With recent news that Sony has shipped its 40 millionth PS2 console worldwide, talk is already starting regarding when it's successor, Playstation 3, will debut. Japan's newspaper Financial Times has reported that the company is planning on releasing the console in 2005.
Work on the system's microproccessor, named CELL, has been ongoing for some time now. Unlike the PS2, Sony isn't handling its development alone -both IBM and Toshiba have been helping out. This should help in controlling the console's manufacturing costs for Sony. The newspaper contends that the platform will retail for less than $400 and, like its predecessor, will be backwards compatible with PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games.
Interestingly, Sony itself is less focused on the PS3 than it is in the possibilities in the CELL microprocessor itself. Kenichi Fukunaga, spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment Japan said, "We're not thinking about hardware. The ideal solution would be having an operating system installed in various home appliances that could run game programs. We've started with boxes -making boxes do specific things. But if you have a chip this powerful, you can add functions to any box. It's a reverse thinking." Such a ubiquitous use of the chip would be more in line with the multi-faceted "entertainment hub" capacity that the company has always wanted for the PlayStation 2, but has yet to realize.