Sony Says PS5 is 'in the Middle' of Its Lifecycle - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 11 November 2025 / 3,401 Views
Sony CFO Lin Tao in the company's earnings summary webcast stated the PlayStation 5 is "in the middle" of its lifecycle.
"There are many active users enjoying the console," said Tao on the PS5. "So from that perspective, we believe that the PS5 is only in the middle of the journey, and we are really planning to expand it even further."
The PS5 released five years ago in November 2020, however, that does not mean the PS6 will launch in 2030.
Tao could mean Sony plans to keep producing and selling the PS5 until 2030, while the PS6 could launch in 2027 or 2028. Or she could mean Sony plans to support the PS5 with software until at least 2030 even if they stop selling the console sooner.
There was a long transition from the PS4 to the PS5 with Sony releasing first-party games on the PS4 several years after the PS5 came out. Other publishers and developers are still releasing games on the PS4 to this day.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Anyone expecting a PS6* by the end of 2027 should reconsider. The system is popular enough to enjoy a 2028 or even 2029 replacement
Anyone expecting a PS6*
Fixed!
I would like to see this console generation elongated, mostly so we can get more out of the hardware than what we have seen. - It only feels like we are just getting started with this gen.
And with the ballooning costs of DRAM and NAND thanks to A.I gobbling up all the silicon, delaying next-gen is probably in everyone's best interest from a cost perspective.
with xbox continuing to lose momentum, why not extend the lifecycle?
Most PS consoles last a good decade, they are supported by Sony and 3rd parties well into the next gens. PS4 is still getting games.
November 2028 has been the best potential range to predict the PS6 launch for some time now.
FYI... This doesn't mean PS6 isn't coming in 2027
It just means PS5 will continue to get first party support and/or games till 2030
Considering budget and time it takes to develop games I doubt we might even see any games that is only playable on PS6. PS5 will co-exist with PS6 for most of PS6 lifetime. Playstation ecosystem in 2030 will be mix of PS6, PS5 and cloud (through portal).
It is funny isn't it? That when the next gen starts there will be games released on PS4, PS5 and PS6. Why am I predicting this? Well, the average consumer who already has a PS4 is not going to fork out for an expensive PS5.
The modern industry is quickly becoming something unrecognizable.
PS2 got games when the PS4 was already out, even those it was massively more outdated than the PS4 will be compared to the PS6.
And the average user is already on PS5, it has the most userbase for some time now.
I think the PS5 might actually be the console to past being relevant the most, unless Sony purposedly go trying kill it on favor of the PS6, there is no way the PS5 just "can't" get pretty much all future games.
People get on board with new phones, gpus and cpus every other year and those are far more expensive than home consoles.
The thing is not if the game is still available on the PS5, but if the PS6 is perceived as good enough jump for the price.
Mid gen jumps are not enough for me, but new gens are, and I choose to get a PS5 and play games there and it was a great choice IMO.
Massively fast load times, finally decided to play most games on 60fps instead of the highest graphical quality, the Dualsense is awesome, and so on. Even before Astro Bot, Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yotei hitting as PS5 exclusives, the purchase, for the price I decided I should pay for it, was already justified IMO.
PS6 will be the AI gen, there are many potential benefits coming, the partnership with AMD may even benefit PC gaming a lot too.
PS5 versions of games simply existing mean little if the PS6 version is great, pretty much like what happened with the PS4 versions of PS5 games. I'm certainly glad I played Gran Turismo 7 on the PS5 and it having a late gen version didn't prevent it of being the most impressive racing game ever in any way.
I understand all that, but I'm speaking about actual data, here. It took five years for Sony to confirm that there were more active users on PS5 than PS4. That's basically an entire gen. If that trend grows, more people will be using PS5's than PS6's when PS7 launches... which is just insane.
Well, PS4 sold nearly 120M units, even when the PS5 was at 60M it was still only halfway there on absolute sales, and not all those sales came from just PS4 onwers, so I think it's pretty common to take years for a new system to surpass a past popular one.
Must have taken several years for the PS2 to surpass the PS1 as well, even it being quite more popular than it.
I was still using my PS1 regularly well over after the PS3 was out.
It did not took 5 years for PS5, it took 4, it just turned 5 and this statistic is from March 31st and the quarter before both were at 50% of the MAU, at around 60M each.
Again, the PS4 sold nearly 120M, and the PS5 was at under 80M by this time, so it couldn't really have surpassed it much earlier just by the sheer amount itself, to reach 60M MAU your console needs to have sold a bit more than 60M, don't you agree?
That is actually a really good stat, not s bad one, that despite so many people already on PS5 and the vast majority being monthly active, the PS4 was ALSO (not despite) still being used by its owners.
I wonder how much time do you think it will take for the Switch 2 to surpass 1 on MAU unless 1 is just dropped by its userbase. If it has around 80M to 90M units sold 4 years in it will only surpass it if the older one is abandoned, as that sold 155M.
Duh. They're not going to drop it like a bag of trash when PS6 launches in 2027-2028. PS4 has had tons of active users subscribing to PS Plus and still buying games.
PS4 is 12 years old this month and has not been formally discontinued yet (though they might have discontinued it months to a year or more ago without an announcement) and still has some games coming and it's easy to find DualShock 4 controllers in some territories still.
My guess:
PS6 launching holiday 2028 ("PS5 is only in the middle of the journey")
With PS5 getting full support for the entirety of next gen ("we are really planning to expand it even further")
I also think PS5 will get full support next gen too and that, It just won't have 60fps or ray tracing. It makes for an interesting situation because for the first time ever when a next gen system is sold, it won't be in a different category to PS5. It will just be another PS5 Pro x2. Will be interesting to see how VGChartz sees it.
2028-2029 Xbox has lost no need to keep releasing every 6-7 years lol
Because of the financial uncertainty, ain't isn't going to launch a brand new console before Trump is out of office
Im ok wuth that since this console gen started off disappointing and i'd like to get more out of my ps5 before feeling forced to upgrade
