Sony: PlayStation 5 Won't Launch Before April 2020
Get ready to watch the rumors fly. According to Push Square, Sony remarked during its annual financial briefing that the next PlayStation console won't be launching this fiscal year, which ends in April 2020. And you can probably guess where some people took it next.
Because of that statement — which Sony offered as guidance for investors — some are pointing out that the company could theoretically release the PlayStation 5 outside of the holiday season. Meaning April 2020 could come along next year with Sony dropping its brand new PlayStation onto a surprised populous.
As fantastic as that would be, it's highly unlikely to occur. Here's why.
Sony just recently unveiled some of the details for its next console, which the company is refusing to call the PlayStation 5 at this point. And it did it in the weirdest way possible: by letting system architect Mark Cerny sit down with Wired. That's not how consoles are typically announced, but Sony had very good reason for choosing that path. As it turns out, the company had very recently sent dev kits to some of its development partners, and felt some press was necessary in order to get ahead of leaks.
You read that right: Sony just sent developer kits out. If the company planned on launching the PlayStation 5 in a year, could developers really get anything substantial done in that amount of time? The answer is likely no.
By making it public that the PS5 won't launch this fiscal year, Sony is covering its fiduciary bases. It does not mean that you'll be cracking open a PS5 in April, May, or even June of next year. The safe bet is still late 2020 in order to let the fiscal calendar flip over into a new year and to give developers plenty of runway to have games ready by a holiday launch.
We'll of course let you know if we hear anything specific about a PlayStation 5 release date. Until then, you shouldn't get too worked up over when Sony isn't releasing the PS5. It may be tempting to infer a launch window from Sony's investor comments, but odds are, they'll have no bearing on when Sony ultimately launches its next-generation machine.