The Sony PS5 is at least three years away from a release, judging by new comments from PlayStation boss John Koreda.
Less than 24 hours after the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment confirmed the PS4 is entering the ‘end’ of its lifecycle’, he tempered expectations for the imminent arrival of its successor.
He told the Wall Street Journal that Sony will use the next three years to prepare for the next system, which would seemingly arrive in 2021 at the earliest.
In an interview, Kodera said: “We will use the next three years to prepare the next step, to crouch down so that we can jump higher in the future.”
Related: Sony at E3 2018
He explained that the PS4 will be the last of the traditional console life cycles, with the future platform offering greater synergy between the hardware and online aspects.
He added: “We need to depart from the traditional way of looking at the console life cycle. We’re no longer in a time when you can think just about the console or just about the network like they’re two different things.”
As Polygon points out, a 2021 PlayStation 5 launch would represent the longest gap between systems since the PS1 arrived in 1994. However, following the PS4 release in 2013, the PS4 Pro arrived to bridge the gap in late 2016, and who’s to say Sony won’t offer another incremental update between now and the PS5 release?
So far the PS4 has sold close to 80 million units since it went on sale in 2013, making it a clear victor in this generation’s console wars.
Hardware sales are naturally beginning to slow amid market saturation, but there’s still plenty of life in the console, with exclusives like The Last of Us 2 and Spider-Man coming this year. We’ll hear more about those titles, and more, at the E3 expo next month.
Can you wait three years for the next PlayStation? How do you think the gaming arena will look by then? Let us know @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
