Sony’s PlayStation 4 finally had an official announcement at the E3 trade show wherein it garnered both positive and negative reactions from the audience. Aside from the retail price, the PS4 is more or less an impressive next-gen console with a lot of tweaked features taken from its rival, the Xbox One.
Sony proudly announced that there are at least 140 games that are being developed for the PS4. One hundred of these games are expected to be released within the initial year. Some of the game titles to watch out for are The Order: 1886 (a shooter game), Kingdom Hearts 3 (a role-playing game), and Oddworld (a 1997 remake).
Though Sony would be releasing a huge number of game titles, the company has promised that it will not be imposing any restrictions on previously-owned games whether they came from friends or retailers alike. Furthermore, gamers don’t have to be regularly connected to the Internet for the purpose of validating their machines and allowing them to continue with their gameplay. This feature alone is enough to put Microsoft at a disadvantage with its limitation policy on buying second-hand games and an Internet connection requirement to enable gameplay.
Sony had also envisioned the PS4 to be the most open and inclusive gaming platform to indie game developers. The company wanted to dominate this part of the industry where Microsoft seemed to have had some issues especially when releasing game titles into the Xbox. Not only will Sony be able to gain access to great games, the company will also have the chance to do some goodwill.
Another interesting feature of the PS4 is its design factor. It has a rhomboidal shape which seems to be divided into two parts by a thin purple line. The portion where we can find the Sony and PlayStation logos has a glossy ‘piano black’ finish while the rest of the console is matte black.
The most important feature is of course the price. With a retail price of $399 (BHD 150), the PS4 is no doubt a cheaper console than the Xbox by as much as $100 (BHD 38).