Ben-DutkaWe're not buying it but maybe others will.
According to an inside source talking about a "high-level meeting at Sony," the next PlayStation machine will be on store shelves in exactly 18 months.
Supposedly, the source "isn't a neophyte, an outsider, a gossip, a fake, or a show-off," and remains convinced that what he heard is accurate, and the PS4 will be ready to go in a year and a half. But as many are saying, there are problems with that expectation: firstly, 18 months puts the launch date in late February or early March of 2013. …that's a retarded date for the launch of a new piece of hardware; this isn't the PS2 generation, where Japan got the system many months in advance and it launched in October for the US.
Secondly, Sony has made it clear that they have no intention of even thinking about a new PlayStation any time soon. Developers, analysts, journalists, and gamers alike are happy with the PS3 for now, and Sony only recently started to turn a profit on the system. Thirdly, we're not hearing about any huge leap in technology that would indicate a new, more powerful platform. Therefore, perhaps what the source heard was in reference to a new type of PlayStation…maybe a machine that's all digital for the new-age gamers, but isn't necessarily more powerful.
Either way, until we have even a sliver of information that supports this 18-month theory, we're going to take it with a very small grain of salt.