PlayStation 4 Release Date, Lineup… and a Comeback Sealed in 21 Sec
The PS3 nearly lost it all. The PS4 won everything back. An aggressive price, an architecture designed by and for developers, and an E3 2013 for the history books: the story of the launch that humiliated Microsoft, won gamers back for Sony—and pushed 117 million consoles into homes worldwide.
When did the PlayStation 4 come out?
The lesson learned
By 2013, the PlayStation 3 had left behind a brutal track record: $3.3 billion in hardware losses. A massive head start surrendered to the Wii and Xbox 360. A launch price that became a worldwide meme. For the PS4, Sony couldn’t afford to get it wrong.
The turning point came as early as 2008, when Ken Kutaragi—”the father of PlayStation”—stepped down as president of Sony Computer Entertainment. His successor, Kaz Hirai, entrusted the future console’s architecture to Mark Cerny, an industry veteran who had worked with Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Cerny Games. His mandate: build a machine that developers would love to program. No more Cell nightmares with its 8 SPE cores. The PS4 adopted an x86 architecture based on an AMD APU, with 8 Jaguar cores and an integrated Radeon GPU. In plain terms: a console that looked like a PC, easy to work with, with dev kits shipped out en masse starting in 2012.
The other shift was about pricing. The PS3 had traumatized gamers with its stratospheric $599 price tag—the highest ever asked for a home console. This time, Sony refused to cross the $399 barrier. No overpriced revolutionary components, no risky technological bets: a powerful, affordable console, built for gamers. RAM jumped to 8 GB of GDDR5—a bold choice that gave the PS4 a measurable edge over the Xbox One and its 8 GB of DDR3. The DualShock 4 was redesigned from the ground up: touchpad, light bar, and a new “Share” button that made capturing and sharing gameplay a single press away—a first for any console.
PS4 release date: timeline of a launch that made history
21 seconds to win a generation
E3 2013: in a single evening, Sony would seal the fate of an entire console generation. Days before the show, Microsoft details the Xbox One’s restrictions: mandatory online check-in every 24 hours, DRM on physical games, no free lending of your titles. The price: $499, mandatory Kinect included. Outrage erupts across forums. Sony smells blood. Andrew House, then president of SCE, hastily rewrites portions of his presentation. On stage, Jack Tretton confirms that the PS4 will impose no restrictions on used games—the crowd roars. Then House announces the price: $399, $100 less than the Xbox One. The audience erupts. Then comes the killing blow: a 21-second video where Shuhei Yoshida hands a game to Adam Boyes with a smile. That’s it. No internet required, no verification, no DRM. The clip goes viral within minutes. A week later, Microsoft reverses all its restrictions. But the damage is done: without selling a single console, Sony has already won the war.
The PS4’s launch day lineup
From disaster to dynasty
Where the PS3 had to fight for 7 years to catch up with the Xbox 360, the PS4 dominated its generation from day one to the very end. With over 117 million units sold, it became the fifth best-selling console of all time—and the second-best-selling PlayStation, behind the untouchable PS2. For the first time since 2000, Sony reigned supreme.
The PS4 built an exclusive library that became the gold standard of the industry: Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, The Last of Us Part II… These titles raised the bar for action-adventure gaming and single-handedly justified buying the console. Over one billion games were sold on the platform.
By entrusting the architecture to Mark Cerny and embracing a “developer-first” design philosophy, Sony established a blueprint that carried over to the PS5. No more exotic architectures: the x86 approach, listening to studios, and aggressive pricing became the backbone of PlayStation’s strategy for generations to come.