Sony says PS5 is entering “the latter stage of its life cycle”

Sony has said that the PS5 is entering “the latter stage of its life cycle” less than four years since the console launched in November 2020.

Sony senior vice president Naomi Matsuoka has said that they now expect the sales pace of the PS5 to start falling from the next fiscal year, which begins April 2024 and runs until the end of March 2025, according to an article on Bloomberg. Originally, an ambitious target was set of 25 million PS5s sold, but the forecast has been reduced to 21 million after sales during the holiday 2023 period were lower than expected.

“Looking ahead, PS5 will enter the latter stage of its life cycle,” said Matsuoka. “As such, we will put more emphasis on the balance between profitability and sales. For this reason, we expect the annual sales pace of PS5 hardware will start falling from the next fiscal year.”

Perhaps the lack of sales can be attributed to the lack of major first-party releases, with only Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 coming out in 2023, and nothing huge on the horizon for 2024. In fact, in a financial call, Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Hiroki Totoki said that Sony will not release any major existing PlayStation franchise games before April 2025.

“Regarding first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service games,” said Totoki. “But while major projects are currently under development, we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year like God of War Ragnarok and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.”

It seems that ‘second-party’ games as Sony calls them will have to be sufficient for this year, where we have a lot to look forward to at least; Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Stellar Blade, and Rise of the Ronin are all releasing in the coming months.

Still, the time has flown since the release of the PS5 in 2020. With cost-of-living concerns higher than ever, the idea of the console being in the latter stage of its life cycle and yet another console generation potentially looming as soon as 2027 is a daunting one, to say the least.