Hi everyone,
Welcome to our live blog. Peter Nowak is on the ground in New York and will be posting here shortly.
Hi everybody, greetings from New York. It's a packed house here at the Hammerstein Ballroom. About 1,200 people are here, most of which are journalists. What are we here for? Could it be... PlayStation 4?
Good question. The video game market has become incredibly fragmented since the PS3 came out. Mobile games (smartphones and tablets) as well as free-to-play and MMO PC games have really gained steam. There are also some new competitors waiting in the wings: Steambox, Ouya, possibly even Apple. It's a time of flux for Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.
On the other hand, there's still nothing quite sinking into your couch and enjoying the immersive, big-budget games that consoles do well.
It would be a real hoot if this was just a big press conference for Uncharted 4.
We're just about to start...
And we're off... cue dramatic music.
"Playstation wants to win the war against reality" says the intro video.
I hope that means the PS4 will clean my toilet...
Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House takes the stage. Today marks a bold new step, he says.
Sony is meeting the need for mobility with Vita, he says.
"Success relies on reconceptualizing how gamers want to play... demands for a new platform were clear."
Adaptive and social, these are the bases of the next-generation PlayStation 4.
Whew, we are here for PS4. They had me worried this was a Vita-fest for a second...
"We must give gamers the kinds of multidimensional experiences they expect and deserve."
He just said they'll be talking about this "over the next couple of hours." Oh man, we might be here a while.
Talking about something for a long time also probably means we won't actually be touching anything.
Lead system architect Mark Cerny is talking about how he came on to the PS4 project five years ago. That's when they started thinking about it from the ground up.
Here's some spec porn on the PS4: Supercharged PC architecture, X86 CPU, enhanced PC GPU, 8GB unified memory. And a hard drive! Woohoo!
The light on the front isn't just cosmetic. It's got a light-sensor that connects to the main console. He's explaining why this is important now
PS4 has eight core processor. That's octo-power, which makes it easier for game developers to flip between console and PC.
PS4's processing power is "an exponential leap" over its predecessor.
This also means immediacy - hit the power button and the console enters a low power state. The new console will boot in seconds.
I'm really looking forward to that. Call me spoiled, but I really, really hate how bloated startup has become on current consoles. You might as well play on PC.
Cerny is also directing Knack, a cartoonish adventure game where players control the eponymous robot-like creature who battles goblins. The game looks kind of like a Pixar movie.
It's going to incorporate existing social networks, real names and pictures. I'd like to hear more about this - does that mean no more raft of online insults from anonymous 8-year-olds?
"Our long-term goal is to reduce your download time to zero." The system will learn about you and have the games you want ready to go.
David Perry of Gaikai is up next. This'll be interesting: what does Sony have planned for cloud gaming?
"I spend almost all of my life playing and creating video games." Tough life.
They're creating the "fastest, most powerful network for gaming in the world."
All games will have free playable online demos.
Cool: you can broadcast your game to your friends. Because there is nothing more interesting than watching your friends play video games.
"Our goal is to create the first social gaming network with meaning." Take that Microsoft and Nintendo.
This is actually cool: you can actually cede control of your game to a friend watching it online. That's good if you're stuck on a certain part.
This broadcasting of games thing is going to be big for celebrities. Want to watch Kanye play Call of Duty? Now you can!
A long-term goal is to make every PS4 game playable on the Vita.
