Published , by Chris Jarrard
Published , by Chris Jarrard
Hard as it may be to believe, we are already five years into the current console generation. Back in the late fall of 2013, both Sony and Microsoft released their current machines to much fanfare. As competition from mobile gaming, Nintendo Switch handheld, and the increasing market share of PC gaming begin to put a squeeze on traditional consoles, hardware manufacturers are already producing the next generation platforms. When asked about shifting consumer habits and growing competition, Sony President and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida explained to the Financial TImes, “At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware.”
Yoshida did not refer to their new console by any specific name, but most believe it will be called the Playstation 5. After an adjustment period for developers brought on by the shift from a custom hardware architectures to the more common x86 with the PS4, the company is expected to stay close that design with the PS5. With the Xbox One and PC platform being built on the x86 architecture, it makes sense to continue on that path and opens up the doors for backwards compatibility with PS4 software. Backwards compatibility has been huge for Microsoft’s Xbox One in the last year. Yoshida signaled that the PS4 was nearing the end of its life cycle in May of this year.
The current industry rumors have Sony releasing its new console by 2020 at the earliest. This would give the PS4 the same seven-year lifespan that its predecessor PS3 enjoyed. It is widely expected that Sony will continue to use a AMD-powered solution for the PS5 CPU and GPU.