Sony says it's 'surprised' by complaints that the PS4's design was not revealed.
The firm's European chief Jim Ryan told MCV it was more important to show the device's capabilities over its form factor, and that there's plenty more to reveal about the console over the next 10 months.
"There seems to be a disproportionate amount of noise about [the PS4 no-show] and I really don't get it," he said.
"It was so much more important to describe what the device is capable of, rather than what it looks like. The show was long enough as it was and there's only so much you can do at these things. Let's focus on the games. It was pretty tough cramming that into two hours.
"Sony does design well. That's one thing we do well. And it will be nice. But we will reveal it at the right moment. It is not like the conference was the start of the end of process of PlayStation 4. There's a long time between now and holiday season 2013. And you and I will be talking about lots over the coming months. We will reveal the design at the right moment. I don't think it was a big deal, I'm surprised so much has been made out of it."
Ryan wouldn't reveal if that holiday 2013 date will include Europe. But tells MCV that we should not presume the console is coming out in 2014 instead.
"We're not saying if Holiday 2013 includes Europe at this stage," he added.
"We are only saying we will launch the system before the end of 2013, we're not saying in which parts of the world. But don't infer anything good or bad from that. You can take that anyway you want, but you shouldn't."