[13] In designing the system, Sony worked with software developer Bungie, who offered their input on the controller and how to make it better for shooting games.

[25][26] Sony took advantage of problems that Microsoft had been having with their positioning of their newly announced Xbox One, which included its higher price point ($499 in North America), as well as strict regulations on how users could share game media.

[33] The first official sub-£300 PS4 bundle was the £299.99 "Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection 500GB", and was released in the UK on October 9, 2015; a 1 TB £329.99 version was offered at the same time.

[42] In May 2018, during a presentation to investors, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera stated that the PlayStation 4 was heading into the end of its lifecycle and that the company was anticipating decreasing year-over-year hardware sales.

[43] He explained that Sony would be countering the expected decline by focusing on "strengthen[ing] user engagement" including continued investments into new first-party games and other online services for PS4.

"We will use the next three years to prepare the next step, to crouch down so that we can jump higher in the future," Kodera added in an interview with the press the following day.

[67] System Software 4.50, which was released on March 9, 2017,[68] enabled the use of external USB hard drives up to 8 TB for additional storage.

[74] Among other tweaks, the caps of the analog sticks were given a concave design (similar to the Xbox 360 controller), the shape of the triggers and shoulder buttons was refined, the D-pad buttons were given a steeper downward angle to provide a resting space in the center for the user's thumb,[74][75] and the hand grips were made thicker and given microtexturing to improve their feel.

An LED "light bar" was additionally added to the front of the controller; it is designed to allow the PlayStation Camera accessory to further track its motion, but can also be used to provide visual effects and feedback within games (such as, for instance, reflecting a player's low health by turning red).

It is largely identical to the original model, except that the touchpad now contains a "stripe" along the top which the light bar's LED can shine through, and the controller can communicate non-wirelessly when connected to the console over USB.

[90] PlayStation Camera also features a four-channel microphone array, which helps reduce unwanted background noise and can be used for voice commands.

[100] Multitasking is available during gameplay, such as opening the browser or managing party chat, and switching between applications is done by double-tapping the "PS" button.

[24] A United States-exclusive cloud-based television-on-demand service known as PlayStation Vue began beta testing in late November 2014.

[108] A Sony Xperia smartphone, tablet or the PlayStation Vita can be used for streaming gameplay from the console to handheld, allowing supported games to be played remotely from around a household or away from home.

[111] This feature was later expanded to enable PS4 Remote Play functionality on Microsoft Windows PCs and on Apple OS X Macs.

Sony stated that "communities are a good way to socialize with like-minded players", particularly when "you want to tackle a big multiplayer raid, but don't have enough friends available.

[118][119] Gamers can either watch live gameplay of games which their friends are playing through the PS4 interface with cross-game camera and microphone input, spectate silently, or broadcast their own gameplay live via DailyMotion, Twitch,[120] Ustream,[24] Niconico,[121] or YouTube Gaming,[115] allowing for friends and members of the public to view and comment upon them from other web browsers and devices.

[142] The apps would release on November 21 that same year and would include games such as Knowledge is Power, That's You, Hidden Agenda, SingStar Celebration, and Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier.

[143] On November 14, 2018, more games would be released, including Just Deal With It, Chimparty, WordHunters, UNO, Melbits World, Ticket To Ride, and Knowledge is Power: Decades.

Mark Rein of Epic Games praised the "enhanced" architecture of Sony's system, describing it as "a phenomenal piece of hardware".

[151] ExtremeTech says the PS4's graphics processing unit offers a "serious advantage" over the competition, but due to the nature of cross-platform development, games that share the same assets will appear "very similar".

In other scenarios, designers may tap some of PS4's additional power in a straightforward manner, to boost frame rate or output at a higher resolution, whereas games from Sony's own first-party studios that take full advantage of the hardware "will probably look significantly better than anything on the Xbox One.

"[152] In response to concerns surrounding the possibility of DRM measures to hinder the resale of used games (and in particular, the initial DRM policies of Xbox One, which did contain such restrictions), Jack Tretton explicitly stated during Sony's E3 press conference that there would be "no restrictions" on the resale and trading of PS4 games on physical media, while software product development head Scott Rohde specified that Sony was planning to disallow online passes as well, going on to say that the policies were designed to be "consumer-friendly, extremely retailer-friendly, and extremely publisher-friendly".

[157] GameSpot called the PlayStation 4 "the gamer's choice for next-generation", citing its price, lack of restrictive digital rights management, and most importantly, Sony's efforts to "acknowledge its consumers" and "respect its audience" as major factors.

Scott Lowe of IGN gave it an 8.2 rating out of 10 praising the console's DualShock 4 design and social integration features.

[159] The Gadget Show gave a similar review complimenting the DualShock 4's new triggers and control sticks, in addition to the new Remote Play feature, yet criticized the system's lack of media support at launch.

Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku reported on the differences in early games such as Call of Duty: Ghosts and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag which ran at 1080p on the PS4, but in 720p and 900p, respectively, on the Xbox One.

[223] Games marketed by Sony as PS4 Pro Enhanced have specific optimizations when played on this model, such as 4K resolution graphics or higher performance.

[235] For games not specifically optimized, an option known as "Boost Mode" was added on system software 4.5, which can be enabled to force higher CPU and GPU clock rates to possibly improve performance.

In October 2018, Sony quietly issued another revision (model number CUH-7200), initially as part of Red Dead Redemption 2 hardware bundles.