Sony’s large AAA teams shifting from PS3 to PS4 development

Although Sony envisions the PlayStation 3 lasting at least "the next couple of years," the company has acknowledged that its larger development teams — the ones responsible for the AAA blockbusters — are shifting from its current-gen machine to the next-gen PlayStation 4.

"Our large teams are shifting, transitioning from PS3 to PS4, and continuing on Vita as well," Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida told Games Industry. Yoshida did acknowledge, though, that the PS3 will still receive support from the company's digital releases.

"Many games like Hohokum or Doki Doki Universe we have announced for PS3 and PS4 at the same time. We'll continue to support PS3 in a way that makes sense, especially the digital games that we work on – but our large teams, our AAA release teams, are transitioning from PS3 to PS4," he reiterated.

That's not to say the PlayStation 3 won't see any big releases. If Journey taught us anything, it's that digital-only games can sometimes have a larger impact than AAA blockbuster releases. That all being said, there's still plenty to be excited about with the PS3. Just next week, we'll see the exclusive PS3 release of Quantic Dream's Beyond: Two Souls and in December we'll be treated to Polyphony Digital's racing sim Gran Turismo 6. So you can see there's still a lot to look forward to with the PlayStation 3.

As someone who has the PS4 already on pre-order, I'm particularly glad to hear this as I'm not too impressed with the current list of PS4 first-party blockbusters. The two most intriguing games for me are Infamous: Second Son and The Order: 1886, neither of which will be available at the launch of Sony's next-gen system.