Massive Online Gaming

PlayStation 4? It's not as crazy as it sounds. But consumers shouldn't expect the console until 2010 at the soonest, said vice president of technology for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Paul Holman.

Despite recent rumors that Sony may be preparing to exit the console hardware business given its management shift among top SCEI executives, Holman clarifies with SmartHouse that Sony is indeed planning to launch a PlayStation 4, but no sooner than 2010. "To say that there will be no PS4 because of a management change is a bit far fetched," Holman says.

According to Holman, it's too soon to be speaking of the PS4, since game developers are just discovering that the PS3 has "more processing headroom than they initially anticipated and that this was resulting in the development of new gaming capabilities."

What about these "new gaming capabilities?"

Holman said that Sony plans to release a series of firmware upgrades, as the company has done with its PSP, to enable the PS3 to become more media center oriented and allow for third-party applications and hardware "such as interactive controllers" like the Nintendo Wii remote.