Sony was quick to shoot down rumors that a PS4 would be announced at this year's E3, but things just got a lot more interesting all of a sudden, as cloud gaming service Gaikai has commented that one of the current console manufacturers actually won't be creating another console for the next generation. Speaking during CES [Update: here's coverage of the full panel she was on], Nanea Reeves, chief product officer for Gaikai, predicted, "Not all of the current console makers will have one more generation. That will be the big news at E3."
If true, wow. With Wii U guaranteed to launch in 2012, that means it's either going to be Microsoft or Sony. Our take is that it's probably Sony because financially the company would have a tougher time with the huge R&D and manufacturing for yet another new console.
Beyond that, it's easy to speculate that perhaps Sony is working on some major cloud gaming partnership with Gaikai instead of devoting resources to another piece of hardware. We'll bring you more as we hear it!