Posted on USENET Newsgroups, The PlayStation 4 will launch at $399 in the US, €399 in Europe and £349 in the U.K. and will release this holiday, Sony announced.
In addition to the price and time frame, Sony said that the PlayStation 4 launch would be “the biggest ever” in Sony’s history. The company revealed dozens of PS4 games and entertainment offerings, including a mysterious original content initiative.
In a move that seems like a direct response to Microsoft’s complex Xbox One licensing system, Sony announced at its E3 press conference today that disc-based single-player games would be freely sellable and tradeable as usual, without a connection to the Internet.
Sony expects most if not all PlayStation 4 owners to have a consistent broadband connection and said such a connection was necessary to get the most out of the system. But the company stressed that single-player games would still work just fine even when there is no Internet connection. If you enjoy playing single-player games offline, PS4 won’t require you to to check-in periodically. And it won’t stop working if you haven’t checked-in in 24 hours.
The PlayStation 4 was first announced in February of this year and will ship with a new controller — the touch-sensitive DualShock 4. It will also feature connectivity with second screen devices like tablets and mobile phones and a “Share” button that allows users to capture and share video content from their games.
The console will integrate streaming technology through Gaikai in 2014, which will allow PS4 users to instantly try out games without having to download the complete versions before being able to play.
