PlayStation 4 event February 2013 News, Predictions and Rumours

Sony Playstation 4 event Preview, Predictions, Rumours and Release

Speculation over the new PlayStation console has been taking place for a while now and little over two weeks ago on January 31^st Sony released this short 44 second video via their official YouTube page.

The video shows a date, one week from now, of the 20^th February 2013 and on Sony’s official PlayStation website it also gives us a time of 18:00 EST/15:00 PST/ 23:00 GMT. The meeting will take place in New York and will be streamed online reports from Gamespot say; it is likely to be streamed on the official PlayStation site.

There hasn’t been an official announcement that the console will be announced at this event. A quote form the Telegraph website says that a spokesman said “We will be talking about the PlayStation business." This would by highly disappointing if the console wasn’t announced but with Sony’s latest instalment of the Vita announced at an event in Jan 2011 the chances of it being the next generation is very high I believe. The Wall Street Journal said that the new console will be announced at this event and that “Sony's device will be released later this year”.

I’m sure that if Sony’s new console is announced then it will be released later this year though other sources online say that the UK and Europe won’t see the release until Jan/Feb of next year. Sony’s PlayStation 2 launched for around $300 in 2000 with Sony’s next instalment coming six years later in 2006. The PlayStation 3 was deemed to be a bit of a failure when it launched due to the high price of $499 and very few anticipated games on release with the only exceptions being Resistance and Call of Duty 3. The price point of the PlayStation 4 is expected to be lower than the PlayStation 3 and could be sold for just over $400 (£300).

The new console is likely to have some more anticipated launch titles than its previous event. The Side Mission Blog on Gametrailers.com has found reports that the next Killzone game will be released this year and alongside the PlayStation 4’s launch window. The new GTA has recently been delayed to the 17^th September 2013 which could also hint when the release date for Sony’s new console will be as it’s likely that this game will be released for Sony’s Playstation 4 if it were to be launched this year. Other possible launch titles could be games such as the Last of Us but I’m sure these details will be announced at this year E3 event.

There have been rumours going round for months now of what capabilities the next generation PlayStation console will include. The new consoles is expected to have a new controller and reports say that the controller could include a touch pad similar to what is currently on the latest Vita. Other reports show that the new controller won’t be a Dual Shock controller in favour of something new; speculations have suggested that a touch screen could somewhere be integrated into the controller.  

The new console is likely to support 4k. Sony has a trend with new consoles; it pushed the DVD with the PlayStation 2, the Blu-ray with the PlayStation 3 and now 4k with its new console after unveiled a 40 inch set a CES that supports the format.

It is also likely that a new updated Move controller could be released at the same time with a new Eye camera as well. Reports on TechRadar say that the rumours that the new console will be powered by AMD hardware (a processor in the new Jaguar CPU) have been confirmed to be true. The website TechRadar goes on to say “The main benefit of a setup like this is that the console will be very power efficient, meaning less draw and quieter operation.” The graphics of Sony’s new machine isn’t likely to match or surpass some gaming PC’s but should be better than current console graphics. No one knows either whether the next console will have backwards compatibility (the ability to play PlayStation 3 and possibly 2 games).

There have also been many patents revealed by Sony including giving us little clues about the new console. The one above according to Gametrailers.com and Kotaku is about converting adverts into video games, though this isn't confirmed to be integrated into the PS4.

Nothing is certain and the majority of things are only rumours and speculation but one week today most of these answers will be revealed. My prediction is that the Japan and North American launch will be alongside the new GTA (along with many other exclusive titles) in September though this title could be further put back say one or two months.