PS5 Is Entering The "Latter Stage Of Its Life-Cycle"

thegamer.com:

Sony has confirmed that the PS5 is entering the "latter stage of its life-cycle", which has caused the company to lower its sales expectations for the next fiscal year.

Although in many ways it might feel like this generation has barely even begun considering how many games are still releasing on the PS4 and Xbox One, it's actually been going on for close to four years now, with both the PS5 and Xbox Series launching in late 2020. You might think that the consoles have a whole lot of life left, but it seems that we're actually nearing the end of this generation already.

As pointed out by ResetEra user Atheerios and reported by The Verge, Sony just had released its third-quarter earnings release, which contained a ton of details about how its recent games have sold, as well as how the console is performing lately. Despite Spider-Man 2 having sold 10 million units, it seems that the PS5 is slowing down a bit, as Bloomberg reports that it sold one million less than Sony anticipated.

In response, Sony is lowering its sales forecast for the PS5 from 25 million consoles down to 21 million. While discussing this with Bloomberg, Sony senior vice president Naomi Matsuoka confirmed that the PS5 is entering the "latter stage of its life cycle", which means that more emphasis is going to be placed on the "balance between profitability and sales".

Sony also revealed that it has no major releases from "existing franchise titles" planned for the next fiscal year . Hopefully that means some new IP will launch in 2024, otherwise it's going to be a bit of a dry spell for PlayStation players.

The PS5 nearing the end of its life cycle might come as a bit of a surprise, but it's worth noting that it tracks with previous console generations. The PS3 had seven years between its launch and the release of the PS4, while the PS2 lasted six years until the PS3. With that in mind, it's likely that we've got anywhere between three and four years left of the PS5 until we see the next console.

I