PlayStation

The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is the latest video game console from Sony Computer Entertainment announced at a press conference on February 20, 2013. In the meeting, Sony revealed some hardware specifications of the new console.[41][42] The eighth-generation system, launched in the fourth quarter of 2013, introduced the x86 architecture to the PlayStation series. According to lead system architect, Mark Cerny, development on the PlayStation 4 began as early as 2008.[43] PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan emphasized in 2011 that Sony wanted to avoid launching the next-generation console behind the competition.[44]

Among the new applications and services, Sony introduced the PlayStation App, allowing PS4 owners to turn smartphones and tablets into a second screen to enhance gameplay.[45] The company also planned to debut PlayStation Now game streaming service, powered by technology from Gaikai.[46][47] By incorporating a share button on the new controller and making it possible to view in-game content being streamed live from friends, Sony planned to place more focus on social gameplay as well.[45] The PlayStation 4 was first released in North America on November 15, 2013.

Slim model

PlayStation 4 Slim (officially marketed simply as PlayStation 4 or PS4) was unveiled on September 7, 2016. It is a revision of the original PS4 hardware with a streamlined form factor. The new casing is 40% smaller, and carries a rounded body with a matte finish on the top of the console rather than a two-tone finish. The two USB ports on the front have a larger gap between them, and the optical audio port was also removed.[168] It ships with a minor update to the DualShock 4 controller, with the light bar visible through the top of the touchpad and dark matte grey coloured exterior instead of a partially shiny black. The PS4 Slim was released on September 15, 2016, with a 500 GB model at the same price point as the original PS4 model.[169] Its model number is CUH-2000.[170]

Pro model

PlayStation 4 Pro or PS4 Pro for short (originally announced under the codename Neo)[35] was unveiled on September 7, 2016. Its model number is CUH-7000.[170] It is an updated version of the PlayStation 4 with improved hardware, including an upgraded GPU with 4.2 teraflops of processing power, and higher CPU clock. It is designed primarily to enable selected games to be playable at 4K resolution, and improved quality for PlayStation VR. All games are backwards and forward compatible between PS4 and PS4 Pro, but games with optimizations will have improved graphics performance on PS4 Pro. Although capable of streaming 4K video from online sources, PS4 Pro does not support Ultra HD Blu-ray.[171] [172] [173] Additionally the PS4 Pro is the only PS4 model which can remote play at 1080p. The other models are limited to 720p.[174]

PlayStation 5

The first news of the PlayStation 5 came from Mark Cerny in an interview with Wired in April 2019.[48] Sony intends for the PlayStation 5 to be its next-generation console and to ship worldwide by the end of 2020.[49] In early 2019, Sony's financial report for the quarter ending March 31, 2019 affirmed that new next-generation hardware was in development but would ship no earlier than April 2020.[50]

The current specifications were released in October 2019.[51] The console will use AMD's Ryzen CPU with the 7 nm Zen 2 architecture with 8 cores/16 threads, and with a Radeon Navi-family GPU using the RDNA microarchitecture, which includes support for real-time ray-tracing rendering.[51] The new console will ship with a custom SSD storage, as Cerny emphasized the need for fast loading times and larger bandwidth to make games more immersive, as well as to support the required content streaming from disc for 8K resolution.[48] In a second interview with Wired in October 2019, further details of the new hardware were revealed: the console's integrated Blu-ray drive would support 100GB Blu-ray discs and Ultra HD Blu-ray;[49] whilst game installation from a disc is mandatory as to take advantage of the SSD, the user will have some fine-grain control of how much they want to have installed, such as only installing the multiplayer components of a game.[49] Sony is developing an improved suspended gameplay state for the PlayStation 5 to consume less energy than the PlayStation 4.[52]

The system's new controller will have adaptive triggers that can change the resistance to the player as necessary, such as changing the resistance during the action of pulling an arrow back in a bow in-game.[49] The controller will also have strong haptic feedback through voice coil actuators, which together with an improved controller speaker is intended to give better in-game feedback.[49] USB-C connectivity, together with a higher rated battery are other improvements to the new controller.[49]

The PlayStation 5 will feature a completely revamped user interface.[53] The PlayStation 5 will be fully backwards-compatible with PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR games, with Cerny stating that the transition to the new console is meant to be a soft one.[48][51]

Comparison

Top: PS

Bottom: PS One

Left: PS2

Right: PS2 Slim

Top: PS3 (left) and PS3 Slim (right)

Bottom: PS3 Super Slim

Top: PS4

Bottom: PS4 Pro (PS4 slim not shown)

¥39,800[1]
US$299[54]
£299[55]

PS One

unknown

¥39,800[1]
US$299[54]
£299[55]

PS2 Slim

unknown

¥49,980 (20 GB)[1]
US$499 (20 GB)

US$599 (60 GB)[54]
£425 (60 GB)[56]
€599 (60 GB)[55]

PS3 Slim

unknown

PS3 Super Slim

unknown

¥38,980 (500 GB)
US$399 (500 GB)
€399 (500 GB)
£349 (500 GB)

PS4 Slim

US$299 (500 GB)

US$349 (1 TB)

€299 (500 GB)

€349 (1 TB)

