'It's too early to talk about the end of this gen', says Sony's Yoshida
PS4 chatter is premature, according to Shuhei Yoshida president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. The exec has stated that while consoles may hit technical boundaries near the end of their span, new services and ideas can prolong life cycles beyond what is possible with raw hardware.
Speaking with French site Lemonde, Yoshida was asked if he felt the release of Wii U signified the start of the next console generation. He replied, "Not necessarily. Since the launch of the Playstation 3, six years ago, the graphics have evolved, resulting in titles like adventure game Uncharted 3 and Beyond by Quantic Dream."
"The life of consoles is also extended by services online," Yoshida added, "which continue to make a new offer cloud and new social functions. It is therefore too early to talk about the end of this generation of consoles."
It comes after our own sources explained to us that PS4 dev kits are now rolling out to studios, and that Sony's next console will be revealed just before E3 2013. Check out what our sources told us here:
Yoshida was also quizzed about the performance of PS Vita, and it seems he's not overly impressed that just 3 million units have been sold globally to date. "These results are below our expectations," he stressed, "and explain first the players' equipment. Consumers now have multimedia devices, such as smartphones."
"These devices include the ability to play," he added, "and it is difficult for us to justify the purchase of an additional machine. To us to produce added value to attract players to the PlayStation Vita. The other reason is the number of content available on the console."
"With the rise of mobile gaming studios have begun a transition in part, allocating more resources to this type of production," he concluded, "Even if the creators want to develop games on Vita, they unfortunately fewer resources to do. One solution is to encourage the support of the platform by smaller development studios."
What do you think? Is it too early to start talking about PS4 as Yoshida suggests? Let us know below.