We already know that Michael Pachter expects Sony to launch the PS5 in 2019, and that he expects it to be backward compatible with PS4 Pro. In and of itself, this makes it clear that Pachter does not expect Sony to necessarily respond to the presence of the Xbox One X on the market and fast track a PS5.
What, then, does he think will be the motivating drive behind a PS5 at all? According to Pachter, Sony will wait until 4K has become widespread and proliferated, and when it has become cheap, Sony will have a PS5, and it will be more powerful than the Xbox One X.
‘By the time 4K becomes affordable in 2019, PlayStation will have a 4K device, that will have more TFLOPs than the Xbox One X has, because they seem to be in a TFLOPs race,” Pachter said in an exclusive interview with GamingBolt. He also added that he foresees a long life for the PS4 regardless- if PS4 and PS4 Pro keep selling, Sony will keep them around even after the launch of the PS5, much like they have kept PS2 and PS3 around before after the launches of their successors.
All said and done, this sounds like a reasonable enough prediction to me- although I suppose my question is, will 4K have taken off to that extent by 2019?