Naturally, Kaz Hirai's denied the rumours regarding PlayStation 4.

Various reports last week indicated that Sony was getting ready for an E3 reveal of its new system, but SCE gaffer, Andy House, was quick to laugh off such speculation. Now chairman Kaz Hirai's chipped in — backing up his colleague, and reiterating that there are no current plans to reveal the next PlayStation.

“Andy [House] is absolutely right in that we are not making any [PlayStation 4] announcements at E3,” said the Ridge Racer playing executive. “I’ve always said a 10-year life cycle for PS3, and there is no reason to go away from that.”

It's not the most convincing of denials from Kaz, seeing as each of Sony's systems have always been replaced before exceeding their 10-year life cycle — but we see the executive's point. He's essentially saying: there's no reason to act yet.

We don't think Kaz is lying though — we very much doubt there will be a PlayStation 4 at E3. However, it's clear that Sony's working extremely hard on the system behind the scenes — and we wouldn't be surprised if it got unveiled within the next 12 months. January 2013 remains our bet for the coming out party.

Exciting times.

[source blogs.wsj.com]