8w ago - At this year's GDC, Sony has unveiled some new PlayStation 4 / PS4 details including optional real names, a larger friend's list, CPU and HDD updates and more as outlined below!

To quote: Sony shared new details on PlayStation 4 during a developer overview session at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

System

Sony is targeting PlayStation 4 to be the “central device in the living room,” and are building the system around core gamers, its “primary audience.”

There are five core principles to PlayStation 4: “Simple, Immediate, Social, Integrated, and Personalized.”

The PlayStation 4 CPU boasts a 64-bit x86 architecture, low power consumption, low heat, 8 cores, 8 hardware threads, 2MiB L2 cache per 4 core group, 32kib l1 I/D-cache, PlayStation Shader Language, and features DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0 support.

The GPU will offer tessellation to add “geometric detail to smooth edges or create more organic shapes.”

The system’s RAM is 8GB 256 bit GDDR5, a high-end graphics memory only found on PC graphics cards.

The PlayStation 4 developer environment...

8w ago - Sony Director of Emerging Platforms Chris Mahoney has detailed the PlayStation Mobile GDC 2013 games round up below today.

To quote: PlayStation Mobile had quite a presence at yesterday's Indie Arcade event at GDC. On top of all the awesome games out on the floor available to play, we announced the winner of our NYC GameJam, which took place last month at IndieCade East.

The four semi-finalist games-Crystallon, Hermit Crab in Space, Crumble, and Don't Wake the Bear-were all showcased at the event and Hermit Crab in Space, developed by Golden Ruby Games, was crowned as the first PSM GameJam winner.

Hermit Crab in Space will be featured in the PlayStation booth at E3 June 11th through 13th. Let's give a big shout out to all the semi-finalists and huge congratulations to Golden Ruby Games on their big win. These are incredible games developed by extraordinary talent and we look forward to seeing more at future GameJams.

We captured our very first GameJam on film and want to share that experience with you. Twelve amazing indie teams competed at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York working with the theme, "Evolution."

All teams who participated in the event produced remarkable games and it was tough to pick the...

8w ago - Sony Developer and Publisher Relations Vice President Adam Boyes is here with the GDC 2013 wrap-up videos stating that indie developers are choosing PS4, PS3 and PS Vita gaming consoles.

To quote: To reintroduce myself, I am the vice president of publisher and developer relations for SCEA, which is a fancy way of saying that I'm working day-in and day-out with my team here to get the world's best and brightest developers to bring their great gaming experiences to all of our PlayStation platforms.

Since my last post, I've joined SCEA and expanded the incredible team that focuses on fostering relationships with publishers and developers that share our goal of bringing the best games to you, the PlayStation community. With that said, the publisher and developer relations team has exciting news to deliver tonight.

During this year's Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, our team has put a strong focus on independent game developers. This evening, we collaborated with the PlayStation Network team to host a PlayStation Indie Arcade event, where we gave hands-on demos for more than 25 indie games that are coming to all PlayStation platforms. Our goal is to continue to work with the independent developer community to provide fantastic games you can't find anywhere else.

Here's...

63w ago - Sony Latin America Blog Manager Lorenzo Grajales has revealed a new PixelJunk 4am demonstration video today straight from the 2012 Game Developers Conference.

To quote: From the moment we got our first glimpse of PixelJunk 4am, we knew it was like nothing we'd ever seen before. Q-Games always strives to deliver distinctive games with one-of-a-kind experiences.

With PixelJunk 4am, they chose to bring this concept to a whole new level. Watch the video to see a live performance and learn more about how the game works.

But what exactly is PixelJunk 4am? A game? An instrument? To answer this question, we turned to Rowan Parker, who explained it from the floor of a launch party held during the 2012 Game Developers Conference where DJ Baiyon "played" for the lucky attendees.





PixelJunk 4am is easy to understand once you have the PlayStation Move motion controller in your hands and the visualizer appears. It varies with each "presentation," but you can change it at any time by pressing the Select button. What's important is for the music to "live" in the air, so to speak.

With PS Move, you grab hold of the sound from four different instruments (represented by the four control buttons) and unleash...

63w ago - Sony Senior Social Media Specialist Sid Shuman has shared a Kara demonstration video trailer below courtesy of Quantic Dream from this year's GDC event.

To quote: Head-turning videogame tech demos are a dime a dozen at Game Developers' Conference, but developer Quantic Dream might have this year's crop beat.

Watch the full tech demo video for "Kara" below to see how the creators of Heavy Rain are looking to expand virtual performances in video games.

And just to be extra clear: No, "Kara" is not Quantic Dream's next game.

Director David Cage was on-hand at GDC to debut the new video to the press, and his presentation touched on the origins of "Kara" - we've selected a few choice quotes below. Check back tomorrow to hear our full interview with Cage on the Official PlayStation Blogcast. It's one interview you won't want to miss!





After Heavy Rain, we wanted to push the envelope in terms of quality, starting with the visuals. We wanted to improve many things - things that were not possible with the Heavy Rain engine. So we had to develop a new engine from scratch.

We also wanted to improve the quality of the acting. With Heavy Rain, we did what many games do - split performances,...