Back at E3, Sony was only willing to say that the PlayStation 4 would be released this holiday season. Today, the company locked down a North American date of November 15, 2013 for the new system with a European date of November 29. The system will be available for $399/€399/£349 in 32 countries by the end of the year, the company said.

The date comes just days before the Black Friday post-Thanksgiving sales, but given the strong pre-order interest for the system already, the PS4 might be hard to find on store shelves in the days after it drops. Sony revealed that one million PS4 systems have already been pre-ordered worldwide.

The company notably did not mention a release date or price point for the system's launch in its native Japan. Back at E3, Sony said it was gauging whether a 2013 release would be possible in the country.

Microsoft has not specified a date for the release of its $499/€499/£429 Xbox One past "November" for the first wave of 13 markets. Other countries, including Japan and eight European markets, won't receive the system until 2014.