Today the Financial Times published an article that included a brief statement by Sony Corporation Chief Executive Officer Kenichiro Yoshida, confirming that a next-generation PlayStation console is seen by the company as a necessity.
“At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware”
Yoshida-san did not confirm or deny that said next-generation hardware would be called the PlayStation 5.
While the statement certainly surprises no one given the success of the PS4, this is the first time that a top Sony executive actually confirms the release of a new console as a necessary course of action. That being said, the wording is vague enough to make it difficult to infer the state of development of the platform.
Back in May, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera talked about the future of the PlayStation Business, leading some media outlet to believe that the next console would come in 2021, but this interpretation was most probably erroneous. Kodera was simply talking about Sony’s three-year-long mid-term corporate strategy, and not about the company’s specific plans for a new hardware platform.