I don't recall we here (well not here, would have been Chertz probably) doubted that there would be a PS4.Orbis had lots of rumors but Sony was in such a poor state back then.
There were rumors of PlayStation Orbis going back almost a year before the conference, that I recall that most of us knew about.
Although maybe the problem was, I only started following game news more closely after PS4 was already announced.
Stock was around a 30 year low, psn hack was still fresh, ps move was doing poor, ps vita was doing poor, and biggest 2012 Sony games were psasbr,lbp karting,wonderbook,r&c bad one,etc.
It was bad.
Microsoft however was on the top of the world. They were kinda having issues keeping hardcore players excited but there was no worry about the state of the company.
It was common to expect MS to crush Sony and there was a fear that Sony could not afford launching a new system. I sure worried about it back then.
