PS5 Unlikely To Launch Before 2020 – Developer Sources

Kotaku spoke to a lot of PlayStation first and third-party developers on the topic of PlayStation 5 and almost all of them stated that PlayStation 5 is unlikely to release before 2020.

After the recent SemiAccurate report, Kotaku has investigated the possibility that a PlayStation 5 could be coming in 2018 or 2019, ruling it out based on the different sources it was able to communicate with during and after the GDC.

“A recent online rumor got people buzzing about a possible 2018 release of PlayStation 5, but that’s probably not going to happen. In fact, from what we’ve heard, the next PlayStation is a ways away—it may not arrive until 2020,” the website claims, which is more in line with other predictions from the industry.

“There is information about the PlayStation 5 floating around at both first- and third-party companies, but it’s far more limited than it would be if the console’s release was imminent.”

Interestingly, Kotaku also touched the point of the devkits possibly being already in the hands of several major first party developers, explaining that usually, this equipment has multiple iterations and that the first are generally shipped around 12-24 months before the release of the proper console.

“One person who worked in a high role at a major game developer said that their company had received proper PS4 devkits, then code-named Orbis, about a year before the console launched in November 2013. Another person who worked for a major game studio said they were working with PCs dressed up as development kits around 18-24 months before the PS4 came out. (…) If these early PS5 devkits are out at game studios now, they are likely extremely well-hidden.”

So, it’s quite obvious a PlayStation 5 is in an engineering phase, whatever that actually means in terms of when the console gets announced. Considering that Xbox One X released just six months ago and that Microsoft is therefore at least a couple years away from the reveal of a new hardware, that PS4 has a strong lineup ahead and sales are still very good, we don’t feel Sony has any will to rush things up.

Source: Kotaku