Sony PlayStation 4, There s Still No Mass Production Box

After Wednesday night's PlayStation Meeting event, a flurry of questions still surround the future of next-gen gaming and where the PlayStation 4 will fit in.

(See also The PlayStation 4 Is Here, But We Don't Know What It Looks Like)

Since then, Sony has been nice enough to clear up a few of the most pressing issues, namely why it did not show the console even once throughout its two-hour presentation. The answer, from Sony CEO Jack Tretton, is that there is no 'mass-production box' at the moment.

'The Console Is Just A Console'

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony's Worldwide Studios group, complemented that answer by explaining that event was aimed at expressing the company's next-gen vision, not showcasing hardware specs and final design. 'The console is just a box… the controller was very important to show because it has the share button, but the console is just a console,' he said in an interview with Polygon.

Sony also addressed some of the less important questions surrounding the PS4:

1. The Dualshock 3 controller will not be supported on the new console.
2. The PS4 will in fact support 4K video and photo streaming, but not for games.
3. 3D is not important. Yoshida explained the company's dismissive mindset when it comes to 3D, '…All of the companies have shifted focus from 3D TV to something else, so if they're not talking about it, why would we?'
4. Used games? To the many gamers who feared the PS4 would integrate a ban on used games, Yoshida offered concise, yet vague, reassurance. 'Used games can play on the PS4,' he said in an interview with Eurogamer, leaving open the possibility of a potential access code that customers might have to purchase to access a used title.
5. Social and offline play. In a cheeky swipe at those adverse to Sony's big push for social media integration, Yoshida said, 'We understand there are some people who are anti-social! So if you don't want to connect to anyone else, you can do that.'

For those who like to salivate over processing power and performance, Sony released a full spec sheet, confirming its AMD innards. The processor will be comprised of eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores and a next-gen AMD Radeon-based graphics engine that will push 1.84 teraflops. 

Sony is still playing mum on an official release date and pricing, and Yoshida didn't shed much light on whether or not the physical console box will be ready for an E3 unveiling: 'We're still trying to decide that,' he said.