Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter reckons a next-generation console could be on store shelves by as early as 2019, suggesting the current-generation hardware cycle will last around seven years.
"I would be surprised if we had a next-gen console in 2018; we might have one in 2019," said the analyst, during the latest edition of Pachter Factor. "We will have one by 2020, so I think seven years [for the current generation] is a lock. So, it will last longer than five years."
"So, once everybody has a 4K T.V. I think that’s when you get a console cycle where you actually make things that are in 4K,” he added.
The last generation of consoles bucked the trend in terms of staying power, with PS3 lasting seven years before its successor arrived on the scene. Prior to that, we’d normally see a new console every six years (five in the case of Microsoft and Nintendo), although nowadays platform holders are squeezing more life out of their systems.
In recent years it has been suggested that traditional games consoles will be phased out in the near future, although the success of PS4, which has sold 35.9 million units in just over two years, has put those rumblings in doubt. Still, in terms of disc-based systems, it is believed that any new consoles will be download-only.
Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS), has suggested that a PS5 will happen provided developers want it. However, if Sony is going to release a new platform, then they’re probably already in the early planning stage; after all, PS4 was conceived in 2008, just two years after the launch of the PS3.
Do you think PS5 will arrive in 2019? What features would you like to see from Sony’s next-generation home console? Let us know in the comments section below.