PlayStation 4 Console Discussion

[Choze]

Final Fantasy Versus XIII reportedly renamed FFXV, is PS4 exclusive

Sony rumoured to be co-developing the game with Square Enix

 

I hope this is true. Things are always good when Sony have a hand in developing.

 

I am hoping this is true. Square seem to have completely missed the PS3. Might as well get a good start on the PS4.

 

FFXIV should also be on PS4 really.

[flameboy]

I am hoping this is true. Square seem to have completely missed the PS3. Might as well get a good start on the PS4.

 

FFXIV should also be on PS4 really.

 

That's only said because they are now letting the Final Fantasy franchise roam free rather than the exclusive Nintendo and Sony days. If you look they still developed and published a fair bit for PS3.

[Sheikah]

I am hoping this is true. Square seem to have completely missed the PS3. Might as well get a good start on the PS4.

 

FFXIV should also be on PS4 really.

 

Personally, I think FFXIV should be on the trash pile. :p

[Retro_Link]

Some more PS4 info/confirmations...

 

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/03/28/playstation-4-the-coolest-stuff-you-probably-didnt-know

 

PlayStation 4: The Coolest Stuff You Probably Didn’t Know

 

GDC reveals tantalizing tidbits about Sony’s next machine.

 

While there have been morsels of PlayStation 4 information doled out since the console’s coming out party, Sony really hasn’t had the chance to speak at length about the product since February. At least, not until today. Here in San Francisco, Sony Computer Entertainment America Senior Staff Engineer Chris Norton hosted a Game Developers Conference panel titled “Developing for the PS4.”

 

While a lot of the speech was heady technical stuff, there were some very interesting reveals. Here they are.

 

1. The PSN Friend Limit Is Increasing

 

Norton said at the beginning of the conference, “Core gamers are our primary audience.” PS4 is going to serve that group by increasing the number of PlayStation Network friends from the current cap of 100 to… well, Norton didn’t say. He just said it’ll be increased.

 

2. “A Very Large Hard Drive in Every Console.”

 

Again, Norton didn’t offer specifics as to what the exact size of PS4 hard drives would be, but he stated there will be “a very large hard drive in every console.” Food for thought.

 

3. Buttons: They Are a Changin’

 

Back on the PS3, the D-pad and the face buttons of the DualShock were analog – meaning that they could sense pressure and change input based on it. Norton said that developers didn’t use that option, however, and the DualShock 4 ditches analog and replaces them with digital buttons. The touchpad resolution on the controller is 1920x900, and the L2/R2 buttons are curved to help avoid accidental Netflix fast forwarding.

 

4. The PS4 Charges Controllers When It’s Sleeping

 

One of the biggest gripe about the PS3 is that when it’s in sleep mode, its USB ports are off. This means that you have to have the console on to charge controllers. With PS4, that will no longer be a problem. When it’s sleeping, the PS4 will charge DualShock 4s.

 

5. Headset in Every Box

 

The PlayStation Network is a quiet place right now. Why? Well, the PS3 didn’t bundle a mic with the console, so lots of players never grabbed one. The PS4 will put a headset in every box so that communication is easy.

 

6. “The PS4 Eye Will Enhance the PS4 User Experience.”

 

The PlayStation 4 Eye is well documented on IGN. Dual cameras, 1280x800 resolution, 12 bits/pixel, 60Hz, etc. However, it’s also going to have a dedicated port on the console with an exclusive SCE connector. This means two things: 1) The camera won’t eat up a USB port on the console. 2) The camera probably won’t work with other devices. No. 2 is what I, Greg Miller, think; Norton didn’t say that. However, Norton did list a bunch of potential uses: walkthrough videos, taunting in killcam, login, and speech recognition. Need more? Well, if you’re playing a split-screen game and switch places with your friend, the camera can read your controllers and flip the splitscreen so that you’re lined up better.

 

7. Your Real (PSN) Names

 

At the February debut, Sony showed the PlayStation 4 dialing into your social networks and then using your real name on the console. This, as predicted, is something you’ll need to enable. If enabled, when you import your friends from social networks, you’ll use your real name. You can decide which of your PlayStation only friends see your real name, too. If any.

