Successor To PS3 and 360 In Development

It's official. All 3 giants on the console industry is making successors to their consoles. Nintendo is set to reveal their next console at this year's E3. Sony confirmed during the company's investor meeting today that they're developing the successor to PS3. And if we look at recent job postings on networking website LinkedIn, first discovered by Beyond3D, it reveals that the company is hiring positions to work on next-generation console architectures in its Xbox division.

A Graphics Architect position for Xbox hardware calls for someone to lead a team responsible for "defining and delivering next generation console architectures from conception through implementation."

Additionally, an open Senior Engineer position seeks someone for "development and verification of the Xbox and future platforms," while a third posting for a Senior Performance Architect will be involved in "product definition from early evaluation all the way through high volume manufacturing."

Microsoft began work on the current Xbox 360 architecture back in 2003 with the console releasing in 2005. If the two-year development cycle continues, and if these job postings prove to be accurate, the earliest we'll see Microsoft's next console will be 2012 or 2013.

As for Sony, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said that "In the game segment, we have the NGP to launch later this year. So we have development expenses to be incurred for this product. For the home console, the PS3 still has a product life, but this is a platform business, so for the future platform - when we will introduce the product I cannot discuss - but development work is underway, so the costs are incurred there."

Source:
IGN
IGN