With the following statement made to the Financial Times by Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida, "At this point, what I can say is it's necessary to have a next-generation hardware". Without naming the console as PlayStation 5 the statement is more confirmation than earth-shattering news. Microsoft made a similar announcement on stage at E3 earlier this year when it confirmed that a next-generation Xbox was in the works.

The report goes on to cite sources within Sony to reveal that the new bit of PlayStation hardware will be similar in design to the PlayStation 4 - and will take on the form of a traditional console. And not, say, a streaming box that connects to a cloud service - ala Microsoft's plans for a second non-traditional next-gen Xbox.

The report also notes that sentiment within Sony is to try and keep the PlayStation 4 going for as long as possible - as the hardware continues to sell well and produce brilliant games so late in its life-cycle. With next year bringing both Day's Gone and The Last of Us 2, whatever the PlayStation 5 turns out to be - we shouldn't expect to see it hit retail shelves before 2020.