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PlayStation 4’s Increased Memory is a ‘Joy,’ says ‘Dishonored’ level designer

Posted 9 hours ago by MTV Video Games in News, PS4

By Joseph Leray

So much of the conversation about any new hardware launch is about graphical upgrades: polygon count, volumetric lighting, depth of field, shaders, and so on and so forth. David Cage’s presentation at Sony’s recent press conference focused on Quantic Dream’s new graphics engine, for example, complete with real-time Crypt Keeper modeling.

But there is more to game development than character modelling and 3D rendering: the level designers at Arkane Studios, the minds that brought you “Dishonored,” are really just excited about having a little bit of extra RAM in Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 4.

“We need memory, you know?" Christophe Carrier, a level designer at Arkane, told Eurogamer during this week’s British Acadamey of Film and Television Arts Game Awards, where “Dishonored” won Best Game.

"As a level designer we are struggling against memory every day. We cut things, we remove things, we strip things, we split the levels, we remove NPCs from levels because there's not enough memory,” Carrier elaborates. “So knowing that memory is something that is going to be improved in the next generation of consoles: to us, it's a joy.”

The PlayStation 4 will come with 8 GB of unified random-access memory when it is released this fall. The current PlayStation 3, in contrast, sports a comparatively puny 256 MB of dynamic RAM and another 256 MB of video RAM.

"We were PC gamers at the beginning. We love PC games, and we had to make games on consoles. But the main problem was memory,” Carrier explains. “The processors are good, but the memory, for our games, is the most important. So it's great."

Presumably, Arkane won’t have to cut as many NPCs and design features from their next game, though the studio is being tight-lipped on what it might be, though “Dishonored” publisher Bethesda has expressed interest in continuing the series.

A new batch of “Dishonored” DLC was recently discovered, as well: “The Other Side of the Coin” sees Corvo investigating the mysterious Ms. Cooperspoon.

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Howard Stringer retires after overseeing rocky period for Sony and PlayStation

March 11, 2013 12:42 PM
Jeffrey Grubb

Former Sony chief executive officer Howard Stringer announced he will step down from his position as chairman and retire in June, according to Games Industry International.

This ends a 16-year period that Stringer spent with Sony.

The British businessman started his career as a journalist at CBS. He moved up the ranks and spent the last seven of his 30 years with the network as its president. He left CBS in 1995 to start TELE-TV, a set-top-box company that developed an interactive television service.

He left TELE-TV in 1997 to begin working with Sony as president of its U.S. operations.

In June 2005, Sony named Stringer its CEO and chairman. Sony launched the PlayStation 3 during the following year against strong competition from Nintendo’s novel Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which had a year head start.

Despite the PlayStation 2′s success, PlayStation 3 struggled to justify its $499 and $599 price tags to early consumers. Not only that, but developers struggled with PS3′s complicated architecture and most cross-platform games looked and played better on Microsoft’s console until about 2009.

In April 2011, hackers breached Sony’s PlayStation Network and stole millions of user’s data and credit-card information. Sony waited a week before telling users. Stringer didn’t get a handle on the public-relation disaster until he released an open letter in May 2011.

Since these struggles, the PS3 has found worldwide success comparable to the Xbox 360, but only after several price cuts that dug into profits. The early PS3 models cost an estimated $800 to $840 to manufacture, so even at the $499 and $599, the system cost Sony money to sell. The eventual “slim” redesigns helped alleviate that issue.

In 2009, Sony replaced company president Ryoji Chubachi with Stringer. The executive used this time to initiate a company-wide restructuring with the purpose of bringing Sony’s varying divisions closer together.

One of the results of a closer-knit Sony was an intense focus on 3D technology throughout 2010 and 2011. Sony attempted to leverage the PlayStation brand by combining the promise of 3D games on its 3D televisions.

Today, Sony’s effort to promote 3D is seen as a failure. By 2012, the company had ceased actively talking about 3D in its games or televisions.