 

8. Recording Is Mandatory

 

Norton spent a portion of his presentation making sure developers knew the PlayStation 4 does a lot of heavy lifting. Recording footage? Sharing content? That’s all on the console. The developers don’t have to put anything special in their code. It’s all built to do it on its own.

 

9. Remote Play Upgrades

 

Remote Play’s been around for a while, but it’s never been fantastic. With the PS4 and Vita, PlayStation’s looking to change that. When you connect via a local network or the Internet, the screens will be mirrored. That means unlike the PS3/Vita, one screen won’t be dead – they’ll both be showing the game. Plus, rather than have to enter into a separate mode, you can start Remote Play at any time on the PS4.

 

10. Colors > Numbers

 

The light bars on the DualShock 4 are going to identify players. We knew that. What you might not have known however, is that the color/player relationship is always the same. Player 1 will always be blue, Player 2 red, Player 3 green, and Player 4 pink. Plus, that light bar can be used to display muzzle flashes from your gun, health and so on.

[Daft]

Clear pic of the controller's triggers.

 

 

Edit: Moar.

 

IGN’s Greg Miller is on-hand for the event and has been live-tweeting tidbits from the presentation. We’ve gathered up what’s been shared below.

 

- Targeted to be the “central device in the living room”

- “Core gamers are our primary audience

- PS4 build around them, salable to the outsiders

- 5 core PS4 principles: Simple, Immediate, Social, Integrated, Personalized

- PS4 CPU: 64-bit x86 arch, low power consumption, low heat, 8 cores, 8 HW threads, 2MiB L2 cache per 4 core group, 32kib l1 I/D-cache

- PlayStation Shader Language, very similar to HLSL, allows featured BEYOND Direct X 11 and OpenGL 4.0

- “GPU – Tessellation – adding geometric detail to smooth edges or create more organic shapes”

- PS4 RAM – 8GB 256 bit GDDR5 (GDDR5 is very high end graphics memory only found on PC graphics cards)

- Will come with “very large hard drive in every console”

- PS4 Dev Environment – Windows 7-bit, tools are fully integrated into Visual Studio 2010 and 2012

- “Debug your PS4 code as you would your PC code”

- PS4 Controller: Start/Select buttons are now “Options.” New System button is “Share.”

- Speaker, headset hack and “extension port” on the PS4 controller

- PS4 controller buttons are going back to digital over analog because no one used it on PS3

- PS4 controller L2/R2 – Curved design to get rid of the accidental netflix fast forwarding

- PS4 controller: 1920×900 resolution on the analog touchpad

- PS4 controller colors are the Player Numbers: 1-Blue, 2-Red, 3-Green, 4-Pink (Like the buttons)

- PS4 will charge controllers when it’s off. Unlike the PS3.

- PS4 controller light bar can be used for muzzle flashes, health bars, etc

- “The #PS4 Eye will enhance the PS4 user experience.” High sensitivity dual color cameras – 1280×800, 12 bits/pixel, 60Hz

- Dedicated port for the #PS4 camera, exclusive SCE Connector. Means it won’t use a USB port on the console, but won’t plug into your PC.

- Cam suggested uses: walkthrough vids, taunting in killcam, login, speech recognition, etc; possible PS4 Camera Magic – Sees the controller, you guys move, splitscreen moves to be on the right side

- The above is what devs could do (not mandatory)

- Video example shown of PS4 combining the camera and the controller. “AR Menu”

- Zoom into the controller, tilt to shake little dudes inside, push into our world like EyePet

- 2004: XMB, 2011: LiveArea, 2013: New #PS4 one based on the five principles from earlier

- UI is meant to give you at a glance info without loading the game. See what new DLC is out and whatnot. What friends are saying.

- Have to enable people seeing your real name on the #PS4. Auto-enabled if you import from another social network. (Can be turned off)

- PSN friend limit raised

- PS4 Mock-up: Heavy Rain choice with the number of your friends that chose each option.

