that Nintendo’s portable gaming market will continue to erode as consumers move to portable devices such as tablets and smartphones for mobile gaming. The PlayStation 4 should launch this holiday season and we don’t know just yet when the next-generation Xbox will launch. The console is expected to debut around E3.

[via Attack of the Fanboy]

NVIDIA’s product manager for PhysX, Mike Skolones, says that “great physics technology is essential for delivering a better gaming experience and multiplatform support is critical for developers,” and “with PhysX and APEX support for PlayStation 4, customers can look forward to better games.” Indeed, both PhysX and APEX should make games more realistic with life-like movements and scenery.

PhysX is designed specifically to be used with hardware acceleration in processors and graphics cards, and the technology allows for more complex and detailed worlds in video games, including more-realistic explosions, clothes that react more naturally to the wind and body movements, and of course, better life-like motions of characters.

Both PhysX and APEX are already integrated into a handful of games. NVIDIA boasts that PhysX alone is featured in more than 150 games, and is used by over 10,000 developers. Some games that are taking advantage of NVIDIA’s technologies include Borderlands 2, the Batman Arkham series, Mirror’s Edge, and Metro 2033.

Of course. First, let me tackle that last and most ridiculous point. It’s not a PlayStation launch if they didn’t show the hardware, right? No, that’s completely wrong. What is the hardware? It’s a box with a gaming computer inside and a bunch of ports on the outside. It should look reasonably attractive sitting underneath my television, but if it doesn’t I’ll just hide it behind something else, like my Xbox. It should be slim enough to fit in my cabinet, but my receiver is pretty big, so I don’t mind a little heft. Since the Xbox 360, design has become more important, as gamers realized they could have a console that wouldn’t offend the sensibilities of non-gaming spouses; but if this is a priority for you, you’ve gotten your priorities screwed up.

You know what I really want from my PlayStation box? I want it to play really freaking awesome games for the next 6 years. Every time I turn it on, I will spend exactly 5 seconds looking at the box and 30 minutes to 8 hours looking at the content it blasts onto my TV screen. If the box protrudes hairy tentacles and screams obscenities at me every time I turn it on, I can live with that if the games are good. If the ports are covered with Man-O-War tentacles that sting me every time I plug in a controller, I’ll buy some ointment and keep playing. If reaching into the box is worse than pushing my arm into the foul and stinking moist womb of Beelzebub’s mother, who the heck cares if it plays games that make me forget the horrors of my life and the cruelty of my own impending mortality for more than 15 minutes!?

If you care so much about the box, you are the problem with the games industry: style over substance.

For disclosure sake, my day job is with Samsung Mobile, so I know a thing or two about launches. As a former tech journalist, I covered Apple events and Nokia events, so I’ve seen the best and worst a launch event can be. But launching a phone is very different. The problem is that the tech press has grown accustomed to fast-paced phone launches. Every 4 weeks the coolest phone you’ve ever seen hits the market. The tech press is spoiled. They want cool hardware design, which is much more important with a phone. They want a full explanation of the device in 30 minutes or less. They want to leave the press room and walk into a store to buy it (or at least walk into their Brooklyn apartment to review a sample unit).

That doesn’t just mean that our press is jaded. That means you don’t have to say as much with each phone launch. You don’t have to detail every feature. You can build on what the audience already knows. You can highlight the new and confirm the old.

A phone is a very personal device. You will touch and caress it for the next two years. You will tell it your secrets, share your relationship photos, and stick it in your pants. When you buy it, you expect to know much of what it can already do.

Sony is not selling you the hardware. You need the hardware to play the games, but for the first year or so, Sony will lose money on the hardware. A lot of money; maybe a couple hundred dollars per console. Where do they make their money? Games. The money comes from the games they make internally and the licenses they sell to EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard and others.

So, when Sony hosts a launch event, they aren’t selling you on the box hardware. The box is a necessary evil to get you to buy and play the game. If you only bought the box and watched Netflix and never played any games, Sony’s PlayStation division would be out of business in this generation.