In April 2012, Sony Computer Entertainment chairman Kazuo Hirai, who had overseen the PlayStation brand, replaced Stringer as CEO and president. Stringer also stepped down as chairman of Sony and took up the position as Sony’s chairman of the board.

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Jonathan Blow: PS4 easier to develop for than PC

Posted March 11th, 2013 at 13:56 EDT by Mike Harradence

Jonathan Blow, the creator behind Braid and The Witness, has suggested the PlayStation 4 is easier to develop games for than PC, thanks to its increased RAM.

Speaking with EDGE, Blow championed the console’s speed and made it clear Sony's new machine is packing some serious muscle under the hood.

“For The Witness we’re mostly interested in the base machine and how fast it is – the fact it has faster RAM than a PC, which really helps in shuttling graphics resources around, and since it’s not running a heavyweight operating system like Windows that gets in the way of your graphics,” said Blow.

“Rendering stuff through Windows has an impact on performance. Since a console is just about games, that doesn’t happen, and the equivalent game will run faster. And if you can target to specific hardware you can make it run faster, too.”

PS4’s ‘Share’ button in particular intrigued Blow, who said of the feature:

“In general, as a platform feature, it’s super interesting,” adding: “One thing that most game developers have become really aware of is that over the past couple of years on YouTube the whole livecast and commentary thing is really huge.”

“A lot of people are paying a lot of attention to it now and it’s interesting to see what happens if you base an entire console around it. That’s what’s crazy about PS4 – it has a chip that’s always recording to a maybe two-minute buffer. After something cool happens, it’s there in the buffer. That’s the sort of thing that’s really going to change the way something’s used.”

Blow’s next project, The Witness, is a launch-window exclusive for PS4. Sony’s new home console will be released in holiday 2013.

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Even if the focus is shifting away from consoles and on to mobile devices, the next round of hardware from Sony and Microsoft will still shift millions of units. That must be a tempting proposition for any hardware partners either company is considering, but not Nvidia.

Tony Tamsai, Nvidia’s senior vice president of content and technology, has said that providing hardware for use in the PlayStation 4 was on the table, but they walked away. Having provided chips for use in both the PS3 and the original Xbox, that decision doesn’t come without experience.

Tamsai told GameSpot that negotiations were underway with Sony regarding Nvidia supplying components for the PS4, but ultimately Nvidia decided against it. The reason is one of cost and resources.

Nvidia didn’t want to commit to producing hardware at the cost Sony was willing to pay. They also considered that by accepting a PS4 contract, they’d have to not do something else in another sector, e.g. mobile, graphics cards, Project Shield, etc. In other words, the PS4 is not a lucrative enough platform to consider when high-end graphics cards and the Tegra line of chips hold so much more revenue potential.

And that’s ultimately the problem with consoles. Typically they are sold at a loss on release and then Sony/Microsoft continually scramble to reduce costs over the life of the machine in order to eventually make it profitable. That also means they put constant pressure on partners to offer the same parts at an ever decreasing cost, meaning their profits also get squeezed.

Nvidia has already gone through this process twice over two generations of machine, and clearly it’s just not worth it. Now the focus is on AMD to deliver for the PS4. And it seems likely, based on Tamsai’s comments, that Microsoft has also partnered with AMD as has been rumored.

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Sony Computer Entertainment Announces New Games for PlayStation 4

Source: Sony Computer Entertainment America

March 26, 2013

Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) today continued its commitment to delivering new and innovative experiences to gamers by introducing several one-of-a-kind titles from its growing independent developer portfolio for all PlayStation platforms, including the newly announced PlayStation 4 (PS4) system. With several options for developers to publish on PlayStation Network, including a flexible self-publishing process, a low barrier to entry, an accessible SDK and various funding opportunities such as the PlayStation Pub Fund, SCEA will continue to offer the best platform for independently published console games across the game industry.

