Lately, for some reason, the rumour that Sony is gearing up for a PS5 launch even less than five years since the PS4 came out has been a pretty popular one. Many were expecting it to be revealed at this year’s E3 in less than a month, however Sony’s chairman of Worldwide Studios Shawn Layden has confirmed that that will not be the case.
Layden confirmed during a conversation in the latest episode of the PlayStation Blogcast that there will be no hardware announcements at Sony’s E3 conference this year, and that the focus instead will be on four of Sony Worldwide Studios’ biggest upcoming games- The Last of Us- Part 2, Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, and Death Stranding.
“E3 this year will feature exclusive looks and deep dives on four upcoming titles,” Layden said. “Four of our big titles. We have great content, we have fantastic updates, I think everyone will be thrilled to see it, and we’re taking kind of a different angle on how we’re bringing it out.” He went on to confirm that Sony will be giving a big update on Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, before teasing that people will be “blown away” by what they show of Spider-Man.
He also spoke briefly of Death Stranding – and it’s interesting that the game is being counted as one of Sony Worldwide Studios’ games – before moving on to discuss The Last of Us- Part 2. “We’ll have a full new scope and treatment on that to show progress with the game,” he said, “and give people a better understanding of where we’re going with Part 2. We’re really excited about it. It’s going to be a very strong centerpiece to all of those four titles we were just talking about.”
What’s interesting is that there was no mention of Days Gone, which is also a major upcoming Worldwide Studios game slated for 2019. Sure, it’s getting a lot of coverage this month thanks to Game Informer, but so did Spider-Man last month- and that’s launching just a couple of months after E3.
But yeah, there you have it- no PS5 announcement just yet. Honestly, I’m pretty happy about that. The PS4 is still pretty young, especially considering the fact that the Pro came out not all that long ago, so I don’t expect (or want) the PS5 to launch before 2020- or maybe even 2021. But who knows, for those who don’t feel the same way, Sony might be saving a PS5 announcement for PSX later this year.