History of video games/Platforms/PlayStation 4

Development
Development of the PlayStation 4 started in 2007. Making the console easy to develop for was a priority, likely as a recognition of issues developers had using the powerful, but difficult to utilize hardware of the PlayStation 3.

Launch
There was great excitement around the launch of the eighth generation of video game consoles, with many wondering which emerging console would prove to be the best option. At a critical moment in 2013 Sony gained positive reactions when it announced it wouldn't have draconian restrictions on sharing physical copies of games, in stark contrast with unpopular decisions regarding the original Xbox One, including strict used game policies, always online requirements, and a Kinect requirement raising privacy issues. While Microsoft would quickly change course on their unpopular policies, this fumble gave the PlayStation 4 a critical early edge in the market.

The PlayStation 4 was launched on November 15th, 2013 in North America. The PlayStation 4 saw a Japanese launch on February 22nd, 2014 at a cost of 39,980 yen. The cost to manufacture a PlayStation 4 at launch compared to it's price is estimated to have given Sony a slight margin on console hardware.

Refresh


In January 2016 Sony Interactive Entertainment moved from Japan to San Mateo, California following an internal merger. Later in 2016, the PlayStation 4 line was given a refresh with two new major models released. The PlayStation 4 Slim was launched on September 15th, 2016 for $299, and the PlayStation 4 Pro was launched on November 10th, 2016 for $399. The Slim replaced the original model as the default choice, while the Pro offered a premium high end experience, with both offering improvements over the original model.

Legacy
The PlayStation 4 was followed by the PlayStation 5.

In April of 2021 the PlayStation communities feature was removed.

Original PlayStation 4 & Slim
A single chip includes an AMD APU containing an X86 64 eight core Jaguar CPU clocked at 1.6 gigahertz and a Radeon GPU with 18 compute units clocked at 800 megahertz.

The PS4 has eight gigabytes of unified GDDR5 RAM on a 256 bit bus with throughput of 176 gigabits per second.

The PlayStation 4 GPU has a performance of 1.84 teraflops.

PlayStation 4 Pro
The PlayStation 4 Pro is powered by an AMD APU containing an X86 64 eight core Jaguar CPU clocked at 2.13 gigahertz and a Radeon GPU with 36 compute units clocked at 911 megahertz.

The system has eight gigabytes of GDDR5 RAM with a throughput of 218 gigabits per second. The PlayStation 4 Pro also includes an additional one gigabyte of RAM for game swapping, and another separate bank consisting of 512 megabytes of RAM for specialized features.

The PlayStation 4 Pro GPU has a performance of 4.20 teraflops.

Secondary Processor
PlayStation 4 consoles contain a secondary ARM processor with a dedicated 256 megabytes of DDR3 SDRAM. The exact purpose of this low power subsystem remains open to speculation.

Hardware
The PS4 includes Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, and gigabit speed ethernet. This networking hardware allowed supported large game downloads, as well as game streaming.

Like the previous PS3, the PS4 includes a Blu-Ray drive, both to load game media and to load Blu-Ray movies.

The case of the PS4 is made of injection molded ABS plastic, and the Blu-Ray drive is mostly made out of polyoxymethylene plastic. Steel is widely used on the console interior, and an aluminum heatsink is used for heat dissipation. The original PS4 internals are relatively easy to access.

The PlayStation 4 Pro was noted for its loud cooling fans.

Software
The PlayStation 4 runs Orbis OS, a modified version of FreeBSD 9, as an operating system.

As with the PlayStation 3, and to a lesser extent the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 4 was designed to be more than just a game console, and supported a number of extra features. The PlayStation 4 could play multimedia content, including overlaying custom music while playing a game. The PlayStation 4 includes a web browser, that uses the open source WebKit engine for rendering web content.

Special Edition Consoles

 * Persona 5 Royale Special Edition Line

2013

 * The Last of Us Remastered
 * Knack

inFAMOUS Second Son
Action adventure game.

Read more about inFAMOUS Second Son on Wikipedia.

The Tomorrow Children
A collaborative adventure game with cold war era iconography.

Read more about The Tomorrow Children on Wikipedia.

P.T.
Teaser of canceled game Silent Hills.

Read more about P.T. on Wikipedia.

2015

 * Bloodborne
 * Journey - Rerelease
 * Until Dawn
 * Gravity Rush Remastered
 * The Order: 1886

2016

 * Persona 5
 * The Last Guardian
 * Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
 * Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

2017

 * Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
 * Knack II
 * Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV
 * Wipeout Omega Collection
 * Gravity Rush 2
 * Nioh
 * Horizon Zero Dawn

2018

 * Spider-Man
 * God of War
 * Shadow of the Colossus
 * Detroit: Become Human

2019

 * Persona 5 Royal
 * MediEvil
 * Sakura Wars

2020

 * Dreams
 * Persona 5 Scramble
 * Final Fantasy VII Remake
 * Ghost of Tsushima
 * The Last of Us Part II
 * Iron Man VR
 * Nioh 2

External Resources

 * Video Game Console Library - PlayStation 4 page.