Analyst: Next-Gen PlayStation System Will Launch in 2018

Megalith

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Would that be too soon, considering that the PS4 Pro just launched in November 2016? If this analyst is right, Sony will be countering Microsoft’s Scorpio system with another updated version of the PlayStation as early as next year. Man, console releases are going to get so much less exciting as they ramp up their release schedules like this.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Macquarie Capital Securities analyst Damian Thong "said he expected Sony to release its next-generation PlayStation by the second half of 2018." Analyst predictions don't always pan out, and this isn't necessarily based on some inside scoop. But the WSJ's reporter notes on Twitter that this is the same "analyst who correctly predicted PS4 Pro and Slim" ahead of their respective launches. That certainly lends credence to the prediction, though in all likelihood, we won't receive any official word from Sony for quite some time.
 
I thought the advantage that consoles had was that the hardware was stable and the same for everyone. You didn't need to worry about upgrades and how a new game would run on your system.
 
the software is agnostic since they moved to an x86 code base sony could be doing a ps4 or a ps5 with complete backwards compatibility with previous generations
 
I was just thinking about guying a ps4 pro...

Hope if they do upgrade backward compatibility will actually work.
 
honestly i think the ps4/pro/slim/pro slim is going to get a minor update to 4k uhd blu-ray drives @ e3 time.
 
just as long as my original ps4 gets the same game as new systems come to market i dont really care if they have new consols every year...
 
Can't come soon enough, since console limitations impact PC game design, graphics, and quality. Once developers are designing for those new consoles, the quality of PC games will significantly increase, too. I hope the next generation of consoles will feature very significant capability improvements.

The PS4 Pro is just a refresh anyway, and not a new console generation.
 
Unless existing games are going to benefit from the new hardware other than a pathetic boost mode (Hoorah, your unstable 30FPS game can now drop less frames!)
Then this is pointless. No one would upgrade a PC and then be happy with being stuck playing games at the same settings they could prior. Half the point of upgrading is so you can play games better.

All it does is fracture the library even more and create giant inconsistency in perfomance and visuals.
 
That would coincide with a more widespread adoption of 4k movies, content, and availability. I would see that time frame as pretty realistic.
 
Anyone remember how this generation of consoles was supposed to have a 10 year lifecycle? Boy, that went out the window quick.
 
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Anyone remember how this generation of consoles was supposed to have a 10 year lifecycle? Boy, that went out the window quick.

with the hardware they selected they can quickly pump out future versions faster. looks like to me the os on both sides is developing/using the capabilities that we in the pcmasterrace use every day though the vendor is selecting the best quality settings vs us manually setting them
 
if it does happen it'll be solely because of Scorpio...the hardware specs on Scorpio are a beast and even the PS4 Pro can't compete with that...I still think Sony should remain pat...with consoles it's all about the exclusives and Sony is crushing Microsoft in that regard...Console Master Race!
 
if it does happen it'll be solely because of Scorpio...the hardware specs on Scorpio are a beast and even the PS4 Pro can't compete with that...I still think Sony should remain pat...with consoles it's all about the exclusives and Sony is crushing Microsoft in that regard...Console Master Race!

the pro was the first out the gate so this new trend started with sony.
 
Sony should hold off for a year or two. I think releasing mid 2018 would make turn out to be their dreamcast launch.

I really believe that either this or the next generation of consoles will be the end of the spec race for consoles. I say their dreamcast... as Sega released 1 year to early, they released a console with a 56k modem months before broadband became a real mass market thing. Right now we are the edge of hitting a point where game streaming services are going to become a true mass market reality. The dominant console in a few years isn't going to be running massive GPUs and CPUs... all they will need is a good ARM type SOC with proper codec support for high quality streaming. Such consoles are cheap to produce, sell for a lot less... won't require hardware upgrades every few years, and can stream Max Quality rendered games. Sure a lot of people will be short on the broadband support, but the vast majority won't be.... their is a real push in every developed country to get those speeds up for 4k streaming ect, I don't imagine even the US can drag its heals on speeds and caps for much longer.
 
Yes.. yes...


Soon consoles will fulfil their inevitable evolution into PCs...
 
just as long as my original ps4 gets the same game as new systems come to market i dont really care if they have new consols every year...

I wouldn't count on it. When Sony first announced the PS4 Pro they said that all games had to be made to work on both and that developers couldn't release Pro only games. They then changed that up with *as long as it is reasonable to make games work on both systems. So with that little * being added I wouldn't expect to see stuff work that far back. So if they come out with a PS 4 Pro 2 or whatever they want to call it, I would almost expect that PS 4 games would start to become a thing of that past and instead they would only be made to work on the Pro and Pro 2.

Can't come soon enough, since console limitations impact PC game design, graphics, and quality. Once developers are designing for those new consoles, the quality of PC games will significantly increase, too. I hope the next generation of consoles will feature very significant capability improvements.

The PS4 Pro is just a refresh anyway, and not a new console generation.

Both parties already said that new generations are probably a thing of the past. That is where everyone kept getting the idea that Microsoft was dropping out of the console market as they said that the Xbox One will probably be the last console generation. Everyone missed where they said that instead it would be replaced with refreshes. Which to a degree makes far more sense. At this point why do we need to keep reinventing the wheel? Why have a PS 5 and Xbox 4 or Xbox Extreme Ultra Super Hyper Turbo Championship Edition (might as well copy Capcom with their odd naming structure) that is a new CPU, new GPU, new API and doesn't support any older games? Instead speed less on R&D and just make "simple" upgrades to the current one, give it faster hardware, maybe toss in a few new features, but basically keep the same system so that you can get new hardware out faster and cheaper. Sure you are slightly giving developers that same issues that they have with PCs, although at least you still only are giving them a few hardware configurations to code for. That is what that Oyoa or whatever that system was called had set in their plan. They were just going to release a faster version of hardware every year and developers would just say what version was the min for their game. This game requires rev 3, this one rev 2, this one rev 4... You then just needed to know what rev hardware you have. Easily enough to do the same here. Say that you need the PS4 version XXX or Xbox One version XXX as a base line. Just means that they need to fix their naming scheme right now to know what they will call every future release to keep them to a point of not confusing people.

That said, I think every 2 years is a little short of a time frame for new refreshes. You will sell people on the first here (Pro or Scropio) but few are going to be willing to buy a new system every 2 years. At that point I think most would probably wait for every other release which puts them at the every 4 year mark which was normal for awhile there for console releases. Although even then I think you might be pushing it pretty hard. Might take 3 cycles to get many to buy the new one. IF they are going to go that often with refreshes they almost need to change the form to some type of modular design. Have a modular card that can be swapped out to upgrade the system from one to the other to allow people that have purchased one system to easily upgrade to the newer version. Kind of like the RAM expansion slot on the N64. Or in a way how Skyward Sword on the Wii required you to buy a new part for the Wii remote for better motion tracking. Just say in order to play this game you need to swap out this module in your system. Not that it would happen, but would be better to get more people to upgrade to each of these refreshes if they didn't have to spend the full $500+ every 2 years.
 
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