Back in September of 2017, Wedbush Securities research analyst Michael Pachter claimed that the PlayStation 5 would release in 2020. IDC research director Lewis Ward disagreed with his analysis by saying that he thought the next generation of consoles would “likely launch in 2021,” but added that it was a “tentative placeholder” in his current forecast. Now a third analyst has jumped in, the NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella believes a 2020 launch is likely.
“2020 is what I have in my forecast,” Piscatella told Gaming Bolt. “The data suggests [that] there’s no need to do it earlier. But I’ve been surprised before so I’m as interested in this as anyone” He also revealed that he believes the PlayStation 4 will hit the 100 million units sold mark in 2019, although he said sales will be slowing down at that point. “Hardware units are mainly driven by content and pricing strategies. I’m interested in seeing how the PS4’s price point changes over the year both in base price as well as in promotional pricing. I do expect the PS4 to have another great year of sales, but I do expect it to be down versus 2018.”
Last year, Pachter also previously stated that he believes that the PlayStation 5 will be backwards compatible, and will play PS4 games:
“Will it play games that were made for the PlayStation 4 Pro? That’s the question. I think it will. So I think they will build a console that will backwards compatible with the PS4 Pro. So I think it will be perceived by the consumers to be a half step and I think Shawn is telling the truth when he says it’s will be a full fledged console.”
Only time will tell if Pachter, Piscatella or Ward’s prediction will play out, but feel free to discuss when you think the PS5 release date will be in the comments below.
[Source: Gaming Bolt]
