My 2 cents is if a company wants a Christmas 2013 launch in sufficient quantities they need to be in manufacturing soon. Which means a radical change is unlikely to happen.
Also, you need to give your developers some time to make a few launch titles... Again, you'd need to be at a hardware freeze real soon, if not already, to make that holiday 2013 push. Developers have let slip some general information regarding where a couple suspected XBox launch titles (Halo 5, Forza 5) stand, and that would line up with holidays 2013, as well.
"Why go first when your competitors can look at your specifications and come up with something better? - CEO Hirari
I suspect that statement is just bluster to cover the fact that the PS4 will be late. This far in the game, I just can't see Sony hitting the holiday 2013 timeframe on either hardware or software, without making a huge mess of things.
I'd also tell Kaz that the PS3 shipped 2nd, they had time to learn and be better than Microsoft, and the hardware is (by the top performance specs) better that wasn't as big a marketplace driver as it had been for the PS2 era. Today hardware is a commodity.
Very true. Heck, I think that wait and see strategy hurt the PS3 pretty badly. With it shipping so late, by the time people could buy it, Microsoft had already entrenched the x360. The PS3 got a few good in-house games, but the majority of the library consisted of ports from the x360. Meaning the advanced hardware they made people wait for just wasn't being well utilized, anyhow.
Right now, I'd say the Sony/Microsoft fight is Microsoft's to lose. If they don't let Ballmer screw it up too much, I see them maintaining the dominant position. Of course, one does wonder how much they both should be looking over their shoulder at things like the Steam console and the Android-based consoles like OUYA. Both of those are also leveraging pretty big followings of their own... It's not impossible that one of them could deliver a blindside like the original Wii did. (While the Wii U, itself, seems to be a flop, of sorts.)