PS4 launch, price, bundles, release date & specs news

The PS4 will be released in the UK tomorrow at midnight finally bringing to an end a long journey of pre-launch speculation and hype going back many years. So for one last time, we’ll go through everything we know about the PS4 and why it ended up being the console it is. We’ll compare it to the competition and look at where a PS4-dominated future might take console gaming.

Speaking of the competition, you can read our full Xbox One review now, with all the nitty-gritty detail you need to judge Microsoft's next-gen effort.

Coming back to the PS4, there’s quite a lot to get through here, so we’ve broken it down into key sections, with the more recent developments towards the top.

PS4 RELEASE DATE AND STOCK

The PS4 will be released in the UK on the 29th of November. Pre-order stock has sold out, but some retailers, most notably the supermarkets, have said that they will have stock to sell on the day of release. Your best bet for getting a console tomorrow isn't a specialist retailer but instead call up your local Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda and see what the situation is.

If you pre-order a basic console online today you're very unlikely to see it before Christmas, however if you're happy to blow a big roll of cash you can still get a console asap by ordering a huge PS4 and six game bundle from GAME - a snip at just £605.

PS4 PRICE

The PS4 costs £349 in the UK, EUR399 in mainland europe and $399 dollars in the US. We were hoping for a price closer to £300 over here, but even considering the lack of a bundled camera peripheral, the price is far easier to swallow than the £429 for the Xbox One.

That's only the start though, with games retailing for around £45-50, plus additional controllers and the PlayStation camera costing around the same, you can easily ratchet up that bill without even trying. Put a PS+ subscription on top of all that and you've spent around £540 in one fell swoop. Then again the PS4 came out seven years ago now and you'll get a lot of playing time if the PS4 lasts that long.

It does seem that we’ve got the short end of the stick again when it comes to exchange rates, with the PS4 costing approximately £42 more here than it should. For more details on this read our PS4 Price - We lose out in exchange rate calculation.

PS4 GAMES AND PRICES

There are a whopping 26 games available for the PS4 at launch - including exclusive games, big franchise multi-platform releases, free-to-play titles and lots of lovely download-only treats too. You can get a full line-up with prices by heading over to our PS4 price list for launch titles.

If you need a little guidance on what's hot and what's not then try our PS4 best launch games - exclusives, downloads and Free to play.

PS4 BUNDLES

To save some money, you could opt for a bundle deal. Sony has now announced its official bundle deals, so you can get such additions for a little less, but these are now either sold out or in very short supply.

The first pack simply bundles a copy of Killzone Shadow Fall with the basic console pack (which includes a single controller). Amazon were selling this for £389, a saving of £10 off the company's price for the separate items. It's hard to such a deal, but it's now awfully hard to come by too.

A second pack bundles the console with two controllers, PS4 Camera and a copy of Killzone Shadow Fall. At Amazon's own prices these would cost £508 but are discounted down to £449, a considerable saving of £59. However, to date Sony has done little to talk-up the capabilities of the camera, unlike Microsoft with the Kinect. Killzone itself doesn't support the PS4 Camera in any game-specific ways, and it doesn't have split-screen multiplayer, so your accessories will need other games to play with. In short, unless you're really 

keen we'd give this larger pack a miss and simply buy more games. 

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