With the Sony PlayStation 3’s (PS3) life cycle of seven years, many think that the same will apply to the PlayStation 4 (PS4). This means that the PlayStation 5 (PS5) is predicted to be announced this year, and be made available in 2020. But IDC analyst Lewis Ward thinks otherwise, and predicts that both Sony and Microsoft will announce their next generation consoles next year, and start selling them in 2021.
Speaking to GamingBolt, Ward also expects that both companies will announce “modest hardware refreshes” instead of downright successors. This means that there will be a third iteration for the PS4 that’s more powerful than the PS4 Pro. The same for Microsoft’s Xbox One, with the fourth Xbox One to be better than the Xbox One X.
Ward continues to say “If the plan is to give this assumed hardware refresh two years of runway before the next-gen systems arrive, then 2020’s E3 is when Sony and Microsoft will be unveiling their new systems.”
And finally, Ward says the two companies will not mimic the portable hybrid design of the Nintendo Switch. “I’m thinking PS5 and the next-gen Xbox won’t have built-in screens and will have disc drives.”
(Source: GamingBolt)
