Sony unveils next generation PlayStation 4 games console with touchpad controller

Sony has unveiled the PlayStation 4 console it claims is the 'future of entertainment'.

The struggling electronics giant hopes the next generation console will help it regain market share against Microsoft, which is yet to reveal plans for its new Xbox console - which both expected to be on sale in time for Christmas.

The PlayStation 4 features dramatically increased graphics power, and a new controller with a built in touchpad.

Mark Cey, lead system architect for the Sony Playstation 4, shows off the new Dualshock 4 controller, which has a built in touchscreen controller

PS4's lead system architect, Mark Ce, said 'Nothing will come between the player, the platform, and the joy of the game.'

He showed off a new Dualshock 4 controller with a built in touchpad.

He said the fast new system will have a 8 gigabytes of memory and the new pad will give the gamer a 'tighter sense of control'.

It also has a share button allowing players to easily compete against their friends, and even let friends take over their game.

Andrew House, head of PlayStation at Sony, said the company was 'strengthening the PlayStation ecosystem through hardware and software... that, when combined, create truly magical experiences'.

Analyst Michael Gartenberg of Gartner said he could 'Definitely see the appeal for hardcore gamers, although I suspect much of this could have been delivered on PS3.

'Feeling evolution. Not revolution,' he tweeted.

KillZone: Shadowfall, one of the first games to be shown off on the new PS4 system

The new PS4 controller has a touchpad and a light sensor so it can be tracked by cameras on the console, allowing players to simply move it around to play games without having to press buttons

The unveiling will excite millions of computer games fans across the world, and further fuel the on-going battle between Sony, Xbox 360 manufacturers Microsoft and Nintendo, the makers of the Wii system.

Experts say the event is critical to Sony's future.

'For Sony, they have to come out and make this PlayStation event the definitive statement of why gamers need to adopt the PlayStation 4 or PlayStation Orbis or whatever they end up calling it,' said Greg Miller, PlayStation executive editor at video game site IGN.com.

'Their focus is on establishing a beachhead for the next generation of consoles, and that's what Feb. 20 is all about,\" said P.J. McNealy, CEO and founder of Digital World Research.

'The reality is they have been playing catch-up.'

Since the first PlayStation console launched in December 1994, Sony have sold over 310 million home consoles worldwide, and 2.9 billion games.

Pictures allegedly showing the new PS4 controller reveal the device will incorporate a touchscreen built into the middle of the familiar DualShock layout.

It has also been rumoured the console will cost £270 in an attempt to undercut rivals.

Electronics giant Sony is holding an event in New York, during which it promised to reveal 'the future'.

But the games manufacturer has refused to confirm widespread rumours that the latest version of the console will be launched.

Leaked photographs which have emerged online appear to show a prototype controller with a touchpad alongside the classic DualShock-style controls have fuelled the speculation.

The touchscreen is at the front, where the start and select buttons are found on the current generation of PlayStation controllers.

The image appears to back up rumours circulating earlier this week which added L2 and R2 buttons have also been remodelled and improved.

Sony has kept its cards close to its chest regarding the expected launch, so far only officially releasing a teaser video via YouTube announcing date of the event and calling on gamers to 'be the first to know'.

The video also promoted a Twitter hashtag, #Playstation2013, to which video game fans flocked to share their excitement about the forthcoming event.

Asked about the purpose of the event, Masaki Tsukakoshi, a spokesman for the company said only: 'We will be talking about the PlayStation business.'

PLAYSTATION HISTORY: SONY'S RISE TO THE TOP OF THE GAMING WORLD

Computer gaming was about to get serious when Sony unveiled its PlayStation to British customers in 1995.

In less than a decade, the brand would take consoles from the clutches of children and teenagers and open them up to adults as grown-up gaming devices and multimedia entertainment hubs.
It would also catapult the company from the periphery of the games industry to its very core as the PlayStation became the world's biggest-selling console to date.

'It's been an amazing success story,' said Mark Eyles, a console expert at the University of Portsmouth who developed leading computer games when he worked in the industry in the 1980s and '90s.

'I think the underlying story is Sony deciding they wanted part of the games market in the 1990s.

There was already Nintendo and Sega, who had products out there, and Sony looked at them and thought 'this could ea us some money'.

'When the PlayStation came out it was interesting to see a big player like Sony come in an carve out a big market, then continue to invest in it.'

While the first PlayStation games can now be played on a smartphone, many were jaw-droppingly advanced when they were launched.