"We've got an incredible team on the ground that talks to developers every day, and these new games we're announcing are a direct result of the team's proactive outreach and focus on working with top independent developers," said Adam Boyes, vice president, publisher and developer relations, SCEA. "Our process and approach in working with developers has evolved to incorporate a lot of flexibility into the process, including the way we pursue and discover new talent, help them with funding solutions and work together to deliver their best games onto PlayStation platforms."

The games unveiled today for PS4 include Zombie Studios' Blacklight: Retribution and Primal Carnage: Genesis (watch the trailers below) from Lukewarm Media. These games will join Jonathan Blow's exploration-puzzler, The Witness, as self-published titles making their console debut on the PS4 system. In addition to supporting Blacklight: Retribution, the PlayStation Pub Fund, which provides back-end financial and marketing support to developers, adds fighting game Divekick and infographic adventure Metrico, which is a PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) exclusive.

The games were highlighted, along with additional details about SCEA's new developer and publisher support system and guidelines, at tonight's PlayStation press event during the Game Developers Conference 2013 in San Francisco.

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PlayStation 4's Blu-ray drive is 3x as fast as PS3's, PSN friends list cap raised, and other tidbits from Sony's GDC panel HD

By Ben Gilbert posted Mar 27th, 2013 at 7:29 PM 46
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The PlayStation 4's new DualShock 4 controller can be charged even while the PlayStation 4 is turned off. The PlayStation 4's new Eye motion camera has a tilt sensor so it can tell players when its facing the wrong direction or if it's fallen off your TV stand. The PlayStation 4's Blu-ray disc drive is three times as fast as the PlayStation 3's. In case it weren't clear, Sony's PlayStation 4 panel at this week's Game Developers Conference wasn't chock full of major revelations, but it did provide plenty of interesting little details about the PlayStation 4 and its various hardware companions.

For instance, the console's "True Name" social functionality isn't automatic -- you have to opt-in to who will see your real name versus your PlayStation Network ID. That is, unless you find a friend through Facebook or another social network where your real name is already your main ID; in that instance, the console defaults to displaying your actual name. That's not the only change coming to your friends list, either, as the standing 100 friends cap is being raised to an unknown amount.

Additionally, the Gaikai-powered Remote Play functionality between the Vita and PS4 is said to be "much better," according to Sony senior staff engineer Chris Norden. Not only can it display your PS4 games in the Vita's native resolution (960x544), but it can be activated at any given time rather than having to be preset. And unlike Remote Play on PS3, with PS4 the game being pushed to the Vita is mirrored on your television screen. None of this stuff is what we'd call red hot, but we're hungry for PS4 details and this is what Sony's delivering. Here's hoping the company's more forthcoming at E3.

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Sony dives deep into the PS4’s hardware power, controller features at GDC

New tidbits on PlayStation 4 Eye camera and user interface as well.

by Kyle Orland - Mar 27 2013, 3:45pm CDT

At a presentation at the Game Developers Conference today, Sony Senior Staff Engineer Chris Norden went into greater technical detail on some of the PlayStation 4's underlying hardware, including the PS4 Eye depth sensing camera. While all of this information is not finalized and subject to change, the presentation gave us our deepest look yet at Sony's next generation of console hardware.

Norden started by focusing on the chips, including the 64-bit x86 CPU that he stressed provided low power consumption and heat. The eight cores are capable of running eight hardware threads, with each core using a 32KiB L1 I-cache and D-cache, and each four-core group sharing 2MiB of L2 Cache. The processor will be able to handle things like atomics, threads, fibers, and ULTs, with out-of-order execution and advanced ISA.

Sony is building its CPU on what it's calling an extended DirectX 11.1+ feature set, including extra debugging support that is not available on PC platforms. This system will also give developers more direct access to the shader pipeline than they had on the PS3 or through DirectX itself. "This is access you're not used to getting on the PC, and as a result you can do a lot more cool things and have a lot more access to the power of the system," Norden said. A low-level API will also let coders talk directly with the hardware in a way that's "much lower-level than DirectX and OpenGL," but still not quite at the driver level.

