Five years ago today, Sony announced PlayStation 4 to a fanbase hungry for evolution. Still, lead system architect Mark Cerny approached the launch with caution, wondering whether the eighth generation console would meet player expectations. The package of additional memory, storage, and boosted processing power turned out to be a winning combination, not to mention the game-changing selection of new titles.
Spearheaded by the likes of Killzone Shadow Fall, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts and indie breakout games Flower and Resogun, the PlayStation 4 had begun a journey that would propel it towards success. Today, PlayStation 4 is the sixth best-selling console of all time. Sid Shuman, the Social Media manager for Sony Interactive Entertainment America, celebrated the achievement by reaching out to key figures who participated in the PS4’s original launch presentation.
The Guerilla Games Managing Director, Hermen Hulst, reminisced on the console’s key selling points:
“Back then, we wanted to show that the PS4 was the real deal. Laser-focused on gamers, with perfectly balanced hardware specs for developers…. that winning combination has led to a generation of incredible titles.”
A sentiment which was corroborated by Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono:
“The people responsible for the design of the PS4 gave us all manner of tools to scratch our creative itches and they were always eager to hear how we thought things could improve. They were very developer-centric in their approach. It’s not an overstatement to say that this philosophy is the driving force behind the amount of great content now available on the platform.”
The Witness developer Jonathan Blow seemed caught between nervousness and exhilarated relief:
“We had just two weeks to put together a trailer that could somehow stand on the same stage as these huge-budget system-seller games — but no area of our game was finished enough! We worked crazily, figuring out what the game would really look like, building those models, and making an in-engine system to render video out at a solid 60fps. It was all worth it!”
What’s your favourite PS4 memory? Let us know.
