Last night, Sony descended upon New York with a big game plan - last night, February 20th, was set as the unofficial kick-off of the next generation of the video game wars. While Nintendo technically started it at the end of 2012 with the release of the Wii-U, Sony fired their shot last night with the unveiling of the much rumored and somewhat anticipated PlayStation 4.

If anything, what was truly interesting compared to past Sony announcement events was that more than ever, in-game footage was the push, as seen with this trailer for Killzone: Shadow Fall, one of many games shown, including an InFamous sequel, the next game from the creator of Braid (The Witness), a new Capcom property called Deep Down and a driving game called DriveClub.

www.youtube.com/watch

Some interesting tech was shown off as well, including PlayStation Move based 3D modeling, showcased by the team at Media Molecule (the developers behind Little Big Planet). But at the end of the day, what was truly bizarre was how much of the presentation was dedicated to minor changes or improvements - which really does not bode well for the PlayStation 4.

Sure, we had a load of impressive tech demos, but some of the biggest gaming announcements came from PS4 ports of titles already coming to the PS3, including Activision/Bungie’s Destiny, an exclusive PS4/PS3 port of Blizzard’s Diablo III, and the darling of E3, UbiSoft’s Watch Dogs.

In terms of technical innovation, what you were truly left with had was applications of PlayStation Move and Vita controls into the new DualShock 4 (shown above, including a glowing for each controller, plus touch screen elements on the controller itself), and a deep variety of social controls - including cloud based streaming and sharing of gameplay sessions with your friends, and second screen elements to be advantaged by a tablet/phone app.

Let’s break it down simply - the Pros and Cons, at least in my eyes.

The Pros

• Clear Developer Support As the Wii-U is sadly showcasing, if there isn't strong developer support, the games will not come along. You had big name developers show off titles in the works, or strong pledges such as that from Square-Enix. The Blizzard exclusive is definitely a pull, considering the fan loyalty to that developer.
• The Cloud All of the new features brought to the PS4 by their purchase of Gaikai certainly are interesting, and do a great job of taking 3rd party things and bringing them into the system. No longer will fans have to use capture cards to stream to Twitch.tv, they can share gameplay straight to Facebook and Twitter! The idea of being able to download every game straight to your system (and start playing while it downloads) is also great, and an obvious move given the strength of their existing PSN store on the PS3. Also, it's nice for Vita users to finally have a use for their system, as last night Sony pledged that EVERY PS4 title will be able to be streamed to a Vita.  Once this starts working towards PS1/PS2/PS3 backwards compatibility, I can see the PlayStation Cloud becoming even more dominant, although I am curious how it will work - will the games have to be re-licensed each time to be supported on PSN? Or will you be able to "upload" your titles, a'la iTunes/iTunes Match?
• A Push for the Indies I feel like indie development will define this generation even more so than the last, and having a popular indie developer pushed alongside AAA level titles was a nice nod by Sony. We'll have to see if Microsoft makes a similar gesture with their next Xbox reveal at E3 this year.
• Technically, Very Impressive The technical specs, which while a slog to watch during the stream, are very strong. This does make one worry about the price though...which leads me to...

The Cons

• The Price? The Release Date? The Console? I realize that Sony has to save some things for E3, but no mention of a price, even a glimmer of a console, and only a vague release date of "Holiday 2013" was somewhat deflating. For as much as similar press conferences from Apple, Amazon and Google are just as hype filled - they at least get you the facts.
• So, How Do I Use This Thing? One thing painfully missing, which the aforementioned tech giants tend to showcase every time out, is a video or videos showcasing how these things will tie into your life. We got a lot of slide shows here - where's the video defining my new gaming life?
• Compel Me. Are the graphics beautiful? Yes. But are they really that much of a jump from what we're currently playing - at least enough to justify another console purchase? Is the cloud truly that enchanting to users? That much I'm not sure of. And considering I could see this system launching for $400+, these are the things that need to be considered. Even the games felt like retreads, especially with 3 of the bigger titles also coming out for the existing generation of consoles.