AT Sony's E3 event last night, anticipatory gamers got their first sighting of the new console, which had been announced at a February press conference sight unseen. The PS4 is a black parallelogram: sleek and unobtrusive. The company also announced the PS4's price: $399, $100 less than the newly-announced price of the Xbox One. No release date was announced; all we know for sure is that the new PlayStation will arrive in time for the holiday season.
Sony certainly didn't pull any punches at its event. The company threw a direct jab at rival Microsoft and its Xbox One console by stating that the PlayStation 4 will fully support used games. Sony also said that the PlayStation 4 wouldn't require an online connection; single-player games can be fully enjoyed offline. Both used-game support and online requirements have been raised as potential issues with the Xbox One.
Not to be outdone by the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 also aims to be an entertainment hub. New streaming services are being added, including some yet-to-be-announced exclusive content from Sony Pictures.
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The rest of the event highlighted games, including new Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts titles from Square Enix. Many of the games shown had already been teased back in February, though. In fact, much of the PS4 event reiterated information that we already had—highlighting the handheld PlayStation Vita as PS4's sidekick, for example. Still, Sony delivered a challenge to Microsoft with this event. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the show plays out.
