Some Are Already Talking About the PlayStation 4

With not even one month passed from the PlayStation 3 launch, some have already started to talk about a follow-up, presumably called PlayStation 4.

Talks about the PS4 started when Sony decided to restructure its executive staff, namely Ken Kuturagi, the guy responsible for all three PlayStation consoles so far, who will become chairman and chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment. This may seem like a promotion, but maybe Ken Kuturagi won't see it that way, as he is removed from running Sony's games division.

The one who will replace Kuturagi is Kazuo Hirai, who is already known as being part of Sony Computer Entertainment's US division. He will become SCE global president and chief operating officer instead of Ken Kutaragi, according to ft.com (financial times).

With this new shift in personnel, analysts have started commenting that "this could be the start of a shift from hardware to software". This statement belongs to Yuta Sakurai, an analyst at Nomura who also declares that he can't imagine now a PlayStation 4.

The overall opinion of the analysts is that Kuturagi was closer to hardware innovations in comparison with Hirai, who is more software-oriented. Maybe Sony is planning to turn into a game making mogul. Maybe they should focus more on this issue, as they have launched the PS3 but only a few PS3 games are available at this moment. Furthermore, PS3 titles get canceled or delayed as each day passes by.

Considering the amount of money invested in developing and manufacturing the PS3, Sony will need to recoup this money somehow and maybe software developing is just the way to do it.