PS4 presentation: Confirmed leaks and what can we expect for E3 2013

Sony presented its new machine, Playstation 4. We couldn’t see the console and we will have to wait until the next event to unveil that secret (final design wasn’t ready). Sony must divide their products to compete with Microsoft. Therefore, Could have Sony more unannounced games for PS4? Yes.

Presentation summary

First of all, I would like to dedicate some sentences to the PS4 specifications presented by Sony. In our Playstation 4 (Orbis) leak, we had written: RAM 4GB GDRR5. Sony has updated and improved these numbers. Developers were working with 4GB not 8GB, the devkit had 4GB. You could think that our documents (SDK) were old, but all our info about PS4 had less than one month and half. Speaking about the other specs (GPU, DCE), we were right (If I not mistake).

This upgrade has been a surprise for developers. Sony must have changed these specs between the second week of January and the second one of February. The Japanese brand didn’t report this upgrade to other developers, not all. This change has an implicit issue: The first wave of games haven’t been designed with the 8GB in mind.

They will be able to integrate the new quantity, nevertheless they are not going to be in time to redesign the tech part to take advantage of this extra 4GB. The real next-games will come in the second wave. Digital Foundry has written an article about this topic; please take your time to read it.

I am so pleased with the share functions on PS4, it seems really well integrated with the OS/Games interface. Our PS4 pad layout leak was right too. What do you think about this new DualShock? Would you suggest any changes?

Hardware:

We have published reports about different sections of the PS4’s hardware. I would like to update this article with all those works. Sony has manufactured a powerful machine and this time the architecture will allow developing without bottlenecks and other issues originate for the machine’s design.

PS4 hardware details: this article is a sum up of the system (hardware). Sony made only one modification; they changed the RAM amount one week before the PS4’s presentation. The retail model will have 8GB of RAM.

PS4 architecture: Evolution over the time. Everything has a beginning, PS4 had its one.

Playstation 4 (Orbis) GPU – compute, queues and pipelines.

DisplayScanOut Engine (DCE): a custom display and scanout block inside the GPU, PS4 secret sauce. Xbox One (Durango) has Move Engines and PS4 this system.

Dualshock 4 layout: new redesign keeping the spirit.

Orbis Dual Camera: PS eye in the firsts stages.

PS4 devkits roadmap: Design a new hardware is a hard task, this work uses to take years until you will be able to finish it. Sony worked in three different devkit for PS4, during that time, called Orbis.

Price & Retail launch

Price: Rumors estimated a price around 350€-400€. Less would be perfect, although 400€ seems reasonable.

Retail launch: Last months of 2013, perhaps October. Sony could distribute PS4 this year in Europe.

Distribution units: Droughts coming to PS4.

Games

Sony has got more bullets in the magazine. The company prepares more games for E3 2013. What ones?

Uncharted 4. Boat and storm.
Square-Enix. FF only for PS4. We are not sure about this game, Square could show the game in TGS.
The Last Guardian: PS4 development. Wait for more footage this E3, maybe the next TGS.
Gran Turismo 6. In works in an early stage. I guess they are still not going to show the game this year. They have DriveClub and they must promote it.