21 Feb 2013
The Japanese electronics giant said its PlayStation 4, announced at an invitation-only event in New York on Wednesday, is designed to take advantage of new technologies for customers to play games and responds to the burgeoning popularity of smartphones and tablets in gaming.
Sony, while demonstrating the underlying hardware, didn't actually show the coming console, disclose its pricing or precisely when it will go on sale, though the company said it will be ready for the 2013 holiday season.
Sony announced its PlayStation 4 at an event in New York Wednesday without ever showing the new console. MarketWatch's Dan Gallagher reports. (Photo: Getty Images)
The company did show off a new controller designed with an integrated touchpad and new button dedicated to sharing game information; it also displayed an upgraded motion-control camera product.
Sony, as expected, said it integrated a new technology called streaming or cloud gaming, which will allow customers to remotely play games being run on servers over the Web.
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The company also said it developed a new social-networking service that allows customers to upload gameplay footage to the Internet, as well as watch others as they play. The service will connect to existing social networks, Sony said, as well as to mobile devices that will tap into many of the features offered on the PlayStation 4.
"The consumer is changing us," said Andrew House, head of Sony's PlayStation division. "The living room is no longer the center of the PlayStation ecosystem; the gamer is."
The PlayStation 4 comes as the videogame industry has been grappling with dramatic shifts in consumer behavior. Since the last PlayStation was launched in 2006, mobile devices such as Apple Inc.'s AAPL -2.48% iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy Tab have become go-to machines for a new swath of casual games that are either free or cost a few dollars.
"Since the launch of PlayStation 3, we've seen a proliferation of the number and types of devices people own," said Mark Cerny, one of Sony's head developers of the new console.
As a result, sales of new games, consoles and accessories in U.S. retail stores have contracted every month for more than a year, according to market researcher NPD Group. Rival Microsoft Corp., also reacting to the slowdown, is also expected to update its Xbox console this year.
Under the hood, Sony's new device runs on chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.,AMD -4.44% which includes eight PC-style processors along with powerful graphics circuitry. In the prior device, Sony used a specialized chip that it developed along withInternational Business Machines Corp. IBM -0.51% and Toshiba Corp.6502.TO -1.90% The hardware shift is designed to make it easier for programmers to develop games for the device, Sony said.
Analysts have said the shift to such hardware will help cut down on the cost to build the device. The PlayStation 3 was criticized for its high retail price, which came in part because of the cost of the specialized chips that ran it. Mr. House in an interview declined to comment about the profitability of the machine, but did say the new PlayStation will have "a much more robust economic model behind it."
The new hardware won't support games made for the existing PlayStation 3, however. Instead, Sony said, it is exploring using its streaming technology to allow gamers to play PlayStation 3 titles on the new device.
But the PlayStation 4's streaming technology, a marquee feature of the new device, also will allow customers to try titles before they buy them and quickly begin playing a game after only a small segment of its data has been downloaded. The company said it has also created new connections between the PlayStation 4 and its handheld videogame console, the PlayStation Vita, allowing customers to play games running on the PlayStation 4 on the mobile device.
Numerous game developers, including Activision Blizzard Inc. ATVI -2.74% andCapcom Co., 9697.TO -0.82% showed off flashy games they had been developing for the device while also touting Sony's commitment to making game development easier.
Yves Guillemot, chief executive of Ubisoft Entertainment SA, UBI.FR -2.28% said the technology in Sony's PlayStation 4 will make for ultrarealistic, immersive titles. "Next-generation games blur the lines between real and virtual worlds more than ever before," he said
