Yesterday and today have been exciting days for Sony fans, with rumors of the PlayStation 4 just seeping onto the internet like tasty video game molasses. The console was confirmed by a source of The Wall Street Journal this morning, and now Edge Online has information on the controller, specs, and release of the PS4.
According to Edge’s sources, the upcoming PlayStation 4 will be more powerful than the next Xbox console – and unlike the PlayStation 3, it won’t be hell for developers to work with.
PS4 specs
Sony may be packing 4Gb of GDDR5 RAM into their upcoming console, which is capable of moving up to 176Gb of data per second. This may seem like a low number, but the fact that the RAM is GDDR5 really goes a long way. Even so, they are considering upping it to 8Gb to compete with Microsoft’s upcoming console, which will reportedly have 8Gb of DDR3 RAM.
The previous report that Sony would be moving onto AMD also seems to be correct, as the PS4 will reportedly utilize an eight-core 1.6GHz AMD CPU. They will also be using AMD’s R10XX architecture this time around, along with a system-on-chip named ‘Liverpool’.
The specs look good, so what about the controller?
My, what a new controller you have..
Edge claims that the PlayStation 4’s controller will be the same size as the current DualShock design, but will have a touchpad in the center replacing the PS, Start, and Select buttons. Pretty neat, right?
The touchpad will have at least a feature to take screenshots and video to be saved or shared online. As it stands, this feature can record up to 15 minutes of playtime — and don’t worry, the touchpad is supposed to be as responsive as the one found on the back of the Vita.
This goes hand-in-hand with the previous leak’s report that Sony would be focusing more on player interaction with this console, no doubt aware that being social with your gaming is more of a “thing” than they have really encouraged with the XMB/PSN on the PS3.
When is the PS4 supposed to launch?
This last bit of information isn’t much of a surprise, considering the “PlayStation 2013” page and trailer, and the previous report on the console.
Edge’s sources says that the PlayStation 4 will see a Japanese and North American release later this year before Christmas; the European release is reportedly set for early 2014.
Did Sony really mean it when they said they would let Microsoft make the first move? Would it even be a good idea if they did, considering the Xbox 360’s head start last gen? Either they were bluffing and intend to throw the first punch, or they know something we don’t about Microsoft’s next console. No matter what, 2013 is going to be exciting!
