Speaking to Famitsu following the announcement of the PS4's Japanese release date Sony Worldwide Studios' president Shuhei Yoshida and the console's system architect Mark Cerny discussed the design principal's which drove the creation of the PS4 and DualShock 4 controller.
"It's been five years since we began thinking about what kind of system the PS4 should be, so I'm happy we're able to reveal it," Cerny commented, before adding that unprecedented power and ease of development formed the core of Sony's approach to making the PS4.
"We had two goals for PS4 development. One was performance. Boosting the performance of the CPU and GPU means prettier graphics and more interactive worlds inside the game; in other worlds, we can have game experiences that put you in the world like never before. Our performance goal was to produce specs ten times those of previous consoles, and as a result, I'm confident this is the best-performing game system in history.
"We asked assorted creators what kind of functionality we should put in, and we used their responses as a base when we finalized the hardware architecture. We're aiming for not just performance, but also an environment setup that allows for smooth PS4 game development."
Due to the changes Sony has made in how games are made for PS4 small games don't even take a month to be adapted from a PC title to a playable PS4 prototype while "big titles can get rolling in two or three months."
Cerny continued, saying:
"As a result, I think we've built one of the neatest launch lineups in game history. With our PS3 experience, we understand the factors needed for powerful, effective development, so that's why we treated our twin goals of performance and ease of development so seriously. Thanks to that, I think we were able to reduce development time on Knack by around a year."
Yoshida added that Sony is so focused on attracting indie developers to PlayStation 4 in order to avoid the post-launch droughts which affected the PS2 and PS3.
"Huge titles from large makers take time to develop; they can't just be brought out immediately. However, with the indie scene, especially in the West, we're seeing really neat games coming out from there pretty much every week. I'd like to get that indie flow going in the Japan market as well, with unique titles coming out one after the other. More and more users are making digital purchases these days, so even studios making games with small teams can make it into a business."
He has previously commented that Sony wants to bring a "steady flow" of games to PS4 post-release.
Regarding the DualShock 4 controller Yoshida noted that:
"We created a lot of different shapes before we settled on this controller. You see new devices and sensors go on sale every year, and the way games are played change along with that. So instead of just making the DualShock 3 into the DualShock 4, we just tried to get as many ideas out there as possible.
"The hardware team would say 'We have this device' or 'We could do this', and the dev studios would say 'Make the R2 button easier to press' or ' Make the analog sticks more sensitive'. In the end, the grips are longer, the center of gravity in a different position, and overall it's a fair amount different from the DualShock 3."
For a look at some of the changes made to the DualShock 4 over its predecessors you can check out this developer diary. The controller has been applauded by developers including DICE and Digital Extemes.
The PlayStation 4 launches in North America on November 15th, Europe on November 29th, and Japan in February 2014.