The system is also set up to run graphics and computational code synchronously, without suspending one to run the other. Norden says that Sony has worked to carefully balance the two processors to provide maximum graphics power of 1.843 teraFLOPS at an 800Mhz clock speed while still leaving enough room for computational tasks. The GPU will also be able to run arbitrary code, allowing developers to run hundreds or thousands of parallelized tasks with full access to the system's 8GB of unified memory.

Speaking of memory, Norden hyped up the 8GB of GDDR5 RAM in the system as the type of memory that's currently usually found only on high-end graphics cards. Calling the RAM "expensive" and "exotic," Norden stressed that you "can't buy this [RAM] for 50 bucks... that's why high-end graphics cards cost as much as they do." The 176 gigabytes of total bandwidth provided by that GDDR5 RAM are much more efficient than the 40 gigabytes a second provided by the standard DDR3 RAM used in most current computer systems. The unified address space should also cause fewer headaches for developers than the mixed architecture of the PS3, Norden said.

The development environment coders will use is based on Windows 7 and fully integrated with Visual Studio 2010 and 2012, allowing developers to debug PS4 code just like PC code. Tools will include C and C++ front ends that are largely compatible with most standard compilers, and various binary utilities, including CPU and GPU analyzers that can run in real time alongside games. Development houses will also be able to distribute tool and version updates to multiple dev kits more easily through a tool integrated into Windows Explorer.

As for the physical hardware itself, the PS4 will have a Blu-ray drive that's "up to three times faster" than the PS3's drive and will include a "very large" hard drive in every system.
DualShock 4

The DualShock 4 controller that's standard on the PS4 eliminates one feature that was seldom used on the PS3—the analog face buttons and d-pad. While games like Gran Turismo 4 made use of this feature, most developers ignored it. Using digital face buttons on the DualShock 4 will allow Sony to "cut latency way down" for the new controller, Norden said.

For force feedback technology, the DualShock 4 has one small motor and one large motor, much like the DualShock 3. The new controller will let developers vary the analog strength of each motor, though, unlike the digital motors on the PS3, allowing for "more precise, cool effects."

The L2 and R2 buttons on the Dual Shock 4 have been redesigned to be more comfortable and to ignore accidental pressure when players place the controller down on a coffee table, for instance. The analog sticks have also been tightened, Norden said, for a reduced dead zone and better feeling tension that grips your thumbs. The touchpad on the controller will allow for two points of recognition at a 1920×900 resolution, which is pretty large considering the small size of the pad.

Norden also highlighted the light bar on the back of each DualShock 4 controller. The full-range RGB LEDs in each controller will light up blue, red, pink, and green to correspond to players 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The lights will also blink when the controllers are charging (which is now possible even when they are plugged into a PS4 system in standby mode) and turn off when the charging is complete.

Finally, the PS4 will include a mono headset and microphone in every box that plugs directly into the DualShock 4. The system is capable of streaming 32Khz sound to the controllers' speakers for up to 2 players, but that reduces to 16Khz when 3 or more players are hooked up.
PlayStation 4 Eye camera

The PS4 Eye seems like a significant upgrade from the normal PlayStation Eye that was used on the PS3. The two cameras inside the unit are each capable of 1280×800 resolution and 60Hz at a color depth of 12 bits per pixel. That resolution can actually be turned down to increase the response rate, so a resolution of 640×400 would get you an extremely fast 120Hz measurement. The camera's 85 degree field of view means that there will be fewer out-of-range problems with PlayStation Eye games, Norden said, while a four-mic camera array can provide directional listening capabilities.

