A few hours after the Feb 20, PlayStation Meeting, the internet is still heavily buzzing with news of the new PlayStation console.

Here’s a compilation of information about what we know so far on Sony’s upcoming baby:

PlayStation 4 Official Specs:

Sony released an official Press Release after the PlayStation Meeting detailing the official specifications for the innards of the PlayStation 4.  Curiously missing is that capacity of the hard drive and whether or not it’s user replaceable but hopefully this will be addressed as more info starts filtering out:

Dual Shock 4

There’s a new version of Sony’s iconic controller and this time around it borrows from the PlayStation Move and the PlayStation Vita incorporating motion sensing, depth tracking and a touch pad over the already awesome controller. Oh and now there’s speakers on the controller too, reminiscent of Nintendo’s Wiimote :0

Likely the first game that we’ll see to use and abuse the new control scheme is Little Big Planet.

No Backwards Compatibility

At least Sony is upfront on this one. The change in architecture meant that Sony will no longer be able to natively run PS3 code. Yeah some are saying that it’s possible to emulate the PS3 on the x86 platform but take a look at the PS2 and the Wii. Emulators exist but you need beefy machines to make them run and with the huge number of polygons that the PS3 is rendering over these two consoles just imagine the (theorical) horsepower needed to render them.

On the upside, the PlayStation 4 will still be able to run games from the PSX, the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3 via the upcoming PlayStation Cloud service provided by Sony’s recent purchase, Gaikai. The downside of course, this is likely going to be a US-only service thanks to latency and physical proximity.

No used-game blocking

You have to wonder how the guys perpetuating the rumor can come up with such an idea. Sure it exists on the PC side thanks to Steam and other digital distribution stores but the thing with consoles is that a whole bunch of gamers don’t want to fiddle with registration to play games. One of the better part of having a console is the ease of having to just pop the disc into your hardware and play, no installing (well.. not including recent years), no updating of drivers, no compatibility checks with the hardware (save for region locks), etc. It’s dead simple and implementing a single use token like a serial to register games kills that simplicity.

For digital yes, there won’t be any used games. For the physical copies, just read the paragraph I typed above.

More integration with the Vita and non-PlayStation devices

This one’s a good move for Sony if only for the Store part. Basically Sony will be opening up the PlayStation Store on iOS and Android devices allowing you to browse the PSN catalog and buy games on the go (much like Steam’s iOS and Android app). On that note, Sony is touting the PlayStation 4‘s ability to let you play games while it’s downloading similar to how Blizzard manages it’s game clients.

As for the Vita, Sony is adding Remote Play support and targeting to make almost every PlayStation 4 game compatible with this feature. Of course, the Wii U already can do it with it’s game pad but it’ll be interesting if there will be a bit more integration like Gran Turismo’s use of the PlayStation Portable as a rear view mirror.

Pricing, developer support, etc

There is no official word on pricing yet but a whole lot of the industry speculate that it’ll be around $400 at least and $600 at most. Not really appealing compared to the PlayStation 3 but it’s a huge improvement over the premium that early adopters of the PlayStation 3 had to pay :).

As for the list of developers, here’s the official list from Sony:

Japan (45)

Acquire Corp.
Arc System Works Co.,Ltd.
Artdink Corporation
ASCII Media Works Inc.
Bethesda Softworks, LLC
Capcom
Crafts & Meister Co.,Ltd.
Chara-Ani Corporation
CyberConnect2 Co.,Ltd.
D3 Publisher Inc.
Dimps Corporation
Electronic Arts Inc.
FromSoftware, Inc.
Ganbarion Co., Ltd.
Grasshopper Manufacture Inc.
Gust Co.,Ltd.
Genki Co., Ltd.
Granzella Inc.
GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc.
Idea Factory Co., Ltd.
Imageepoch Inc.
Index Corp.?Atlus)
Kadokawa Games,Ltd.
Kadokawa Shoten Co., Ltd.
Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Level-5 Inc.
Mages. Inc.
Marvelous AQL Inc.
Namco Bandai Games Inc.
Namco Bandai Studios Inc.
Nihon Falcom Corporation
Nippon Ichi Software, Inc.
O-Two inc. (peakvox)
Platinum Games Inc.
Sega Corporation
Spike Chunsoft Co.,Ltd.
Square Enix Co., Ltd.
SystemSoft Alpha Corp.
Tecmo Koei Games Co.,Ltd.
Tose Co., Ltd.
Ubisoft Entertainment
Will Co.,Ltd.
Xing Inc.
Yuke’s Co.,Ltd.
tri-Ace Inc.
Asia (4)

BLUESIDE Inc.
Ratloop Asia Pte Ltd
Red Hare Studios
XPEC Entertainment Inc.
North America (47)

5th Cell Media LLC
17-Bit
Activision Publishing, Inc.
Armature Studios
Behaviour Interactive
Bethesda Softworks, LLC
Blind Squirrel Games
Certain Affinity, Inc.
Darkside Game Studios, Inc.
Devolver Digital
Disney
Double Fine Productions, Inc.
Double Helix Games
DrinkBox Studios Inc.
Edge of Reality, Inc.
Electronic Arts Inc.
FarSight Studios
Gaijin Games, Inc.
Gearbox Software
HB Studios Multimedia
Heavy Iron Studios, Inc.
High Voltage Software, Inc.
Iron Galaxy Studios, LLC
JETPACK Interactive Entertainment Ltd.
Klei Entertainment Inc.
Lab Zero, Inc
LucasArts, a Lucasfilm Ltd. company
Metanet Software Inc
Minority Media Inc.
Nicalis, Inc
Panic Button, LLC
Psyonix Studios, Inc.
Slant Six Games
Sony Online Entertainment LLC
Spark Unlimited
Spry Fox LLC
SuperVillain Studios
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Telltale, Inc.
Tribute Games Inc.
Turtle Rock Studios, Inc.
Ubisoft Entertainment
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Inc.
WayForward Technologies, Inc.
Zombie Studios, LLC
inXile Entertainment Inc.
vBlank Entertainment Inc.
Europe / PAL (30)

2K Games
Avalanche Studios
Blitz Games Studios
Bohemia Interactive
CD Projekt RED
Climax Studios
Codemasters
Creative Assembly
Criterion Games
Deep Silver
Ghost Games – An EA Studio
Hello Games
IO Interactive
Just Add Water (Developments), Ltd.
Lucid Games Ltd
MercurySteam
Ninja Theory Ltd
Nixxes Software BV
Paradox Interactive
Rebellion
Saber Interactive
Splash Damage
Stainless Games Ltd
Starbreeze Studios
Sumo Digital
TT Games
Team 17 Digital LTD
Yager
Zen Studios
keen games

So far that’s it. If you want to add anything, post it in the comments.

source Kotaku, The Verge, Siliconera