There has been a lot of talk about Sony's next generation of home console. While the PlayStation 4 is still doing great in the market, gaming experts couldn't help but speculate if the Japanese company is planning to launch the PlayStation 5 soon. However, those who are hoping to get the PS5 in their hands within a year or two might be disappointed as the PS4 follow-up may not arrive until 2021.
According to Gaming Bolt, Sony is still enjoying the high profit garnered by the PS4 consoles. The company could use this as an opportunity to fund for a next-gen PlayStation platform, although the waiting period might take long. According to IDC's resident analyst, Lewis Ward, the long wait could take another three or four years, and that could already be generous.
"Right now I think PS5 and the next-gen Xbox will arrive in 2021, but that's really just a tentative placeholder in my forecast," Ward said. The analyst, who also serves as the research director for gaming and VR/AR at the IDC, is confident that the PlayStation 4 will remain as Sony's premiere home console for the years to come, which might possibly hit the 100 milllion sales milestone in 2019. So far, the console has already sold more than 70 million units worldwide, so going for an extra digit is not a far-fetched idea.
PlayStation Lifestyle also said that the PlayStation 5 is not likely to appear anytime soon, with Wedbush Securities research analyst Michael Pachter predicting that the PS5 could hit the shelves in 2020, one year earlier than Ward's estimate.
Regarding the new design and features of the PlayStation 5, there are rumors that the next-gen console would have backwards compatibility support to make the older PS4 game titles playable in the platform. The console is also expected to boast a true 4K gaming content, and due to the 4K resolution's hefty storage requirement, the PS5 could have at least 1TB of built-in memory upon its launch. It is also possible that the console will fully support virtual reality (VR) gaming. There are rumors that the PS5 will ditch the physical disc slot in favor of digital copies of video games, although that could still depend on the public's preference.
