LOS ANGELES–Sony's Monday night PlayStation 4 press conference at E3 revealed several long-awaited details about the new console, and showed off some of the more notable titles in development.
Like Microsoft's Xbox announcement earlier in the day, Sony ended its press conference with one of the most important details: the PlayStation 4 will retail for $399 when it ships this holiday season.
This price tag puts the PS4 at a full $100 less than the Xbox One, which Microsoft revealed will get a $499 price tag when it ships in November. The PS4$399.99 at Amazon - Pre-Order Yours Nowdoesn't seem to include the new PlayStation Eye camera and Sony hasn't announced how much storage space it will have compared to the Xbox One's 500GB hard drive, but the price difference could play a big role when shoppers decide which console to buy this holiday season.
The price announcement was one of two points during Sony's press conference that was met with raucous applause. Interestingly enough, the other big applause was also a veiled dig at the Xbox One. The crowd roared when Sony head Jack Tretton stated outright that the PlayStation 4 will play used games. More specifically, Tretton explained that gamers who purchase a game on a disc will own that game for as long as they have that disc, and that the PS4 will not require an online connection to play single-player games and won't authenticate games online. This is a big boon in the eyes of many gamers who have been concerned over the Xbox One's 24-hour daily online authentication requirement and seemingly convoluted game lending and trading system focused around a model of installing every game on the console's hard drive.
Sony also announced a cloud-based gaming system in partnership with Gaikai that will allow PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 owners to play a selection of PS3 games immediately, streamed over the Internet through Gaikai's technology. The feature won't be available on the PS4 at launch, but is planned for 2014 with PlayStation Vita support expected after it hits the PS3 and PS4.
While the PlayStation 4's contrasting points with the Xbox One are the biggest subject of discussion, PS4 games took center stage at the press conference. Several exclusives were highlighted, along with a few surprise announcements. According to Tretton, over 140 PS4 games are in development, and over 100 will be released in the PS4's first year.
Sony's first-party games include first-person shooter Killzone: Shadow Fall, open-world superhero game Infamous: Second Son, and racing game Driveclub. Of them, Killzone: Shadow Fall and Driveclub were confirmed to be available at the PlayStation 4's launch, and Driveclub: PS Plus Edition will be available to PS Plus members for free for the first year of the PS4.
Sony showed off two Square Enix trailers full of surprising news. First, Final Fantasy Versus XIII is not only still in development and coming to the PlayStation 4, but it has been officially renamed Final Fantasy XV. Second, and even more anticipated, Kingdom Hearts III was announced with a short teaser trailer summarizing the series and showing the main character Sora clashing with a swarm of Heartless monsters. Neither game was given a release date.
Warner Brothers Interactive also made a surprise announcement in the form of Mad Max, an open-world, post-apocalyptic game based on the movie series that, among other things, influenced the Fallout series.
Other games of note include Bungie and Activision's Destiny, Ubisoft's Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, 2K Games's NBA 2K14 (complete with video appearance by Lebron James and Lebron James's PS4-rendered digital simulacra), and Bethesda Softworks and Zenimax Online Studios' The Elder Scrolls Online, which will get a PS4-exclusive console port.
