PlayStation 4: The Coolest Stuff You Probably Didn’t Know

GDC reveals tantalizing tidbits about Sony’s next machine.

While there have been morsels of PlayStation 4 information doled out since the console’s coming out party, Sony really hasn’t had the chance to speak at length about the product since February. At least, not until today. Here in San Francisco, Sony Computer Entertainment America Senior Staff Engineer Chris Norton hosted a Game Developers Conference panel titled “Developing for the PS4.”
While a lot of the speech was heady technical stuff, there were some very interesting reveals. Here they are.

 

1

The PSN Friend Limit Is Increasing

Norton said at the beginning of the conference, “Core gamers are our primary audience.” PS4 is going to serve that group by increasing the number of PlayStation Network friends from the current cap of 100 to… well, Norton didn’t say. He just said it’ll be increased.

 

2

“A Very Large Hard Drive in Every Console.”

Again, Norton didn’t offer specifics as to what the exact size of PS4 hard drives would be, but he stated there will be “a very large hard drive in every console.” Food for thought.

 

3

Buttons: They Are a Changin’

Back on the PS3, the D-pad and the face buttons of the DualShock were analog – meaning that they could sense pressure and change input based on it. Norton said that developers didn’t use that option, however, and the DualShock 4 ditches analog and replaces them with digital buttons. The touchpad resolution on the controller is 1920x900, and the L2/R2 buttons are curved to help avoid accidental Netflix fast forwarding.

 

4

The PS4 Charges Controllers When It’s Sleeping

One of the biggest gripe about the PS3 is that when it’s in sleep mode, its USB ports are off. This means that you have to have the console on to charge controllers. With PS4, that will no longer be a problem. When it’s sleeping, the PS4 will charge DualShock 4s.

 

5

Headset in Every Box

The PlayStation Network is a quiet place right now. Why? Well, the PS3 didn’t bundle a mic with the console, so lots of players never grabbed one. The PS4 will put a headset in every box so that communication is easy.

 

6

“The PS4 Eye Will Enhance the PS4 User Experience.”

The PlayStation 4 Eye is well documented on IGN. Dual cameras, 1280x800 resolution, 12 bits/pixel, 60Hz, etc. However, it’s also going to have a dedicated port on the console with an exclusive SCE connector. This means two things: 1) The camera won’t eat up a USB port on the console. 2) The camera probably won’t work with other devices. No. 2 is what I, Greg Miller, think; Norton didn’t say that. However, Norton did list a bunch of potential uses: walkthrough videos, taunting in killcam, login, and speech recognition. Need more? Well, if you’re playing a split-screen game and switch places with your friend, the camera can read your controllers and flip the splitscreen so that you’re lined up better.

 

7

Your Real (PSN) Names

At the February debut, Sony showed the PlayStation 4 dialing into your social networks and then using your real name on the console. This, as predicted, is something you’ll need to enable. If enabled, when you import your friends from social networks, you’ll use your real name. You can decide which of your PlayStation only friends see your real name, too. If any.

 

8

Recording Is Mandatory

Norton spent a portion of his presentation making sure developers knew the PlayStation 4 does a lot of heavy lifting. Recording footage? Sharing content? That’s all on the console. The developers don’t have to put anything special in their code. It’s all built to do it on its own.

 

9

Remote Play Upgrades

Remote Play’s been around for a while, but it’s never been fantastic. With the PS4 and Vita, PlayStation’s looking to change that. When you connect via a local network or the Internet, the screens will be mirrored. That means unlike the PS3/Vita, one screen won’t be dead – they’ll both be showing the game. Plus, rather than have to enter into a separate mode, you can start Remote Play at any time on the PS4.

 

10

Colors > Numbers

The light bars on the DualShock 4 are going to identify players. We knew that. What you might not have known however, is that the color/player relationship is always the same. Player 1 will always be blue, Player 2 red, Player 3 green, and Player 4 pink. Plus, that light bar can be used to display muzzle flashes from your gun, health and so on.