Just over three months ago (we're a few days late), the PlayStation 4 launched in North America. Since then, Sony's new system has enjoyed good reviews strong sales , and a slow trickle of fun games to play . It's easy to have missed the biggest news between both next-gen launches and holiday hullabaloo, so we're taking a look back at the most important things to know about the PlayStation 4's first three months, all while looking forward to what we can expect in 2014.

Games

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The Hardware

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System Sales

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Next-gen gaming came with the promise of bigger and better games than anything we've seen. On that front, the PS4 has not quite yet delivered. It's true, Sony's new console is home to some awesome, exclusive games like Resogun and Killzone: Shadow Fall , but many of its great titles are slightly better versions of games that have already been available for some time. For example:And then there were newer releases -- like Call of Duty: Ghosts and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag -- that, while great, are really just the better looking versions of their last-gen counterparts. Again, these games aren't bad, but they're not drastically different from versions we can play on current-gen consoles.Looking ahead, the PS4's lineup in 2014 is something to be excited about. We've complied a list of the top 30 PS4 games of the year , and there are plenty of first- and third-party games to anticipate. Also, PlayStation Plus continues to be a great deal -- this month you can download Outlast, the horror game that scared several IGN employees silly, for free on PS4 in North America.Infamous: Second Son, the third game in Sucker Punch's superhero series, looks gorgeous and introduces new characters and powers to the franchise. Plus it's a PS4 exclusive.The Thief series has gone silent since Deadly Shadows in 2004. Now, about a decade later, it's poised to make a next-gen comeback.We reviewed the PS4 before launch, giving it a score of 8.2. We loved the system's design and the comfortable DualShock 4, but were a tad unimpressed with the software features."The PlayStation 4 is the antithesis of the PS3," we said. "With powerful yet familiar processing architecture, a more open approach to software, and an impressive set of day-one features, the PS4 not only brings the PlayStation platform into a more modern era, but establishes a strong foundation for long-term evolution."Though the problem wasn't nearly as widespread as the Xbox 360's disastrous "three red lights" error, some PlayStation 4s did experience boot-up errors. Users reported blinking blue lights that appeared to be tied to faulty HDMI ports Sony responded to the issue, saying "The number of affected PS4 systems is less than 1%, which represents a very small percentage of total units shipped to date and is within the expected range for a new product introduction."Rumors surfaced that Sony could take a full six weeks to get replacement units to customers, but Sony clarified that its support team was exchanging units "immediately and with expedited shipping."Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida further clarified via Twitter, "Be assured we are investigating reported PS4 issues. The number is very small compared to shipped, we believe they are isolated incidents."More recently, users reported corrupted save files and unusable apps. Sony offered advice for fixing the "ce-34878-0 error code," saying affected users should install the latest system software and game patches, and if the errors persist, should back-up their save data and "initialize the system".A number of users are still having trouble with save files, specifically for FIFA 14, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, NBA 2K14, and Battlefield 4. Sony released firmware version 1.61 today with the promise of improved "software stability," but it's too soon to see if the persisting issues have been rectified.Does this mean you shouldn't buy a PS4? No, not necessarily. The angriest voices have a tendency to be the loudest, though to be clear, these people have a great reason to be upset. But statistically and anecdotally, the number of users with faulty PS4s is very small.So far, the PS4 is outpacing every PlayStation console to date.PS4 sales are currently sitting at over 5.3 million units. During last year's Tokyo Game Show, Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House said Sony hoped to sell five million units by the end of fiscal year 2013 (by March 2014), so reaching this number by mid-February is impressive -- especially considering the PS4 hasn't yet released in Japan. The PlayStation 3 regularly outsold the Xbox 360 in the Japanese market, so if that trend continues into the new generation, we could sales numbers swell when the PS4 launches there on February 22.Sony's early success with the PS4 doesn't come as a surprise. The system had already surpassed one million pre-orders worldwide three months before its launch. Within 24 hours of launching, Yoshida tweeted that one million PS4s had been sold in North America alone. To put this in perspective, the PS4 sold faster than the Wii -- the best-selling console of the last generation, and previously the fastest-selling console -- though the Xbox One enjoyed similar success At CES in early January, Sony revealed that 4.2 million PS4s had been sold worldwide. It's easy to get bogged down with all the numbers we constantly hear from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, so we took an in-depth look at what those sales numbers mean, how all the next-gen systems compare, and how strong their system launches really were.The PS4's strong sales are a great boon to Sony. Even after taking the depreciation of the yen into account, Sony's game devision revenue rose 33 percent last year. This success boosted the companies fortunes overall.

Are you one of the 5.3 million people who purchased a PlayStation 4? Did you have any troubles with your system? If not, what have you been playing? And what are you most looking forward to playing in 2014? Let us know in the comments below!And be sure to come back next week for our look at the first three months of the Xbox One.

Brian is an associate editor at IGN. You can read about his five favorite games and follow him @albinoalbert on Twitter.