Surprise! Ok, not really. If you had guessed Sony was preparing for the next console generation then you’d be right. I mean, it’s not like the entire internet has been filled with rumors and speculation about a PlayStation 5 for the past 2 years or so. Today we bring news from Takashi Mochizuki, a tech reporter for The Wall Street Journal, who listened in on the Sony Investor Report late last night. Among the key takeaways from the report are a couple of quotes from John Kodera, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. Both of these have been translated by Mr. Mochizuki.
Let’s start with the obvious, “the PlayStation 4 is entering the final phase of its life cycle.” Although there have been rumors that a PS5 console could be out as early as this year it would appear you’ll have to wait a little bit longer to get your hands on the next PlayStation console. But we do have an idea when that might be. The second quote from Kodera appears to shed some light on the most likely release window for Sony’s next-gen console.
According to Mochizuki “SIE head Kodera told analysts and investors that the period until March 2021 would be when PlayStation to ‘crouch down once’ to grow further in the future.” Can’t be sure but my first thoughts when reading “crouch down once” make me wonder if Kodera plans on teabagging the competition as this generation comes to a close. Now back to the quote, this could mean one of two things. Either Sony has plans to release the next-gen PlayStation console before the end of Fiscal Year 2021, which would likely indicate November 2020, or we’re looking at a possible reveal in March 2021 with a November 2021 release.
If you consider Sony has already announced much of their plans through 2020 already, a November 2020 release makes sense. Not only will you have the power of a new gen to drive hype for your product, but potentially you could have games like Death Stranding and Final Fantasy 7 REmake as launch titles. Sony could also have new games from Naughty Dog and Guerilla ready for launch as well.
In non-PlayStation 5 news, the PlayStation 4 has now exceeded 79 million units sold as of March 31st, 2018 with over 80 million active PSN users of which 34.2 million are PlayStation Plus subscribers. Sony sold over 246 million games during Fiscal Year 2017. Not all of the news was great, however. Kodera admitted that PlayStation VR is not selling as well as expected while their online TV service PlayStation Vue is facing an uncertain market.