Sony has confirmed that it is working on the PlayStation 5 but will not confirm that PlayStation 5 will be its name. Hinting that it might be a departure from the traditional console model.
Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, Sony President Kenichiro Yoshida stated: “At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware”. So consoles are still in development.
Yet, he declined to name the future console “PlayStation 5” and did not release any information on what new features this next-generation hardware could house.
However, Financial Times also quoted an analyst at Ibbotson Associates Japan research firm saying “Sony would likely seek to use this successful PS4 platform as long as possible,” as the PlayStation 4 has been the fastest-selling console for Sony to date. This could be the hardware Yoshida is referring to.
As streaming systems are becoming more popular, refined, and user-friendly, it is rumoured that Sony could be working on its own gaming tablet for mobile gaming complimentary to their streaming service PlayStation Now.
Sony CEO John Kodera was quoted saying earlier this year that the company would use “the next three years to prepare the next step, to crouch down so that we can jump higher in the future”. Meaning that the absolute earliest we could see the next iteration of PlayStation could be late 2020 or 2021.
It will be interesting to see what Sony’s next-generation hardware will look like and whether it could be in the with Nintendo’s Switch or if they will invest further into PlayStation Now to provide a service akin to Microsoft’s Project xCloud, the main purpose of which is to bring all games – their own and third-party titles – to smartphones and tablets.