Games are a hard sell, especially when they cost $60 a piece, brand new. They cost as much to make as a Hollywood blockbuster, and like a hot movie they make most of their money in the first week they are available. What’s worse, the movie producers make a ton of money months later when the movie goes to DVD, but game producers don’t see that kind of profit. Why should Sony ever support used games with the economics of the gaming market already tilted so heavily against them?

At a PlayStation launch event, Sony needs to prove that a 20-60 hour game on unproven hardware is worth 4 to 6 times the price of a movie ticket. How can you possibly fault them for showing 2 hours of game previews? Sure, the jaded press in the audience will get bored, but diehard fans will pore over those previews for 7 months until the console is in stores.

Go ahead, Sony, be proud of your launch event and ignore the critics. Every one of them is a fan. They all lusted over at least one of those games, and lamented the beloved titles you didn’t show, but probably will at another 2-hour event at E3. The same press will complain again there, because it’s their job to by cynical; but they’ll be first in line to buy one. In the end, it’s not about the event, or the box. It’s all about the games.

But seriously, Sony, enough with the updates. Just let me play the game and forget that the rest of it – the box, the controller, the world – exists, even if it’s only for 30 minutes.

However, nothing new was unveiled during the show, and Fallon only had a look at the new DualShock 4 controller under what seemed like the tight supervision from the managing director of Guerrilla Games, Hermen Hulst, and a demo man who only let Fallon play the game for about a minute. Actor and comedian Anthony Anderson was also on scene to try out the game as well.

Chaos soon erupted, however, when both Fallon and Anderson didn’t quite have the chops necessary to blaze through all the bad guys, and the hands-on session quickly grew into a fun screaming match between the two comedians. It wasn’t quite as entertaining as, say, Conan O’Brien’s “Clueless Gamer” reviews, but it was still fun watching Fallon trying to make his way through the game.

Jimmy Fallon’s hands-on of the PlayStation 4 marks the first hands-on session of the new console. It doesn’t have an exact release date yet, but Sony says the console will be available for purchase just in time for the holiday season this year. Sony’s CEO even said that the console is still technically under development, which is why they haven’t shown the public the actual console just yet.

It’s ben confirmed several times over that games will be able to be purchased in physical form as well as digitally – both for some titles, in some cases. This means that there will, indeed, be opportunities for people to have a disk (Blu-Ray, as it were), play it, then pass it on to someone else with their own PlayStation 4 console. But a question remains surrounding licensing. While every major game console today (pre-PS4 and Xbox 720) is able to swap games and consoles without trouble, rumors and tips leading up to this generation’s inability to play games that weren’t licensed specifically to them continues to linger.

On the other hand, it would appear that each instance of an answer from Sony thus far has been traced back to Shuhei Yoshida, Sony’s head of Worldwide Studios. Saying in one instance that “[used] PS4 games will work on [the] hardware” (via Engadget) and in another that “used games work on PS4″ (via Eurogamer), in both cases Yoshida was unable to clarify further.

What may be happening is that Sony is still in negotiations with game companies to decide whether they’re going to implement disk/console tying or not. Another possibility is that none of this used game selling/buying and using business is complicated at all, but simply that at this stage in the development of the PlayStation 4, Sony’s representation simply can’t legally comment on it.

Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on the PlayStation 4 – and peek at our ever-growing PlayStation 4 tag portal as well!

In an interview with AllThingsD, Tretton explained that there were a couple of reasons why Sony didn’t show off the new console at yesterday’s event. First, Tretton explains that the console box itself really isn’t all that important anyway, since “it’s behind a cabinet or on a shelf somewhere and you spend all your time looking at the screen.” Tretton has a point, though. After all, the box itself doesn’t really matter all that much.

He also noted that the console is still under development “in terms of final specs and design,” so while they may have a PS4 console built and able to play games (as we saw yesterday during the event), it seems that Sony is still working on adding final touches to the console, and from the looks of it, the PS4 isn’t quite ready for mass production just yet.

