Before you judge me – I had to re-buy my PS3 because it along with my Xbox 360 got stolen a little while ago. Between the two I decided to go fore the PS3 because traditionally Sony ops for the ten year life cycle for their consoles. Thinking I knew better, I figure Microsoft would update quicker than Sony so I bought the PS3 since it has a nice blueray player and online play is free. Since I wagered Microsoft would put out their device before Q4 of this year, I’d just wait to get that console next.

Looks like my gamble was a little off. When I pulled the trigger on the purchase the rumors of the next gen device from Sony started to come in fast and heavy. Spec sheets, design mocks, and rumors galore! Today was the confirmation and the device sounds good. Sony hasn’t gone so far as to show what the device looks like yet, but there is an honest-to-goodness spec sheet available now. We also get to see the new controller. 

Spec Sheet:

• Single-chip custom processor, with eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores and 1.84 TFLOPS next-gen AMD Radeon based graphics engine
• 8GB GDDR5 memory
• Built-in hard drive
• 6x Blu-Ray and 8x DVD drive
• USB 3.0 and auxiliary ports
• Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.1
• HDMI, analog AV-out, and optical S/PDIF audio output
• DualShock 4 controller, with two-point capacitive touchpad, three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer, vibration, light bar with three color LEDs, mono speaker, micro USB port, stereo headset port, extension port, 1000mAh battery
• PlayStation 4 Eye camera, with two 1280 x 800 cameras, f/2.0 fixed focus lenses, 85-degree field of view, 30cm minimum focusing distance, four-channel microphone array

It looks like Sony is putting a lot of emphasis on social gaming. New features include the ability to watch someone else play a game remotely or even take or yield control of the game online. It looks like you will be able to browse content with your smart phone as well.

There is at least one downside to the upgrade however which comes in the lack of backwards compatibility with PS3 games. This is a major shift in the status-quo that we are used to from Sony. They usually pride themselves on an ecosystem that spans several generations. Personally I don’t think it’s a bad move, but time will tell whether or not it’s a good move. One thing is for certain, and that is that someone at the top is listening to what’s going on in the market. Sony seems to realize that if they drag their feet here, they will be left in the dust by the likes of up and coming whippersnappers like the Valve Steam Box and the Android Ouya consoles.

[Source: TheVerge]

Update: Check out this awesome new video of the new “Destiny” Trailer from Bungie (creators of Halo) for PS4!

Update#2

Apparently the PS4 will have the ability to play used games, however, the folks over at Eurogamer are saying that

Shuhei Yoshida, Sony’s head of Worldwide Studios wasn’t able to clarify past vague comments about how selling used PS4 games would work. This is becoming a sore point as the next generation Xbox System is rumored to lock down games so that no one other than the original purchaser can play them.