Norden highlighted the PS4 Eye's ability to change things like exposure, white balance, and gain per camera or per frame, unlike the "one image" original PlayStation Eye. This can allow a developer to, for example, use one camera at low exposure to track the bright PlayStation Move balls, and the other at higher exposure to show a player that would otherwise look dark in a dimly lit living room.

The camera itself actually sports its own three-axis accelerometer, which Norden noted can be used to remind the player to change the orientation if it's not pointed correctly. In addition, the camera can be synced with the "game loop" clock so that images of players line up with the in-game action without lag.

In a quick filmed demo, Norden showed users flicking the touchpad on the DualShock 4 to create an augmented reality menu that moved along with the controller in the player's hands, and a modified pong game where the position of the players' controllers caused the playfield to move, morph, and bend. The cutest demo, though, featured a number of tiny robots trapped inside a virtual DualShock 4 controller, getting flicked out into an extremely sharp and responsive augmented reality environment as the player flicked the touchpad.
User Interface

Finally, Norden went in to a little more detail on the PS4's user interface. The system will be focused on providing users up-to-date information on all their games from a central menu, telling them about things like new DLC, social recommendations, and videos without having to boot up a game. The default home screen will provide a digest view of everything happening on a player's PS4 social network, displayed by default at boot up. The friends system has also been improved from the PS3, allowing for a higher maximum number of friends and improved multi-user support when a few PSN users are playing on one system.

Norden highlighted that the PS4 will use a dual identification system that uses both a "True Name" and picture alongside a PSN name and avatar. Your True Name will only be visible to friends that you add through Facebook or through True Name search, Norden said. Otherwise, both users have to mutually agree to share their True Names to see them. "It's kind of up to you how you want people to access your True Name" he said.

Sony also hopes that developers will integrate social features directly into traditionally single-player games. Norden gave an example of a Heavy Rain scene, where a decision between discussing something with your son or getting a snack was accompanied by a pop-up display showing how many of your friends chose each option.

To wrap up, Norden discussed the extra PS4 chip that allows for a constant storage of the last few minutes of video of your gameplay, without taking away power from the core CPU or GPU. This allows for easy sharing of awesome moments without advance planning, Norden said. It also allows for live streaming and spectating of every PS4 game without extra developer support, and for Remote Play on the PlayStation Vita, with a mirrored display that makes use of the system's full 960×554 resolution. That Remote Play will be possible over either a home network or the Internet, but the latter will obviously be highly dependent on bandwidth and latency, Norden said.

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Sony PlayStation 4 to Feature Massively Boosted Storage Sub-System - Reports.

Sony’s PS4 to Have Fast Blu-Ray Drive, Very Capacious Hard Disk Drive
[03/27/2013 11:40 PM]
by Anton Shilov

Sony revealed additional details about its PlayStation 4 game console at the Game Developers Conference. One of the major improvements of the PS4 will be its storage sub-system, which will include faster Blu-ray disc drive as well as very hard capacity hard disk drive. Both will improve overall user experience by speeding up game installations and launches.

The PlayStation 4's Blu-ray disc drive is three times as fast as the PlayStation 3's, according to Engadget web-site. Keeping in mind that the PS3 is equipped with 2x BD drive capable of reading Blu-ray discs at up to 9MB/s speed. The three times faster solution is a 6x BD drive that can read discs at up to 27MB/s, which should be enough not only for modern games, but also for next-generation 4K video discs, assuming that they are Blu-ray or compatible with the drive (or use the same 405nm wavelength as BD).

Today’s PlayStation 3 systems are available with 160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB hard disk drives. They PlayStation 4 is projected to feature “a very large hard drive in every console”, revealed Chris Norton, a senior staff engineer at Sony Computer Entertainment America, reports IGN web-site. Since the PS4 consoles will likely continue to use 2.5” hard drives, it is possible to expect 500GB, 750GB or 1TB HDDs in the PS4 simply because there are no standard drives in such form-factor with higher capacity now and Sony is unlikely to use the forthcoming drives based on newer platters in the consumer electronics device.

