While Microsoft is keeping pretty quiet about the next generation of the Xbox, Sony has spoken about the PS4 a number of times over the last couple of weeks. Last week, Sony's vice president of home entertainment, Hiroshi Sakamoto, confirmed to Spanish language site Emol that the company's next generation of PlayStation would see an E3 or earlier announcement. However, it seems that though we may see a PS4 announcement in the next six months, the Xbox 720 may actually be announced before the PS4.
According to Sony's President and CEO Kaz Hirai, the company may actually wait for Microsoft to go first to avoid being one-upped. IGN points to a quote in The Times accredited to Hirai, which reads as follows:
"Why go first, when your competitors can look at your specifications and come up with something better?"
Hirai has a point. Cast your mind back to 2011 and the unveiling of the 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab at Mobile World Congress. You'll remember that the iPad 2 was unveiled shortly after and Samsung felt threatened enough to go back to the drawing board.
"We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate," a Samsung exec was quoted as saying at the time. "Apple made it very thin."
However, while tablets suffer from a relatively short product life cycle, gaming consoles tend to stick around for quite a while. Look at the PS3. It was first launched at the end of 2006. Though it has gone through some changes since then, we haven't seen a completely new PlayStation since then. If Sony's Hiroshi Sakamoto May/June schedule remains true, we learn about the Xbox 720 before E3 as well.