Tretton’s answer differentiates just slightly to the answer that Sony’s Worldwide Studio president Shuhei Yoshida gave, in which he says that Sony simply didn’t want to unveil everything during that one event, and instead want to spread out announcements, which means we could hear more about the PlayStation 4 come E3 in June.

[via AllThingsD]

There are two rather polarized angles being tossed about this week as the Sony show (or no-show) of the PlayStation 4 was let loose. One side says it’s terrible that Sony made a 2+ hour presentation for the PlayStation 4 without actually showing the hardware, relying instead on the controller and a variety of promises from software developers to do all the talking. The other side says awesome! We know the PlayStation 4 is coming now, and we’ve got confirmation from some of the biggest-name developers that they’re on board, so we’re happy!

Here’s what we’ve actually got: a few details about the hardware, info about the PlayStation 4 Eye camera system and the Dualshock 4 controller included. We’ve got a collection of software titles and a few very brief demonstrations of what will be possible on the system. We’ve got Sony’s promise that Everything Everywhere will be their aim with the PlayStation 4 universe – cloud gaming and access for all devices included.

So what else do we need? We’ve got the hype – when your favorite hardware manufacturer creates a new version of the device you love and use every day, you’ll want that new system. We’ve got developer support – just as vital here as it is with a new operating system – perhaps even more so here since this isn’t a smartphone: the PlayStation 4 is made to play games first and foremost. We’ve got a Sony promise that this system will be their next hero system.

Do we really need to see the actual console? The piece of hardware that you’ll end up putting under your television, away from your eye and hidden anyway? This isn’t a smartphone, it’s not a tablet. It’s not a fashion accessory like those mobile devices end up quite often being. This is a video game console – and we don’t need to see it to want it!

Simply put, Yoshida says that they didn’t reveal everything because the company wanted “to keep something new for later. Otherwise you’d get bored.” Maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t, but Yoshida has a point. E3 is coming up later in a few months, and that could be the time when Sony will unveil everything at that point.

As for the reasoning behind unveiling the new DualShock 4 controller, Yoshida says that the controller is “a very key idea behind the design of the PS4,” and since Sony took quite a bit of time showing off the new user interface of the PS4, it only made sense that they would show off the controller as well, especially considering it has a dedicated “Share” button on it, meant to instantly share content with friends and other gamers.

As for Sony’s plans at E3 2013 coming up in June, Yoshida told Eurogamer that announcing more PS4 details at the yearly gaming expo is “possible,” and Sony hopes to have most things “in final form” by the time E3 rolls around. However, he ultimately says that the company has “no plan or no date set for announcing these things.”

[via Kotaku]

We only saw a tiny bit of gameplay here at the event, but the developers say that Destiny will be fully compatible with the PS4, meaning that Destiny will let you enjoy the game and its content from multiple devices. Destiny will not only be coming to the PS4, but also the PS3, and there’ll be “exclusive, playable” content for just the PlayStation versions.

Bungie is calling the new game the world’s first shared-world shooter because gamers will be able to access the game and the content through the cloud via the PS4, something that will be both intriguing, as well as interesting to see in action. Overall, though, the developers didn’t reveal much about the new game, but we’ve already heard plenty within the past couple of weeks anyway.

It’s said that Destiny will arrive on the PS4 and the next-generation Xbox sometime in 2014, and since it will also be arriving on the PS3, it may also show up for the Xbox 360 as well, but that has yet to be confirmed. Since Bungie’s Halo series was so successful, Destiny may certainly have the same fate.

It looks like Blizzard is going back to their roots, yes consoles were originally their roots. Blizzard has entered into a partnership with Sony and will be bringing many games to the PlayStation 4. One of the most popular games that I’m sure many of you are excited about is Diablo III. It will be available on both the PS3 which we already knew, and now the new PS4.

