Everything You Need To Know About The PlayStation Meeting

 

Sony have just wrapped up their meeting and what an eventful one it was. We’ve been given a glimpse of some new games not seen before and a few PS4 classics all playing in 4k with the help of HDR.

The show kicked off with our man; Andrew House, starting with the usual talk for the investors and share holders – then he moved on to discuss the growing playstation community and upcoming PS VR. This lead straight into the obvious announcement of the PS4 slim along with it’s price, but nothing was confirmed about specs, so it’s safe to assume it matches that of the current PS4.

Andrew spoke about how they’re all excited by 4k gaming and this was something that everyone wanted.

He also officially announced what was previously codenamed the PS4 Neo, with it’s official name – PS4 Pro

Mark Cerny came onto the stage and revealed more about HDR (High Dynamic Range) which means picture quality is that much better for gaming. Cerny also spoke about some of the specs of the ‘Pro’ which include a GPU  which has been doubled. The CPU has been boosted meaning we’re more likely to see games getting closer to that 60fps sweet spot. To most people’s relief this will ship with a 1TB hard drive, as most people will be filling up their current storage by now.

We then got to see some current and upcoming games running in real time on the PS4 Pro, using the new 4k and HDR abilities pictured below (not quite in 4k) –

From the upcoming Spider-Man PS4 exclusive

4K footage of Watch Dogs 2 was shown

We were also treated to some new gameplay for the up-and-coming game ‘For Honour’ as well as ‘Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’, ‘Rise Of The Tomb Raider’ all running in 4K.

Cerny then went back to HDR and explained why it’s so important to the picture quality you get whilst gaming. He demonstrated the difference you get when it’s turned on and off by showing some footage from ‘Days Gone’. What was shown was very impressive – clear night skies, bright sunny skies and some of the clearest pictures seen in gaming. The best part about this, is that all existing PS4 owners will get an update that enables HDR on their current console.

One of the best games to be shown today, came from Guerrilla Games in the form of ‘Horizon Zero Dawn’ where they played a new demo in 4k and with HDR switched on. The result of this was mind shatteringly beautiful, unfortunately this picture doesn’t do it full justice –

The PS VR was also discussed in terms of how the PS4 Pro helps to improve certain things like visuals and the frame rate. It’s believed that the Pro won’t require the little black box that the basic PS4 will use to do things like 3D sound and allowing people to see gameplay via your TV.

For fans of the Mass Effect series (ME) we finally got a snippet of some gameplay for the new ‘Mass Effect Andromeda’, and yet again it was running in glorious 4K and making use of HDR –

As this was a visual demonstration, there wasn’t any details given about Mass Effect Andromeda or any of it’s mechanics, or even a release date. But it will keep fans going for the time being.

They finished up with the games section, announcing that ‘Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’ will be 4K compatible from day one and again we got some new gameplay from the story mode this time.

With the release of the PS4 pro, we’ll see certain apps like YouTube and Netflix available on the console in 4K. But these likely will work depending on your internet connection.

And finally to finish the show, we got the announcement we’d all been waiting for – pictures of the PS4 Pro itself, along with the release date and pricing. I think most may be pleasantly surprised –

Ps4 Slim on the left, and PS4 Pro on the right

Here’s a close up of the Pro

With a release date of November 10th which is less than a month away from the PS VR’s October 13th slot, the question is how well this will sell? Sure Christmas is round the corner, and most people will trade in their old PS4 consoles, but £350 is a fair chunk of money after just spending the same amount on the VR (and possibly a 4K TV). Either way, it’s not likely to be a failure with that amount of power and capabilities under the hood.

The First 50 minutes are from the conference

SNIKT!