Sony must be feeling especially smug today, especially after one of the most successful E3 showings in recent memory. During their press conference in LA, the company showed off the final PS4 hardware — and surprise, it’s another black box.

Kidding aside, the PS4, according to many first-hand reports, is actually much smaller than its Microsoft counterpart and around the same size as the smaller version of the PS3 introduced back in 2009. All despite its more powerful hardware inside the box, making it a very impressive engineering feat.

But perhaps the best moment of the presentation was when SCEA CEO Jack Tretton took a good couple of minutes to run down some bullet points that must have left Microsoft hurting and had the crowd cheering: The PS4 will support used games, will not require an always-online connection, and you’re free to give your games to whoever you want. Here’s a video:

Finally, Sony ended the conference with one final shot fired at Microsoft. The PS4 will be priced at $399 when it arrives later this year. That’s a full hundred dollars less than Microsoft, a price disparity that along with everything else Sony is doing right these days, should prove to be very fruitful when both consoles launch.

Here are a few more shots of the PS4 hardware:

[via PlayStation Blog]