Rumors: PlayStation 5 is already in development. The creators of the games receive the first dev kit

In fact, talk about the fact that Sony is developing a new generation of consoles, are conducted in various gaming forums as a whole year. The truth is, in fact, it is not yet clear what these rumors are based on. Is the console's life cycle coming to an end? Or is the company disappointed by the sale against a competitor? At the moment, the Xbox One X prefix from Microsoft, which went on sale last November, is the most powerful gaming device in the world (unless, of course, you count personal computers). But is it really so good that it made Sony rush to develop the PlayStation 5? And in a hurry?

With the launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft bet on universality and began to forcefully equip the first console with a Kinect controller, which is why the system initially cost $ 100 more than the competitor represented by PS4. And the latter was even more powerful, despite the similar architecture as a whole. As a result, PS4 showed a sharp start and won high popularity against the background of modest sales of Xbox One. The release of the Xbox One S did not fix the situation. All hope was placed on Xbox One X, which, as already mentioned above, is the most powerful game console of our time.

According to analysts, by 2021, Microsoft will be able to sell 17 million Xbox One X, and the total number of sold consoles of this family will be about 63 million. Does it frighten Sony? Hardly. Microsoft, as you know, the real sales figures for the Xbox One line does not like to share, so this information has to be collected in bitterness. Nevertheless, last November it became known that the total number of sold consoles of the Redmond company was about 36.2 million units. At the end of December of the same year, Sony has more than twice as much. The Japanese company then reported that 73.6 million consoles of the PlayStation 4 family were sold worldwide. In other words, everything can justify the transition to the development of a new gaming console, but not only the sales of a set-top box. What then?

The life cycle of the console. With this leap of generations even within the limits of one line (PS4, PS4 Slim, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X), you probably did not even notice how almost 5 years have passed since the announcement of the current generation of consoles. PlayStation 4, we recall, was announced in November 2013. Seven years after the announcement of the PlayStation 3. It's already March 2018, so it's no wonder that rumors about the development of a new generation of consoles will appear with an increasing level of regularity.

One such recent rumor is the insider information of Marcus Sellar, known in gaming circles and having the status of an authoritative source. Through his page in Twitter, he reported that the Sony PlayStation 5 game console, or rather, its early dev kit, has already been created and is being sent to all major game developers, so that they are supposedly familiar with the minimum technical specifications and, possibly, even started creating games for a new set-top box.

The insider claims that over the past few days several of his familiar developers have received from Sony just a few demonstration sets of the PlayStation 5 console. Of course, the source does not disclose any specific information about its technical equipment, but reports that Sony, not wishing to take risks , delivers a prefix in special cases (cases), in fact they represent simply a set of iron, which has nothing to do with the final form of the consumer product.

As for the Sony PlayStation 5 announcement, it will not happen before the E3 gaming exhibition. Only we are talking about an exhibition not this year, but the next, 2019th. After that, the company will need another year to fully complete the development of the new gaming console, optimize its software and choose the final look that all users will see. During this time, it is also planned to complete the first games for the novelty, including exclusives.

In other words, we should wait for the new prefix somewhere in 2020. This does not mean that PS4 will become obsolete and become illiquid. Typically, manufacturers of consoles try to support the console of the previous generation for several years from the time of the release of the new one. For example, despite the announcement of PS4 in November 2013, the end of PS3 support began only in late 2015. And in the motherboard of the console, in Japan, the console so generally lasted until the middle of 2017-th. So those who just now decided to buy the console of the PS4 line-up can do it boldly. You will still have plenty of time to play with it.