Gamescom 2013: Sony reveals PS4’s November launch date and lineup, $399 price
Sony's press conference was the highlight event at this year's Gamescom, revealing the launch date of the PS4 console and its price, apart from launch titles and discounts for previous-generation hardware.
Sony’s Gamescom conference is over and there were some rather interesting and exciting revelations about current and next-gen consoles. Overall Sony put on a decent show at Cologne, and much like at E3 2013, it was considered the biggest event at this year’s Gamescom.
The press conference kicked off with a world premier demo of the PS4 UI. You get to see a player browsing the PS4’s dashboard, checking out videos from upcoming games and then jumping into a friend’s KillZone multiplayer match. The impressive feature of the last fact is that a player can directly jump into a a match from the dashboard-no need to navigate through in-game menus.
Here are the highlights from Sony’s Gamescom 2013 press conference:
PlayStation Vita and PS3 prices have been slashed:
Some good news for the current gen-consoles, as the PSVita prices will drop to $199,which are supposed to go into effect from tomorrow. Europe-specific bundle packs of 8-10 games will be offered at great discounts, and new titles will be launched – one of them being Borderlands 2. Sony is clearly working to boost the lackluster sales volume of the handheld PSVita.
The 12 GB PS3 that was available with retailers was announced, priced at $199/€199 reflects an apparent price drop.
PlayStation 4 gets a launch date:
OK, so the highly awaited next-gen console from Sony gets an official launch date for November 15th in North America, while in Europe the PS4 will be launched on November 29th, which makes it 32 countries in total. Priced at $399/€399/£349, Sony claims that it already has over a million pre-orders, which sounds a pretty solid number.
However, India has not been included in the list. Sony Computer Entertainment India country manager, Atindriya Bose told MCV that a 2013 launch for the PS4 in India is no longer a certainty. This isn’t too major a problem for the company however, as its biggest competitor in the console space, Microsoft, will also only be releasing the Xbox One in 2014 in India.
Bose said that the launch in Europe on 29th November and getting the console to India within a month’s time would be a logistical challenge.
Indie Developers were the main focus:
Sony again focused intensely on Indie games, which comes at a very pivotal time when the gaming industry is going through a complete metamorphosis, with the launch of next-gen consoles, it is rather surprising that there is so much emphasis on Indie games. Big game studios like Watch Dogs and GTA 5 were constantly mentioned on Sony’s keynote, with focus being on getting hold of indie developers for exclusive release content. Sony debuted original titles from indie developers — both already-existing games and original exclusives for the PlayStation 4.
Launch lineup for the PlayStation 4 has been announced:
Launch titles for the PS4 have been announced that includes 33 games for the system before the end of the year. Sony says that there will be 15 disc-based games (which will also be available as downloads), including additional download-only titles that would make up a total of 33 games for the PS4.
The titles that will be available on the launch date i.e November 15 will be KillZone: Shadow Fall, Watch Dogs and Drive club.
All in all, Sony announced 15 new PS4 and Vita titles. Other notable announcements include: Gran Turismo will be launched on December 6 of this year, apart from this the company also announced that The Social Network and Fifty Shades of Grey producers are now working on a Gran Turismo film. Sony also announced that LittleBigPlanet Hub will be launched on the PS3 later this year. Sony’s Music unlimited service allows players to listen to music while playing games, players will also be able to share their PS4 gameplay via Twitch.TV and the highly popular Minecraft will finally be a PS4 launch title.
Sony’s press conference was one of the biggest at Gamescom this year, stay tuned for more from Gamescom. Watch Sony’s press conference at Gameccom below.
Source: Gameinformer