There has been plenty of speculation surrounding the PS5 and the next Xbox in the news lately, with some reports suggesting that a reveal for Sony’s next console might be coming in 2019, and others going into surprising details about what plans Microsoft has for the next generation. The popular belief is that both systems are primed for 2020 launch, though there have been some that have suggested that could happen in 2021, especially if both the PS4 and the Xbox One continue to sell as strongly in 2019 as they have done in 2018.
According to industry analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities, however, it’s unlikely that either Sony or Microsoft will push back the release of their next-gen consoles to 2021. In an exclusive interview with GamingBolt, Pachter said that he feels that Sony will continue to support the PS4 at a lower price and bank on continued sales in other regions of the world even after the PS5’s launch, while Microsoft aren’t doing well enough with the Xbox One to be able to wait another year for the next one.
“I don’t think so,” Pachter told GamingBolt when asked if he thought a 2021 launch for next-gen was likely. “I think what’ll be more interesting is what happens to the old-gen consoles. Microsoft has historically wound down production of its prior console shortly after launching its new one, and Sony has done the opposite, and kept the old one in production for a while, for as many as three years. I think Sony has a different view of the world. They think that they can still sell 20-30 million consoles in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and developing parts of Europe. So I think they’ll keep the PS4 alive at a $149 price point or something for the next few years.”
“Microsoft tends to think the Xbox Two, or whatever they call it, is gonna be so powerful, they’re want to sell everybody one of those, and no more Xbox Ones,” he continued. “So it’ll be interesting to see, but no, I don’t think they’ll be delayed to 2021. Microsoft isn’t doing well enough with the Xbox One to put off launching the next one, and if Sony were to make the mistake of waiting till 2021, Microsoft will get an advantage- which is what happened with the Xbox 360. They got an advantage by launching first. Sony won’t let them have that advantage this time.”
Pachter then pointed out that Sony lost their advantage when the Xbox 360 launched before the PS3, and at a lower price, but that Sony smartly reversed that with the PS4. “[The Xbox 360 launched] at a lower price,” he said. “And with people pissed about the $600 PS3. Sony got the advantage back by launching the PS4 at the same time as the Xbox One, at a lower price.”
Our full interview with Pachter will be going live soon, so stay tuned to GamingBolt for our full conversation.