PS5 Release Date Slated for 2021 Financial Year: Analyst

The PS5, PlayStation 5 or whatever Sony plans to call its PS4 successor may be slated 2021 release date. According to Tokyo-based Rakuten Securities Economic Research Institute's Yasuo Imanaka via gaming blog Twinfinite, the PS5 could be out between April 2021 and March 2022. He also says that there's no chance of the PS5 releasing before March 2020. He also considers the possibility of an April 2020 to March 2021 release window but believes it's unlikely. Aside from speculating on the PS5 release date, Imanaka believes Ghost of Tsushima will be out by March 2020 with The Last of Us Part II and Death Stranding released by  the coming fiscal year or the next (by March 2021 latest).

It appears that the PS5 launch won't just impact Sony's games division but the company as a whole, Imanaka believes. This would explain why we've seen rampant speculation surrounding the console.

In related PS5 news, it could possibly work with PS4, PS3, PS2, and PS1 games. It's an interesting move from Sony if it gets implemented as it could spell the end of remasters or re-releases that this generation of consoles is notorious for. It possibly hints that Sony is confident of the first-party games and exclusives we'll see on the PS5 too.

According to a post from Japanese blog Hokanko-Alt (translated from Reddit via ResetEra), PS4 architect Mark Cerny is the author of the patent and it is a "a system to be applied in a future machine, PS5, and that allows the CPU of the new console to be able to 'interpret' the central unit of the previous machines."

"The aim is to make the applications designed for the previous consoles (legacy device) run perfectly on the most powerful hardware, and is focused on eliminating the synchronisation errors between the new consoles and the behaviour of the previous ones (PS4, PS3, PS2 and PSX)," the post reads. " For example, if the CPU of the new console is faster than the previous one, data could be overwritten prematurely, even if they were still being used by another component."

This follows noted analyst Daniel Ahmad stating that Sony's first-party studios such as Sony Santa Monica and Polyphony are already working on PS5 hardware, lending credence to a possible 2020 launch.

Previously, PS5 specifications were leaked, if true, it could be a welcome step up from the PS4 Pro. Though if history is any indication, Sony's best innovations would be with the games.

PS5 specifications and price

• CPU: Custom 8 cores / 16 Threads Zen 2 CPU
• GPU: Custom NAVI @8+ teraflops
• Memory: 12GB GDDR6
• Storage: 1TB SSD
• Price: $399 (around Rs. 28,500)

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