Sony president on PS4 successor: “It’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware”

Sony president and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida has suggested that the company is planning the release of a next-generation PlayStation.

“At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware,” Yoshida told Financial Times. He declined to formally name the future console “PlayStation 5.”

Yoshida’s comments were in response to debate over how Sony should address the rising global smartphone games market and the shifting habits of consumers as it readies game studios and the global market for a PlayStation 4 successor.

Financial Times relayed rumors within the industry that Sony might also be planning a tablet that would connect to multiple devices “as online streaming of games becomes more widespread and the company seeks to derive ever greater synergies between its games and movie divisions.”

The publication also cited “people in the games publishing industry with knowledge of Sony’s plans for a future console” who said early indications were that the next-generation PlayStation might have a similar fundamental architecture to PlayStation 4 and not represent a major departure from the console.

Back in April, several game development sources indicated that a PlayStation 5 would not release until 2020 at the earliest.