In a surprising twist on the next generation hardware race, a Sony representative has stated that a year 2005 release for the next generation PlayStation is a possibility. Responding to questions from Jiji news service, Sony Chief Financial Officer Takao Yuhara states, "For the year end sales season, simultaneously building up both the PlayStation Portable system in America and Europe as well as the next generation PlayStation is one option that we have."

Most industry speculation calls for a next generation PlayStation release in 2006. Sony's third party developers have backed this assumption up with a strong list of PlayStation 2 titles planned for the rest of the year and early next.

The state of the next generation PlayStation software shown at next week's E3 show should reveal if a 2005 release is a possibility for the new system, or if Yuhara's comments were designed to take some steam out of Microsoft's Xbox 360 unveiling later today.