It’s gonna be a long wait before the arrival of the next generation PlayStation or Xbox console according to Ubisoft, who is famous for publishing big titles such as the Assassin’s Creed franchise among many others. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot claimed that there will be at least “a minimum of two years” before we see an update on the gaming systems.
In an investors’ call, Guillemot stated that:
"As Sony launched PlayStation 4 Pro last year and Microsoft Xbox One X this year, we think we still have a minimum of two years in front of us before something new is coming," Guillemot stated. "But that's our perception, we don't have any confidential information on that front."
Ubisoft claims that they have no insider information regarding the release of the current consoles. However, to satisfy my own curiosity, I looked at the pattern of the PlayStation’s previous releases (PS1 in 1995, PS2 in 2000, PS3 in 2006, and PS4 in 2013) we can get an average of around 6 years in between before Sony transitions to a new generation usually with minor updates such as the slim line a year or two before the launch of the next console.
The latest PlayStation console in the market today is the PS4 which was released around 2013 (this excludes the PS4 Slim and Pro lines since they are just updates). If we would consider the 6-year average in between PS consoles then we can predict a release of the PS5 at around 2019, which is in line with Ubisoft’s prediction of two years. The same goes for the Xbox consoles (excluding updates such as the Xbox One X), it also has an average of 6 years in between releases and with the Xbox One released in 2013, then we can also predict a release for the next generation in 2019.
Of course nothing is set in stone and the only way we can know for sure about the release dates is when the gaming companies announce them. What would you pick when the time comes? A study that can be found here concluded that teenagers think that the Xbox is "more cooler" than the PS4.
