You can't really beat the announcement of a brand new games console: the specs, the launch titles, the clamor to pre-order for the release date. It's exhilarating, and we know that when Sony announces the PS5, and the beginning of a brand new console generation, we'll hardly be able to hold it together.  But we also love the run up to that announcement, with all the rumors, anticipation and infuriatingly convincing fan product renders that come with it.

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At time for writing, Sony hasn't confirmed the existence of the PlayStation 5 and although we'd love to be able to say that's something we know will be coming soon, we can't.  At the moment, it's very hard to say when exactly we might get our first look at the PlayStation 5 (or PS5 as it'll quickly be known as).

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Don't despair though – while we can't be sure when the PS5 will be revealed or even announced, we do that a PlayStation 5 will be coming eventually. Sony's President and CEO, Shawn Layden, confirmed as much in an interview with Golem.de.  It's hard to fault Sony for looking before it takes the leap into the next generation of consoles. The PS4 Pro is still relatively new to the market and its direct competitor, Microsoft's Xbox One X, is an even more recent release.

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By introducing greater power and 4K capabilities to the market, mid-generation upgrades such as these have extended the lifespan of the current generation significantly. If we're honest, we can't really see any urgent need to start a new generation right now. And given Microsoft's growing commitment to backwards compatibility, we think it's key for Sony to really think about its next steps. We imagine it'll be another couple of years at least before a PlayStation 5 is necessary, or even wanted. You have to question what, exactly, the PS5 could do better.  Sony now has a system that's capable of both HDR and 4K gameplay (upscaled and native) which, for most gamers, is more than enough for the time being.

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Unless Sony has a treasure trove of 8K TVs ready to ship out exclusively with PS5 consoles, there might not be a point in launching a new system right now if the focus is going to be on visual enhancements. But, perhaps even more importantly, the console's existence and recent success has called into question whether a proper follow-up to the PS4 will ever be needed. We might be moving towards a more iterative hardware cycle.  When Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, was asked about the PS5, he responded that he thought the PS5 was a question of 'if' rather than 'when'

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Though Sony briefly had the most powerful console on the market with the PS4 Pro, Microsoft threw a spanner into the works in November 2017 with its Xbox One X. It's too early to tell just yet but that could spell trouble for Sony.  But just because Microsoft has launched a new system doesn't necessarily mean that Sony will counter immediately – there are good reasons to believe that Sony is less comfortable with the idea of taking a mobile phone-style “upgrade every year” approach to consoles in the future, including comments from Yoshida himself.

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Also, it boils down to simple economics: it’s well documented that the longer a console can persist on the high-street shelves, the more profitable it becomes, as economies of scale reduce manufacturing costs, while a large install base means publishers can sell more copies of their latest games. What does that mean for the PS5? Will Sony's fifth console come to fruition? What would it do differently? What can it do differently?  For right now, at least, we don't have all the answers. With no official word from Sony, it's difficult to know exactly when we might get to see a PS5, so all we have for the moment is the guesswork of industry analysts to go on.  Analysts are predicting we could see the PlayStation 5 as soon as 2018 but the most likely outcome is 2019. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, analyst Damian Thong (who previously predicted the PS4 Pro and Slim) suggested that the console would arrive in the latter half of 2018.

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Another analyst, however, believes we'll have to wait a little longer. Speaking to GamingBolt, Michael Pachter said that though he thinks the PS5 will be a half step and will be backwards compatible with the PS4 Pro he doesn't think we'll see it until "2019 or 2020 but probably 2019."  This slightly later release, he says, would make more sense as it would fall in line with predictions for when the 4K TV market in the US will reach 50%. "I think Sony has probably got the next console cycle lined up already", he says, "I think they already know what they've got to do."

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More recently Pachter reiterated this claim, saying that Sony would most likely release the new console in 2020. He added that at this time he thinks the PS4 Pro will become the base model PlayStation and will see a reduction in price. Until then, we remain patiently gaming.