Sony has officially announced that the PlayStation 5 is now in the final phase of its life cycle. The latest console from Sony was released in November 2020, and a new mid-generation model was introduced in November 2023, featuring upgraded storage and a modular design that allowed players to add an Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc Drive to digital-only versions of the console at a later date.
With the average console generation lasting about 6 years, this update made sense three years after the original launch. In an interview with Bloomberg, Sony senior vice president Naomi Matsuoka stated that “looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle” as the company expects the sales pace of the PS5 hardware “will start falling from the next fiscal year” which begins April 2024 and runs until the end of March 2025.
The PlayStation 5, along with the Xbox Series X, faced challenges at launch, both debuting during the COVID-19 pandemic and having online-only releases. This resulted in manufacturing constraints and scalpers using bots to quickly purchase and resell consoles at inflated prices. As a result, many gamers did not acquire a current-gen console until later in the console generation when these issues were resolved.
While there were titles such as the Demon’s Souls remake that launched alongside the PS5 as a current-gen exclusive, others like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales were also released for PS4, and the cross-gen releases continued for years with other major PlayStation exclusives such as God of War: Ragnarök. It’s only been in recent years that players have begun to experience more of what the PS5’s hardware can do, with PS5 exclusive titles such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 using the SSD to overhaul how fast travel can work in an open-world game, practically removing loading screens entirely and enabling players to travel to any point on the map without the need for specific waypoints.
Therefore, while Sony is most likely looking forward to the PlayStation 6, it hasn’t showcased much of what its current-gen console can do, and would need the next console to be a significant improvement to encourage those who already bought a PlayStation 5 to upgrade. As for when the PlayStation 6 could launch, this could be around 2026 based on Sony’s latest comments and its calculations for the mid-generation refresh, suggesting that the company is looking at a 6-year run for the PlayStation 5, one year less than that of the PS4, which launched in 2013, 7 years before the PS5.
2024-02-14 10:41:04
Article from screenrant.com