One of the PlayStation 3's key competitive advantages is its superiority to its rivals in terms of raw horse power. This has changed now with the announcement of Nintendo's upcoming Wii U, but it seems that this doesn't bother Sony at all - at least not enough to interrupt their plans for the future of the PlayStation 3 and its successor.
Speaking to Forbes, Sony's Jack Tretton said that the company has absolutely no intentions to respond to Wii U's announcement by speeding up PlayStation 4 release. "PlayStation 3 is really just hitting its stride," he said. "And technologically, I don't think it's possible to provide any advancement beyond what we have. What we've seen from the competition is trying to add features that already exist in PlayStation 3. We invested heavily in that, we rolled a very heavy rock up a steep hill, through the launch period. But now I think that all pays off, and we've got a long run way behind it. So, I wouldn't look for any discussion of a next generation PlayStation for quite some time."
Needless to say, PlayStation 3 graphics superiority applies only when compared to its fellow consoles as they all lag considerably behind PC on that front. It is also interesting to note that Jack Tretton has repeated the "PlayStation 3 is hitting its stride" several times after he said it the first time 3 years ago in July 2008.