During an investor call in Japan late last night, Sony confirmed they are working on a “future platform.” Although few hard details were revealed about the platform, this is the first official mention from Sony of these plans.

When discussing an increase in research and development costs over the last quarter, Sony’s VP and CFO Masaru Kato said:

“For the home equipment the PS3 still has a product life, but this is a platform business, so for the future platform – when we’ll be introducing what product I cannot discuss that – but our development work is already under way, so the costs are incurred there.”

Kato said whatever Sony is working on will have a different kind of launch than the PS3. The losses they have suffered on the PlayStation 3 had to do with the price of semiconductors versus retail prices. Sony has since created its own semiconductor facilities, and this means it is “no longer thinkable to have a huge initial financial investment like that of the PS3,” according to Kato.

Kato’s comments seem at odds with recent statements from Sony head Kaz Hirai. Back in February, Kaz said, “A near-future PS4 or next-generation home console is not something that we are even debating now. That is to say, we are still concentrating fully upon the PS3. Right now, I appeal to you to think of the PS3 and NGP as a new, co-operative partnership.”

Sony just announced at E3 that they are launching the Playstation Vita, a new handheld console. The PSV is expected to be released in 2011Q4 and like the PSP will interface with the PS3 and PSN.

Source: Andria Sang