More of that interview has now come to light via Eurogamer, in which the outspoken chairman claims the PlayStation 3 is intentionally difficult to program for in order to ensure that the console meets its promised ten year life cycle.

"It's hard to program for, and a lot of people see the negatives of it, but if you flip that around, it means the hardware has a lot more to offer," Hirai explained, pointing to the graphical advances of God of War, which hit the PS2 almost five years after launch, as an example of that strategy.

He added: "We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that [developers] want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?"

Sony took a somewhat similar strategy with the PSP. Though the portable's CPU was capable of running at 333MHz, developers were initially limited to using only 222MHz, supposedly to conserve battery life. Sony eventually allowed developers to access the processor's full speed after the portable had been on the market for over two years.