The PlayStation 5 may be around for a while, as Sony doesn’t expect to launch a new console until 2027, a new document suggests.
The document (opens in new tab) (through Eurogamer (opens in new tab)) are Sony Interactive Entertainment’s comments on the Competition and Market Authority’s statement on Microsoft’s bid to buy the gaming company Activision Blizzard. The acquisition would make Microsoft the third-largest games company in the world – a move Sony objects to.
Sony’s objections are set out in this document. And one of them suggests that the shelf life of the PS5 will be at least as long as that of its predecessor, the PS4.
The passage in question shows that Sony expects access to the Duty franchise (created by Activision Blizzard) in 2027. It is further said that by the time Sony “launched the next generation of its PlayStation console… Duty and other Activision titles.”
All this suggests that Sony will not launch a new console until 2027.
(A likely launch date for Sony’s next console is listed in the document, but it’s been redacted.)
Sony fears that losing Call of Duty in 2027 would leave PlayStation “vulnerable to consumer switching and the subsequent deterioration of its competitiveness,” the document said. In other words, the lack of one of the top-selling game franchises would put Sony’s next console at a disadvantage against Microsoft’s next Xbox machine.
For the record, Microsoft has said that – if the deal goes through – it will continue to release and support Duty on PlayStation.
The PS5 launched in November 2020. If followed up in 2027, it would match the seven-year shelf life of its predecessor, the PS4, which launched in 2013. (That wouldn’t mean the PS5 wasn’t sold or supported back then.)
The PS5 suffered from stock shortages and some change in its lifespan for its first year, though these have now largely been resolved.
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