This week is the Electronic Entertainment Expo (or “E3” for effort conservation), an annual trade fair held in Los Angeles for those in the computer and gaming industries to meet, greet, demo, impress, and preview their upcoming products. Since my gaming bailiwick is fairly narrow, I was only interested in one of the scheduled press conferences: this evening’s 100-minute presentation from Sony Entertainment, at which they finally allowed the new PlayStation 4 console to see the light of day. The largest physical advantage of the PS4’s new, sleeker, less angular design is that now you can stack things on it. This sounds silly, but the PS3 is built like a car’s dashboard and defies all attempts to use it as a temporary shelf.

Though the press conference began twenty minutes late by my watch, some of the news and notes were well worth the wait. The best announcement of the entire conference, as far as our household is concerned, was Square Enix’s assertion (with preview clip!) that the long-procrastinated Kingdom Hearts III is now in development, after years of stalling and inferior handheld offshoots. I’m hoping this is released long before I reach the age of arthritis attacks. The clock is ticking and the calendar is flipping.

Also generating intense enthusiasm here was a trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which has likewise been in limbo for years. Following it in the lengthy pipeline are the probably spectacular Final Fantasy XV, plus a retooling of FFXIV, which means less to me because the original FFXIV is one of only two main FF installments I never bothered to try.

The current release schedule calls for a full library of 140 new games by the end of Year One, forty of which will be PS-exclusive. Other titles mentioned as coming sooner or later for the PS4 and (mostly) for the PS3 included:

* Gran Turismo 6 (“the Real Driving Simulator”, which to me means lots of rush hour traffic and smartphone users driving 10 mph under the limit)
* Other sequels to series I don’t play — Killzone: Mercenary; Killzone: Shadow Fall; Diablo III; NBA2K14 (featuring LeBron James!); GTA 5; and Elder Scrolls Online
* Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, whose pirate-ship-battle demo lagged and froze in the middle of the conference
* Batman: Arkham Origins (Caution: designed by a different studio than the first two classics. Proceed with care…though I hope their rendition of Deathstroke the Terminator is worthy)
* inFamous: Second Son (The first two are still on my to-do-someday list)
* Remastered versions of the first two God of War games, along with both Final Fantasy X and its sequel FFX-2 (At last, I can finish the latter!)
* A new Walking Dead installment subtitled 400 Days
* Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us (coming this Friday after a series of delays)
* The long-in-production Watch Dogs, which crosses Person of Interest with shades of Arkham Asylum
* The unusually mechanic’d Knack, previously demonstrated at the first PS4 press conference a few months ago
* A humorous meta-fantasy called The Dark Sorcerer, more details of which will be revealed Tuesday afternoon
* The fancy racing game Driveclub, which will also come in a PlayStation Plus exclusive edition for members of that service
* The Order: 1886 (A sort of Assassin’s Creed with all the characters named after the Knights of the Round Table)
* A game adaptation of the Mad Max trilogy, an odd choice given its star’s fall from grace and the two decades elapsed since its conclusion
* The new sci-fi FPS Destiny, a collaboration between Bungie Studios (HALO) and Activision (Call of Duty, Pitfall). The “world gameplay premiere” featured big guns, bigger constructs, co-op play, and speeder bikes.
* Several games with minimal explanations or samples — Tearaway, Counterspy, Puppeteer, and Rain

Other intended uses for the PS4:

* Expanded use of Music Unlimited as their version of iTunes singles. Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton made a point of name-checking a few artists currently signed to Sony labels — Daft Punk, Jack White, and (through some sort of magical leverage?) Nine Inch Nails.
* A brief mention of “original programming” (movies? TV? YouTube shorts?) that sounded like a long-term project, exclusive to the PlayStation Network and aimed at the gamer demographics.
* Video Unlimited, for carrying Sony movies and TV shows such as Community.
* Access to Netflix, Flixster, Crackle, and other streaming-media channels that my Sony Blu-ray player can already access, plus the upcoming Redbox Instant by Verizon, which cries out for a better nickname.
* Social networking, both within the PS community and in conjunction with one or more of the popular places.
* Ongoing networking synergy with the PS Vita, which they swear will be more relevant than ever. Somehow.
* Cloud storage! All the rage with the kids these days.

Ways in which Sony left Microsoft eating its dust:

* PS4 initial price point of $399.00, €399, or £349, depending on where you’re shopping. That’s a full $100 less than the XBox One’s launch price.

* Continuing support for indie game self-publishers, with a litany of such titles already on deck and waiting to launch — Transistor; Don’t Starve; the lo-fi Mercenary Kings; Secret Ponchos; Ray’s Dead; GalaxZ; Outlast; and the unlikely reboot Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty. Rarely does any corporate giant act as a gateway for start-up creators into any medium. It’s my understanding that Microsoft’s commitment to indies has been middling at best. I can only imagine the grave offenses their contracts probably contain.

* Unlike the XBox One, a constant Internet connection will not be required. PS4 games can be played offline without an online leash or mandatory Microsoft-style parole-officer check-ins.

* The PS4 will support used games. That shocking, uplifting announcement: the PS4 will totally, unconditionally support used disc-based PS4 games. Previous XBox One media materials have discussed assorted limitations, restrictions, burdens, and severe punishments associated with any gamers who dare save any money, as if used games were a filthy black market they mean to abolish. At the polar opposite of the DRM spectrum, Sony proclaimed in no uncertain terms that customers can buy, trade, sell, lend (!), or merely keep their games as they see fit. There was even a PowerPoint slide with all those terms in cold, hard print. I think they mean it.

That last part, more than any other moment, received the loudest, longest applause of the entire evening, including a brief chant of “SONY! SONY! SONY!” For the sake of their own long-term survival prospects in the gaming medium, I do hope Microsoft were paying attention. The same would go double for Nintendo, so confident in themselves that they’ve opted out of holding an E3 conference at all this year. Their loss.

Sony’s shindig ended with one last tagline: “Greatness Awaits”. If I can afford to acquire my own console after my son takes his possessions with him to college this fall, perhaps someday I’ll see about this greatness. I’ve played far too many Final Fantasy games in my life to give up on gaming just yet, especially if they keep making them wilder and prettier.