PlayStation 4 is entering the final phase of its life cycle, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO John (Tsuyoshi) Kodera said at Sony Investor Relations Day 2018 in Tokyo today.
The platform first launched in North America and Europe in November 2013, followed by Japan in February 2014. It has shipped 79 million units as of March 31, 2018.
Didn’t I just buy a PS4 Pro? Am I the only one to whom this seems… A little premature?
I was holding out until they released a 4k bluray version, which never happened. I still have a game I pre-ordered in shrinkwrap waiting for the release of a PS4 with UHD support.
So its not that premature. By the time they annouce and finally release a PS5 it’ll probably be 6 years which is a little over average console lifespan. It does feel a little shorter, something i am putting down to a very lacklustre first 2-3 years but also down to the XBone failing so hard
usually consoles enter the end of their lifecycle once new product gets going.
this feels really rushed, given that ps4 is not doing half bad.
i think they are trying to maintain backwards compatibilty while escaping from the console hackers catching up. and to get their hardware current with gaming demands again. the introduction of vr, 4k and hdr forced a rushed re-release of gaming consoles with specs to match that demand.
there are news of sony devs implementing new amd based architecture support in llvm, so there is something going on indeed.
Edited 2018-05-23 07:06 UTC
I agree that it has been around a while, and they need to be looking to the next console.
I suspect it will likely be another backwards compatible evolution, a bit like the PS4 Pro… but they can’t keep adding PS4 variants forever without it getting confusing.
But I do think it’s premature to call it the “final phase”. Unless they are pulling out of the market, a console can’t really enter it’s final phase before the next iteration is out.
It is probably the last phase before the next iteration is released though.
Sony just bought the remaining part of EMI that they didn’t own. They’ll probably stop making TV’s next year. Then Cameras etc.
They seem to think that content is more profitable in the long term than making physical things.
They (Sony) are not alone in this. Even Apple is moving into the production of more content.
TVs, I agree, but isn’t Sony’s camera/imaging division highly profitable? Their cameras seem to be hot amongst the various photography sites (and Amazon sales charts) for the last 2-3 years. Their 1″, APS-C and Full-Frame sensors are also inside almost every competing brand of prosumer/professional camera out there aside from Canon. That and their small sensors are in virtually every mid/high-end smartphone in the market. They’ve also got dedicated video offerings that seem to be doing well.
On topic, I doesn’t seem all that surprising, seeing as the PS4 is mostly PC hardware. I’d wager the PS5 (or whatever they call it) will probably be backward compatible with PS4/Pro games.
Edited 2018-05-23 15:27 UTC
I think last generation should have lasted 3 more years.
Sales peaked, interest falls. Some people replace their console or just buy in with the slightly better Pro version,but that won’t change the trends.
I am also a late adopter, though I bought a slim only. In my view the ecosystem is very healthy, there are great discounts, great upcoming games, and reaching the last phase just means that the new console should appear by 2020 Christmas which seems realistic.
In terms of time frames, till the PS5 Pro is released, Thom, you have about 5 more years, so I don’t understand what do you feel premature on this whole thing? You will have a very mature game selection while early PS5 titles will coexist on PS4 platform too, and you get the slightly better experiment you paid for.
I still have so many unopened games for my PS3. It’s still got so much life in it.
Considering how long they still released games for the PS3 even after the PS4 was out, I wouldn’t be worried about your PS4 Pro purchase.
Sony are in talks with AMD about using Ryzen Technology. PS5 is probably on its way.
Who cares? The PS2 was the first and last console I bought.
unlike you guys it seems, I’ve got better things to do than continually dumping money down this rathole…….
i got a few more consoles, but now i barely fall for the marketing of new consoles.
new games are less appealing and pc catches up very quickly.
the only interesting consoles are ones from nintendo, where there is always some interesting gimmick being introduced.
Don’t worry. It means they are in “the hardware is now cheap and we have a big installed base so we can actually make money on game licenses”-phase.
The PS5 will probably not come out until end of 2020, maybe even 2021.
The PS2 was released five years after the PS (1995 – 2000)*
The PS3 was released six years after the PS2 (2000 – 2006)
The PS3 was release seven years after the PS3 (2006 – 2013)
Following this trend the PS5 should come in 2021. And with the mid-generation resets (PS4 Pro and Xbone X) it’s very probably that Sony will try and extend the most profitable phase of the console lifecycle as much as possible.
However the current generation of consoles has a hard time competing with the PC in the FPS department due to the weak CPUs.
Also now that the consoles use x86 hardware and are likely to continue that trend, it’s very probable the next generation will be fully backwards compatible with this generation of games, which means that Sony doesn’t have to worry about impacting sales of the PS4 games if they release the PS5 in 2020. I think updates to console hardware from now on is going to be comparable to how smart phone updates work, but with a 4 year lifecycle.
*US release dates used for convenience
Honestly got annoyed with the Wii having services disabled; time for the PS4 to follow suite.
Given I’m still able to run my NES games to their fullest, but not the Wii games I’ll probably not go for the Switch either – the only way the console makers will learn to make the games so that users can run them without them is by folks not going for the consoles.
Sadly there’s probably too many gamers that will do it irregardless for simply the sake of gaming to make a difference.
Did you use that word seriously?