PS4 Pro

US$399 (1 TB)

€399 (1 TB)

• JP: December 3, 1994[57]

• NA: September 9, 1995[54]

• EU: September 29, 1995[55]

• AU: November 15, 1995[58]

• EU: 2000

• JP: July 7, 2000

• NA: September 19, 2000

• JP: March 4, 2000[1]

• NA: October 26, 2000[54][59]

• EU: November 24, 2000[55]

• AU: November 30, 2000

• EU: October 29, 2004

• JP: November 3, 2004

• NA: November 2004

• AU: November 2004

• JP: November 11, 2006[1]

• NA: November 17, 2006[54]

• EU: March 23, 2007[55]

• JP: August 27, 2009[1]

• NA: September 1, 2009[54]

• EU: September 1, 2009[55]

• NA: September 25, 2012[54]

• EU: September 28, 2012[55]

• JP: October 4, 2012[1]

• NA: November 15, 2013[61]
• EU: November 29, 2013[60]
• AU: November 29, 2013[60]
• JP: February 22, 2014[62]

• JP: September 15, 2016[63]

• NA: September 15, 2016[64]

• EU: September 15, 2016[65]

• JP: November 10, 2016[66]

• NA: November 10, 2016[67]

• EU: November 10, 2016[68]

• RFU Adapter


• Controller (PlayStation Controller or DualShock, depending on production date)

• DualShock 2 Controller


• Composite AV cable

• Internal hard drive (20, 40, 60, 80, 120, 160, 250, 320 or 500 GB, depending on model)


• Wireless DualShock 3 / Sixaxis Controller


• Composite AV cable


• Ethernet cable


• USB cable

• Internal hard drive (500 GB/1 TB) (PS4 and PS4 Slim),[73][74] Internal hard drive (1 TB) (PS4 Pro)


• Wireless DualShock 4 Controller


• Mono Headset


• Power Cable


• HDMI Cable


• USB Cable

• PlayStation Controller


• Dual Analog Controller


• DualShock


• Multitap (up to 4 players)


• Fishing reel controllers (Bass Landing and Reel Fishing)


• GunCon


• Jogcon


• Konami Justifier


• BeatMania controller


• NeGcon


• PocketStation


• Flightstick


• Memory Card


• S-Video cable


• Euro-AV Cable (RGB-SCART)

• DualShock 2


• PlayStation 2 HDD
  Internal hard drive supported by PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay (model 30000 and 50000 only)


• PlayStation 2 Headset


• EyeToy


• Driving Force Steering Wheels with Force Feedback


• Onimusha 3 katana controller


• Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller


• PlayStation 2 DVD remote control


• Network adapter
  Built-in for slim case model (PSTwo, model 70000)


• Memory Card (8 MB, 16 MB, 32 MB, 64 MB, 128 MB) (for PlayStation 2)


• Guitar Hero SG Controller


• 'Buzz' Controllers (with all versions of Buzz)


• Light gun (GunCon 2)


• Multitap (multi-controller adaptor)


• Component AV cable


• S-Video cable


• Euro-AV Cable (RGB-SCART)


• Microphones (with Karaoke Revolution and SingStar games)


• USB Mouse & Keyboard

• PlayStation Move


• PlayStation Eye


• DualShock 3 Wireless Controller


• DualShock 4 Wireless Controller


• Blu-ray Remote ControlVideo Cable


• Component AV Cable


• D-Terminal AV cable


• HDMI Cable


• PlayTV


• Torne


• Various rhythm game controllers for Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Band Hero, Rock Band and Singstar games
  
  • Microphones
  
  
  • Guitar and Bass Guitar controllers
  
  
  • Drum controllers
  
  
  • Turntable controllers (DJ Hero/DJ Hero 2)
  
  
  • Keyboard controller (Rock Band 3)


• Light Gun (GunCon 3)

• DualShock 4 Wireless controller


• PlayStation Camera


• HDMI cable


• Media Remote

• 8-Core 1.6 GHz AMD "Jaguar" (PS4 and PS4 Slim)


• 8-Core 2.1 GHz AMD "Enhanced Jaguar" (PS4 Pro)

Resolution: 256x224 – 640x480
Sprite/BG drawing
Adjustable frame buffer
No line restriction
Unlimited CLUTs (Color Look-Up Tables)
4,000 8x8 pixel sprites with individual scaling and rotation
Simultaneous backgrounds (Parallax scrolling)
620,000 polygons/sec

Capable of multi-pass rendering;

Connected to VU1 on CPU (a vector only for visual style coding things with 3.2 GFLOPS) to deliver enhanced shader graphics and other enhanced graphics

• PS4 and PS4 Slim: Custom AMD Radeon 18 Compute Units (1152 shaders) @ 800 MHz[75] 1.8 TFLOPS


• PS4 Pro: Custom AMD Radeon, 36 Compute Units (2304 shaders) @ 911 MHz[76] 4.2 TFLOPS

DVD Playback

Audio file playback (ATRAC3, AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA)

Video file playback (MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264-AVC, DivX)

Image editing and slideshows (JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP)

Mouse and keyboard support
Folding@Home client with visualizations from the RSX

DVD playback

Audio playback from inserted USB flash drive