Wikibooks

History of video games/Platforms/PlayStation 4

< History of video games | Platforms
  • The original PS4 console with controller.
    The original PS4 console with controller.
  • The PS4 Pro
    The PS4 Pro

History

edit
 
The PlayStation 4 logo and wordmark.

Development

edit

Development of the PlayStation 4 started in 2007.[1] Making the console easy to develop for was a priority,[1] likely as a recognition of issues developers had using the powerful, but difficult to utilize hardware of the PlayStation 3.

Launch

edit

There was great excitement around the launch of the eighth generation of video game consoles, with many wondering which emerging console would prove to be the best option. At a critical moment in 2013 Sony gained positive reactions when it announced it wouldn't have draconian restrictions on sharing physical copies of games,[2][3] in stark contrast with unpopular decisions regarding the original Xbox One, including strict used game policies, always online requirements, and a Kinect requirement raising privacy issues. While Microsoft would quickly change course on their unpopular policies, this fumble gave the PlayStation 4 a critical early edge in the market.

The PlayStation 4 was launched on November 15th, 2013 in North America.[4] The PlayStation 4 saw a Japanese launch on February 22nd, 2014 at a cost of 39,980 yen.[5] The cost to manufacture a PlayStation 4 at launch compared to it's price is estimated to have given Sony a slight margin on console hardware.[6][7]

Refresh

edit
 
The headquarters of Sony Interactive Entertainment in San Mateo, California. The PlayStation and Sony logos are prominently displayed.

In January 2016 Sony Interactive Entertainment moved from Japan to San Mateo, California following an internal merger.[8][9] Later in 2016, the PlayStation 4 line was given a refresh with two new major models released. The PlayStation 4 Slim was launched on September 15th, 2016 for $299, and the PlayStation 4 Pro was launched on November 10th, 2016 for $399.[10] The Slim replaced the original model as the default choice, while the Pro offered a premium high end experience, with both offering improvements over the original model.

Legacy

edit

The PlayStation 4 was followed by the PlayStation 5.

In April of 2021 the PlayStation communities feature was removed.[11]

Technology

edit

Compute

edit

Original PlayStation 4 & Slim

edit
 
A diagram of the cache hierarchy of the PlayStation 4.

A single chip includes an AMD APU containing an X86 64 eight core Jaguar CPU clocked at 1.6 gigahertz and a Radeon GPU with 18 compute units clocked at 800 megahertz.[1][12][13][14]

The PS4 has eight gigabytes of unified GDDR5 RAM on a 256 bit bus with throughput of 176 gigabits per second.[1]

The PlayStation 4 GPU has a performance of 1.84 teraflops.[12]

PlayStation 4 Pro

edit
 
The die of an 16 nanometer process AMD APU used in a PlayStation 4 Pro.

The PlayStation 4 Pro is powered by an AMD APU containing an X86 64 eight core Jaguar CPU clocked at 2.13 gigahertz and a Radeon GPU with 36 compute units clocked at 911 megahertz.[1][13][14]

The system has eight gigabytes of GDDR5 RAM with a throughput of 218 gigabits per second.[12][14] The PlayStation 4 Pro also includes an additional one gigabyte of RAM for game swapping, and another separate bank consisting of 512 megabytes of RAM for specialized features.[14]

The PlayStation 4 Pro GPU has a performance of 4.20 teraflops.[12]

Secondary Processor

edit

PlayStation 4 consoles contain a secondary ARM processor with a dedicated 256 megabytes of DDR3 SDRAM.[15][16] The exact purpose of this low power subsystem remains open to speculation.

Hardware

edit

The PS4 includes Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, and gigabit speed ethernet.[12] This networking hardware allowed supported large game downloads, as well as game streaming.

Like the previous PS3, the PS4 includes a Blu-Ray drive,[17] both to load game media and to load Blu-Ray movies.

The case of the PS4 is made of injection molded ABS plastic, and the Blu-Ray drive is mostly made out of polyoxymethylene plastic.[17] Steel is widely used on the console interior, and an aluminum heatsink is used for heat dissipation.[17] The original PS4 internals are relatively easy to access.[18]

The PlayStation 4 Pro was noted for its loud cooling fans.[19]

Software

edit

The PlayStation 4 runs Orbis OS, a modified version of FreeBSD 9, as an operating system.[20]

As with the PlayStation 3, and to a lesser extent the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 4 was designed to be more than just a game console, and supported a number of extra features. The PlayStation 4 could play multimedia content, including overlaying custom music while playing a game.[21] The PlayStation 4 includes a web browser,[22] that uses the open source WebKit engine for rendering web content.[23]

Special Edition Consoles

edit
  • Persona 5 Royale Special Edition Line [24]

Notable Games

edit

2013

edit

2014

edit

inFAMOUS Second Son

edit

Action adventure game.

Read more about inFAMOUS Second Son on Wikipedia.

The Tomorrow Children

edit

A collaborative adventure game with cold war era iconography.

Read more about The Tomorrow Children on Wikipedia.

P.T.

edit

Teaser of canceled game Silent Hills.

Read more about P.T. on Wikipedia.

