PS4 End of Life in Three Years, Sony 'Preparing for the Future'

After stating that the PS4 is in the final stage of its life cycle, PlayStation boss John Kodera has suggested that it has three years before Sony considers it end of life. In an interview with Bloomberg Japan (translated by Japan games industry expert Serkan Toto), Kodera said that the PS4 has entered the final stage of its life and Sony will spend the next three years "preparing for the future". This suggests that we will get first-party exclusives and new games from Sony till then at the very least.

In addition to this, Kodera said his company "considers various options around the PS Vita" again. This comes after his predecessor Andrew House said last fall that portable gaming is not a big market. Furthermore, he said that while PS4 and Vita are separate machines (home versus portable), Sony is continuously looking for ways to offer unique game experiences. Perhaps the success of the Nintendo Switch has raised some eyebrows at Sony, forcing the company to consider its options for a hybrid PS4 successor?

That being said, don't expect the PS5 until 2021. Kodera told analysts and investors that the period until March 2021 would be when PlayStation to "crouch down once" to grow further in the future. This is contrary to what other analysts have speculated, that the PS5 would have a 2018 release date. Macquarie Capital Securities analyst Damian Thong suggested the PS5 could be out before the end of 2018. In the past, Thong correctly stated that Sony would release the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro, which lends some credence to his statements.

Others such as NPD analyst Mat Piscatella think otherwise. He stated that Sony’s PS4 and PS4 Pro successor isn’t due till 2020.

“2020 is what I have in my forecast. The data suggest there’s no need to do it earlier. But I’ve been surprised before so I’m as interested in this as anyone,” Piscatella said in conversation with Gamingbolt.

In addition to this, Piscatella believes that PS4 sales — which now have passed 75 million — will slow down.

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