Sony didn’t exactly show us the actual PlayStation 4 console on stage this morning at their big event, but a press release reveals all of the PS4’s juicy specs. It will include an 8-core x86 CPU built by AMD named ‘Jaguar’ and a Radeon GPU with 18 “compute units” capable of 1.84 TFLOPS to smash those graphics. It packs 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, 802.11n WiFI, USB 3.0, HDMI, optical out, analog TV out and yes, it packs a Blu-ray drive.
Even after todays big conference and the press release, we are still left with a few major unanswered questions though:
When will the PS4 be released?
With no specific release dates given by Sony, they did say Christmas 2013. Expect to see more of the games and console details to arrive at E3 in June.
What versions will be released and how much will they cost?
EB Games has just put up a pre-order page on their website for the PS4 with a price tag of $899, a pure estimate of the price by them and nothing official from Sony. Recent rumours have tagged the price as being US$429 for the basic package and US$529 for the premium which would include storage variations between the two, but expect the Aussie tax to hit us a fair bit. I’d estimate at least $499 for the base package and $599 for the premium (if there is one).
What’s the damn thing going to look like!?
We saw everything today; we saw games, the new controller, new interface and even the new kinect-like peripheral for it but the one thing we didn’t see was the damn console! Hopefully these questions will be answered plus more at E3, so mark in your calendars June 11-13, as it’s going to prove a very exciting time for the video game world.
