PS4 officially under development, says Sony

27 May 2011

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Posted by:Josh

The PlayStation 4 is OFFICIALLY under development, confirmed Sony executive vice president and chief financial officer Masaru Kato in a post-annual earnings report conference call.

This was revealed when he was asked about the great increase in research and development costs from the company; Which although it is known that the PSP-successor, known as the NGP or Next-Gen Portable, is under development, it was not confirmed whether a PS3-successor was actually under development or not. Until now.

“The PS3 still has a product life but this is a platform business…when we’ll be introducing [PS4] I cannot discuss…development work is already under way.” — Sony’s Ex. Vice Pres Masaru Kato

To quote Kato:

Question: What is the major driver of R&D costs?
Answer: “Prototype research work, development work during the current fiscal year in the game segment. We have a portable NGP to be launched later this year, so we have development expenses to be incurred for this product and 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.”

Of course, this comes hot on the heels of Sony’s competitors also putting out word on a next-generation game machine. Nintendo announced that their next game system, known as Wii 2 or Project Cafe, will be unveiled at E3 2011.

As for Microsoft, they recently put out a job listing looking for people to work on “next-generation” development positions for “future platforms” i.e. the Xbox 720.

What do you most want to see from the PlayStation 4?

Via GameSpot