Sony has given its estimations for the projected launch of the PlayStation 6. In accordance with leaks from a confidential document, the company anticipates we won’t see the next PlayStation until 2027 at the earliest. This gives the current PlayStation 5, which came out in November 2020, a life cycle of about seven years.
As part of the ongoing acquisition between Microsoft and Activision, documents belonging to the UK Competition Markets Authority (CMA) show Sony anticipating the loss of access to major franchises like Call of Duty by the time of the arrival of the PlayStation 6.
Sony went on to add, “Microsoft has offered to continue making Activision’s games available on PlayStation only until 2027… By the time SIE launched the next generation of its PlayStation console.”
To compare product lifecycles, the PlayStation 4 came out in November 2013, seven years prior to the release of the PlayStation 5. Therefore, this document places the PlayStation 5, which came out in November 2020, on another seven year lifecycle at the minimum.
Sony is still trying to prevent the $68 billion Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Although this will provide the Xbox with titles like Diablo, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft, Sony’s main concern revolves around Call of Duty, the third best-selling video game franchise of all time.
The deal is already being reviewed by the United States Federal Trade Commission, with the UK’s version planning to follow suit as well. They will be examining whether the agreement undermines competitors and results in worsened consumer outcomes in the form of lower quality, fewer options, and higher costs.