PlayStation 5: 8 New Rumours You Need To Hear
7. A Release In Either 2019 Or 2020
Analysts put out forecasts all the time, and occasionally they're on the money. One industry expert who has a better track record at this than most is Michael Pachter, and he's had his say on when the PS5 might emerge.
According to Pachter, there's a good chance Sony will release a new console in 2019 or 2020, which is when he reckons PlayStation 4 hardware sales will start to dwindle.
PSU quotes him as saying...
“Sony's making so much money with the PS4 that I think they'll continue to milk it as long as they can milk it. And I think the natural extension of that is the PS4 Pro becomes the default PS4, and they just knock that price down to $250 when they can and they keep selling it - a ton of those.
"The PS5 is probably going to be their real 4K device, and so it just feels to me that they're not going to launch the PS5 until sales momentum for the PS4 slows, and it just hasn't. “So you certainly get through 2017, 2018, and I just don't see it slowing in 2018 which should prop them to launch something in 2019. If it slows in 2019, they're probably launching in 2020."
If the PS5 was to debut in 2019, that would give the PS4 a lifecycle of around six years. By comparison, the PS3 was on sale for seven years before its successor arrived, so Pachter's timeframe isn't out of the question.