Kaz Hirai: Mainstream Adoption of 4K Content and Technology Still About Five to Seven Years Away

DualShockers

By David Rodriguez

Published Jan 7, 2014

Sony Corp's new President and Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai attends a news conference at the company's headquarters in Tokyo in this April 12, 2012 file photo. Sony Corp CEO Hirai has spent $1.8 billion in the past three months snapping up an assortment of businesses such as medical equipment and cloud gaming, leaving investors to worry he is blowing his firm's waning finances on a muddled plan to revive the fading giant. Hirai, a Sony veteran of nearly three decades, took over the top spo

At the Consumer Electronics Show today, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai lead the company's keynote in which the future of their technologies was unveiled, including the announcements of PlayStation Now and a Cloud-based TV service. In regards to 4K hitting the mainstream (and being a big part of their future technologies, presumably including consoles), Mr. Hirai thinks that it will be quite a while before we see that.

In a statement made to The Verge, Mr. Hirai articulated that while Sony is focused on 4K's early adopters for the time being, it will take quite some time (about five to seven years) before the technology is a centerpiece in their mainstream products. Five to seven years is right around the time we will probably hear about and see the release of the follow-up to the PlayStation 4. Additionally, Mr. Hirai likened Sony's process to slowly integrating 4K into the mainstream to that of bringing high-definition to the mainstream.

Back in June it was revealed that the PlayStation 4, while capable of displaying video in 4K, would not support any 4K games.