Sony pops the top with the PS4

That’s the PS4 pictured above. Drink it in. Sony had their E3 presentation as today, closing out the E3 stage demo rodeo, and they finally unveiled the PS4 hardware.

Before they got to good stuff, Sony showed off the PS Vita and the PS3, just to remind everyone that both still existed and would continue to be supported into the near future. The PS Vita will get The Walking Dead with the upcoming 400 Days chapter, and the PS3 will get a scary digital Willem Dafoe in Beyond: Two Souls.

Because Sony didn’t have a pre-E3 event to talk about media streaming, they got to waste some time on that. Did you know Sony publishes music and movies? They do! The PS4 will have all sorts of ways to consume (and pay) for media.

Sony finally moved on to the PS4 by showing off the sexy hardware. PS4 games previewed included The Order: 1886, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Drive Club, Infamous: Second Son, Knack, The Dark Sorcerer, Assassin’s Creed 4, Watch Dogs, NBA 2K14, Mad Max, and Destiny. Square Enix showed a trailer for a game containing fops. We need more fop-based games. SE also teased Kingdom Hearts III. Dumbledore narrated a new Elder Scrolls Online trailer.

Indie games got a special shout-out. The Witness, Transistor, Don’t Starve, Mercenary Kings, Ocotodad, Secret Ponchos, Outlast, Oddworld Inhabitants, and Galak-Z were shown together to show off Sony’s commitment to the indie developers. This is an area that Microsoft has been criticized for in recent days.

Jack Tretton made sure to fire some shots at a competitor. The PS4 will support lending and resale of used disc-based games with no restrictions. The PS4 will not require periodic online checks either. I wonder who they were directing that towards? You’d think they had it in the bag, but then Jack slipped a quick change-up into his presentation. Multiplayer access on the PS4 will be locked behind PS+. Boo!

Just to rub it in Microsoft’s face, the PS4 is launching at $399. Someone’s been listening to gamers talk the past few weeks.