PlayStation Meeting round-up

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The wait is finally over for PlayStation fans as Sony revealed its highly anticipated (and fairly comprehensively leaked) new hardware at an event on Wednesday 7 September

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by Chris Brand

@pass_controller

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Gamers have the pick of two new devices: the PS4 Slim and the PS4 Pro - the PlayStation formally known as NEO.

​President and Global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Andrew House, hosted the meeting, proclaiming that the Pro won't blur the lines between console generations, it will simply be the “definitive PS4 experience.”

The PS4 Slim hits stores from 15 September and will set you back £259. It is to become the new standard model of PS4. It may be smaller than its big brother but it still offers the exact same experience as the original PS4.

Releasing 10 November for £350, the PS4 Pro on the other hand does have some tasty specs: The gpu is over twice as powerful, the clock rate of the cpu has been boosted, there's a 1TB hard drive and it supports 4K gaming and High Dynamic Range (HDR). Those without 4K or HDR TVs needn't fear, PlayStation's Lead System Architect, Mark Cerny, stated that the new console will also benefit players with standard HD sets.

A huge - and understated - plus point is that any discs or downloads will be compatible with whatever PS4 system you happen to own.

If you aren't too big on tech stuff, High Dynamic Range allows for a greater range of luminosity; whites appear brighter and blacks look even darker. HDR aims to bring digital images closer to what the human eye can see. In short, everything just looks better. Owners of the standard PS4 will also get to experience it themselves, as a future update to the console will be adding HDR support.

We got to see the new console in action. Spiderman, For Honor, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Watchdogs 2 were shown running on PS4 Pro in glorious 4K, whilst Days Gone, Uncharted 4 and Infamous: First Light were given the HDR treatment.

You can take a look at just some of the games that will feature PS4 Pro support below:

Andy Hendrickson, CTO of Activision, took to the stage and muttered something incomprehensible, before one of the crew mentioned that his mic wasn't on. Audio issues resolved, he went on to announce that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered will support PS4 Pro from day one and a free patch will be pushed out to make Black Ops 3 compatible.

Then it was Aaryn Flynn's turn to announce that EA titles Fifa 17, Battlefield 1 and Mass Effect: Andromeda would be PS4 Pro friendly. There was slick looking video on the latter game but, unfortunately, it didn't give much away:

It was briefly mentioned that the PS4 Pro could also improve PSVR, but no further details were forthcoming. We're sure that more info will be released in due time.

To round things off, it was revealed that a new Netflix app will be available from day 1 which supports 4K and HDR. YouTube are also working on a similar app and it’s very possible that other services will follow suit.

For those of you wondering where Sony's showing stacks up against what Microsoft revealed at E3 for Xbox, the Slim will be facing off against the Xbox One S this Christmas - though crucially the One S does have a few hardware bumps, and includes HDR support as well as 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, whereas the Slim is functionally identical to the current PS4.

The Pro, out even closer to Christmas, gets probably a year's head start on the pixel-loving, hardcore gaming crowd who absolutely have to have the most powerful console money can be. Will Microsoft's Scorpio and its six teardrops of power be worth the wait? Or will Sony rack up a massive lead (despite the Pro having only 4.2 teardrops at its disposal) and leave Microsoft in the dust, as they have with the current PS4?

What did you think of the show? Interested in the PS4 Pro? Let us know in the forums or leave a comment below.

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