I will go ahead and go through the motions here, but the biggest news is that Sony will have no DRM restricting the playing of used or rented games. Also, many customers won’t see the value of the Kinect sensor, so the PS4 coming in at $399.99 will look like a bargain. Sony really stuck it to the Xbox One today. Microsoft should count themselves lucky that they were able to do their briefing first. Following this Sony briefing would have been difficult, to put it mildly.
The show started with the standard Sony gaming montage that cycles through so fast that if you didn’t already know the titles in depth, you wouldn’t really know what you were watching. This has always struck me as an odd practice. After the video, Jack Tretton started talking about Vita. Sony has big plans for Vita, with 85 more titles releasing by the end of the year. The remote play functionality with the PS4 will secure the Vita’s position as the handheld to own.
Next up were some games for the PS3. There was a nice run of titles, including ‘The Last of Us,’ ‘Puppeteer,’ ‘Rain,’ ‘Beyond: Two Souls,’ ‘Gran Turismo 6,’ ‘Batman: Arkham Origins’ and ‘Grand Theft Auto V.’
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The console is now shown for the first time. It has a similar look to the Xbox One, a mix of gloss and matte black.
Sony launches into their media portion of the briefing, talking about how exclusive content from other Sony divisions will be making its way to the PS4 through the Video Unlimited and the Music Unlimited apps. Redbox Instant will also be arriving on PS3, PS4 and Vita.
Time for more games! This set includes ‘The Order: 1886,’ ‘Killzone: Shadow Fall,’ DriveClub,’ ‘Knack’ and ‘The Dark Sorcerer.’
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Sony is supporting indie games in a big way with the PS4, including giving developers the ability to self-publish. They show off a pile of games, including a new Oddworld title. This sequence is worth a watch.
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The PS3 and PS4 will get exclusive Diablo III content.
SquareEnix pops up to talk about Final Fantasy XV (previously FF Versus XIII) and Kingdom Hearts III.
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More games! ‘Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag,’ ‘Watch Dogs,’ ‘NBA2K14,’ ‘Elder Scrolls: Online’ and ‘Mad Max.’
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And this is where Sony sticks in the knife and twists it. There are a number of digs at the Xbox One’s authentication requirements and reassures gamers that they support used games and have no restrictions whatsoever. They also gloss over announcing that online multiplayer will now be a feature of Playstation Plus and will no longer be free. It’s less than $5/mo, so I don’t think this will be a huge problem for PS4 gamers.
Adding insult to injury, Bungie shows off a multi-player demo of ‘Destiny.’
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With that, Sony announces the launch price of $399.99. Done and done!
