Sony has just released their quarterly financial reports, a day after Nintendo did theirs. It’s that time of the year for companies in Japan so this was expected. Sony shared their earning reports from PlayStation Now, Mobile games and other revenue streams. A pleasant surprise was Sony stating that we shouldn’t expect the PS5 anytime earlier than 12 months.
PS5 for 2020 confirmed, Possible Holiday Launch?
According to Takashi Mochizuki, a Japanese reporter for the Wall Street Journal, who has studied and reported on Sony’s financial reports, Sony has confirmed that they have no hardware plans for new consoles in the coming 12 months.
と、いうことでSIEからの回答により「PlayStationの次世代機が2020年4月までに出る可能性」は0になりました。
— Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) April 26, 2019
Sony:
-No next-gen PlayStation launch over next 12 months
-PS Now has been ave. 40% annual growth since launch, now 700,000 users
-Much of Y31.1 billion (difference between past fy op vs this fy op outlook) to be invested to develop next PlayStation console— Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) April 26, 2019
So this means Sony is definitely not launching the PS5 this year. This makes sense as toward the end of 2018, Sony announced they would not be present at this years E3, which has been the venue for the big console manufacturers to announce their latest hardware.
Takashi also affirms from the report that Sony is putting a lot of money into R&D for the PS5, using a significant chunk of the 31.1 Billion Yen.
Considering all of the technological advancements that have occurred since the PS4, it would be wise of Sony to make the best decisions to ensure the longevity and competitive edge of the PlayStation 5.
Since Sony is missing the 2019 release window for the console, it means we can expect Sony to have a Holiday 2020 launch for the PS5. While we can’t really set it in stone, it is logically the best time to make a console available for sale.
The million dollar question on everyone’s minds is whether or not Microsoft will also take the initiative to announce the Xbox One successor at this years E3 or at least tease it in some capacity.
As Sony and Microsoft look toward the future, the Nintendo Switch could face a difficult challenge of keeping up with the hardware advancements going into its competition. This could mean that porting next-gen games on the Switch could be a real challenge with the hardware gap between the systems increasing even further!
For now, all we can do is wait and see how things proceed at this years E3 and if Microsoft has an ace up their sleeve.