PlayStation 4

According to lead architect Mark Cerny, work on the PS4 began in 2008, less than two years after the PS3 launched. That console had arrived late, almost a year behind the Xbox 360, and Sony wanted to avoid repeating the mistake. Bungie gave input on making the controller better for shooters. In 2012 Sony began shipping development kits known as Orbis: a modified PC with an AMD APU. The x86-64 design replaced the complex Cell processor so that making games would be easier and cheaper.

Sony announced the console on February 20, 2013, at the PlayStation Meeting in New York and showed its design at E3 in June, priced at $399, €399 and £349, below the Xbox One's $499. It also stated there would be no restrictions on reselling disc games. The PS4 launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, on November 29 in Europe, South America and Australia, and on February 22, 2014, in Japan. Critics praised the DualShock 4, the social features and Sony's support for independent developers.

Every console came with The Playroom preinstalled, a demo for the DualShock 4 and the PlayStation Camera. Games are sold on Blu-ray and through the PlayStation Store, are not region-locked and must be installed. Several multiplatform games, such as Call of Duty: Ghosts and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, ran at 1080p on PS4 but at lower resolutions on Xbox One. The console cannot play discs from earlier PlayStation systems; PlayStation Now offered PS3 titles through streaming. The PlayStation VR headset arrived in October 2016.

In September 2016 Sony refreshed the line with a smaller model, known as the Slim, and the 4K-capable PS4 Pro. In May 2018 the company told investors that the console was entering the end of its life cycle, and by October 2019 it was the second best-selling PlayStation console, behind the PS2. Its successor, the PS5, launched in November 2020, but the chip shortage led Sony to keep making PS4 units beyond 2021. Distribution in Japan ended on March 28, 2024.