Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Worldwide Studios, has confirmed that the PS4 will be region free, for games at least, and that the HDD is upgradable just like the PS3. In addition, we’ve got more information about the ports, what’s included in the box, and more.
Here is some more information on the console:
- The PS4 will come with a 500GB hard drive, which will be upgradable, confirms Yoshida.
- The PS4’s games will be region free, but not movies.
- The PS4 is 275x53x305mm (width x height x length) in size, making it slightly smaller than the PS3 Slim and very close to the PS3 Super Slim.
- The PS4 uses a slot drive for disc based games, which is barely visible in the images. It’s located in-between the two blocks, to the left of the USB ports, under the SONY sign. If you zoom into the image, you can just about make it out.
- The power and eject buttons are located at the front of the console, along the vertical divide.
- The console will have 2x USB 3.0 ports at the front of the console, and a AUX port on the back. The latter will be used by the PlayStation Camera.
- The PS4 drops the old component / AV port found on the PS3. You’ll only be able to use the HDMI port which will have HDCP to block external recorders from capturing footage from the console.
- The PS4 supports 802.11 and Bluetooth 2.1 technologies. Neither are the latest, but it’s enough for the PS4 to function. An Ethernet port is also included if you prefer to use a wired Internet connection.
- Included in the box will be the PS4 console itself, a DualShock 4 controller, a mono headset, power cord, HDMI cable and USB charging cable for the controller.
- The bundled mono headset plugs into the minijack & extension port on the bottom of the DualShock 4.
- DualShock 3 controllers won’t work with the PS4, but the PlayStation Move will work with the new PlayStation Camera, which is sold separately for $59 / €59 / £54.
- The DualShock 4 connects to the console via Bluetooth, like the DualShock 3, and is still charged via the supplied USB cable. However, the USB port on the controller is now a Micro USB port, instead of the Mini USB port found on the DualShock 3.
- The DS4′s Touch Pad has “2 Point Sensing”, is based on smartphone-like capacitive touch, and also has a “Click Mechanism”.
For those that want to study the specs for themselves, you can have a look at the press release PDF here.