- All the PS4 streaming and sharing: that’s on the hardware. Devs don’t have to do anything special to their game.

- PS4 Remote Play: Screens are mirrored on PS4/Vita (Both on at same time). Hardware does it/not on devs. Start at any time; no special mode.

- Talking about the PlayStation App. Login, buy game, PS4 starts downloading at home, you get home and start playing the part that’s DWLD.

 

Edited March 28, 2013 by Daft

[Agent Gibbs]

so everyone (so far) is dropping analogue buttons? thats a little irritating, it can't have cost anything to keep the option (same criticism levered at WiiU triggers)

 

everything else though is awesome, remote play is the main reason i bought a vita, i want to play games on the ps4 like i can on wiiU, anywhere in my home

[Retro_Link]

so everyone (so far) is dropping analogue buttons? thats a little irritating, it can't have cost anything to keep the option (same criticism levered at WiiU triggers)

 

everything else though is awesome, remote play is the main reason i bought a vita, i want to play games on the ps4 like i can on wiiU, anywhere in my home

Analogue Face Buttons, not Analogue Triggers.

 

The PS3 was the only console to go with analogue face buttons anyway.

Edited March 28, 2013 by Retro_Link

[V. Amoleo]

Analogue Face Buttons, not Analogue Triggers.

 

The PS3 was the only console to go with analogue face buttons anyway.

 

I thought the PS3 dropped the analogue face buttons that the PS2 had.

 

Analogue triggers are awesome. Analogue face buttons are not. The PS2's required far too much force to be applied to achieve their maximum value.

[Cube]

I don't think I ever experienced the PS3's analogue face buttons.

 

splitscreen moves to be on the right side

 

That sounds so simple, yet amazing.

[Daft]

Uncharted used the analogue buttons for the jet bike section...that's all I've got. I won't miss them. They were a neat idea but practically not really worth much. Hopefully that'll save some money on the cost of the controller.

 

I like the vibe that the hardware will be taking care off all the extras like the Vita streaming and the recording, as well as the online infrastructure like the game choice stuff in Heavy Rain so devs can just focus on making the games.

[Agent Gibbs]

oh just the face buttons? well that okay then, i'm back to no complaints at all then

[Choze]

If true its a huge blow to gaming. The triggers better be good.

 

If you look they still developed and published a fair bit for PS3.

 

I cant recall anything outside of FFXIII and the Eidos stuff? As far as many are concerned they missed this generation.

 

Regarding the Nintendo consoles, I could care less. How is that shitty paid online game working for them on Wii?

[Retro_Link]

If true its a huge blow to gaming. The triggers better be good.

Again, they haven't got rid of the analogue triggers.

[gaggle64]

All very nice though I was hoping they'd leap at a new overall design, but I'll deal so long as they've ratcheted up the analogue sticks some.

[Retro_Link]

http://www.shopto.net/news/42340/Epic-CEO-thinks-the-PS4-is-like-the-worlds-best-PC

 

Epic CEO think's the PS4 is like "the world's best PC"

 

Epic CEO Mark Rein, speaking with UK games website, CVG, has mentioned his admiration for Sony's upcoming console, Playstation 4 and their plans for it.

 

"I think it's a very smart move on Sony's behalf to build this sort of enhanced PC architecture and then put so much in it, he said. "Let's not forget it has 16 times the memory we had in PlayStation 3, that's not insignificant. Knowing that every machine has that, we can do crazy, ridiculous stuff with that."

 

"The other exciting thing is that when you think about Windows, even Windows for most people is tied to about 2GB of addressable memory space. This really opens up beyond what most PCs can do, because most PCs are running a 32-bit version of Windows. It's like giving you the world's best PC."

 

Mark went on to say that he's really enjoying Sony's plans with the PS4 release and architecture: "The kind of stuff that they announced that they're doing, the level of convenience and things like that, they're making a really perfect gaming PC. said the Epic CEO.

 

"I've always said that the things in the next-generation that aren't just brute force hardware are all about the service and simplicity of the experience, the things that make it as fun and easy to get a PS4 game as it is to get a game on your iPad."