Other hardware related improvements that the engineer mentioned are all-digital buttons and sticks on the DualShock 4 controller, ability to charge the controller while the console is off as well as a mono headset in every PlayStation 4 box.

Sony PlayStation 4 is based on a semi-custom AMD Fusion system-on-chip that integrates eight AMD x86 Jaguar cores, custom AMD Radeon HD core with unified array of 18 AMD GCN-like compute units (1152 stream processors which collectively generate 1.84TFLOPS of computer power that can freely be applied to graphics, simulation tasks, or some mixture of the two), various special-purpose hardware blocks as well as multi-channel GDDR5 memory controller. The PS4 will come with 8GB of unified GDDR5 memory sub-system (with 176GB/s bandwidth) for both CPU and GPU as well as large-capacity hard disk drive.

Sony PS4 will be equipped with Blu-ray disc drive capable of reading BDs at 6x and DVDs at 8x speeds, USB 3.0 connectivity in addition to a proprietary aux port, Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR wireless technology as well as HDMI, optical and analog outputs. The new system will also utilize new DualShock 4 game controller with integrated touchpad as well as better motion sensing thanks to new PS4 Eye tracking cameras.

The PlayStation 4 is projected to be launched during holiday season 2013 in select regions.

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PS4 controller and cameras fully detailed at GDC

Digital buttons, four microphone array, and more

http://bulk2.destructoid.com/images/ui/authorpoint.gif 1:37 PM on 03.27.2013
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Chris Norden, Senior Staff Engineer, gave a developer overview of the PS4 this morning at GDC 2013, with a section covering the controller and camera specifically.
Those belly button-looking sticks? Norden says that the analog sticks are tightened up and are more precise than the PS3. Even the top surface material has changed, though he didn't disclose the material used.

The gyrometer is also more precise than the DualShock 3 or even the Vita, and the touchpad has a tactile click. It sports a 1920 x 900 resolution, and gestures are supported. Sony suggest UI navigation, cursors and more for this pad. Additionally, the light bar for the controller is always on. It replaces port numbers on the top of the DualShock 3, and can be seen by the new camera as an identifier.

A mono speaker is included on the controller as well, streaming audio directly from the PS4. A headset and mic are included in every box. The port at the bottom of the controller is used for voice chat with this mic.

L1 and R1 are digital buttons, as are the action buttons. Inside, there's one "small" and one "large" motor, so expect some "cool effects" according to Sony.

R2 and L2 can now sit on a table so they're not pushed when you lay them down. They're a curved design with a smooth throw and linear output. Interestingly, PS4 controllers can be charged when connected even when the system is in standby mode.
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The camera is all about enhancing the PS4 experience. It works in conjunction with the controller, says Norden. There's two cameras inside running at 1280 x 800, 12 bits/pixel, running at 60Hz. It has an 85 degree wide angle view. There's even a 3-axis accelerometer/ tilt sensor inside. A four microphone array will pick up voice and sound, and there's a dedicated port for it -- an exclusive SCE connector (so no PC connectivity it seems!).

HD wide-angle video, PS Move support, and speech recognition are all supported with this camera. Sony suggest using the camera to create easy walkthrough videos, and developers could use it to log people into the game quickly. They like the idea of people leaning in a racing game, or leaning to peek your head around the corner in an FPS.
Camera-only use can be likened to Eyetoy type games -- for PS Move use, it works better than the PS3 camera -- better tracking and sensing were mentioned.

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PlayStation 4 may outsell supply at launch

Reported by David Farrell on Saturday, March 30 2013 6:43 pm

Gamestop has just released it's predictions about the PS4 launch, and they're saying that Sony's new console is already seeing indicators of high demand

Gamestop has just reported its earnings, but also released an interesting statement about Sony’s new console, the PlayStation 4. Gamestop president Tony Bartel says that the PS4 is already showing signs of strength: "nearly 900,000 members have already signed up for the PlayStation 4 First to Know List."

