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When Sony Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer recently announced that Sony intends to beef up the budget for its gaming division many people wondered how this would make sense, especially in while in the midst of one of the worst global economic recessions in decades.

While Sony has repeatedly insisted that the PlayStation 3 will have a lifespan of (roughly) 10 years, recent reports that Crytek has admitted to having begun developing games for the PS4 lead one to question how set-in-stone this 10-year mark really is. This view is consistent with comments made Crytek president and CEO, Cevat Yerli, at the Games Developers Conference in Leipzig concerning a possible release around 2011 – 2012. Stated Yerli, “The PlayStation 4 and Xbox ‘720′ will arrive in 2011 or 2012, we think.” He later added that the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) under which Crytek is bound precludes making public any information about an exact release date, even it were known for sure.

One thing we can say for sure is that Sony will be hard pressed to not keep a close eye on Microsoft. Losing even more market share to the Xbox is not something that would sit well with shareholders who have seen Sony suffer unprecedented loses in recent years. This is not to mention the growing popularity of Nintendo’s Wii.

In the end, we’ll just have to wait and see.