Sony: PS3 still has a long life

With all the buzz surrounding the impending announcement of the PlayStation 4, Sony has reassured investors and analysts that there’s still plenty of life left in the PS3.

The PS3 is currently in its sixth year, and judging by how long the PS2 lasted and taking Sony’s famous ten-year life cycle philosophy into account, it’s hard to dispute that claim.

"PS3, in its sixth year, I think it still has a long life. And here we’re not in the stage where we are losing money on the hardware anymore," Sony CFO Masaru Kato said in an earnings call, according to a transcript published by Seeking Alpha.

Playing down talk of the PS4, Kato added, "So again, there are discussions about the next platform. I cannot dwell on that at all at the moment. But in any case, we have a lot of business in PS3."

Kato’s words will come as relief to Sony India, which is looking to position the PS3 as the headliningproduct of the PlayStation line in India, with the PS2 set to be discontinued after Diwali.

Vita needs "more attractive software"

Sony cut is combined PS Vita and PSP sales target for the year from 10 million to 7 million, and Kato was less emphatic in his outlook for the clearly struggling Vita.

"Now one thing clear for us that in terms of profitability, we have to do a better job in promoting the PlayStation Vita mobile product," Kato said.

Kato said that Sony aimed to turn the Vita’s fortunes around with a renewed focus on first and third-party games.

We are putting a lot of resources, not just first party, but also asking third parties to put out more attractive software. That’s the basics. The other thing, well, marketing, pricing of the product, etc,” said the CFO, adding, I cannot talk about pricing of this platform, but those are the things that we are looking into to improve our profitability in the mobile handheld gaming business," refusing to get drawn into discussions about a potential Vita price drop.

Sony is expected to announce the PS4 at the PlayStation Meeting 2013 in New York on 20th February.

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