Playstation 4 – Prices and Details!

For those people unlucky enough to be in the UK at the time of E3, we had to stay up until 2am to wait for the Sony press event to start. Let me tell you it felt like an eternity. Sonys conference lasted roughly 2 hours (same as Microsoft) but it did feel alot longer. I won’t cover everything they covered in those 2 hours though, I will just cover the console information they decided to share with us.

Entertainment

They started off to be what looked like a bad path, music, TV and movies. All the things that people have slated Microsoft over the years was heading to Playstation 4. With most of their movies and music coming from the ‘Movies Unlimited’, ‘Music unlimited’ and ‘Redbox’. This though was only lightly touched upon. Sony must have took notice of the bashing Microsoft took back in May when they spent a good hour or so just purely going on about the TV abilities. Sony spent roughly 10 minutes on this and then moved back onto the games.

The Console

Of course, one of the biggest things that Sony left out of it’s presentation back in February was the actual showing of the console itself. We managed to get a quick glimpse of the brand new dual shock controller but that was all. We also got a teaser trailer video a couple of months later showing us some close up and blurred vents of the console. Well tonight was the night we all finally got to see it.

Personally, I wasn’t too impressed with the look as I thought it looked just like the Xbox 1, but thinner and slanted. However, the more I tend to stare at the console the more I do grow on it. Similar how I did with X1. I still don’t like the controller though. The way that the screen is plonked in the middle of the pad like that just unnerves me. Unfortunaltey we never got a decent look at the back of the console to see what style of connections are available for us to use. I’d assume of course that it has the typical HDMI and ethernet ports, but there was no mention of USB slots, audio ports or anything. So this is another (slight) question that Sony will have to address further down the line. Another quick mention was the PS4 was finally getting the cross game party chat that is so loved about the Xbox 360. This means that even if you are playing a different game to your friends, you can still create a party and chat away to them. Trust me, it’s awesome.

The Used, The DRM and The Ugly

The big question on everyones mind. Since Microsoft confirmed that there is some sort of used game blockage and that you will be required to connect to the internet once every 24 hours, people were extremely nervous about this information. This next announcement could pretty much kill Microsoft and put Sony on top of the scoreboard. I think you could actually feel the tension in that room (if I was lucky enough to be there anyway, I was shaking just watching the stream!)

The way Sony presented this was like they knew it was their secret weapon, and to be honest, it was. Sony have now confirmed that Playstation 4 will not have any blockage on used games!! The room errupted with cheer and I think a slight ‘Sony’ chant even got going. So can you imagine when they stated that the Playstation 4 will not be required to be connected to the internet to function, you can trade games with friends without any issues. The place was so loud I had to turn my PC down! It was deafening!

They did a quick cover on how the PSN+ membership works as well, and I mean quick and I think I know why. They explained that the PSN+ membership is the same as it is currently on the Playstation 3 and will work between the PS3, Vita and the PS4 without any problems. They made a point of stating that the paid PSN+ will give you full access to multiplayer abilities, which I thought was strange. He then went on to mention that if you don’t have PSN+ then you still have full access to single player games and multimedia apps…see the problem? He stopped there. There was no mention of Multiplayer on the screen or by Sony. It seems like Sony have copied Microsoft with the paid to play online scheme.

 

The Cost

Now Sony are already blasting ahead with this now and the show is coming to an end. People are dying to hear a cost for this console. And he hit them with it. The Playstation 4 will cost:

• £349 (UK)
• $399 (US)
• 399 (Euros)

Yet again the place was alive with applause and cheers. It seems that Sony indeed came out with the biggest news and surprises of the day and blew any competition away. I do have both consoles on pre-order currently, but I can only afford one…now I have to make the choice of which I go for. Unfortunately they never mentioned a date to us all, just ‘Holiday 2013’. Although since Xbox One is due out in November, you can be sure that Playstation 4 won’t be far away from that.

How did E3 go for you guys? Did Sony win? Or are you still backing Microsoft? Let us know in the comments!