The Invisible Console

Sony announced the PlayStation 4 in New York with the specific confidence of a company that knows it’s about to make a lot of money. New controller, new social features, an impressive density of technical specifications—and notably absent: any view of what the actual console looks like. Not one camera angle. A ghost machine with a very nice controller attached.

At the time, your options were roughly these: a high-end gaming PC if you had the budget and the patience, a Wii U if you were feeling charitable toward Nintendo, waiting to see what Microsoft had planned, or starting to set aside whatever the PS4 was going to cost. Sony didn’t answer that last question in the presentation either.

What they did show was the DualShock 4, which adds a touchpad and a share button—the latter being the piece Sony seemed most excited about, this idea that you’d want to instantly broadcast every headshot in Call of Duty to anyone following you. Maybe some people do. More usefully, the controller gets a light bar and improved analog sticks. The games shown included an early look at Watch Dogs, which promises city-wide systems hacking and looked extraordinary in the trailer. Blizzard confirmed Diablo III was coming to the platform, which felt less like a revelation and more like a formality.

The rest was standard announcement language—seamless experiences, instant game streaming, a new era. The console would arrive sometime before Christmas. Sony didn’t say how much it would cost. Start saving now.