Sony to support PS4 for 'multiple years' after PlayStation 5 launch

The PS4 will live on for years after the PS5 launches in Holiday 2020, complete with games, hardware updates, and more.

2

When the PS5 arrives in 2020, Sony will have two consoles running in parallel that also intersect in the same ecosystem. We already know the PS4 and PS5 generations will overlap for multiple years as Sony builds up the next-gen install base and eventually hands off the torch to the newer hardware.

That being said, the PS5 is a reset button for the PlayStation brand. Today Sony's Jim Ryan confirmed the PS5 will have next-gen exclusives not available on the PS4. But that doesn't mean Sony is ready to shut the door in the current-gen's massive 110.4 million install base and the billions of revenue that hardware platform generates.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan reiterated plans to support the 7-year PS4 for years after the next-gen PS5 launches.

"We have always felt that we had a responsibility to serve that community for several years after the launch of PS5, and that it represented a huge business opportunity for us," Ryan said.

Sony previously said they'd support the PS4 at least until 2022, but it could be extended due to the system's incredible install base. Even after that period the PS4 will live on throughout the PS5's generation thanks to extensive backward compatibility support.

While the PS5 will get exclusive games, that doesn't mean Sony will stop making games for the PS4 as well. And third-party studios will continue releasing games on the system too.

We'll see two versions of PlayStation games in 2020 and beyond: A PS5-exclusive, and a PS4 SKU. It'd be insane to just turn your back on such a thriving market of consumers.

2

"The numbers are quite straightforward. If you say in broad brush figures that we have a community of 100 million PS4 owners right now, and in the first couple of years, I don't know, somewhere between 15 and 25 million might migrate to PS5, that still leaves a huge number of people with PS4s. And that community is demonstrating an amazing stickiness and willingness to stay engaged that, I think, the events of the past few months have just reinforced what we knew already."

The PlayStation 5 will release holiday 2020, and Sony will reveal a bunch of next-gen launch games on Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 4PM EST.