Sony is pulling out all the stops for PS5, according to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad who posted his projections for the company's next-generation console on popular gaming forum and NeoGaf killer ResetEra this weekend. After predicting a successful year for the Game and Network Services division, Ahmad not only alluded to the existence of the PS5, but he went as far as saying "most of the focus for Sony 1P [first-party studios] is on PS5 right now."
While Sony's software plan for the front half of 2019 "is set", Ahamd admitted he believes the "second half is still in flux". Of course, it's too early to axe the PS4 completely, seeing as it's now in its fifth year and the PS3 lasted well over seven. But Ahmad believes the handful of PS4 games yet to be announced are likely to come to PS5 as well. What's more, some of the projects revealed already could wind up being cross-gen, cross-platform titles available on both the PS4 and PS5.
"Sony also has a couple of unannounced games (already existing IP) with PS4 in mind," Ahmad explained in the post. "But I'm conscious that there have been discussions around making them cross-gen/next-gen titles."
This lines up with what we've been hearing over the last couple of weeks as rumors have emerged surrounding the PS5 internal hardware as well as its targeted release window of late 2020. Speaking with a Sony insider ourselves at GamesRadar, it's also clear that nothing shown so far is going to be "launching only on PS5." All of the first-party games we know about now will come out on PS4. Whether, say, Ghost of Tsushima or The Last of Us Part II make their way to PS5 later remains to be seen.
As of this writing, we don't know much for certain about PS5. What we do have is a multitude of rumors and allegations. In some cases, we have outright references to the undisclosed platform, such is the case in Unreal Engine 4. Listing the name "Erebus" alongside a family of current-generation gaming platforms, Epic's engine insinuated last August that the PS5 is codenamed after the Greek god of chaos, born from darkness, internally. At the same time, our insider informed us the name "Project P" is being used behind closed doors at Sony to refer to the console.
It's not clear what the PS5 will be named or even what it's being called right now. However, it is now evident Sony is starting to hone in on the PS4's true successor, post-PS4 Pro. Thanks to outspoken insiders, we've known since December that "most" developers are now equipped with PS5 dev kits and that "Sony [is] prepping hard for PS5." Ahmad's post agrees with this conjecture. A few replies down from his initial forecast, he confirms the PS5 dev kit situation.
"PS5 dev kits are out there and I've heard positive things about it," he said. "But I wouldn't expect any information in the immediate future."
In Ahmad's words, it is "still early to talk about next-gen, but I imagine we'll hear some whispers out of GDC."
GDC, the Game Developers Conference – held annually at the Moscone Center in San Francisco – takes place the week of March 18, 2019. Until then, if you know anything related to Sony's forthcoming hardware, please get in touch.
For now, get caught up with the best PS4 games to see exactly what goodies there are to enjoy.
