PS4 Reveal: What has Sony learnt from Microsoft?

On Wednesday Sony held a huge event and officially announced the PS4 (sort of). They were sparing with details but announced some key changes. Firstly, the PS4 would not support DualShock and their controller is a little different. They also announced some hardware specifications as well as some new social features of the system. There were the clear beginnings of an evolution of a console generation, part of that was Sony fixing the PS3’s shortcomings with ideas from Microsoft (as I prepare to be lynched by PlayStation fanboys).

"For Man Hands!" (not my words)

The biggest and most detailed part of the announcement was the new PS4 controller. The controller has taken several points from the 360 controller and although it hasn’t copied the 360 controller outright it has definitely been influenced by it. The PS3 controller was often described as “for small girlish hands” (not my words) and it appears Sony have reacted to this, the PS4 controller is much bulkier than the PS3 controller, part of this is due to the touch pad but it is generally bigger too. The two handles are thicker and more ergonomically shaped than before, they look as though they fit your hands a lot better. This is much like a 360 controller which is considerable bigger than a PS3 controller.

The shoulder buttons (that’s L/R1/2) no longer stick out of the top of the controller and instead are incorporated into the curved top of the controller, like with the Xbox. This should make it easier to wrap your fingers around the buttons. The triggers have also changed (thank God!). The PS3 triggers (L/R2) were one of the worst things ever created by humans. They were convex and were prone to not being pushed properly and fingers slipping off. How Sony could make such a terrible feature is beyond me. The triggers were so bad that when making Call of Duty, Infinity Ward had to switch the default fire and aim down sights (scope) buttons to R1 & L1 instead of R2 & L2 (like on Xbox) because they felt that players would become frustrated at not being able to be as accurate. There's even a big market for PS3 trigger grips, which make the triggers more like a 360 controller. The 360 has concave triggers which are not prone to slipping off as much, are more easily pressed and feel more like the triggers of a gun. In response Sony has drastically improved the triggers, making them straight, so in-between the PS3 and Xbox. The face-on shape of the triggers is also similar to the 360.

"Those triggers, I think I feel sick"

The thumbsticks have also changed. They now have outer ridges, drawing similarities from 360’s concave sticks. They are still parallel unlike on the 360, but the ridges mean there is less slipping of fingers like there was on the PS3. The ridges act like a concave pad, while retaining the convex pad of the original PS3 controller, so Sony have taken some from Xbox, but again they have stuck partly to their own guns and not totally ripped off the Xbox controller.

Off the controller now and there are a couple of other items which Sony has taken inspiration from their great rivals. The PS4 will ship with an included headset, like the 360 did, albeit it wasn’t a great one. Shipping with a free headset meant all Xbox users could speak to their friends and 12 year olds could trash talk and swear at the online community. Meanwhile, 12 year olds on PS3 had nowhere to voice their deeply intelligent arguments and political viewpoints, instead they’d have to buy or find a headphone and microphone system.

Aww, how polite

Sony has also revealed Playstation Eye, a Kinect like camera for the PS4. Sony has seen the huge amount of money Kinect made for Microsoft (even if no one ever used it after buying it). Though not terribly good for gaming on its own, Kinect has redeeming features. It has been well utilised as an addition to the gaming experience as oppose to the centre of it. Mass Effect 3 and FIFA 13 both have used Kinect to voice over tactical commands. Also, when using non-gaming features of the Xbox, Kinect is very useful. It allows you to navigate the 360, using its apps (like watching TV/BBC iPlayer/4OD etc) so you don’t have to do anything with a controller. You can tell your Xbox to pause or search for something you want to find, all without having to get up (as if TV couldn’t get lazier). Even though Kinect is reviled by hardcore gamers, casual gamers are attracted by it. Much like the Wii it allows new gamers to play games and makes a whole new market for the Xbox, one Sony never truly managed to capitalise on with the PS3. This is however something that the Wii hit the nail on the head with.

Sony has also mentioned that it will release a PlayStation app that will work similarly to the Wii U’s touchscreen controller. The app will display extra information in-game such as maps, among other features. This takes from Microsoft’s Smart Glass app which allows Xbox users to  use their phones as an input the Xbox’s menu, again so you don’t need a controller. Microsoft predicted that there was a future in incorporating phones and tablets into the console gaming experience and it seems that Sony seem to agree.

PS4 profiles will also have their own profile page. The page shares similarities with the profile screens on 360s. They show your trophies, games, recent activity etc. The page in itself is very similar to Xbox Live profiles, without the addition of avatars. However, in all honesty the profiles take more from Steam, the PS4 profiles appear to be an amalgamation of the two. Sony is incorporating a greater social element into their consoles, something the 360 has been slowly working with beacons that tell Facebook users you want to play a game (though not in a Jigsaw kind of way). No console has yet truly mastered social media integration. PS4’s share button on the controller suggest Sony are trying to do that.

The Xbox has several features over the PS3 and Sony appear to have attempted to rectify these with changes on the PS4. The 360 controller took heavy influence from the PS2 controller and was thus the best controller on the market. Sony chose not to update their controller and were left with something that was a little out-dated. People generally like the PS3 controller because they are used to it since everyone has a PS2. Xbox managed to win over a huge number of those PS2 owners with their controller. The PS4 controller has evolved and taken much from the 360 controller. Controller evolution goes from SNES to PS2 to Xbox 360 (to maybe PS4?) Xbox pulled it off this generation, there’s nothing to say Sony won’t do it this time. Sony has also taken features from Wii U and Steam which I briefly mentioned, so it’s not as if Xbox are perfect Kings of this generation. So when Microsoft possibly announces the next Xbox in April, we could be seeing many of PS3’s better features on the next Xbox. (Hopefully that'll stop me being lynched)