Former Sony exec offers PlayStation 6 prediction — Is it worth buying a PlayStation 5 in 2025?

(Image credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Stringer)

One of the major downsides of console gaming is the pricey push to migrate to new hardware at the end of each generation. Thankfully, each console generation has a fairly generous lifespan — even if mid-cycle refreshes like the PlayStation 5 Pro can complicate matters for gamers seeking maximum performance and the best visual experience.

Having released in November 2020, the PlayStation 5 is steadily approaching the same seven-year generation window that both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 enjoyed, with its successor the PlayStation 6 rumored to arrive as early as 2027.

While that still leaves another two years of quality gaming on the table for PlayStation owners, is it enough to justify a console purchase by late adopters, or is it better to hold off for now and invest in Sony's 10th-gen console in two years' time?

Shu Yoshida's PlayStation 6 release date prediction "feels right"

Yoshida, a 38-year veteran of Sony, was recently interviewed by GamesBeat, sharing a retrospective look at the 31 years he spent working on PlayStation Projects dating back to the original PlayStation launch in 1993.

Since then, Yoshida has been involved with multiple hardware releases and featured as an executive producer for games like The Legend of Dragoon, Ape Escape, and Gran Turismo, before taking the helm as SIE Worldwide Studios President between 2008 and 2019.

The PS5 generation was slowed down because of manufacturing issues. If the next PlayStation comes out in 2028, that feels right to me.
Shu Yoshida

While Yoshida left SIE in January, there are very few people who can claim to have the same familiarity and experience with Sony PlayStation, and the insights he shared about the PlayStation 6's eventual may have shed some light on a potential launch date for Sony's future console.

When asked about the lifespan of Sony's console generations, Yoshida said, "It’s getting longer. The last cycle was seven years. If it’s seven years, we’ll see a new one in 2027."

While he was quick to temper expectations by stating, "I have no information about the next PlayStation," Yoshida also pointed out, "It feels a bit too early for me to say. The PS5 generation was slowed down because of manufacturing issues. If the next PlayStation comes out in 2028, that feels right to me. Microsoft had their leak about a 2028 plan. Maybe both of them will come out then."

While Yoshida's initial predictions for the release of the PlayStation line up with previous reports, his thoughts on Sony expanding the PS5's lifespan would make it the company's longest-serving flagship console to date.

Pushing the release of the PS6 to 2028 could also give Sony longer to work on its rumored handheld, with Bloomberg reporting in late 2024 that the company was in the early stages of developing a new portable game console.

Is it worth buying a PlayStation 5 in 2025?

Whether the PlayStation 5 has three or four more years ahead as Sony's flagship console, there are still plenty of reasons to pick one up, with upcoming PlayStation-exclusive titles like Death Stranding 2, Marvel's Wolverine, Ghost of Yotei, and Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet all still the arrive on the platform — not to mention former Xbox exclusive games like Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle also on their way.

Regardless of when the PlayStation 6 arrives, console gaming's 10th generation may have a very different feel than others, with Xbox seemingly ready to pull back from the rivalry that has persisted since the original Xbox and PlayStation 2 went head-to-head in 2001.

During a recent episode of the XboxEra Podcast, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer hinted at a shift in the company's perspective on how its games will be made available in the generations ahead, declaring, "I’m not trying to move them [PlayStation and Nintendo owners] all over to Xbox anymore. People were all so invested in where our games are. Let’s just allow more people to play."

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