Wow crazy are we even going to see a PS4?
Yeah I think that's one of the big questions people should be asking right now for sure. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend to be some company portfolio expert/analyst, I'm far from that. But what I will say is it sure doesn't take a rocket scientist for anyone to see this company is in MAJOR trouble period. It's just been one thing after another for Sony this time around, much of it not good news. First the initial high price for the PS3, then that PSN hacking last year..I mean they had to re-build practically that entire network after that which can't be cheap! And this year, they're dealing with Vita which is not getting off to as grand a start as I'm sure they would have liked.
As for the issue of PS4..I've read the rumored specs flying around but I honestly and truly believe it's just conceptual stuff at this point. What they'd LIKE to do. The reality though is, with this huge of a financial mess on their hands I don't believe they can afford to do a PS4. At least not a full blown successor to the PS3. What I do believe is at some point they were planning to do a traditional PS3 successor but especially after that PSN hacking they likely had to spend quite a bit of the development money that would have gone towards a PS4 to fix that. After that it's very possible they were faced with a tough choice..either dig in and go ahead with full PS4 development as planned or develop out the Vita. They chose Vita and I wouldn't be surprised if that is as close to a PS4 as we're going to get for the forseeable future. It's probably a miracle Vita even saw the light of day if all of this really is as bad as it appears to be.
This next time around coming up is...starting to potentially look very different from what even I was expecting let alone what a lot of people thought. That's not really something to expand on in this thread though. What I'll say about that here is people may need to brace themselves for a possibly couple pretty large shocks.
If I were Sony right now, a potential PS4 or PS4 development would more than likely be the last thing on my mind. I'd be focusing on making sure PS3 goes out with a huge bang and focusing on helping Vita really get on it's feet and grow that out. They're damned no matter what they do right now. As the saying goes "Damned if you do, damned if you don't." Right now the safest bet for them would be focus on PS3 and Vita..there's no real other options for the gaming division and that's the reality. Also focus on giving themselves as much of a chance as possible to survive and recover from this..massively huge mess.
And if it comes down to the gaming division and the Playstation brand disappearing, I think what people need to look at is that brand has been lucky and lasted many times longer than a lot of brands have. Some last only a year or two, some are literally overnight here today and gone tomorrow brands. The Playstation brand has lasted 15 years though and I think that's what people need to be looking at-what they've accomplished in that time and be grateful for it.
I just don't see their mess clearing up anytime soon. Certainly not tomorrow or next week. If they pull through it, we're probably talking several years long haul. Maybe once they pull through this, in several years something like a PS4 can be a reality. Right now it needs to be about seeing the PS3 to the end of it's lifespan, growing out Vita, and finding effective ways to get through their troubles. You deal with a financial mess first, not developing a grand PS4. They simply can't afford it right now. To develop a PS4 and THEN deal with the financial mess would be unwise to say the least.