2015

edit
 
Project Morpheus booth at E3 2015

2016

edit

2017

edit
 
Knack II at E3 2017.

2018

edit
 
A special edition Monster Hunter World PS4.

2019

edit

2020

edit
edit

Original PlayStation 4

edit

PlayStation Pro

edit

DualShock 4

edit
  •  
    The DualShock 4 controller.
  •  
  •  

Other PlayStation 4

edit
  •  
    PS4 Slim
  •  
    PS4 Slim models compared to PS4 pro models.
  •  
    The PS4 Camera.
  •  
    The PS4 camera rear and connector.

PSVR

edit

External Resources

edit
 

Wikipedia has related information at PlayStation 4

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: PlayStation 4

References

edit
Parts of this page are based on materials from:
 Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia.
  1. ↑ a b c d e "Inside the PlayStation 4 With Mark Cerny". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  2. ↑ Souppouris, Aaron (26 October 2013). "Sony clarifies PS4 game-sharing rules ahead of launch" (in en). The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2013/10/26/5030872/sony-clarifies-ps4-game-sharing-rules-ahead-of-launch. Retrieved 26 October 2020. 
  3. ↑ "Former Sony VP Shares Story Behind Iconic PS4 Game Sharing Video". PlayStation LifeStyle. 16 May 2020. https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2020/05/16/story-behind-ps4-game-sharing-video/. Retrieved 26 October 2020. 
  4. ↑ Anderson, Chris C.. "PS4 Release Date: November 15 Announced As The Big Day". Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/ps4-release-date-november-15-announced-as-the-big-day-2013-8. Retrieved 28 October 2020. 
  5. ↑ Byford, Sam (9 September 2013). "PS4 launches in Japan on February 22nd, three months after the US" (in en). The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2013/9/9/4709812/ps4-japan-release-date. Retrieved 28 October 2020. 
  6. ↑ "Sony Is Struggling With PlayStation 5 Price Due to Costly Parts" (in en). Bloomberg.com. 14 February 2020. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-14/sony-is-struggling-with-playstation-5-price-due-to-costly-parts. 
  7. ↑ "Teardown of Xbox, PS4 reveal tight margins" (in en). CNBC. 27 November 2013. https://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/27/teardown-of-xbox-ps4-reveal-tight-margins.html. 
  8. ↑ "Console Makers Focus on the West, But You'll Still Get Japanese Games". www.vice.com. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  9. ↑ "Sony Computer Entertainment And Sony Network Entertainment Announce The Formation Of Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC". www.sony.com. https://www.sony.com/content/sony/en/en_us/SCA/company-news/press-releases/sony-computer-entertainment-america-inc/2016/sony-computer-entertainment-and-sony-network-entertainment-announce-the-formation-of-sony-interactive-entertainment-llc.html. 
  10. ↑ Gilbert, Ben. "The PlayStation 4 Pro is out now — here's everything you need to know". Business Insider. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  11. ↑ Orland, Kyle (21 April 2021). "PS4 owners lament the shutdown of beloved “Communities” social network" (in en-us). Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/04/ps4-owners-lament-the-shutdown-of-beloved-communities-social-network/. 
  12. ↑ a b c d e "Tech specs". Playstation. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  13. ↑ a b "Here's How the PS5's Hardware Compares to the PS4's - IGN". Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  14. ↑ a b c d "Inside PlayStation 4 Pro: How Sony made the first 4K games console". Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  15. ↑ "Secondary Processor And 2Gb RAM Discovered In PlayStation 4". eTeknix. 16 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  16. ↑ "Playstation 4 - Secondary Processor & 2Gb RAM Discovered". RedGamingTech. 15 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
  17. ↑ a b c Gordon, Lewis (5 December 2019). "The environmental impact of a PlayStation 4" (in en). The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20985330/ps4-sony-playstation-environmental-impact-carbon-footprint-manufacturing-25-anniversary. Retrieved 20 October 2020. 
  18. ↑ "PlayStation 4 Teardown" (in en). iFixit. 15 November 2013. https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/PlayStation+4+Teardown/19493. Retrieved 23 October 2020. 
  19. ↑ "A History of the Biggest Console Defects". Game Rant. 11 October 2020. https://gamerant.com/xbox-overheating-red-ring-death-nintendo-joy-con-drift-ps4-pro-loud/. 
  20. ↑ "Sony's PlayStation 4 Is Running Modified FreeBSD 9 - Phoronix". www.phoronix.com. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=mtm5ndi. Retrieved 28 October 2020. 
  21. ↑ Hoffman, Chris. "How to Play Local Video and Music Files on Your PlayStation 4". How-To Geek. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  22. ↑ "Using the browser PlayStation®4 User's Guide". manuals.playstation.net. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  23. ↑ "WebKit". SIE.COM. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  24. ↑ "Persona 5 Royal limited edition PS4 consoles coming to Japan" (in english). Destructoid. https://www.destructoid.com/stories/persona-5-royal-limited-edition-ps4-consoles-coming-to-japan-566668.phtml. 


Retrieved from "https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_video_games/Platforms/PlayStation_4&oldid=4068423"