The PlayStation 4's developer-friendly design philosophy will pay off the moment it hits stores, lead architect Mark Cerny says. Cerny told Gamasutra in an in-depth technical interview that early adopters will have more games than they can shake a giant enemy crab at.
"The launch lineup for PlayStation 4--though I unfortunately can’t give the title count--is going to be stronger than any prior PlayStation hardware," Cerny said.
Hopefully Knack, the charming looking action game which Cerny directed alongside his architect duties, will be among that lineup. Until then, check out our list of all the PS4 games announced so far.
You ought to read Gamasutra's interview if you want a detailed look at what makes PS4 more than a PC in a mass-produced box. Ultimately, Cerny hopes the system will be accessible from the get-go, to the extent that PC ports will take "weeks, not months" to produce, but with plenty of options to keep it viable years down the line.
Reading from discs will remain one of the slowest links in the chain, but Cerny said a background-install feature will both speed up load times and make streaming much more effective.
"So, what we do as the game accesses the Blu-ray disc, is we take any data that was accessed and we put it on the hard drive. And if then if there is idle time, we go ahead and copy the remaining data to the hard drive. And what that means is after an hour or two, the game is on the hard drive, and you have access, you have dramatically quicker loading... And you have the ability to do some truly high-speed streaming."
