The Sony PlayStation 4 premiere will be broadcast over the internet live from New York by Ustream , from 6pm EST on February 20. Sony has not officially said the PlayStation Meeting will be about the PlayStation 4, but the last time Sony held such an event in January 2011 they announced the future release of the PlayStation Vita.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , the PlayStation rumor roundup has the PS4 being released in either late 2013 or early 2014. Besides better graphics hardware , the rumors also say that a new PlayStation 4 controller will incorporate a touchscreen, cameras, and something similar to the existing Move. Some say used games will be unplayable, but cloud gaming could provide backwards compatibility . A PlayStation 3 price drop is also expected to follow today’s announcement.
P.J. McNealy, CEO and founder of Digital World Research, told The Huffington Post what the PlayStation Meeting is all about:
“Their focus is on establishing a beachhead for the next generation of consoles, and that’s what February 20 is all about. The reality is they have been playing catch-up.”
Nintendo has failed to get gamers interested in the Wii U. Tablets and smartphones already account for around 10 percent of the $80 billion gaming market. It’s also possible that augmented reality games provided through smartglasses like the Google Glass may someday surpass the popularity of traditional gaming consoles like the PlayStation 4. In short, today Sony has to give gamers a real reason to look forward to the PlayStation 4.
PC World says there are five things the game industry expects to see from the PlayStation Meeting: cloud gaming via the recently purchased Gaikai service, paid subscriptions for the PlayStation Network (it’s currently free for basic usage), expert disc lockdown (purchased games will be tied to your user account similar to Steam), a touchpad controller, and a November launch with the PlayStation 4 costing $430 for the cheapest version.
What new gaming features do you think Sony will announce for the PlayStation 4?