While some analysts have made the prediction that the next generation of Microsoft and Sony’s consoles will be revealed this year and launch in 2020, IDC analyst Lewis Ward has suggested that that might happen little later than expected, predicting 2021 releases for both the PS5 and the next Xbox. Owing to that, recently, while speaking in an exclusive interview with GamingBolt, Ward projected that both systems would be fully revealed at E3 2020.
Ward says that there is a possibility that both the PS4 and the Xbox One get “modest hardware refreshes” in 2019, and that, coupled with “a slate of AAA exclusives” for both systems, will see the consoles being properly active for another two years, making E3 2020 the right time for Sony and Microsoft to talk about whatever comes next.
“Not if 2019 gets a modest hardware refresh, as I expect from Microsoft and Sony, and sees a middle-of-the-road slate of AAA exclusives,” Ward said when asked about whether he thought 2019 would be the right time for a next-gen reveal. “If the plan is to give this assumed hardware refresh two years of runway before next-gen systems arrive, then 2020’s E3 is when Sony and Microsoft will be unveiling their new systems.”
We also asked Ward whether, owing to the success Nintendo has seen with the Switch and its console-handheld hybrid design, that is something that Sony and Microsoft might attempt to do with their hardware too, but Ward believes that the two companies’ next consoles will be more traditional systems. “Right now, no,” he said whether he thinks a Switch-like piece of hardware is something Sony or Microsoft might be interested in making. “I’m thinking PS5 and the next-gen Xbox won’t have built-in screens and will have disc drives.”
Our full interview with Ward will be going live soon, so stay tuned.