New information suggests that Sony has already begun shifting its first-party focus towards the PlayStation 5.
This information comes from an industry analyst/insider named Daniel Ahmad who took to ResetEra to report that “most of the focus for Sony [first party studios] is on PS5 right now.” While Ahmad states that this transitional period is in the very early stages, the general buzz coming from GDC was that first-party developers have begun preliminary work on future PS5 titles.
According to Ahmad, this also means that the first PS5 development kits are out in the wild. It has previously been suggested that is the case, but Ahmad goes so far as to say that he’s “heard positive things” about the kits from those who already have their hands on them.
What’s maybe even more interesting is Ahmad’s suggestion that Sony already has “a couple of unannounced games (already existing IP) with PS4 in mind.” That seems to suggest that the company hasn’t completely abandoned the idea of producing major PS4 games and will seemingly treat the PS4 as their main focus for 2019. While we strongly believe that the next generation of gaming will start in 2020, the idea that there are still significant unannounced PS4 titles should come as good news to those who are not quite ready to make the switch.
Still, the fact that Sony is reportedly shifting their first-party focus towards the next generation says quite a lot when you also consider that Sony has previously suggested that they are going to emphasise their first-party studios even more in the next console generation and may even look to turn more studios into first-party developers. This may be part of the reason why Microsoft was so adamant to acquire so many high-profile developers in such a short period of time.
Speaking of Xbox, there’s no shortage of reports out there which suggest they have already begun working on their next generation of consoles and may also be prepared to unleash them as soon as 2020.