First glimpses of the highly anticipated Sony PlayStation 4 are out. Sony unveiled the PS4 at the recent E3 conference, kind of. The PS4 that the press got a glimpse of was behind glass, but some observations could be seen. The first observation is that the PS4 is much more compact that was originally thought.

The second observation is that the PS4 has a design that's all its own. The "angled" design of the PS4 looks sleek enough, and the whole console is smaller than the recent Xbox (to give you some idea of the size of this console). What else?

Some Initial Specs

The PS4 does come with some HDMI outs and two USB ports. In addition, the PS4 triples as a BluRay player and a DVD player. This, of course, is Sony's aim - to bring the console into your living room where, if Sony had its way, it would never leave. The other big news about the new PS4 is the controller that comes with this console.

The Dual-Shock 4 controller has been surrounded by much hype. The controller seems to be wider than the last one that Sony put out, and the sensor in the middle has been described by one blogger as a "large button" placed in the center of the remote. As far as the face side of the controller goes, there's not much difference. But, the analog sticks are much more pliable, and this should make gamers very happy.

Pricing and Availability

I know, I know: how much will the PS4 cost? Sony will be releasing the PS4 for around $400, and that release should come by the end of the summer. Then again, Sony may push this release to the beginning of the winter season, so that the console will be ready in time for the holiday shopping season. Will the PS4 live up to all the hype? After all, Sony has been pumping us up about the the new console for months now.

It's hard to really tell anything from a console that's behind glass, but at least Sony has debuted the console. That means that the company is done working on the PS4, and it is moving along on schedule. There are a lot of consoles to choose from right now, but Sony's PS4 aims to be just as familiar, and better, than the former PlayStations. This means that the console is likely to be a huge hit with PlayStation fans around the globe.

To Find Out More...

Sony has listed some additional details about the PS4 on the company's website. You can check out those details, all the pre-hype listed on this site, and more photos from Sony out there in the Internet world. Since the PS4 has been in the works for so long, there's plenty of speculative articles and blog posts about the console already available.

Want to know something specific about the PS4? Just ask! I'll get back to you with details as soon as they become available.