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Sony unveils PlayStation 4, with a promise to take gaming out of the living room

Sony announced PlayStation 4 on Wednesday afternoon, saying they’ve gone beyond the box. Essentially, the developers are taking gaming out of the living room and making it mobile. You can now be connected to your PlayStation 4 console by your phone or tablet and you can move your game playing from console to the PlayStation Vita seamlessly.

At the press conference they touted the new controller, the DualShock4, which has a camera to track it, a touch pad and a share button—allowing gamers to instantly share video of what they’re playing, sending out instant replays and or highlight reels to friends.

The gamers’ community has become more alive and important in Sony’s new view of gaming—now viewing others games, sharing your own and even the ability to hand over the control to someone else online has been simplified.

And in a welcome move Sony is moving towards putting “PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS mobile games on any device. Imagine having access to all the games you love and getting them to run in seconds.”

There was no shortage of live press coverage of the event, available here, here and here—not to mention scores of tech blogs.

While Sony has not announced it yet, sources say two different PlayStation 4 models will be released in November, for US$429 and one for $529.

The move is seen as a preemptive strike against Microsoft, which is expected to release a new version of its Xbox gaming system this year, reports Reuters.

Sony’s North American game console sales lag behind both the leading Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft XBox.

 

The lack of details prior to the event meant tech writers have been coming up with their own wish lists for the new system.

Forbes contributor Paul Tassi says that gamers, and journalists, will be looking for five things from the new gaming console: power, controller, games, PSN (PlayStation Network, which Sony currently offers for free) and the price.

And, at PCmag.com, Will Greenwald has his own gaming wish-list. He hopes the new system will include: more power, more and faster storage, streaming games, a new interface, a touch-screen controller, the ability to play and download older PlayStation 3 games.

The Telegraph‘s Matt Warman predicts the new system may be aimed more at family entertainment (like the Wii) and will allow users to download online videos (like the Xbox).

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