With news of Steam Box prototypes now trickling in and getting ready for pre-orders, it seems that gamers are looking forward to either the console who beats the clock or the one that offers the best services.

PS4 is already a viable contender after it introduced its DualShock 4 controller and added functions, but it seems that there are two major issues that could snowball into a potential letdown of a console.

Threat to your online privacy

What separates the PS4 from other next-gen potentials is its sharing function. On the DualShock 4 controller, one can opt to share his activities in the game to his online profile. This means that your friends can immediately know your highest score or how your battle strategy kicked butt.

However, this very function may actually contribute to the biggest risk for the PS4: the risk to your online privacy.

iDigital Times reports that Sony is gearing up for an anonymity-free gaming with the PS4. Given the sharing option, you are then involving your own personal profile online, meaning that the social community for PS4 will now expand to what's in your social network.

This isn't the worst of it, considering Sony's track record, which dates back to 2011, when the PlayStation Network was hacked. According to The Guardian, around 77 million users were involved in data theft, which include some email addresses and even a few credit card numbers.

Potentially, this can be the Achilles' heel of what is also, potentially, a great contender in the console industry. Of course, unless, Sony comes up with a perfected way to secure all the data of its users

Cloud gaming all the way

When it first announced and unveiled the PS4, Sony also tapped into a growing lifeline to the industry: cloud gaming.

However, according to PopularMechanics, full-fledged cloud gaming is still not being offered, despite having the capability to do so.

There is potential elbow room here where PS4 could actually become a major player not just in the industry of consoles, but even a potential competitor for PC gaming.

But there is a hint of a silver lining somewhere, hopefully resolved by the time the PS4 is released. According to Kotaku, given the advancement of the Gaikai technology, Sony is hopeful that one day, any games from the Ps1 to the PlayStation Mobile games can be played on any device.