Development is Underway for PlayStation 4?

Sony is already underway in developing the next platform to follow the PlayStation 3.

As reported by Eurogamer, Masaru Kato, the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Sony made the revelation in a conference call to investors today. When asked to explain why Sony had increased spending within research and development, Kato said:

“For the home equipment the PS3 still has a product life, but this is a platform business, so for the future platform – when we’ll be introducing what product I cannot discuss that – but our development work is already under way, so the costs are incurred there.”

What this means is that whilst maintaining the fact that the PS3 has plenty of time, the company has allocated funding to pay for the development costs of the “future platform”.

Kato’s statement at the conference is in stark contrast to what the boss of Sony computer entertainment, Kaz Hirai, stated back in March:

“A near-future PS4 or next-generation home console is not something that we are even debating now”.

Hirai noted this as it would be way too soon, considering that we are less than halfway through the PS3’s expected life-cycle of at least ten years.

If the ten year life-cycle of the PS3 is accurate, then we have at least another five years to have our way with Sony’s next piece of hardware. With this said as well as the fact that funds have only just been diverted, it would be safe to assume that the “PlayStation 4” is at the very early stages of development. But hey, good things come to those who wait.

Could this be a build-up to a major announcement by Sony at this year’s E3? Push-Start will keep you posted.

 

Source: eurogamer.com