PS5 Pro probability boosted by Microsoft's reveal of expected PlayStation 6 release year

Microsoft is currently battling the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is trying its best to stop the Xbox-maker from snapping up Activision Blizzard. The US$68.7 billion acquisition deal has already faced obstacles in the UK, with the CMA rejecting the deal, and now the FTC appears to have similar concerns about shifting power in the sector. While this has been going on, some interesting revelations have appeared, with a reference to the PlayStation 6 release date of 2028 once again being made.

This happened before, when CMA filings showed that Microsoft would keep offering lucrative Call of Duty games to the PlayStation platform if it acquired the game’s publisher, Activision. Sony argued that access would be lost after 2027, meaning the popular IP would not be available in time for its next-gen console (presumably the PlayStation 6) release. With a new claim by Microsoft’s representatives, in regard to Call of Duty's availability, stating “this term would in any case go beyond the expected starting period of the next generation of consoles (in 2028)”, it would seem 2028 really could be the year of the PS6 launch.

This comment, which as stated above was made about an agreement to publish CoD games on “successor PlayStation consoles”, also implies that the Xbox Series X|S successor will be made available in 2028, too.

A separate and reasonably accurate report created in 2017 by Goldman Sachs suggested a timeline of 2027 for the PS6, after correctly predicting 2020 for the PlayStation 5 launch. The report also mentioned 2023 for the PS5 Portable, which now appears to be coming in the form of Sony’s Remote Play “Project Q” handheld device.

With such a big time gap between the PS5 (2020) and PS6 (2028) release years now looking likely, this also improves the chances of a mid-cycle refresh coming in the form of either a PS5 Slim or PS5 Pro console, with the latter already being rumored for a 2024 release.

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