Oh, Sony, you big tease: Mystery PlayStation reveal date set

Gamers, Wall St a-quiver in anticipation of a PS4 glimpse

Sony has called on hacks and analysts to come to New York next month for an event focused on the PlayStation - an invite that's left pundits and fans predicting the unveiling of the long-awaited PlayStation 4.

Naturally, Sony isn’t saying, confirming only that the electronics giant will be discussing its PlayStation business.

But the announcement still has got the fanbois all a-quiver. The last time Sony organised an event of this kind, in January 2011, it announced the PlayStation Vita handheld console.

The PlayStation 3 was announced in May 2005 but didn’t go on sale until 2006, a year after Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Europeans and Australians had to wait until 2007 for the new Sony console.

Six years on, and after sales of more than 70 million PS3s, Sony’s event will take place on 20 February. But the rumour mill has been raging for the past couple of years about what kind of machine the company will come out with to follow up the PS3. Speculation ranges from a box, said to be codenamed 'Orbis', that only plays downloaded games - presumably pulling down the huge number of highly detailed graphics and sound assets in stages during play; who wants to wait for a 25GB one-off download to finish? - to a gadget capable of presenting games at Ultra HD 4K x 2K resolution in stereoscopic 3D.

Microsoft is also expected to unveil its next Xbox this year, most likely at June’s E3 show, a annual games industry shindig. Nintendo has launched its next-generation console, the Wii U, but the response to it appears to have been lukewarm. ®