PS4 will support 4K for 'personal contents' like photos, but not games

The PlayStation 4 will support media output resolution at 4K for photos and videos but not for games, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida confirmed to Polygon this morning.

"The official answer is that the PS4 supports 4K output but for personal contents, like photos or videos. Not games," Yoshida said. "PS4 games do not work on 4K."

When asked if they could support 4K output if the developer was able to justify the increased processing cost, Yoshida explained, "There's a demonstration. Polyphony Digital's Kazunori [Yamauchi] loves these things. He's been using multiple PS3s to create a big-screen Gran Turismo experience for three monitors. That kind of thing is always possible. But with one PS4 to 4K TV, can you play your game? No."

4K refers to high-resolution video standards that use approximately 4,000 lines of vertical resolution. Those can range from 3840 x 2160 on the low end to 4096 x 3112 on the high end or roughly four times the resolution of currently available 1080p games.

Sony announced the PlayStation 4 at an event held in New York City last night. Catch up on Polygon's coverage of the event in our dedicated PlayStation 4 storystream.

[Update: Additional quotes added. Additional reporting by Christopher Grant]