Sony: PlayStation 5 won’t launch in the next 12 months

Sony recently revealed that its next-generation PlayStation, we’ll call it the PS5, won’t be ready for 2019. Now the company is noting that the PlayStation 5 also won’t arrive within the next year. A Wall Street Journal reporter revealed on Twitter that Sony is telling reporters, during Q&A sessions, that the PS5 won’t be launched within the next 12 months.

That leaves a potential PlayStation 5 launch date for the summer next year, or far more likely the fall period of 2020. A holiday launch for the PS5 wouldn’t be that surprising given this is when new consoles are typically available in stores, and it leaves the door open for Sony to reveal a lot more about the console at E3 next year.

Sony isn’t holding its usual E3 press conference this year, but the company did recently reveal some key specs about its upcoming console. Sony is promising that the PS5 will support 8K graphics, 3D audio, SSD storage, and backwards compatibility with existing PlayStation 4 titles. The PS5 will also use an eight-core CPU based on AMD’s third-gen Ryzen line, and include a GPU that supports ray-tracing graphics.

A more powerful CPU and SSD storage could be the big improvements for the next-generation PlayStation, opening up more power and raw speed for developers to use in games. Microsoft is expected to use similar specifications for its next-generation Xbox, currently codenamed “Anaconda.” Microsoft is rumored to be preparing two new Xbox consoles for 2020, with Anaconda acting as a successor to the Xbox One X and a “Lockhart” console succeeding the Xbox One S. Microsoft has not officially revealed any next-gen plans, but the company has promised to “go big” at E3 this year.

Sony also revealed today that PS4 sales now total 96.8 million units, closing in on the 100 million milestone which it’s now predicting it will hit during the next quarter. There are also 36.4 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, but Sony is predicting operating profits will fall by 10 percent next quarter due to costs associated with the development of the PlayStation 5.

[“source=theverge”]