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| Sony's PlayStation 5 |
The PlayStation 5 might be around for a while yet, as Sony doesn't expect to launch a new console until at least 2027, a new document suggests.
The document (via Eurogamer) is Sony Interactive Entertainment's observations on the Competition and Market Authority's issues statement on Microsoft's bid to buy the Activision Blizzard gaming company. The acquisition would make Microsoft the third biggest games company in the world – a move that Sony objects to.
Sony's objections are laid out in this document. And one of them suggests the shelf life of the PS5 will be at least as long as its predecessor, the PS4.
The passage in question reveals that Sony expects to lose access to the Call of Duty franchise (which is made by Activision Blizzard) in 2027. It goes on to say that by the time Sony "launched the next generation of its PlayStation console... it would have lost access to Call of Duty and other Activision titles."
All of which suggests Sony won't launch a new console until at least 2027.
(A likely launch date of Sony's next console is stated within the document, but it's redacted.)
Sony fears that losing Call of Duty in 2027 would leave PlayStation "vulnerable to consumer switching and subsequent degradation in its competitiveness," the document says. In other words, by lacking one of the biggest selling gaming franchises, Sony's next console would be at a disadvantage versus Microsoft's next Xbox machine.
For the record, Microsoft has said that should the deal go through it will continue to release and support Call of Duty on PlayStation.
The PS5 launched in November 2020. If it was succeeded 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 stopped being sold or supported then.)
The PS5 suffered stock shortages for the first year and some change of its life, though these have mostly been resolved now.
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