Asked to explain increased research and development costs, a Sony senior executive told investors that work PlayStation 3 successor is "already under way."
"For the home equipment the PS3 still has a product life," said Masaru Kato, the Sony chief financial officer, according to Eurogamer, "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."
Kato's comments are not necessarily inconsistent with past remarks calling for a 10-year lifespan for the PlayStation 3, or that the firm isn't close to releasing its successor. The PS2 hit its 10 year anniversary last year; the PS3 was released four years before that. And maybe the PS4 isn't a near-term strategy, as Kaz Hirai said recently, but that doesn't mean Sony isn't prudent to be working on it this far out.
Nintendo has confirmed it will reveal the Wii's successor at E3 this year, and it'll be on sale next year. Rumor spread earlier this month that development kits for the Xbox 360's successor were already in Electronic Arts' hands; that company called such assertions "a total fabrication."