PlayStation 4 user interface screenshots
Game pages, profiles, live streaming, and more.
February 27, 2013 / 07:33 PM EST / Sal Romano (@salromano)
A week after the system’s announcement in New York City, Sony has released official, high-resolution screenshots of PlayStation 4′s graphical user interface.
Among the images, you’ll see the home screen, user profiles, friend feed, video trimming and sharing, gameplay streaming, and how it will look accessing that content from mobile and tablet devices. There’s a game page for Knack on one of the tablet screenshots, too (pictured).
View the screenshots at the gallery.
"I think it’s this new type of interaction – this new ways of interacting with the game world – that’s more exciting to me."
by Daniel Krupa
February 28, 2013
Hideo Kojima gave his initial thoughts on Sony’s PlayStation 4 in an interview with IGN.
Although he didn’t watch Sony’s press conference, he was interested in the direction the PS4 is taking. And that enthusiasm stemmed less from the hardware specs and more from the increased functionality of the new console.
“I can say that with every new generation of hardware the capabilities of the hardware increases. But up to this point it’s always been very much of a vertical evolution – of course, you expect things like visual fidelity, audio, frame rate. New features such as 3D capability, etc, etc. These things are a given. They come with the new hardware.
“But what I’m really more interested in is other ways of expanding into the next generation – a more horizontal expansion, where you’re going to be doing things online, more of a social aspect. People will be able to interact with the game through various devices, through various media – such as tablets, smart phones, etc.”
And these kinds of gameplay experiences could find their way into future Metal Gear titles. “I think it’s this new type of interaction – this new way of interacting with the game world – that’s more exciting to me. And I want to bring the Metal Gear franchise into that new wider world of interaction.”
Can we expect this kind of functionality in Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes? Kojima has previously said that the game's Peace Walker-like base management would be ideal for smartphones, and that some kind of integration is planned.
The per-game research and development costs associated with developing on the PlayStation 4 will likely be five to 10 percent higher than equivalent development on current generation systems, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said during an investors conference call earlier this week.
"On any one title, it might be five to 10 percent increases in cost, but the real opportunity comes with the ability to expand what you can do in that title," Jorgensen said. "Overall you might see larger titles or larger costs because of the capability that you can deal with, but we'll also see larger revenue streams, we believe, because of the excitement around some of those big titles."
EA has yet to officially determine whether these increased production costs will translate to increased retail costs, though Jorgensen made such an eventuality sound unlikely: "Typically at the start of a cycle, you've seen the pricing raise say to $69 for a core piece of software, and then over the life of those they've stripped it down to an introduction price typically now around $59. We haven't yet set pricing on our gen four [games], but you'll probably see a similar trend to that during the start of the next cycle."
Jorgensen misspoke, according to EA, and actually meant to say that current-gen games start at $59 and are reduced to $49, and that's a trend we're likely to see continue. This aligns with SCEA CEO Jack Tretton's assertion that PS4 games will cost between $0.99 and $60.
SCEA will give a presentation on PlayStation 4 development at the Game Developers Conference this month, event organisers have confirmed.
The talk, entitled 'Overview of PS4 for Developers', "will discuss the technology from a development standpoint as well as from the design side".
Although clearly focused on development details, its possible the presentation could give us a further insight into the capabilities of the console, which were demonstrated with a number of game trailers at Sony's unveiling event in February.
The session will be given by unspecified 'Sony presenters' from SCEA. GDC 2013 takes place in San Francisco on March 25-29.
Heads up, folks. NVIDIA will be invading the PS4 as the company has announced PhysX and APEX support for the recently-announced gaming console. Both PhysX and APEX are software development kits from NVIDIA that will allow game developers to design new PS4 games with stunning graphics, similar to what we saw during the PS4 reveal last month.
NVIDIA’s product manager for PhysX, Mike Skolones, says that “great physics technology is essential for delivering a better gaming experience and multiplatform support is critical for developers,” and “with PhysX and APEX support for PlayStation 4, customers can look forward to better games.” Indeed, both PhysX and APEX should make games more realistic with life-like movements and scenery.
PhysX is designed specifically to be used with hardware acceleration in processors and graphics cards, and the technology allows for more complex and detailed worlds in video games, including more-realistic explosions, clothes that react more naturally to the wind and body movements, and of course, better life-like motions of characters.
Both PhysX and APEX are already integrated into a handful of games. NVIDIA boasts that PhysX alone is featured in more than 150 games, and is used by over 10,000 developers. Some games that are taking advantage of NVIDIA’s technologies include Borderlands 2, the Batman Arkham series, Mirror’s Edge, and Metro 2033.
With new gaming hardware like the PlayStation 4 on the horizon, it’s easy to forget that advanced computing technology doesn’t just mean prettier games – it means smarter games. And AI middleware maker Xaitment is in the smart video games business.
We already know that PS4 games will look better than PS3, and on par with many current mid-to-high end PCs. The PS4′s processor allows for more things to happen at once on screen than ever before, and the technology is simply more advanced from that of the seven year old PS3. That new tech will also allow new graphics engines to run like the vaunted Unreal Engine 4 that Epic Games recently confirmed will be heading to the PS4, as well as other technologies to help improve the level detail. Earlier today, the UK-based company, Geomerics, confirmed its involvement with the PS4 as well. Geomerics offers lighting solutions for games, including Battlefield 3, Medal of Honor, and the upcoming Dragon Age 3. So we know that games on the PS4 will be pretty, but will they be smart?
Xaitment makes artificial intelligence tools that game makers can license to drive the behavior of characters and creatures in their games. Think of it like this: If Epic’s Unreal Engine is a body for game makers to design inside of, Xaitment makes the brains. The company announced on Thursday that its tools, XaitControl, are now available for PS4 game makers, giving PS4 games “more lifelike AI,” according to Xaitment.
“On past generation consoles, the [AI] focus was mainly on path finding, getting characters from point A to point B,” Xaitment CEO Mike Walsh tells us, “For the PS4, we think that the focus will shift to developing individual and group behaviors as well as game logic. This will mean that not only will you see different, new behaviors, but more importantly the characters will have the structure and the ability to choose different behaviors depending on the situation. Each time you see the character, you may get a completely different interaction.”
Significant changes in game character behavior aren’t always readily apparent to the people playing games though, at least until they’re confronted with something behaving poorly. Part of the reason people have reacted so negatively to Sega’s Aliens: Colonial Marines is that the aliens themselves seem to be incredibly stupid. The artificial intelligence-controlled monsters don’t behave in a believable way – things like targeting a player character rather than their AI partner even if that partner is closer are common. Alternatively, when AI behaves well as in a game like Halo 4, people tend to just accept it and move forward. With the PS4 boasting powerful new hardware with vastly improved processing power, the question then becomes whether or not people will notice any difference between what we have now and what we may soon have.
“Yes, we believe that these enhanced capabilities will help to evolve storytelling in games by making it easier to design and create smarter characters,” says Walsh, “Characters that move more intelligently, make better decisions and display more realistic behaviors.”
According to Walsh, XaitControl was one of a number of middleware solutions available for developers to check out at a recent Sony Developers Convention in Los Angeles. He wasn’t able to tell us which Xaitment clients are currently working on PS4 games, but we’ll see if the technology matches his vision when the PS4 comes out later this year.