Unlike the Sony conference a few years ago (when the PS4 was announced), the Sony meet that took place late last night did not have the air of mystery and anticipation behind it. Limped and deflated by various leaks and news bytes, the Sony meet in New York was more or less sketched out. A slimmer PS4, check. A more powerful PS4, check. New Dual Shock 4 design, check. This would have been a mind-blowing conference if the leaks were kept in check, unfortunately it did not happen.
PS4 Pro
Let’s talk about the stronger, upgraded PS4 first. Nick named the PS Neo, Sony has officially named their new console PS4 Pro. The PS4 Pro will essentially have the same hardware, and run the same game as the original PS4, with 3 major differences.
- PS4 Pro will have 4.20 teraflops in GPU power to the original’s 1.84 teraflops.
- PS4 Pro will feature a 1TB hard disk, double that of the standard PS4.
- PS4 Pro can output games in 4K resolutions.
PS4 Pro will also boast of something known as ‘Forward compatibility’, where the existing consoles games can take advantage of the 4K H.DR features of the Pro console via the means of a software patch. Sony did make it clear that releasing this patch was up to the game developer and not the console maker itself.
The PS 4 Pro will release on November 10 2016 internationally priced at $399.
The rough translation of that into Indian prices is somewhere in the ballpark of INR 29,999. But taking into account the normal pricing trends expect the PS4 Pro to be priced at around INR 40,000 when it launches in India.
PS4 Slim
The 2nd console that was on display the PS4 slim. It’s smaller and more power-efficient, while maintaining the same functionality as the launch PS4.
PS4 slim will launch internationally on September 15 2016 for $299.
Once again, it isn’t a good idea to roughly translate the prices to INR, and we predict that the prices should be somewhere around 25,000 INR. The PS4 slim offers nothing new, but another options for new customers who are looking to buy their first PS4. If you are looking to find out how the PS Slim would look like, I suggest you take a look at our article with the unboxing of a leaked PS4 Slim.
HDR
Sony will roll out the ability for all models of PS4 to support High Dynamic Range television sets, via a firmware update coming next week. The PS4 Slim and the PS4 Pro will come built-in with support for HDR.
New Dual Shock 4 and PlayStation Camera
Both the controller and the camera for the PS4 family, will receive a design update. For the controller, the light bar is visible through the touch pad on its face, letting you see what color the beam of light is by glancing down. Further it also supports USB connection for control, meaning that you can now use a wired connection versus having to always rely on Bluetooth even if the controller is physically plugged in to your PS4.
The PlayStation camera is also redesigned with a new cylindrical form factor on the way.
The Games
Finally, and perhaps most importantly Sony unveiled the list of games that are currently compatible with the 4K resolution PS4 pro. Most of these games were demoed during the live stream (which was not 4K BTW) and included games such as:
- Spider-Man
- For Honor
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Days Gone
- Watch Dogs 2
- Farpoint
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
- Dishonored 2
- Final Fantasy XV
- FIFA 17
- Battlefield 1
- Mass Effect Andromeda
VERDICT
Personally, as a PS4 owner, none of the announcement made an impact. I don’t own a 4K TV, and all the games (including VR) would run just fine on my PS4. So I have no reason to upgrade. The updates in the Controller is interesting, but that would have to wait until one of my original controller breaks down.
For a new fan of the brand though, Sony provides more variety to its offering, the basic cheaper PS4 Slim and the more expensive but more powerful PS4 Pro. Remember even the Xbox One Scorpio is not capable of 4K gaming, so the PS4 Pro has an upper hand in that regard.
Where do you as a fan fall on this conference. Did the announcement excite you? Or were you disappointed. Or are you more interested in the new Wireless Apple headphones. Let us know all that and more.