While it was reported by Japanese tech website Impress Watch that Sony has begun to seriously consider a multi-core CPU alternative to the CELL architecture, there have been no firm reports that Sony has made a final decision. Sony might, for example, choose a modified version of the CELL architecture and it’s possible that Intel’s Larrabee chipset may be found in the final PS4 core.

The article goes on to say that the development of any new console is expected to take a minimum of 24 months, even 36 months. In the end, I think there’s a good chance that Sony will go with a more traditional multi-core processor since this would be most conducive to the game development community. Whatever the case may be, don’t expect Sony to release the PlayStation 4 for at least another 2 years.

The PlayStation 3 platform still has a good deal of life left. And I seriously doubt that Sony would make the mistake of alienating the thousands of PS3 owners who have invested hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in a PS3 gaming system that was supposed to have a longevity of at least 8 years from its inception.

So so you think Sony feels any pressure to turn things around in a hurry? But when Sony released the PlayStation 3 it was with the understanding that it would be around for 8 to 10 years. And game developers who’ve become accustomed to writing for the PS3 are in no hurry to move outside their comfort zones. Certainly, not many PS3 owners who dropped 500 or 600 bucks on a new console are ready to see their investments become yesterday’s news anytime soon. So what to do?

The answer is that Sony may not have much of a choice. This is about business, and sometimes tough choices must be made in the name of survival. Under better economic circumstances, things might have panned out a little better. Maybe fewer consumers would have been drawn to cheaper products like Nintendo’s Wii. Maybe the PlayStation 3 could have at least turned a profit for Sony. Four years ago, the thought of releasing a PlayStation 4 (PS4) before the year 2013 would have seemed crazy. But the way things are shaping up — and shaking down — I’d be surprised if a PlayStation 4 weren’t on the shelves by Christmas of 2012.

Consider the fact that Atlantic Records, a division of Warner Music Group, reported in November 2008 that a majority of its music sales are now from digital downloads.  Consider a recent report by Forrester Research which projects that digitally downloaded music will surpass physical CD sales in 2012. People are just plain tired of having to leave their homes to purchase or rent clunky physical storage containers like CD’s and DVD’s just to access digital content that could be downloaded from the convenience of their own homes via a broadband connection.  So what parallels to this can be found in the video gaming industry? And what effect, if any, will this transformation have on the next generation of video gaming systems?

Quite simply, future gaming systems will likely be browser-based; maybe not the PlayStation 4 (PS4), but almost certainly the PS5.  David Lau-Kee, co-founder of Renderware developer Criterion, ex-Electronic Arts VP and the current executive for Kerb Games and Unity has recently went so far as to predict that the “PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 are going to be browsers.”  This is a pretty bold prediction from someone who is understandably biased toward web-based gaming.

Whether or not this turns out to be true for the PS4, the PS5 will almost certainly be a browser-based, all-purpose entertainment system with specialized video gaming capabilities. The demand is there. But will the bandwidth be there soon enough? We’ll have to wait and see.

While gamers, for the moment, are content with their PS3’s it’s hard to resist the temptation to speculate as to the next iteration of the Sony PlayStation, the PS4. The concept shown in this image recently surfaced amid rumors that Crytek has already begun developing games for the next generation PlayStation.