PlayStation 5 Might Be Coming Soon
Although there has been lots of discussion about the release of the PlayStation 5, with Sony previously suggesting that it won’t come out for three years, analyst Hideki Yasuda from the prestigious Osaka-based firm Ace Economic Research Institute believes that it will be coming at the end of 2019.
Despite this prediction, Murata Manufacturing and TDK are concerned about the tightened supply and demand chain of monolithic ceramic capacitors (MLCC), which could make it less feasible to create enough video game consoles for the standard launch requirements.
Given these constraints, Yasuda-san believes that there could be a delay on the release of the PlayStation 5 past the end of 2019. Speculation has suggested that a 2020 or 2021 release date is more likely, as this would give Sony the time to create enough systems to meet demand.
Ace also believes that PlayStation’s strong performance last quarter isn’t just connected to first-party games, but also due to the success of Fortnite, with microtransactions generating enough profits to contribute to manufacturer revenue.
Former Sony Interactive Entertainment chief Andrew House previously said that cloud-based game streaming will be a big part of future gaming consoles, which could apply to the PS5.
“If you look back at console gaming history, there are certain inflection points that allow for the industry to be upended and for new participants to emerge,” he said. “One of those is when you have a wholesale shift in the distribution method.
“In content-based industries, that is what is creating barriers to entry for people to come in. So, other than the technical challenges, there’s no reason why game streaming can’t be present in games in the same way that we have seen in the music and film and television industries.
“The evidence I draw on was the original launch of PlayStation. That wasn’t based on 3D graphics alone. The vision was to shift from expensive cartridges to more accessible and cheaper disks. Dropping that barrier allowed developers to take more risks. Streaming could be the next inflection point. But the business model has to be thought through.”