The PS3 Will Be Supported For At Least Another 2 Years

Despite the imminent launch of the PS4 the next-gen system’s predecessor will still enjoy at least 2 years worth of fresh content, Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Games Industry.

While Yoshida is skeptical that the PS3 will enjoy new content for as long as the PS2 did, he reassured that Sony aren’t ready to abandon the console just yet. “PS3 has been doing great – but it’s not like everyone owns a PS3 already,” he explained. “There’s always a group of consumers who come late in the cycle, people who wait for the price to come down. We’re expanding geographically as well. The demand from Latin America, for example, is really really strong for PS3.

“So we’ll have a parallel strategy with PS3 and PS4, like we had between PS2 and PS3. PS3 was launched in 2006, in the sixth year of PS2, but PS2 lasted for another five years. I don’t know if PS3 will last another five years – but definitely for the next couple of years, because of the price difference, the great library of games and the publisher side being able to support both.

“There’ll even be new games. We were talking about indie games – many indie announcements at GamesCom were for games coming to PS4, PS Vita and PS3. These guys also support multi-generation platforms, so there’ll continue to be a great supply of games.”

Despite Yoshida acknowledging that Sony will continuing supporting the PS3, he did admit that the system’s list of AAA games being developed will decline over the months and years to come. More and more developers will shift their focus on developing solely for the PS4, so it is only natural to see a slow decline for the PS3.

“Our large teams are shifting, transitioning from PS3 to PS4, and continuing on Vita as well,” he said. “But for our digital releases, we always look at PS4, PS3 and Vita. Many games like Hohokum or Doki Doki Universe we have announced for PS3 and PS4 at the same time.

“We’ll continue to support PS3 in a way that makes sense, especially the digital games that we work on – but our large teams, our AAA release teams, are transitioning from PS3 to PS4.”

PS3 users will be able to play AAA games that will only be available on the system months after the PS4’s launch. Games such as Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus, Gran Turismo 6, and Tales of Xillia 2 will only be available on the PS3.

The PS4 is set to arrive on November 15 in North America and November 29 in Europe.