PlayStation 4 is forthcoming ... so what?

There is a piece circulating the internet on comments made by Paul Holman, VP of Technology for SCEE, where we claimed that we would not see a PlayStation 4 until at least 2010. Unfortunately, 2010 is never actually quoted by Holman, implying that it might have been a fabricated/sensationalized number created by the article's author, David Richards, at SmartHouse.

Here's what we gather from the article: following one analyst predictions that were circulating the internet (notice a trend here?) that predicted Sony's executive shift would result in them leaving the hardware market, Holman states that, "to say that there will be no PS4 because of a management change is a bit far fetched." That is the only thing he says about a PlayStation 4, yet the article uses the topic, with an unsubstantiated number, as its headline. The article has been picked up by many press outlets either as "at least 2010" or just plain "PS4 arriving in 2010."

We're not going to say anything regarding their spelling and punctuation, but the 2010 claim (at least 2010, mind you) is not supported by any quotes from Holman. GameSetWatch also tackles this issue, both specifically and generally.

The rest of the article discusses the new-gen PlayStation 3 firmware (we've blogged this). What you should take from the article is that a PlayStation 4 will arrive, eventually, but a launch year is not yet being discussed. And read the full article, as the headlines can be misleading or worse, as in this case, unsupported by the article itself.

Last month, Ken Kutaragi told BBC that he wanted a PlayStation 4 "within the next decade." Maybe we can say, then, that PS4 will be out by 2020? Nah, let's not be presumptuous.