Sony's eighth generation gaming console PlayStation 4 is set to hit stores in India next week.

Japanese consumer giant, Sony has invited major media houses for the PS 4 launch event at the national capital, New Delhi on 18 December (Wednesday).

The console made its debut in US on 15 November and since then it has been released in 32 select markets reaping in more than 2.1 million unit sales (as of 3 December), which is a little more than rival Microsoft Xbox One's sales (2 million, as of 11 December).

By releasing the Sony PS 4 early in to the Indian market, the company is certain to get a head start to consolidate its foot hold in subcontinent's growing game-crazy urban youth population. The company has competitively priced $399.99 (roughly ₹25,000) in US, a desirable attribute which is more likely to find success in the price-sensitive market. But, we caution our readers not keep high hopes for PS 4 price to stay below ₹30,000 as import duty and Rupee depreciation can push the price further north.

Local online seller, Snapdeal is already taking pre-orders for Sony PS 4 for initial down payment of ₹1,999. The e-commerce website has fixed the final price as ₹40,000 with options of flexible EMI schemes.

Sony has also opened the official pre-order page of PlayStation 4 for India, but the site is currently in passive state. The site is likely to go live after the 18 December launch event.

In related news, Microsoft Xbox One is expected to hit Indian stores only in late 2014.

Key Specifications of Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One:

Model

Sony PlayStation 4

Microsoft Xbox One

Generation

8-generation

8-generation

Processor

Semi-custom 8-core AMD x86-64 CPU architecture

8-core AMD processor (two quad-core jaguar modules),X86 PC style architecture

User-Interface

Customizable PlayStation Dynamic Menu

Xbox OS with Windows custom kernel and hyper visor (provide virtual operating system platform support)

Graphics

Semi-custom AMD Radeon GPU, contains 18 computing units which can top 1.84 TFLOPS (Tera-Floating-point Operations Per Second)

AMD Radeon, Direct 11.1 graphics with 32MB embedded ESRAM

RAM

Advanced GDDR5 (unified ) 8GB RAM

8GB DDR3 (5GB available while playing games)

Storage capacity

500GB HDD, with options for upgrade

500GB HDD

Camera

PlayStation comes with two HD 1280x800p cameras with motion sensors, aperture f/2.0, 85-degree field of view, (optional accessory)

Wide-angle full HD Kinect camera with motion sensor to take user's gesture as input

Video support

Full HD (1080x1920p) as well as 4K (3840x2160p) video resolutions

Full HD (1920x1080p) as well as 4K (3840x2160p) video resolutions

Video player

Blu-Ray and DVD

Blu-Ray and DVD

Add-ons

DualShock 4 controllers with built in two capacitive touch pads with light-bar with number of colours to signal player's health as such, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth v2.1 with EDR, USB v3.0, optical S/PDIF, HDMI port

Controller having four-way design with impulse trigger motor , Three USB v3.0 ports, HDMI v1.4 port, Wi-Fi (802.11n), Wi-Fi Direct, Xbox Smart Glass (allows Windows Phones and Tablets to act as second screen)

Price [In USA]

$399.99 (around ₹25,000)

$499.99, approximately ₹31,000 in Indian denomination