Sony Looks to Launch Playstation 4 Before Next-Gen Xbox

Todays, next-gen console news comes from Jim Ryan, the boss of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.  When speaking to Eurogamer TV, Ryan said the PlayStation 4 launching after its competitors would be "undesirable".

Aside from a steep original retail price, many agree that the initial PlayStation 3 sales lacked due to it being released after the Wii and Xbox 360.  Now with rumors of a next-gen Xbox on the rise (presumably called Xbox 720) and the Wii U being revealed, the SCEE president doesn't want to find Sony in a similar position as last time.

“I think we would consider it undesirable to be significantly later than the competition [with the next PlayStation]," Ryan told Eurogamer TV.

With that being said, Ryan was quick to point out that the PS3had not reached its end yet, despite what many gamers and some developers think.

“There’s still a lot of unfinished business on PS3," he pointed out.  “PlayStation 2, now in excess of 150m units installed globally, a huge majority of that was done at price points of £120 or lower. With PS3 we’ve only just hit £199 in the UK, so clearly there’s a considerable untapped part of the market there.”

Ryan's initial feeling of wanting a PS4 to arrive before an Xbox 720 goes along with some analysts who believe we will, in fact, see a PlayStation 4 before a next-gen Xbox.  Of course, everything next-gen is merely speculation at this point, but there are some who believe the Xbox 720, or NeXtbox, could be unveiled at CES 2012.

This whole next-gen race reminds me of the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States.