Sony: "A lot more headroom left" in PS3, says it's not "slipping behind the times"

Kaz Hirai has said some people though a 10-year life cycle for a console like PS3 "sounded great," but were still a bit skeptical over the possibility of it actually happening.

Speaking with the Guardian, Hirai said PS3 is growing with the times and will continue to do so.

"One of the things that we always talked about is the 10-year life cycle," he said. "When we launched the PS3 back in 2006, one of the questions I kept getting asked was why we were putting so much technology into a piece of equipment that was basically a games console. At the time, I said we were looking at a 10-year life cycle. We wanted to make sure we could adapt as new technology was brought on board. A lot of people at the time said that while it all sounded great, they didn't believe it.

"The plain fact is, the PS3 has grown with the times. The most recent example was the firmware upgrade for all of the PS3s to be 3D compatible, which is something no other console could do. And to this day, there's still a lot more headroom left in the PS3. That, again, is a function of the initial investments we made, both in terms of technology as well as financial investments for the components.

"You probably hear a lot things about the PS3, but one thing you won't hear is that it's slipping behind the times."

Hirai goes on to say that since Sony is "not in the hardware business," whether or not PS3 is profitable or not is a "moot point," because Sony is in the entertainment business.

"We look at the totality between hardware, software and peripherals and whether it's profitable as a platform," he explained. "Having said that – because everyone is so interested – yes, we are profitable on the PS3 hardware and we'll continue to be profitable on the PS3 hardware... Whether we're profitable or not in the hardware alone, that doesn't really address the bigger picture."