PlayStation 4 Pro unboxed - and what's next for Digital Foundry
We've got hardware in-house - and a vast amount of games to work through.
We received our PlayStation 4 Pro unit earlier in the week and with its arrival comes the daunting task of evaluating 30 games updated with support for Sony's new console - not to mention assessing the hardware itself, something we'll be in a position to talk about in more depth on Monday. But for now, as part of Sony's phased embargo, we can release a video where we present the PlayStation 4 Pro box and then open it, revealing the contents - an 'unboxing' video, if you will. Spoilers: console, power cable, HDMI cable and joypad are contained therein. Possibly more.
Spicing things up a little, we compare the console to prior PS4 models and I go into a little more depth on the meeting I had with system architect Mark Cerny a couple of weeks ago, revealing more of my impressions on the system's 1080p super-sampling and 4K upscaling techniques, and why Sony remains committed to the traditional console generation - despite the release of this mid-gen refresh.
It's very much the prelude for the coverage to come - articles and videos we are already working on. We'll be measuring acoustics, heat and power consumption from the console, assessing its 4K and HDR performance on both games and streaming media - and then there's the games coverage, of course. With only limited time available in the run-up to the system's launch, we can't tick off every single title by launch, but we'll be rolling out 4K video let's plays and following up with detailed comparisons across next week.
And speaking of 4K video, we have an interesting announcement to make which puts us in a position to deliver ultra-high quality ultra HD media. We've reached the point now where the visual fidelity of the latest gaming hardware isn't adequately represented by streaming media platforms. We complained about this in the aftermath of the PlayStation Meeting and decided to do something about it, so look out for that.
In the meantime, if there are any particular aspects of the PlayStation Pro you'd like us to investigate as part of the reviewing process, do let us know. The console is being shuttled back and forth between staff members, each working on different titles as we speak. Let's just say it's going to be a very long weekend.