Ever since Sony let us know that the PS3 was a computer, that now opens the door for them to treat it like a computer. In the same way that two PCs with different configurations are still both Dells, Ken Kutaragi says the PS3 isn't bound by a single configuration and thus could recieve upgrades in future versions.

HG: In an old interview you said there's no hardware called PS3 but only a meta-format. Is it possible for PS3 to do hardware configuation as long as it has the spec enough to run softwares of a certain profile?

KK: That's right. So every configuration is PS3.

HG: Is it planned that it extends its spec every year like PC?

KK: I think it's okay to release a (extended) configuration every year (laugh). Though I say it like a joke, Dell will do it and Apple will do it too. In PC, if you fix (the spec) for 2 years you'll be catched up. Computers should be changing, right? It's inevitable that 60GB (HDD) will become short, memory may become short too. There are many possibilities.

HG: Is it possible that a PS3 configuration with augmented computing power that exceeds the spec to run the PS3 game meta-format appears?

KK: Yes. If what you want to do increases, it's natural. Of course, it depends on how far what you want to do goes though.

So not only can you spend $500 on a console, you can then spend another hundred bucks down the line to buy more memory. One can only hope that Kutaragi is having one of his crazy episodes again (to be fair, he has them a lot these days), and this isn't the main thrust of Sony's plan for the future. One could say he's just speaking hypothetically, but the fact that he seems open to the idea at all is a concern in itself. PCs can have different configurations because games can run at different settings on multiple systems. One of console gaming's strengths has always been that what you see on the box is exactly what you get, no matter when you bought your console. I don't want my console to be a computer, I want it to be a dedicated game machine so I can enjoy the benefits that come with that.

I'm sure that even if Sony attempted to bring in hardware upgrades, the majority of consumers wouldn't buy them and game developers would continue to program for the base PS3 stats anyway. But this kind of talk just makes Ken and his posse seem all the more removed from reality. It's one more example of them seeming to plan a future for the PS3 that can't and won't exist, just like people getting extra jobs to pay for their system.

You can read a translation of the whole interview here.