Using the PlayStation cloud service you’ll be able to enjoy classic games like Diablo III right on your PS4. Alternatively it will probably also support Remote Play for streaming to your PS Vita and more. The biggest news here isn’t Diablo III though, the big news is Blizzard has entered into a partnership with Sony.

While we don’t know exactly what this all entails at this point, you can expect to see and hear plenty in the upcoming weeks and months from Blizzard. The massive PC developers behind World of Warcraft and tons of other popular titles will now be developing games for the PlayStation 4. Hopefully at E3 and PAX East 2013 we’ll learn all the details. Who’s excited?

This announcement comes on the same day as Square Enix released info pertaining to their new title Murdered: Soul Suspect. That game will be released for the PlayStation 3 while the PlayStation 4 releases from the development company remain under wraps – for the most part.

Square Enix’ own Sinji Hashimoto, brand director for Final Fantasy, stood on stage speaking about – you guessed it – a new Final Fantasy title. While he didn’t give specifics on the title’s name nor its content, he did suggest that more information would be released at E3 2013. Tune in then!

Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on the PlayStation 4 and everything included in its release. This event has covered a collection of new games as well as some rather interesting information about the cloud gaming capabilities of the system – and showed of the controller, too!

We’re only seeing snippets from the engine, including very detailed faces, realistic fire, and good-looking environments with great lighting. Capcom then showed off some gameplay from a new game they’re working on. The working title for the game is “Deep Down” and it looks to be a fantasy/adventure game of sorts.

The game includes dragons, and of course fire for the full effect. The dragon we’re seeing is extremely detailed and the lighting coming from above also looks really impressive. Of course, details at this point are scarce, but the company says that “Deep Down is being developed in parallel with the Panta Rhei engine.”

Since the game seems to still be in development, we’re not quite sure when Capcom will launch the game. However, we probably won’t see until 2014 at least, so if you were looking forward to grabbing it off the store shelf any time this year, you’ll most likely be disappointed.

In the two-minute video that they’re showing off, there’s apparently a person who can disappear attacking people with a chain, and then shows up somewhere else killing more people. It’s very dark-magic-esque, and if you’re familiar with the InFamous series, we’re sure that you’ll be inclined to check it out when it eventually releases.

However, just as with all the other games unveiled today, Seconds Sons doesn’t yet have a release date, but hopefully we should see it before the holiday season arrives sometime in the fall. Sony hasn’t said when they’ll be releasing the PS4 console itself, but rumors are pointing to a release sometime later this year.

Sony announced the PlayStation 4 earlier during the event, and while they have yet to bring the console itself on stage, they did show off the new DualShock 4 controller, which integrates a touchpad, headphone jack, and a share button, while still keeping most of the same shape as past DualShock controllers.

For those unaware, Dave Perry from Gaikai is all about cloud gaming. From Remote Play, to Playstation Cloud and more we can expect tons of good things since Sony acquired them last year. While he was on stage detailing Remote Play, he quickly mentioned the backwards compatibility issue. Don’t worry though folks because you’ll still be able to enjoy those old classics, just through the cloud.

Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 4 cloud-gaming console will stream original PS1, PS2 and PS3 games all from the cloud. Using their upcoming and next-gen cloud gaming system you’ll be able to enjoy all those classic titles right from Sony. We don’t know all the details yet but the PlayStation Cloud Service will be the center of it all.

Interestingly enough we didn’t get any further details regarding compatibility and how this will all work. Will gamers automatically be able to stream games they own from the cloud? Or will we have to buy them again digitally from the cloud service and PlayStation Network. We’ll be looking for more details as they become available to stay tuned to our PlayStation 4 Portal.

Surprisingly, they’re showing off quite a bit of gameplay — well over a few minutes — and we’re getting a good look at what to expect from the next Killzone. If you thought Killzone on the PS3 looked pretty good, then you’ll be blown away by Shadowfall, which has amazing lighting and 3D effects.

