Sony's Hirai dispels rumors of a PlayStation 4 reveal

Moving into the new year, the industry has grown abuzz with rumors of new console announcements at E3 this June. Today, Sony's Kaz Hirai pointed out that the PlayStation 3 is just halfway through its lifespan, and that Sony is "not making any announcements at E3," reports the Wall Street Journal. "I've always said a 10-year life cycle for PS3, and there is no reason to go away from that," Hirai explained, reinforcing Sony's commitment to the PlayStation 3 in the foreseeable future. Even with the PS3's alleged 10-year plan, however, Sony did not confirm that a new console is several years away. The PS3 launched well before the PlayStation 2's 10-year anniversary, yet that console is still selling strong more than a decade after its debut. In addition, Bloomberg reports that Hirai said that the industry needs dedicated home consoles to deliver large amounts of data without a network, implying Sony's continued commitment to physical media. "It's very important that we continue to have a dedicated home-based console," Hirai said. "Relying solely on networks to deliver content is unfortunately just not possible. It's still very difficult to have consumers download 50 gigabytes of data or more." In a recent report [PDF], analyst firm Sterne Agee said it believes the next PlayStation home console will continue to employ physical media, noting that any unannounced potential new consoles are likely "primarily disc-based," due both to the challenge Hirai described as well as the industry's continued reliance on retail partners.