The Console
Although the Nintendo Wii U released last year, the first real introduction to the next-generation will be the PlayStation 4. PS4 will be the most powerful console on the market this month and will retail for $399 (MSRP). Out the box, you will get a 500GB hard drive, a DUALSHOCK 4 wireless controller (included with a micro-USB cable for charging), an HDMI cable, a Mono-headset for voice chat, and of course a power cable that doesn’t include a power brick according to SONY. The Jet Black PlayStation 4 system will be 10x’s more powerful than the PS3 highlighted by its 8GB GDDR5 RAM, 8-core X86 CPU, and impressive graphics processor.
The console pushes a main emphasis of not requiring an online connection to use the console, but the day-one system software update 1.50 will require you to be online for certain features. Blu-ray movie watching, DVD usage, Remote Play, Second Screen (PS Vita system, and PlayStation App for iPhone, iPad, Android-based smartphones and tablets), Multi log-in, and Background music among others will be required on the day-one update when you log in for usage. Those of you still using audio CDs will have to convert to digital, as the PS4 does not support audio CDS. Much like the majority of PS3 games, all PlayStation 4 games will require a mandatory hard drive install which some titles will be up to 50GB’s of data on launch.