At this year’s Gamescom convention, running between 21st to 25th August, in Cologne, Germany, Sony will focus on the PS4 and it’s games line-up. The company is planning to show off brand new games for the upcoming console, adding to the games already announced at the PlayStation Meeting 2013 and E3 2013.
A screenshot taken from the PS3 development kit reveals that the console runs on a modified version of UNIX based operating system FreeBSD. The OS has been heavily modified by Sony and re-branded with the name Orbis OS – which also happens to be the PS4’s rumoured codename when it was first in development.
Amazon is reporting record-breaking number of pre-orders for upcoming next-generation consoles since E3 2013, with a 4,000 percent increase compares to last year. At it’s peak, Amazon reported that pre-orders for the PS4 and Xbox One exceed 2,500 unites per minute.
Sony’s PS4 teaser trailer was the most viewed YouTube clip in the UK last month according to Marketing Week. The video racked up over 7.6 million views in just over a month, beating Call of Duty’s “Masked Warriors” clip, and an advert from Specsavers, which hasn’t even hit 1 million views yet.
Sony and Warner Brothers Interactive have announced Mad Max for the PS4, based on the films starring Mel Gibson. The game is being developed by Avalanche Studios for Warner Brothers Interactive, who were also behind the Just Cause games, and will be coming to the PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2014.
Sony has released more details on PlayStation Plus for the PlayStation 4, detailing new features for subscribers, as well as what will be available to all PS4 owners. As mentioned at E3 2013, owners will need to have a PlayStation Plus subscription to play online multiplayer games, but the social features of the PS4 and auto-updates will sit outside of PlayStation Plus.
Speaking to the Official PlayStation Magazing, SCE UK chief Fergal Gara has said that charging for online multiplayer on PS4 has helped reduce the price of the console. It’s the first time Sony will be charging gamers to play online, requiring a PlayStation Plus subscription to access the online component of games, although it was something Sony had to “agonise over for a very long time.”
When Sony first revealed details of the PS4 in New York back in February, there were only 126 developers working on games for the console. Sony has revealed that the number has now grown to over 500 developers via a press release. “Since February 2013, the number of developers joining has increased from 126 to 505,” says the press release.
Shuhei Yoshida has confirmed that the PlayStation 4, like the Xbox One, can use the power of cloud computing as and when it’s needed. Although the feature wasn’t mentioned in Sony’s E3 Press Conference, Yoshida says that developers are free to take advantage of the ability to do tough computational tasks in vast server farms.
Sony has tonight revealed the official box for the PlayStation 4. It’s unclear if the this is the final box art, but it looks very close to it. The box includes the size of the hard drive and color on the box, suggesting that these may change in the future. As with the PS3, Sony has offered different hard drive sizes and colours, so it’s safe to assume the same with the PS4.
