Mark Rein Is Pretty Impressed with the PlayStation 4

Epic Games’ gaffer Mark Rein has clearly learned a valuable lesson from his recent comments about the Nintendo Wii U: don’t stir up the hornet’s nest. As such, the high-profile executive has picked his words about the PlayStation 4 extremely carefully, describing the system as a “really perfect gaming PC”. Yeah, we’ll take that.

Speaking as part of an extensive interview with CVG, the suit explained that the system’s union of “phenomenal” power and accessible architecture will make the platform a hit with developers. He added that the memory limitations of the 32-bit versions of Windows could potentially push Sony’s next generation system beyond what “most PCs” are capable of.

"I think it's a very smart move on Sony's behalf to build this sort of enhanced PC architecture and then put so much in it," he explained. "Let's not forget it has 16 times the memory we had in PlayStation 3 – that's not insignificant. Knowing that every machine has that, we can do crazy, ridiculous stuff.”

Rein added that “super convenient” features such as being able to play games while they are downloading will help to cement the system as a “really perfect gaming PC”. He continued: "I've always said that the things in the next generation that aren't just brute force hardware are all about the service and simplicity of the experience – the things that make it as fun and easy to get a PS4 game as it is to get a game on your iPad."

During GDC last week, Rein showed off a short demo of Epic Games’ upcoming Unreal Engine 4 technology running on the PS4, which, while impressive, prompted criticism from some corners of the industry due to its unfavourable comparisons to its PC counterpart. In all likelihood, the sample was probably built using changing specifications, so hopefully the company will have time to tighten things up before the console’s release later in the year.