Last week Sony confirmed the launch of the PlayStation 4 for 2013. They held a two hour announcement where they showed off some of the hardware, had developers speak about games that are in the pipeline, and touched on release info. There’s definitely things that I liked, as well as a handful that I didn’t. Here are some of the takeaways:

Things to be excited about:

• Immediate local play of digital titles while they download

  I think it’s very cool to be able to play the digital downloads while they download. I’ve often hoped for something like this, especially since the size of these games has gotten so large over the last few years.

• Video replay/stream of your screen

  This is a very popular feature already for games like Call of Duty. There will be an explosion of PS4 videos on YouTube as soon as this is released.

• Instant system hibernation

  I like the idea of being able to put my console to sleep in a game and pick up where I left off.

• Allowing remote friends to assume control over your currently playing game

  “Pass the controller” sort of feeling over the internet. Not a bad idea.

• The new system uses a DualShock 4 controller with a touchpad, share button, lightbar and headphone jack

  It’s time for an update here. It will be interesting to see what developers do with the touchpad portion of the controller though.

• Silent preloading of games you may be interested in

  Like I said before, file sizes are getting really large. It’s actually a very smart idea to preload some games I might be interested in, so I can quickly try them out.

Things to be wary about:

• Seemingly high bandwidth requirements

  Most of the things they showed off require lots of bandwidth. (Possibly a dealbreaker, depending on your internet provider)

• No backwards compatibility with PS3 games?!

  Are you kidding me? This seems like a no brainer.

• Game demos were renders

  I’d have liked to see actual gameplay. We have no idea what games will look like yet. (Similarly disappointing is that the PS4 will output 4K video, but not 4K resolution for games.)

• No price, no release date AND didn’t actually see the console

After that, now I’m curious to see what Microsoft has to offer. I guess we’ll see how the Xbox (720?) compares at E3 this summer!

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Anything I missed? Something you’re excited about? Leave a comment!