Sony has admitted that work has begun on a new home console - but insisted that the enormous initial investment that it made into PlayStation 3 will not be repeated.
Speaking during an investor briefing - reported by Nikkei and translated by Andriasang - CFO Masaru Kato noted that reduced PS3 manufacturing costs had helped Sony over the past year. With that in mind, Kato said: "It is no longer thinkable to have a huge initial financial investment like that of the PS3."
Kato responded to a question from an investor about R&D costs by admitting that a new console was at least it Sony's thoughts. "For the home equipment the PS3 still has a product life, but this is a platform business," he said. "So for the future of the platform, when will we introduce it? What product? I cannot discuss that. But development is already underway."
Yesterday Sony's networked products and services division - which includes its PlayStation business - reported a profit of £267.4 million. With sales revenue growing just 0.4 per cent, it was a significant turnaround from the previous year's £625.6 million loss - which goes some way to explaining Sony's desire to keep costs low in future.
Source: Andriasang