The First to know list provides customers with all of the latest information about the console, and according to Bartel, it’s a good indicator for the number of preorders to be received later on. Bartel goes on to explain that, although they have yet to receive any production numbers from Sony, he believes demand will “far outpace” the supply.

Sony unveiled their newest console recently, and though they have yet to release the exact hardware design of the PS4, it is close to completion and the gaming world at large is convinced it will be released at the end of this year. After the somewhat poor launch of the PS3, Sony will likely be very happy to hear this news. We just have to hope they keep the price reasonable.

During the earnings call, Gamestop also spoke about some issues with the WiiU, expressing concern that it hadn’t been selling as well as they had hoped. Despite a strong launch, the WiiU only sold 57,000 units this January and only 64,000 units in February. Bartel believes consumers may be weary of touch pad controller, and uncertain of its potential. He also believes sales will take off when the WiiU gets a “killer-app”; a first party title that is a must-play.

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Interestingly, PS4 controllers can be charged when connected even when the system is in standby mode.

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Sony promises PlayStation 4 games will also run on Vita

Yannick LeJacq NBC News contributor

Sony is mandating that nearly all PlayStation 4 games be made compatible with the PlayStation Vita's "Remote Play" feature.

Continuing its valiant effort to convince PlayStation fans and mobile gamers to actually get around to buying its PlayStation Vita mobile gaming console, Sony said Wednesday that it is requiring almost all next-generation PlayStation 4 games to be compatible with its mobile counterpart via the company's "Remote Play" feature.

In other words, Sony is mandating that pretty much every PlayStation 4 game can also be played on the PlayStation Vita when the mobile console is in streaming distance of its living room counterpart.

While Sony's mandate to developers was first reported by the gaming site Eurogamer, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida confirmed the news on Twitter shortly afterwards.

Yoshida said that all PlayStation 4 games will be able to run on the PS Vita "unless the game requires specific hardware like the camera," referring to the new PlayStation Eye motion-controlled hardware.

"It will be great to play PS4 games on PS Vita," Yoshida added.

Much like Nintendo's Wii U console, the promise of Sony's "Remote Play" feature is that it will allow console owners to access their games without being tethered to one specific screen. If a friend or family member is insisting that you let them complete their binge of the new season of "Arrested Development," say, you can take the Wii U GamePad and continue playing a console game on the smaller screen.

Thing is, the "remote" part of "Remote Play" only goes so far. Again like the Wii U GamePad, Sony has said that the Vita will only be able to run PS4 games when it's within striking distance of the console on the same Wi-Fi network. It's not the same thing as "Cross Play," which right allows Vita and PS3 owners to swap between playing the same game on both of the consoles. But while there have been a handful of excellent indie games such as the recent platformer "Guacamelee!" that transport all gaming content seamlessly between the two, both of Sony's features have remained more attractive in theory than in practice.

The timing of the PlayStation Vita's release may be promising in this regard, however. The mobile gaming device was first released in December 2011 — well into the PlayStation 3's life-cycle, but also at a point when Sony was already hard at work developing the PlayStation 4. Even Sony's acquisition of cloud computing company Gaikai in July 2012 seemed to be done with these kind of remote gameplay features in mind — though Gaikai's technology will support more than just the PS4's Vita-compatible features. And last March, many gaming sites such as IGN reported that the Vita's sales skyrocketed in Japan once the company dropped its price by roughly $50.

Could the company be waiting until the PlayStation 4 launch window to make a similar price cut for gamers in the U.S. and Europe? Gamers may not be able to stop playing "Call of Duty: Ghosts" on their TV and pick up the game moments later on their Vita during a morning commute, but giving Vita owners access to the PS4's entire library could finally compel more PlayStation fans to pick up the underperforming device.

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