Next Sony PlayStation 'could be based in the cloud', claims Sony vice president

Or maybe not, if network latency isn't radically reduced in the next five years

The next Sony PlayStation games console - indeed, the whole next generation of games consoles - could be based in the cloud, rather than a physical product, claims Sony Computer Entertainment's executive vice president, Masayasu Ito.

However, that next generation may not be released before 2020 at the earliest.

Masayasu's comments were made to the Japanese business newspaper Nikkei Keizai Shimbun. "I think there will be a PS5 [PlayStation 5]. However, I don't know what form it'll have. It could be a physical console, or it could be in the cloud," he said.

In the run-up to the launches of the Sony PlayStation 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One last year, Microsoft claimed that its new console would use the cloud to improve the graphics and overall performance of gaming. That claim was greeted with scepticism when it was pointed out that network latency would not enable a cloud-based system to provide the graphics performance required for modern gaming.

However, the latest generation of consoles have moved decisively in the direction of downloads of games - games for the previous generation, released in the mid-2000s, were overwhelmingly disk-based, although they offered gaming over the internet with other console owners via their respective, proprietary networks.

Any cloud-based network would also be more vulnerable to attack, with Sony repeatedly targeted by hackers in the past. While Sony Corporation has been in long-term decline since the 1990s, the PlayStation console has remained one area of growth, with the PlayStation 4 proving particularly popular.

It sold more than 16 million consoles as of the week to the end of November, according to box-counters VGChartz. Microsoft, meanwhile, reportedly sold just over eight million Xbox One consoles following sales during "Black Friday".

Both Microsoft and Sony have adopted different strategies for their respective consoles, with Sony retaining an emphasis on games and gaming, while Microsoft initially pitched the Xbox One as a living room entertainment device enabling downloads of films and television shows, as well as games.