Why didn’t we see the PS4 last night? Sony explains console no-show

Sony’s PlayStation 4 event took place last night, in case you missed it, but there was no PlayStation 4 in sight. We saw the new DualShock 4 controller, the games, the specs, but no console. Why?

Many berated Sony last night for not showing us the design of the console itself, and today Sony president Shuhei Yoshida has explained why, so as to clear things up. In short, Sony doesn’t want to give you everything in one go for a console that won’t launch for another 9 or 10 months.

Yoshida explained that Sony wants “to keep something new for later. Otherwise you’d get bored.”

Read into this as you will – Microsoft still has its turn to take in the next-gen console race, and so Sony might not want to give away its design secrets just yet. Alternatively, it may not have finished the final design of the console – it doesn’t launch until November/ December time, after all.

Sony got out of the starting blocks ahead of Microsoft by revealing a new controller, new games, a new online gaming ecosystem and more, but we still have the world’s biggest gaming expo to come this year. E3 takes place in June and is thought to be the place Microsoft will reveal the new Xbox for the first time, and Sony wouldn’t want to have nothing new to show, leaving the floor for Microsoft, now would it?

We suspect that Sony is saving a big reveal of the console itself for E3 in order to ensure Microsoft doesn’t steal the show. Yoshida has said that Sony hopes to have everything finalised by the time E3 rolls around but didn’t confirm what or when we will see anything new PS4-wise. It seems pretty concrete that we’ll get second helpings of PS4 news in June, so stay tuned.