From the footage we’re seeing, the game takes place in the future, so there’s no shortage of futuristic looking buildings and guys wearing cyborg suits. And of course, you have your explosions and blazing guns, a.k.a. you’re typical first-person shooter that we’ve seen before, but with more shiny things and better graphics, of course.

Sadly, no release date was announced, but we could expect it to release before the holiday season, maybe sometime in Q3 2013 or early Q4. If you’re getting a PlayStation 4, we’d recommend getting Killzone Shadowfall if you want to play a shoot-em-up of some kind — this looks to be doozy.

Your PS4 experience is set to be a Shared Experience as outlined in the article we’ve just posted about Remote Play. Players across the world will be able to take over for you when you’re in the middle of a game – but that’s only one part of the puzzle. With Gaikai gaming technology, you’ll be seeing your favorite PlayStation 3 games being able to be played from your smartphone, your tablet, your PS Vita, and your PC.

If you’ve been following Gaikai, you know that they’ve been purchased by Sony (last year) and are now revealing that the work they’ve done is not just made for the PlayStation 4, but for the whole PlayStation universe. You can expect to work with games like Knack with its multi-player action and Hawken – already available in free Beta mode on PC – to be available through Gaikai’s software in the future for all devices. It’s time to stream!

Have a peek at the timeline below to see more information surrounding the PlayStation 4 and the abilities and features it contains throughout the day and into the future. Make sure you’re aware of the details piece-by-piece as Sony stretches this event into tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that as well. This is the big one!

The PlayStation cloud service does more than just stream games, you’ll also be able to share games with friends. Yup, if you get stuck and can’t figure out a situation just hit that share button on the new controller and invite a friend to help you out. While we’re still waiting for more details on their cloud service one thing is clear – Things are about to get crazy.

Remote Play works on multiple levels. From sharing games with others, to continuing where you left off right on your PlayStation Vita. This means everyone that has that awesome device can stream their game right to the 5-inch display on the go. If the kids take over the living room, or your dad wants to watch Monday Night Football – simply leave the PS4 on and continue right where you left off with the Vita.

Just like NVIDIA’s recently announced Project SHIELD you’ll be able to enjoy beautiful HD games with stunning visuals being powered by the PS4, but streamed to your VITA. We have a feeling we’ll be hearing much more on this, and hopefully Sony will also be integrating Remote Play with their wide array of Xperia Android-powered smartphones. The image above certainly hints to tablet support, although then that would skip over the possibility of selling more Vita units. We’re unsure how many titles will initially be supported, but they claim to eventually offer all PS4 games with Remote Play. Stay tuned for more details as they all come available.

First off, Sony wanted their user interface to be simple. For instance, they want powerful functionality to be just a button press away. On the PlayStation 4, Sony has said they decreased the lag time needed between the content wanted and the gamers themselves. Sleeping and powering up the console is also another thing they wanted to be simple. You can easily sleep the console with the controller, and wake it up with the controller as well, from where you can continue where you left off in a game right away. This also fits in with their “Immediate” key principle.

The social aspect of the PlayStation 4 UI involves a lot more sharing features. Users will be able to quickly and easily share 10 seconds of video, as well as trim it and upload it for sharing to friends. Gamers can also live-stream their gameplay, and friends can take over for you if you need help with a certain level in a game. The social aspect will also be “highly integrated,” and users will be able to use mobile apps to stay connected.

Finally, personalization is the last key principle that Sony is focusing on in their user interface. the PS4 will get to know you in a way, and will keep track of your likes and dislikes and will learn your habits to personalize the console. The PS4 will automatically download content that it knows you’ll like. Essentially, the PS4 wants to decrease the amount of time needed to download a game, meaning that PS4 will download games for you before you even think about it.

This game is just one of many we’re seeing today, with the PlayStation 4 showing off that the system is able to take games and push them into the future with next-level finesse. Shown in the user interface demonstration of the PlayStation 4, Knack has been shown as a fully interactive game that can be seen by users across the web. You’ll be able to stream your game for your friends to see at any time over the web, they being able to take control of your character from their own PS4 if you get in a tough spot.

