Infernal Mass
May 6th, 2002, 03:21 PM
TOKYO, May 5 (Reuters) - Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp (TOKYO:6758) has begun developing a games console to succeed its popular PlayStation 2 after 2005, Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday, citing company sources.
No one at Sony could be reached for comment.
The third-generation PlayStation will feature a powerful microprocessing unit (MPU) that would be about 200 times faster than those used now for video games machines and personal computers, it said.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, a unit of Sony, Toshiba Corp (TOKYO:6502) and International Business Machines Corp (IBM) (NYSE:IBM) plan to spend $400 million to develop the MPU, Kyodo said.
Sony plans to develop the console by 2005, with a view to putting it on the market when fibre-optic networks become widespread, the sources told Kyodo.
The new machine would be designed for online use on high-speed fibre-optic networks, meaning it would probably be free of memory devices such as DVDs.
The PlayStation series has been a runaway success, dominating the game machines market. But competition has increased with the recent lauch of Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox.
In the business year that ended March 31, Sony shipped 18 million PlayStation 2 machines, boosting its game sales by 52 percent.
2005 (http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?symbols=NYSE:IBM&story=27045972)
No one at Sony could be reached for comment.
The third-generation PlayStation will feature a powerful microprocessing unit (MPU) that would be about 200 times faster than those used now for video games machines and personal computers, it said.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, a unit of Sony, Toshiba Corp (TOKYO:6502) and International Business Machines Corp (IBM) (NYSE:IBM) plan to spend $400 million to develop the MPU, Kyodo said.
Sony plans to develop the console by 2005, with a view to putting it on the market when fibre-optic networks become widespread, the sources told Kyodo.
The new machine would be designed for online use on high-speed fibre-optic networks, meaning it would probably be free of memory devices such as DVDs.
The PlayStation series has been a runaway success, dominating the game machines market. But competition has increased with the recent lauch of Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox.
In the business year that ended March 31, Sony shipped 18 million PlayStation 2 machines, boosting its game sales by 52 percent.
2005 (http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?symbols=NYSE:IBM&story=27045972)