PlayStation 4

Lore & Background

According to lead architect Mark Cerny, development of Sony's fourth video game console began as early as 2008. Sony officially announced the PlayStation 4 at PlayStation Meeting 2013 in New York City on February 20, 2013. The design of the console was unveiled in June at E3 2013. The console was released on November 15, 2013, in the United States and Canada, followed by further releases on November 29, 2013. The PS4 was released in Japan on February 22, 2014. In September 2016, the console was refreshed with a new, smaller revision, popularly referred to as the 'Slim' model, as well as a high-end version called the PlayStation 4 Pro. Its successor, the PlayStation 5, was released in November 2020.

In Their Own Story

The sand here is the color of old bone. You have been walking for what feels like hours, though time has no teeth in this place. The wind carries a low hum—not music, exactly, but the memory of music, the way a room remembers a voice after the speaker has left. Ahead, the ruins of a city rise from the dunes, their towers snapped at odd angles, as if the desert grew around them and broke them. You press forward. The robe catches the wind and billows behind you like a second, slower shadow. Somewhere in the distance, a second pair of footprints appears in the sand, then vanishes. You do not turn around. You do not need to. The mountain is still there, still glowing, still waiting. You walk.

Reader's Guide

The PlayStation 4 uses an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) developed by AMD. It combines a CPU consisting of two 28 nm quad-core Jaguar modules totaling 8 64-bit x86-64 cores, and a GPU with 18 compute units producing a theoretical peak performance of 1.84 TFLOPS. The system contains 8 GB of GDDR5 memory. The console features an increased emphasis on social interaction, including Remote Play and Share Play. The controller was redesigned with updated buttons, analog sticks, and an integrated touchpad. The console supports HDR10 high-dynamic-range video and playback of 4K resolution multimedia.

Did You Know?

• The PlayStation 4 was released to critical acclaim, with critics praising Sony for acknowledging its consumers' needs and embracing independent game development.
• By October 2019, PS4 had become the second best-selling PlayStation console of all time, behind the PlayStation 2.
• The PS4 was the first Sony product to be released in mainland China after a deal with the Chinese government in May 2014.