Sony PS4 announcement: What to expect today

It’s been seven years since the launch of Sony’s Playstation 3, the longest gap between console releases in the company’s history. But if speculation about their event Wednesday afternoon on the “Future of Playstation,” holds true, the wait for the next Playstation will soon be over.

Hero Complex will be hosting a live stream of Sony’s hotly anticipated announcement, starting at 3 p.m. Pacific time (6 p.m. Eastern), so stay tuned for the reveal of whatever it is that Sony has up its sleeve.

Look for Sony to build off of recent industry trends, including the integration of movement-recognition hardware, a la the Microsoft Kinect, an extension of Sony’s efforts to dethrone Xbox Live with its Playstation Plus offerings and of course, upgraded hardware.

PHOTOS: A look back on the Playstation

The event hints that Sony may have adjusted its strategy with the launch of the PS4. Allowing the Xbox 360 to have a year’s head start over the PS3’s launch, Sony allowed Microsoft to seize momentum and it wasn’t until recently that PS3 sales caught up with the 360.

With Microsoft still keeping its cards close to its chest, Sony will host the first next-generation reveal, if not the first next-gen release to feature significant hardware upgrades. Nintendo’s Wii U, released late last year, marked the opening of the new console generation.

With new consoles come new games, but publishers have been reticent to start debuting their next-gen offerings. “Watch Dogs” and “Star Wars 1313” have been all but confirmed to be on the 360 and PS3 successors. “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” was recently confirmed to be a next-gen title, and a tweet from the chief executive of GameStop about seeing “Battlefield 4” has sparked speculation that the game will make an appearance at Wednesday’s event.

Sony, which has recently seen its stock reduced to junk status and made significant cutbacks companywide, announced earlier Wednesday that it expects to post an operating profit by the end of its fiscal year in March. Its console and games division has recently been hit with a loss of momentum in software sales, and sales of the portable Playstation Vita remain sluggish, so the hope is that Sony’s new offerings will provide a shot in the arm.

– Morgan Little

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