Kotaku report: PS5 release unlikely until 2020 at the earliest

A recent online rumor suggested the successor to PlayStation 4 will launch in 2018, but PlayStation 5 is unlikely to be released until 2020 at the earliest, according to a report from Kotaku’s Jason Schreier citing several game development sources.

“Over the past month, I’ve spoken to dozens of game developers, across a variety of disciplines and studios, about the next generation of consoles,” Schreier wrote. “Of those, two people said they were directly familiar with plans for Sony’s new console. Those two people both told me that the next PlayStation is unlikely to release in 2019, let alone 2018, although they were careful to be clear that these plans are always shifting.”

One person told Schreier, “On a multi-year project, a lot can happen to shift schedules both forward and backward. At some point, Sony’s probably looked at every possible date. It’s all about what they think is the best sweet spot in terms of hardware.”

Most of the developers Schreier spoke with did not hear anything about plans for a new PlayStation, including employees at Sony’s first-party studios and studios working on games scheduled for 2019 and beyond.