With connectivity over the next-generation PlayStation Network you’ll be able to work with your friends on your Knack game with great ease. This game appears at first to be a one-player game, but opens a window into the future where even one character can become the avatar of multiple users.

All of this is made possible through Sony’s connection with Gaikai – more on that soon! Stay tuned to SlashGear to see more PlayStation 4 throughout the day and the week as this big, giant, massive release allows Sony to bust forth into the future – it’s finally here!

Sony hasn’t unveiled what the console looks like just yet, but they at least showed off the logo, as seen above. The company is looking to move forward with the way the gamers play games, and they’re looking forward to changing the way gamers interact with the gaming console and accessing games. Sony says that the PS4 will have 8GB of GDDR5 RAM and an 8-core x86 processor.

While Sony hasn’t shown off the look of the new console, they unveiled the DualShock 4 controller, which is right on with the few rumors that we’ve heard about just recently. It has the small touchpad that we’ve seen, and the overall shape is very reminiscent of past DualShock controllers.

The company is wanting to make it easy for gamers to access everything that Sony offers, including content available on the PlayStation network. Sony is on stage talking about how they’re changing the way they deliver content to gamers in the living room. It seems they’re going to take their sweet time, though, saying that “over the next few hours” they’ll be talking about the new console.

Continuing to speak about expansions of “The Future of Play” and ease of access with products like the PS Vita, House made it clear that the gamer was the center of this universe. For those of you wondering what the PlayStation 4 could be anyway, have a peek at the timeline provided below, one we whipped up earlier today in anticipation of this event.

Also note that House stands in front of a screen that’s shaped like a rectangle, leading forums to explode this evening with talk of a PlayStation Tablet. This can be substantiated by the PlayStation EyePad note from earlier this week as well. PlayStation is about to expand in one way or another – you’ll have to keep up with the SlashGear main news feed to check it out!

PlayStation 4: a whole new machine

The next-generation console from Sony is being tipped to be a lot of different things, so before you jump in here, know this: the lot of these tips are rumors. Unless it’s written here specifically that we’ve got confirmation of anything, you’ll want to follow the link back to the post where we first encounter each bit of information. Take everything here with a salt block. Also remember that Sony has promised commitment to the PlayStation 3 through the year 2015.

With Microsoft’s own Xbox 720 hot on its heels, Sony will likely set a release date for sometime inside November. There you’ll find a remote control for TV-related content and a new set of wireless controllers as well. You can also expect pricing on the PlayStation 3 to be slashed almost immediately after the announcement of the PlayStation 4 as well as surprisingly low prices coming with the PS4 itself.

Concept PS4 via Yanko Design (designer: Joseph Dumary)

We’ve seen more than one PlayStation 4 controller leak with a rather similar-looking overall body to the classic PlayStation controller design. The big differences will be in touchpad controls not unlike what we’re using currently on the PS Vita which, also, has seen some price slashes as of late. This touchpad tip has come more than once.

Transparent PlayStation 4 concept via Tia Chiem

Also take note that the PlayStation 2 is now no longer being manufactured. The code-name for the PlayStation 4 has been tipped as “Orbis” several times over the past few months and has been suggested to be working with an AMD processor. We’ve also seen a rather unbelievable tip for a Sony PlayStation EyePad for 3D control of the PlayStation 4 – not to mention the Dual-Shock/Move hybrid that, once you see, you’ll never be able to un-see.

Software Features

You’ll be seeing some backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 4 that’s entirely virtualized. In this case that means that you’ll be able to play PlayStation 3 games and legacy games galore, but they’ll all be downloaded from the cloud in one way or another. You can expect Gaikai technology to be in full effect for streaming content as Sony picked them up last year. PlayStation Home Arcade should give you some more clues on this futuristic universe – sort of like a microcosm.

