Introducing The PS4

 

The day was Febuary 20^th 2013 and Sony had something to annouce, but was being very coy about something they had up their sleeve.  Sony invited a large group of people, mainly games journalist and tech websites to a large venue located in New York City. Many people were speculating and dropping many different hints of what could happen at this event, but the overall feeling was that Sony would drop the ultimate secret, the Sony PlayStation 4. The event started and it was quickly realized that the PS4 was what this event was going to be all about.

“PlayStation 4 uses an eight-core x86 processor, 8 GB of RAM and a GPU similar to Those Typically found in PCs. While Sony did not go into great detail about the components, we do Know That Will Be the console based around an AMD processor Jaguar.” (Pionneau)

What makes this information so important to you and me? Well in the large scheme of life it actually doesn’t matter that much, but in the tech world this large deal of information made so many people happy. The internal parts of the PS4 have allowed the future of gaming to go in so many different directions that no other gaming consoles have gone before. During the announcement of the PS4, Sony spent a large amount of time explaining that the PS4 will allow developers a newer and easier way to make games for this system. Due to the fact the processors that are in the main core of the system are similar to a PC. The reason this is important and sparked my interest is because most games or other software almost 100% of the time begins its life on a computer before ever coming to Xbox or PlayStation. This means developers will feel more comfortable with PS4 and in turn we will see more games.

In the end, the announcement of the PS4 had many other aspects that could be highlighted, from the announcement of social interaction (YouTube) while playing PS4, to the grand reveal of the new Dual-Shock 4 controller. But I feel the number one thing to be excited about is the cadence that Sony PlayStation has set. They have gone out of their way to prove that the PlayStation brand is about one thing and one thing only, this new system has been built for “Gamers”.

 

 Pionneau, Fabien . “Sony Unveils PlayStation 4.” Digital Versus. (2013): n. page. Print. <http://www.digitalversus.com/games-console/playstation-4-p13054/sony-unveils-playstation-4-dualshock-4-playstation-cloud-n28397.html&gt;.

 

 

 

PlayStation Problems

With every big company there is going to be thee occasional hiccup and when you are an arm of a large company like PlayStation is to Sony, hiccups tend to happen quite frequently. But it’s not how many problems or errors you have with your company, it’s what you do to fix that problem and show your consumer that you have the situation under control.  This is where Sony PlayStation has stumbled in the past couple years with the announcement of PlayStation Store getting hacked and the sad down fall of the PlayStation Move.

“Sony has warned PS3 owners with PlayStation Network accounts that there has been “a possibility of unauthorized access to personal information on the PLAYSTATION Store through PCs, a content download service of the PLAYSTATION Network.” In other words, some folks hacked the PC PlayStation Store and may have had access to users’ account information.” (Roper)

Always being connected and having social interaction has become one of the most important things in the gaming industry. So when the PlayStation Store was hacked in 2008 PlayStation had quite a mess on their hands and really hadn’t a clue of what to do. All while the Xbox and Xbox Live flourished and began to leave PS3 in the dust.  

“As we reported earlier this week, Sony revealed PlayStation Move’s sales figures at a Move-centric GDC panel. Move has shipped 10.5 million units so far, which seemed to please Sony’s Gabe Ahn during his discussion.” (Moriarty)

Now 10.5 Million units of the PlayStation Move may seem like a large number to you and me, but from how many PS3 units have been sold in the wild it comes out to be a colossal failure. With the popularity of the Nintendo Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 tried very hard to jump on the bandwagon with move like features with their systems, but could never meet the popularity.

In the end, PlayStation over the past couple of years has had some failures that have made the company look at what they do in many different lights. So much so, that they have made some extremely large strides in their online services and move integration. Sony PlayStation as implemented services such as PlayStation Plus where users pay a one-time fee or monthly subscription to gain access to some of the most popular games and movies at a discount. And as for the PlayStation Move the company has listened to its hardcore fan base and started to focus on just gameplay experiences that use the Dual-Shock controller, but still gives the second option to use the Move. Sony PlayStation is an intelligent company and will continue to have issues, but from the looks of it can always seem to find nice solutions to their problems.

 

Work Cited:                                                         

Moriarty, Colin. “PlayStation Move Development Successes, Failures.” IGN Entertainment. 3 3 2012: n. page. Print. <http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/09/playstation-move-development-successes-failures&gt;.

Roper, Chris. “PlayStation Networked Hacked.” IGN Entertainment . 28 3 2008: n. page. Print. <http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/03/28/playstation-networked-hacked&gt;.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/03/28/playstation-networked-hacked

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/09/playstation-move-development-successes-failures

 

What is Sony PlayStation?

The PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Portable PlayStation Player (PSP) and lastly the PlayStation Vita (Vita), these are all of the products that SCE have created since the birth of the PlayStation brand in 1994. To date, one of the greatest selling gaming systems of all time is the PlayStation 2 which was released in November of 2000 and has sold over 50 million units.

“Long before there was such a thing as affordable CD-ROM gaming or 3D polygonal graphics, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) set the not-too-humble goal of creating a gaming platform that would become as pervasive as the VCR and change the industry forever.” (Sony PlayStation)

In 2006, Sony felt it was time to unveil their newest system the PlayStation 3. But to many peoples surprise the console came out of the gates stumbling. Many people had already made the switch to the Xbox 360 which had come out one year earlier and also the price point of the PS3 scared a large number of people away. With the PS3 being sold at an absurd price point of 599 U.S dollars, a large number of the PlayStations loyal fan base had begun to jump ship. Sony might have stumbled a little from the start of this generation, but as of this last year the PlayStation 3 has made a strong comeback and has surpassed Xbox 360 in global sells.

Sony finds itself in a great position as of February 20^th 2013. They have announced the PS4 and an array of new games, which is rumored to be released in the fall of 2013. Why are they in such a great position? I feel they are in the best position in years because they have publicly come out and made it known that the PlayStation Brand is about one thing and one thing only Gamers. They have also captured a large majority of the mind-share in the gaming world by announcing their new console, before Microsoft has had a chance to counter with the rumored Xbox 720. It’s going to be an interesting and exciting to see what other tricks Sony has to unveil in the next couple of years.

“PlayStation Story.” Sony PlayStation. (2013): n. page. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. <http://us.playstation.com/corporate/about/theplaystationstory/&gt;.