Sony had a lotta 'splainin' to do in a investor call today. Investors were wondering why research and development costs were suddenly so high. Our first thought was due to the NGP, but then Sony's chief financial officer, Masaru Kato, said this:
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.
Sony PlayStation head honcho Kaz Hirai had said a while back that the PlayStation 3 wasn't even at it's halfway point in its 10-year lifecycle, and that development of a new console hadn't yet begun. I'm sure he was just keeping people from holding out from buying a new PS3 for a new, upcoming console.
E3 is right around the corner, but we'd be extremely shocked to see anything about a PlayStation 4 there. Sony has to focus on the NGP for now, and we doubt that a new console is far enough in development to be debuted.
Who really can say, though. Nintendo will be debuting a new console, and rumors were floating about in regards to a new Xbox. Maybe Sony caught wind of those developments early and decided to get to work on a new console in order to get a jump on the competition.
One thing is for sure. E3 is right around the corner and excitement is at its peak. Stick with GR all week during E3 for up-to-the-minute live coverage of the event.
