The console gamers of the world were abuzz today with high anticipation that Sony Computer Entertainment would be unveiling the much-rumored PlayStation 4 at a big conference they had planned that was streaming all over the world.

A large event was held, and Sony did indeed officially announce the PS4, as expected. What they did not do, however, was unveil it. Instead, some technical details about the new console and what it will do were shared, and the new controller—the DualShock 4—was shown off along with a collection of next-gen game titles and demos.

Not exactly what everyone was expecting, but nevertheless, continue on below to find out what we do know so far.

Here’s what we do know:

A release date has not been announced, but the console will be released sometime during the holiday season of 2013.

Perhaps the most exciting thing shared was the console’s hardware stats, even if you have zero idea what they mean…like me!

There’s not a chance I could recall what these stats were, so instead we’ll look to TechRadar for all the dirty details, including some that were shared after the event finished.

The console will run on a single-chip custom processor, and will use eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores, powered by an AMD Radeon graphics engine. I’m lost already. There’s also a PC GPU with 18 GCN units, which can each have up to 64 cores, all leading to 1.84 teraflops of processing power. Ya hear that? Teraflops, kids!

The PS4 will come with 8GBs of GDDR5 memory, as well as its local hard drive and whatever amount of space is provided there.

Instead of worrying about backwards compatibility, Sony will use a cloud service, and their hope is to one day provide every Sony game from all generations and platforms almost instantly on any device. An ambitious goal, and, if it works, an exciting way for gamers to play old favorites…especially those much harder to find titles from long ago. The biggest question here is how much it will cost to use this service, and how games you already own will be applied.

It appears a huge focus for the PS4 will be networking, with both people and other devices. This could be good for those who play games on multiple devices, while pure console gamers will likely feel indifferently.

Sony’s new controller, seen below, is not much different from the PS3 controller visually, but does offer some interesting new features. Notable additions include a small touchpad, a lightbar, some kind of speaker, and a “share” button that will instantly allow you to share videos and screenshots of things that happen in your game. How all of these functions truly work will surely become more apparent as we see more demonstrations.

Streaming appears to be a big plan for the future, as Sony wants gamers to be able to instantly play games and demos instead of waiting long periods of time for them to download. There will also apparently be the option for friends to watch you play a game and vice versa, with the option to take control of someone’s game remotely if they need assistance.

Getting everyone excited for the big PlayStation 4 reveal and then not showing the actual PS4 has quite a few agitated, but perhaps the move was a smart one. Sony shares these bits of info, and gets all kinds of coverage all over the internet. Then at E3 this summer—where it’s expected Microsoft will unveil their next Xbox console—Sony can pull the curtain on the actual console and more details about what it can do in a friendly (or possibly aggressive) attempt at stealing some of Microsoft’s thunder.

As for the next-gen PS4 games that were shown off, stay tuned, as we’ll have a handful of the various videos coming soon!