E3's only 2 months away now!

[Cube]

PS4 is the world's best PC?

 

Hahahahaha. No.

[Retro_Link]

PS4 is the world's best PC?

 

Hahahahaha. No.

 

Is like...

 

Still no, but you know what he means. It's just good to hear so much developer excitement for it.

[Cube]

Is like...

 

Still no, but you know what he means. It's just good to hear so much developer excitement for it.

 

I was mainly referencing that this is something said by the CEO of Epic.

[Daft]

Double Fine experimenting with PS4 following Sony approach - "Tim Schafer says platform holder asked his studio what it wanted from the console."

 

It's awesome to hear Sony being so proactive about getting devs onboard. Especially a dev as awesome as Double Fine.

[Cube]

It's also a nice thought as to how many studios they contacted about what they wanted from the PS4, considering Double Fine are a fairly small company.

 

Also, I didn't realise some of this stuff:

 

Just doing things like letting us patch our games when we want to, put our games on sale and release our games in territories that they should be released in - just doing a few things like that can make a developer very enamoured of you.

 

So the publishers can patch at will, put the games on sale themselves and select where it gets released.

[Happenstance]

They really do seem to be putting in the effort to win developers over ready for the next generation, its nice to see as someone who's main console will likely be the PS4.

[Daft]

Ubisoft Montreal has called the PlayStation 4 "a really pleasant surprise" thanks to a "radical change" of hardware strategy from Sony Computer Entertainment.

 

"I'll tell you an anecdote: When I was the producer on Prince of Persia: Sands of Time we managed to get our hands on a very good programmer who's still on the Assassin's Creed core team.

 

"One day on his desk he had a black book all written in Japanese, and I was like, 'what is that?' It was the documentation support for coding for PS2. 'That's why I wanted to have Japanese lessons,' he said - to understand and make the most out of the machine.

 

"That day I understood how complex it was to develop on PlayStation 2. So we were eager to find out what the PlayStation 3 would be in terms of architecture, and it was pretty much the same but more complex."

 

Mallet said the PS4 architecture vindicates Ubisoft's decision to start developing its next-gen games, such as Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, early on high-end PCs.

 

"PlayStation 4 really comes as a pleasant surprise because indeed it's a very familiar architecture," he said.

[Choze]

Well it is a pc with some changes basically. With unified RAM, no cache etc. Big difference from the PS3 and PS2.

 

I want to hear more about the background stuff and how the UI will work? Will it be open HDD like with the PS3? The controllers use standard micro USB ports which is great news.

 

Media playback will be somewhat interesting. MS make alot of noise about entertainment etc. but are still well behind the PS3 for media.

 

Need another event.

[Hero-of-Time]

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has announced that the very first PlayStation 4 TV advertisement will run during the upcoming Champions League final in May. The UEFA Champions League is currently underway and the final will be played at Wembley in London on May 25, 2013.

 

Recently, Sony and UEFA extended the Champions League sponsor deal to 2015. With the extension, Sony announced that they will only advertise the PlayStation brand during Champions League.

 

Sony has a history of promoting the PlayStation brand during the Champions League, dating back to the late 1990s with the PS1. Sony even advertised the February 20 PlayStation 4 unveiling during a Champions League match a few days prior.

 

It’s unknown if the TV ads will be simple “Sponsored by PlayStation 4″ bits, or whether Sony has a full blown 30-second or 60-second PlayStation 4 TV spot to showcase the new console.

 

The Champions League final is one of the most watched TV events in Europe every year, and it’s a perfect opportunity for Sony to start raising awareness about the PlayStation 4 to the casual gamer.

 

Sony’s deal as the official sponsor with UEFA is worth $40 million. The PlayStation 4 is expected to launch this Fall across the globe, with a reported $100 milling advertising budget in the US alone.

 

2013 release confirmed for Europe? Hopefully.

[Daft]

A 2013 release for Europe would be wonderful and hopefully this is a hint toward that.

 

Kind of weird thinking the PS4 might be out within a year of the Wii U's launch.