PlayStation 4

Also known as

PS4

Developer

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Manufacturer

Sony, Foxconn

Type

Home console

Generation

Eighth generation

Release date

NA: November 15, 2013
PAL: November 29, 2013
JP: February 22, 2014

Units sold

110+ million (as of 2020)

Operating system

PlayStation 4 system software

CPU

Semi-custom 8-core AMD x86-64 Jaguar 1.6 GHz CPU (integrated into APU)

Secondary low power processor (for background tasks)

Backward Compatibility

Select PlayStation 3 games via the cloud with a PlayStation Plus Premium Subscription and select PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable games via the PlayStation Store and the PlayStation Plus Classics Catalog with a PlayStation Plus Premium membership

Memory

8 GB GDDR5 (unified)

256 MB DDR3 RAM (for background tasks)

Storage

Hard drive, 500 GB, 1 TB (user upgradeable, supports SSD)

Display

HDMI (480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, and 4K for pictures and videos only)

Graphics

Semi-custom AMD GCN Radeon (integrated into APU)

Camera

PlayStation Camera

Touchpad

Yes

Connectivity

802.11 b/g/n (Pro: a/b/g/n/ac) Wireless, Bluetooth 2.1 (Pro: 4.0), USB 3.0, Ethernet 10/100/1000

The PlayStation 4 (abbreviated as PS4) is the successor to the PlayStation 3 and was released in November 2013, in time for the Christmas holiday shopping season. It was announced on February 20, 2013. The console was shown on June 10th at E3 2013. The PlayStation 4 launched on November 15th, 2013, in North America, November 29th, 2013, in Europe and Australia, and February 22, 2014 in Japan.

Backwards Compatibility[]

The PS4 lacks any backward compatibility, making the PS4 unable to load and play PS1, PS2, and PSP games natively, though select PS1, PS2, and PSP are available from the PlayStation Store and the PlayStation Plus Classics Catalog with a PlayStation Plus Premium membership. In addition, PS3 games can be streamed from the cloud with a PlayStation Plus Premium membership since PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now merged in 2022.

Features[]

The PS4 has a camera feature called the PlayStation Camera. The Dualshock controller also has new features such as a 'Share' button. This allows the player to Broadcast and Stream their gameplay to either Twitch or UStream. You can also edit a clip, then share it to Facebook by connecting your account. Also, a touchpad was included. The touchpad is interactive and clickable. The controller has surround sound speakers which increases the experience for the player. The controller also supports Bluetooth. The PlayStation 4 supports MP3 and audio files. The PlayStation Camera allows the player to make demands to the console.

PlayStation Network was included once again, it provided more functions then offline, with more features like PlayStation Store, Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited. It comes with video services available in the US and other countries like BBC iPlayer (UK only), Netflix, YouTube, etc.

Controller[]

The DualShock 4 is the PlayStation 4's controller. It comes with several new features, including a clickable touchpad (replacing the SONY typeface on previous PlayStation consoles). The controller supports motion detection via a three-axis gyroscope and three-axis accelerometer and vibration. It includes a non-removable, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which can be charged while the console is in rest mode.