Sony not sure if PS3 support will last another five years, but at least ‘the next couple’

Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida has reiterated the company's stance that the PlayStation 3 will be supported for at least "the next couple of years." We heard similar remarks from PlayStation VP of hardware marketing John Koller back in September, but now Yoshida has provided a little more clarification on the topic.

"PS3 has been doing great – but it's not like everyone owns a PS3 already," Yoshida told Games Industry. "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."

Yoshida went on to say the PS3 will even be supported by new games — many of them indie though as Sony's larger studios are focusing on games for the PlayStation 4.

"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."

As someone who already pre-ordered the PlayStation 4, I'm debating what to do with the PS3. I have quite a catalog of games I'm still enjoying — heck, I just recently played Heavy Rain for the first time. So there's still plenty to get out of the machine in terms of backlog. And until the PS4 gets backwards compatibility through Gaikai, the PS3 is really my only way to enjoy those classic exclusives.

Are you holding on to your PS3 after the launch of the PS4?