The Never Ending Sony Playstation 4 Press Announcement
Noah J Nelson on Wednesday, Feb. 20th
Update follows original post, after the jump.
I’m writing this as Sony’s Playstation 4 pres conference enters it’s 9th hour… okay, enters the middle of it’s second hour, but still.
For the past hour Sony has focused on games, including a very beautiful looking play-through demo of Killzone: Shadowfall… that no one on-line trusts as being real, since the debut of the last Playstation included a demo video of a Killzone game that turned out to be a target video and not actual gameplay. The mix of games has been interesting and exhaustive… emphasis on the exhaustive.
The most exciting announcements on the stage, from my perspective, was the debut of the PS4′s share and streaming capabilities. The controller features a “share” button that allows for uploading of gameplay videos. Best part: there is dedicated processing on the hardware to take care of up and downloads, so that gaming can continue uninterrupted.
Sony is also building in the ability to start playing a game before it has finished downloading, made a deal with USTREAM that will let people “mulitcast” their gaming sessions, have set up a system where friends can jump in and take over for gamers who are having trouble getting through a rough patch, and are laying the groundwork for an online store that will allow for game demos that stream using the technology Sony acquired from Gaikai.
The games haven’t blown me away– launch titles rarely do– but the hardware is positioned to support a really compelling social experience. Whether Sony will actually pull the services needed on that hardware is the question that a press conference can’t answer.
More tomorrow after I’ve mulled this over…
Update after the jump. (more…)
