This news comes off the back of Microsoft’s announcement that its own next-gen effort Xbox One would hit shelves for £429 in November.
Many had expected a high price point due to the decision to bundle the machine with the new Kinect sensor, though the upshot is that Sony’s significantly more powerful hardware will be £80 cheaper than its rival.
"This is a completely new platform and, in many ways, represents a completely new PlayStation," said Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House.
"We are more than ever capitalising on the vast network of Sony divisions."
The PS4 will launch with beefed up offerings at Sony online movie and music services as the console moves to expand into a complete home entertainment centre while remaining true to hardcore gamers.
Sony will use the technology of recently acquired cloud gaming company Gaikai to launch a service next year that lets people use PS3 or PS4 consoles to play blockbuster games in the cloud in real time.
More than 140 games are in development for the PS4, with at least 100 of the titles due out in the year following the consoles release, according to Sony Computer Entertainment US president Jack Tretton.
He promised that Sony had no plans to stop people from being able to play used games, and that PS4 consoles did not need to be connected to the internet if people preferred to go it solo.
"When a player buys a PS4 disk they have the right to use that game; trade it in; lend it to a friend, or keep it forever," Tretton said.
The official PS4 release date is currently pencilled in for "Holiday 2013", which most likely means Thanksgiving in America so a mid-November release is more than likely. The launch has been confirmed as worldwide, with the USA, Japan and European countries all getting the console on the same date.
