PlayStation 4 could be announced before E3

A Sony executive has said the PlayStation 4 announcement could come before June's E3 Expo.

Big hardware reveals in the games industry are traditionally reserved for E3, the world's biggest video games expo.

However Sony Home Entertainment vice president, Hiroshi Sakatomi, said the next-generation PlayStation might be announced before that.

"I can only say that we are focused on the E3 gaming event, scheduled for June," he told Emol. "[The] announcement may be in that minute or even earlier in May."

Sakatomi was then asked whether the announcement would be a major one or a minor one.

"Probably the first," he replied. "In that time we expect to deliver great news, but we must wait until May at least."

The next-generation Xbox is also expected to be announced at E3.