Sony Isn't Ready for a PlayStation 4, PS3 Still at Halfway Point

Sony isn't ready to talk about a PlayStation 4 just yet, as its current console, the PlayStation 3, is halfway through its lifecycle.

More and more people are talking about the next generation of home consoles like the PlayStation 4, Xbox 720 or Nintendo Wii 2.

Sony, for its part, is still saying that the PlayStation 3 has another 5 years ahead of it, being only at the halfway point in its lifecycle.

Sony Computer Entertainment UK boss Ray Maguire is adamant that technology still hasn't progressed enough to warrant an investment in a new console.

"It's the same conversation as it was for PlayStation 1, 2 and 3," he said to The Guardian (via CVG). "With the amount of money required nowadays to develop and launch a new platform, you have to have a long lifecycle. With PS1, launched in 1995, we ended up with a seven year active lifecycle and a ten year overall lifecycle. When we set out to invent a new platform, often it's something we can't actually make yet, because technology hasn't got us into a position where we can make silicon that thin, or where we can manage that amount of heat or power."

The Sony executive said that it would be counter intuitive to launch a new device right, as third-party developers are just now managing to squeeze out the most power out of the hardware, resulting in beautiful games that bring them lots of money.

"Right now, we're seeing a lot of the power of PS3 being used so the games are looking great, and that's good for third-party publishers as they start to make good money on the big winners."

As for the future, Maguire believes online is going to become more and more important for Sony as a whole, but this won't warrant a new device on its own.

"The online side is very interesting and is a big part of our business going forward. But in terms of what sort of technology we'll be using, it's far too early to say yet because we're only half way through the lifecycle of PS3 - there are many years to come on that machine."

Even if the next PlayStation is still far away, Microsoft is now hiring new developers to work on a "next generation platform" while Nintendo is expected to announce a successor to the Wii at this year's E3 conference.