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Building on nearly two decades of gaming experience, Sony took to New York City to officially unveil the long-rumored PlayStation 4 and usher in the next generation of console gaming.

Over the last generation, consoles have evolved from mere game boxes into living room centerpieces capable of delivering high-definition games, movies and music over the Internet at the push of a button. But having a powerful box is not enough anymore. In today's ever mobile and social world, we expect seamless connectivity to our smartphones and tablets and a direct way to share our experiences on social networks.

Sony's planning to check off all those points with the PlayStation 4 — the "future of play."

Developing...

The Specs

The PS4 has a supercharged x86 CPU, an enhanced PC GPU, 8GB of "high-speed unified memory" and a hard drive. A secondary chip helps with background processing allowing for downloaded games to be played while they are downloading.

New Redesigned Controller

No surprise here. The leaked developer controllers nailed this one. The new DualShock 4 will feature a touchpad, the D-pad has been improved, and the dual analogs are concave and spread farther apart. The rumble's also been given an upgrade and a "light bar" allows for easier player identification. An upgraded camera sensor was shown briefly. But the most exciting part is the new "Share" button which lets you live broadcast what you're playing to Ustream with a single button-press.

New Online And Social Features

A brand new dashboard will provide a launchpad for gamers to connect with their real friends from various social networks and spectate games live. The PS4 is also "smart" in that it will try to learn what you like over time and provide game recommendations that are tailored to your tastes.

No Backwards Compatibility / Cloud Gaming

The PS4 won't run your PS3 games due to its completely new hardware architecture. But as predicted, Sony will leverage its buyout of Gaikai to stream PS1, PS2 and PS3 games to the PS4, which is thoughtful, but still kind of a half-assed workaround that leaves PS3 faithfuls with piles of old game discs. Gakai's David Perry says Sony will be rolling out its cloud strategy slowly over time.

Beam PS4 Games To PS Vita

Borrowing a page from the Nintendo Wii U, the PS4 supports "Remote Play," a feature that allows games to be beamed to a PS Vita, freeing up the TV for other programming.

The Games

A new console would be nothing without exciting games to look forward to. Here's a few games that were announced today:

• Destiny
• Diablo III
• Driveclub
• inFamous Second Son
• Killzone: Shadow Fall
• Knack
• The Witness
• Watch Dogs

Launch

The PS4 will arrive just in time for the holidays.