With much fanfare, Sony just announced the not-too-shocking existence of the Playstation 4. And if you have followed any of the rumor coverage leading up to this over the past 6 months, the specifications are pretty much in-line with everyone's expectations.

With the first three incarnations of Sony's Playstation selling a combined 300 million units...this system has a lot of live up to. Unlike previous versions, at the heart of the PS4 is a more traditional (but very robust) PC-like architecture...making it easier to develop games and port content to/from other systems such as Microsoft's Xbox.

The system itself was not shown but we did get to see the updated PS controller which now includes a touchpad surface and some greater motion/depth control functionality.

The console market needs to evolve as they have been challenged with player's attention in other areas including the onslaught of mobile and social games available today...many offered in a "freemium" pricing model. Nintendo's recent introduction of their Wii U gaming console has started off slow. I would contribute some of this underwhelming start to the lack of original content. There was no "must have" titles at launch for Nintendo's console. Hopefully Sony has learned a lesson from Nintendo's snafu?

Now I am definitely not bought into the death of the console BUT the paradigms need to change...change drastically. And if executed well, some of these capabilities mentioned today for the PS4 could be the start of something new especially in the area of leveraging the Cloud (a host of internet services).

What would a new platform nowadays be without social integration and this one features some very nice new hooks including the ability for a player to broadcast his game and even let friends jump in to help. Other "cloud-type" capabilities include intelligent delivery of content, the ability to start playing a game while it is downloading and sharing your gaming experience with friends.

Sony did parade a line-up of developers and publishers on stage committed to the new console but what content will be at the launch is the big question. Today we saw preliminary demos from Capcom, Ubisoft, Activision, Guerrilla Games, Sucker Punch, Square Enix, etc.

I will say that the games were visually better from current generation console games with more focus on advanced particle systems, some richer detailed environments, more NPC's on screen and a smoother frame-rate which can add up to an overall better gaming experience. But the games shown did not have a level of "magical" that we experienced with the last generation when it comes to its overall presentation.

You should note that we are comparing highly-mature current generation games to first-gen on the PS4. I'm sure more advances will come about as the game tools and production pipeline matures. I will say that fire and smoke, lighting, camera filters and effects and other atmospheric visuals look amazing and added another level of realism.

Pricing and the actually release date (except to say holiday 2013) were not issued but I am sure we will get much more details at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles this June.  We'll get much more information then.

Larry Pacey, award-winning designer tracks the latest news on consumer products, electronics, appliances, smart devices, networking and the gadget lifestyle.

For the latest news follow me on: ------------------------------ OR ------------------------------- Follow me on Twitter @WouldntMindThis Please comment below and share your thoughts. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to email me at wouldntmind@gmail.com. Just my 2-cents, Larry