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" The gaming console wars of 2013 have begun, and in the weirdest possible way. Last night, Sony unveiled its next-generation PlayStation 4 console\u2014without actually revealing the console. Company executives did dole out some tantalizing details. The PS4 is promised to have an X86-based 8-core AMD CPU and Radon graphics inside. That&amp;#039;s some seriously powerful processing capability (estimated at around 1.84 gigaflops), but it also points to a future for the Sony gaming ecosystem that is more PC-like and less console-like. Sony also revealed a new &amp;quot;DualShock 4&amp;quot; controller that will work in tandem with 3D cameras to measure (and presumably integrate) the room in which a player is playing. The company also promised a host of social interaction, including video clip sharing and the ability to allow a friend to jump into your game remotely and give you a hand. What Sony didn&amp;#039;t show was the console itself, or a price, or even a firm launch date (it&amp;#039;s expected sometime before the end of 2013). That&amp;#039;s a little like Ford throwing a big event to reveal the next-generation Mustang, then just delivering a PowerPoint on what a great engine it&amp;#039;s eventually going to have. To be sure, the shape of the device&amp;#039;s exterior should be largely irrelevant to its performance, but it&amp;#039;s hard to get excited about an upcoming product if you can&amp;#039;t imagine it in your living room. To many in the tech press, the event seemed like a sloppy hurry-up offense by Sony in an attempt to get out ahead of Microsoft&amp;#039;s highly anticipated announcement of the next-gen Xbox at the E3 gaming convention in June. And it may have backfired: Within seconds, gamers on Twitter were howling their disapproval. That could be bad news for Sony. The company has been stumbling for years, and they desperately need a hit product. What&amp;#039;s worse, consoles are losing much of their influence in the gaming world to mobile devices. Sony plans to integrate phones and tablets into the PS4 experience as second screens, but users are already starting to see those phones and tablets as the primary screen and may not be willing to invest in an expensive console to augment the experience. That said, the big screen is still a hot commodity, and Sony&amp;#039;s biggest problems may come from the PC gaming environment migrating to the TV: Gaming powerhouse Valve is working on a SteamBox minicomputer to bring the rich world of PC games to the living room. And we&amp;#039;ve actually seen that thing. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a8657/sony-teases-but-doesnt-reveal-the-playstation-4-15127045/?click=main_sr>