With the rise of games on CD, rather than clunky cartridges used by 1990s market-leaders the Super Nintendo and Sega Megadrive, the PlayStation offered gameplay that was faster, graphics that were sleeker and a package that was all together more engaging.

Sony's Playstation brand has become one of the most recognisable in the world

'A lot of its success was due to good, robust technology but technology that delivered the quality of games people wanted. It's games that sell consoles, not the other way round,' said Mark, who worked on early classics including Ant Attack and Alien Vs Predator and is now an educational adviser for TIGA, the independent game developers' association.

'It's not just the technology that's made them successful, Sony has been a master of identifying trends in gaming and predicting what people want.

'If you look at the things they have done with the PlayStation, they've continued to push the boundaries.'

PlayStation was the brainchild of Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who had just come out of his hardware engineering division.

When it was unveiled to UK gamers in 1995 it cost £299, but the high launch price quickly tumbled - a patte that has been repeated time and time again in Sony's battle to dominate the market with successive PlayStation reincaations.

The PS2, which replaced its aging predecessor and the facelift PlayStation one in 2000 at a price of £299, brought the device from the confines of teenagers' bedrooms to the family living room thanks to its ability to do more than just run games.

It had a built-in DVD player and, like the original console, could also play CDs.

Sony had latched on to customers' desire for a more than just a gaming machine, and with its PlayStation3, launched in 2007, it took the concept a step further by making the console compatible with the PlayStation Network - an online platform that lets users communicate, play against each other remotely and access the inteet

Console rival Microsoft is also believed to be gearing to launch its successor to the Xbox 360, which is codenamed Xbox Infinity, though it is understood the Windows giant is likely to delay announcement of the machine until the E3 show in June.

Observers expect both systems to be on the shelves in time for Christmas, which could mean a battle for supremacy between Microsoft and Sony as their next-generation consoles go head-to-head in the vital holiday season market.

Due for an update: Microsoft is expected to announce the successor to its Xbox 360 console at June's E3, in time for a Christmas launch date

It has been more than six years since Sony launched the 70million-selling PS3, a longer gap than between it and its PS2 predecessor, adding to the anticipation that it will soon disclose its next gaming concept.

The last time Sony held a PlayStation event, in January 2011, it presented a protoype of its handheld Vita console.

Before that, it convened a gathering in 2005 two months after it first demonstrated the PS3 concept. A meeting in 1999 revealed designs for the PS2.

Rumours surfaced last week that the new machine would be heavily focused on the cloud, which would put the Japanese firm's purchase last year of a leading cloud-based gaming company into perspective.

Sony paid $380million for Gaikai in June last year.

At the time Sony's chief executive, Andrew House, said: 'By combining Gaikai's resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE's [Sony Computer Entertainment] extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences.

'SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of inteet-connected devices.'

The PlayStation Vita: The portable console, successor to the PSP, was unveiled the last time Sony held a PlayStation event, in January 2011

As well as the touchpad controller, the new console is expected to have an eight-core x64 AMD processor (codenamed 'Bulldozer), 8GB of RAM, 2.2GB of video RAM, four USB ports that use the new high-speed USB 3.0 standard, a Blu-ray drive, a hard drive of 160GB, an Etheet port, and both HDMI and optical outputs.

Specs for the next-generation Xbox are rumored to be comparable, with insiders suggesting that it will also pack 8GB of RAM, HDMI connectors and USB 3.0.

However, video gamers have been horrified by rumours that the Microsoft machine will only work with the Kinect sensor plugged in and that it will only run games registered to the machine - potentially blocking not only second-hand games but also games borrowed from friends.The launches are important for both companies, as gamers have moved away from consoles since the Xbox 360 and the PS3 débuted.

More and more people have shifted to tablets and smartphones as a gaming platform.

Analysts expect that tablets and other mobile devices will match the power and graphics of today's games consoles within a few years.

Many are already able to run the kinds of 3D games that were once the exclusive preserve of those dedicated machines and high-spec gaming PCs.

Last hurrah: The Gaet Red PS3. Sony are still actively marketing the console, and are releasing it in two different colours tomorrow

Azurite Blue: The 500GB 'super-slim' units may represent one last push of their current gen hardware

Despite next-gen rumours and stiff competition from mobile devices, Sony are still actively marketing the Playstation 3.

The company last week released the console in two different colours.

The new limited edition Gaet Red and Azurite Blue 500GB 'super-slim' units seem to represent one last push of their current generation hardware