I’ve been saying this for a few years, but here we go again: E3 has lost pretty much any relevance it’s had because Gamescom and later, TGS always have more exciting news stories and even better game reveals. Sony, coming off a pretty successful year for revealing new products (in its game division, at least) has dropped info on the worldwide launch dates for its eagerly anticipated PlayStation 4 console. North American consumers get their on November 15 and European consumers can plan on a November 29 launch. Sony also revealed that at least one million PS4 pre-orders have been taken, which means that’s a lot of folks who will be taking sudden early Thanksgiving vacations here in the US so they can snap up their systems and camp out at home with one of the many launch titles…

Sony also announced an immediately effective price cut on its Vita handheld to $199, which is a great price here in the states, but in Europe, the system can be had for less money and with bundled software downloads. No doubt, Sony needs to address that issue, but they also noted that the cost of proprietary memory cards for the unit will also receive a price drop. No prices were given at the press conference, but it’s a good thing to see as it’s a major complaint many have with the Vita. As for launch titles and more info, I’ll shut up and let you watch that video above – it’s quite informative!

And yes, Microsoft is doing some fun stuff too, but at this point it’s hard to care too much thanks to the company’s all over the map reversals and triple somersaults to get more people interested in their new console these past few months. I’ll run their conference later or tomorrow, but I say cross your fingers and toes and hope to hell they don’t change anything else about the system at this point in the game…