Next Gen Sony PlayStation 5 Console May Arrive In Late 2018

The PlayStation 4 (PS4) first launched globally in November 2013, and has gone on to become a smash hit. Sony recently revealed that it has shipped over 60 million units of the consoles since launch, and it has outsold its rival Xbox One — which launched around the same time — nearly 2:1 to date.

Although Sony’s console got a sort of “mid-cycle refresh” last year with the introduction of the PlayStation 4 Pro (PS4 Pro), it looks as though we could see a true next-generation console from the company as soon as next year. That information comes from Macquarie Capital Securities analyst Damian Thong.

According to Thong, the PlayStation 5 will arrive during the second half of 2018. Now before we go and consider this speculation as half-baked, consider that Thong was also right on the money about the PS4 Pro and the PS4 Slim.

Analyst who correctly predicted PS4 Pro and Slim says next-generation PS would be released...https://t.co/mWTZzuRSSS

— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) April 28, 2017

Even if the comments from Thong are accurate, we should keep in mind that it may be well over a year before we get any real confirmation from Sony with regards to the console (likely at E3 2018). The PS4 Pro is barely six months old and sales momentum for the PS4 family in general has been phenomenal.

Nothing that Microsoft has offered up so far has been able to stop the PS4 family (at least not long-term). Although Microsoft was able to chalk up a handful of consecutive sales wins over the PS4 in 2016, that was mainly due to the launch of the Xbox One S and some extremely attractive pricing by Microsoft. Microsoft will attempt to fire another salvo at Sony later this year with the launch of Project Scorpio, which will deliver 6 TFLOPs of 4K gaming goodness.

It remains to be seen if Project Scorpio’s high-octane GPU will be able to battle back against the sales momentum and exclusive titles that have favored the PS4 so far, this generation. And even if Project Scorpio does manage to catch on with console gamers, there’s always the looming PlayStation 5 that Microsoft will have to contend with.