It appears that Sony is gearing up for the PS5, stating that the PS4 is reaching the end of its life. During the company's investor relations day or Sony IR Day as it's known, PlayStation boss John Kodera said according to The Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki's, that the "PS4 is entering final phase of its life cycle, which would have negative impact to the unit, but recurring revenue via membership services etc should cushion some of that".
With gaming trade show E3 less than a month away and Sony not having any plans to reveal any PS5 details, this should be deflating for PS fans expecting a new console.
That being said, don't expect the PS5 until 2021.
Kodera told analysts and investors that the period until March 2021 would be when PlayStation to "crouch down once" to grow further in the future.
This is contrary to what other analysts have speculated that the PS5 would have a 2018 release date.
Sony may have given fans an insight into one of the big new features for the PS5.
A recent Sony patent suggests the company is looking at new DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology.
Instead of the unreliable method currently employed by certain companies, the proposed DRM solution will use blockchain technology.
"Many current digital rights management solutions typically require a rights locker or other common storage, which rely on one unique point of failure," the patent reads.
"For example, if the rights locker provider or system goes out of business or otherwise fails, the user loses all the acquired content.
"Conventional solutions store the usage rights of a piece of content into a license dedicated to one user and one specific platform."
A blockchain solution would ensure that purchases are tied to the buyer forever.
