An approximate release date for Sony PlayStation 6 has been announced. According to a confidential document, Sony anticipates releasing its next-gen PlayStation in at least 2027. Giving the PS5 an approximate life cycle of seven years, the PS6 will launch either in late 2027 or in 2028.
Sony Won’t Release PlayStation 6 Before 2027
According to documents from the UK’s Competition Markets Authority, as part of the ongoing Microsoft-Activision acquisition, Sony anticipated losing access to the franchise in 2027. Sony says it would have lost access to Call of Duty and other Activision titles by the time it unveiled the next generation of its PlayStation console.
“Microsoft has offered to continue making Activision’s games available on PlayStation only until 2027… By the time SIE launched the next generation of its PlayStation console,” Sony had added.
For comparison, the PS4 console, which is still widely supported today, debuted in November 2013, exactly seven years before the PS5. So, this leaked document puts the PS5, which debuted in November 2020, on a lifecycle of at least seven years and possibly more.
Sony continues to block Microsoft’s $68 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. While this will offer Xbox games like Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft, Sony’s primary concern is Call of Duty, a game with such a sizable fan following that it might encourage a switchover of consoles on a huge scale.
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Microsoft and Activision Merger Under Investigation
The US Federal Trade Commission is already reviewing the deal, and now the UK’s similar agency will do the same. It was announced that the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), an antitrust watchdog similar to the FTC, will start an investigation into Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard takeover. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority stated that its review would examine whether the agreement might undermine competition and result in worse consumer outcomes, such as higher costs, lower quality, or fewer options.