The Sony Entertainment Network Online Store has been ramping up with games, movies, and more and will certainly be re-addressed at the event tonight. The PayPal bump for the PlayStation Store earlier this year also points toward larger anywhere-purchase strategies for Sony. There’s also a rumor of a Sony online TV service launching soon.

The one-owner-only rumor for games on the PlayStation 4 rages on – that one’s still a toss-up, mind you – see the discussion on this in the “Opinions” section below.

Games

You will be seeing Destiny on the PlayStation 4 after it hits the PlayStation 3. That’s all but confirmed by everyone and their mother now that a legal document was made public surrounding a case that involved Destiny content and the companies that will work with it. Have a peek at this Destiny trailer and freak out about it!

One game you can expect will not be optimized for PlayStation 4 is Grand Theft Auto V – its creators have specifically addressed the idea that they’re waiting for the PS4 release and have said no way! You can expect The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt though in all its REDengine3 glory.

Opinions

We’ve got a few opinions you should have a peek at before continuing on to the real deal as well, starting with Why Motion Gaming Should Be Left Out of the PlayStation 4 and continuing on with Why the Used Game Model Needs Fixing (But Not Banning). You should also read the column called PlayStation 4: What Sony Must Do for some pre-event anticipatory action and discussion – the chat rages on!

Event Time

The event starts at 6PM Eastern Time – that’s New York City time, if you did not know. If you’re living in Minnesota like your humble narrator, you’ll be tuning in at 5PM (CST), and if you’re in England, you’ll be tuning in at 11PM. Over in California you’ll be seeing this event at 3PM (PST). We’ll have the whole lot of announcements ready to rock as they pop up straight from Sony right here on SlashGear – don’t miss it!

The console will also support local network play, for those with a PS Vita, but it’s the remote smartphone support that could be most interesting. According to the source – who apparently previously leaked the codenames for the new Sony and Microsoft consoles – the PS4 will hook up to your smartphone or tablet, and then support remote chat with friends and purchases of new games and content, which will be downloaded straight to the console.

Those downloads will be from the PlayStation World, the newly-branded online counterpart to the PS4 hardware, and the replacement for PlayStation Plus. In fact, “most” of the PS4′s online features will demand a subscription, the insider claims, much as Microsoft demands today with Xbox LIVE.

Elsewhere, there’s believed to be a “spectating” system built into PlayStation World, that will allow owners to remotely watch their friends gameplay, without taking part in the game itself. Official pricing for the console is expected to be confirmed later in 2013, potentially at the mid-year E3 expo.

Speculation about the PlayStation 4 has been rife in recent weeks, with talk of virtualized back-catalog support and Gaikai-powered streaming gaming. There have also been several controller leaks – including the new image above – which have tipped a touchpad section for more precise control in certain titles, as well as for navigating menus.

We’ll know more later today, when Sony kicks things off in New York City. SlashGear will be there to bring you all the details.

US pricing isn’t suggested by the newspaper, but a similarly trimmer cost is likely to follow. At its release, the PS3 was priced at $499 for the entry-level, 20GB model, which if the UK price whispers are true suggests a starting point more along the lines of $399.

That would leave the PS4 still more expensive than the Wii U, the only other next-gen console on the market today, though with what are tipped to be considerably more impressive specifications. The device – believed to be codenamed “Orbis” internally – is expected to be more powerful and more graphically capable than its Nintendo counterpart, with recent leaks suggesting Sony will include Gaikai-powered game streaming.

Arguably, the days when Sony could charge what it liked for a new PlayStation are behind it. Although the console was praised at launch, the Xbox 360 has comprehensively clung to the top sales spot for months on end, and Sony’s financial results in gaming have been left hurting as a result.

Meanwhile, more casual gaming systems, such as Kickstarter success OUYA, have opened the door to more affordable consoles, borrowing mainstream chips more commonly found in smartphones and tablets to keep prices low. Sony is expected to detail the PlayStation 4 more thoroughly at an event in New York on Wednesday.

[Image via GameTrailers]