PS4 2024

First announced back in 2020, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S immediately seemed to be impressive consoles that would push gaming into a new generation. However, many fans were unable to see whether those impressions were true, due to stock shortages and scalpers buying up many of the consoles that were on sale. Even nearly two years on, the Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 is still difficult to purchase for some gamers, leading many to wonder when these hardware shortages and supply issues will end.

Intel's CEO believes the global chip shortages will last until 2024, and it seems that Sony may share that belief. In its recent financial earnings report, the PlayStation platform owner outlined that the PS5 should see the end of its shortage problems by 2024. On top of that, Sony shared the projection that the PlayStation 4 will be outsold by its successor by 2024 as well, as the company predicts that when the shortages end, gamers will be buying the latest console en masse.

It is no mean feat to outsell the PlayStation 4, which is currently the fourth best-selling video game console of all time. The PlayStation 5, on the other hand, doesn't even break the top 20 of that list. It is important to note that Sony doesn't expect the PS5 breaking the lifetime sales record of the PS4, at least not immediately, but the company does want its newer console to be bought more than the older model. Considering that the Xbox Series S recently outsold the PS5 in Japan, it seems there would need to be a significant increase in the sales figures of Sony's console for that to happen.

However, Sony may have a strategy to boost the sales figures of the PlayStation 5 so that it can outmatch its predecessor. Something else revealed recently by Sony is that the company plans to stop releasing new games for the PS4 by 2025. Likely, this will give fans an extra reason to finally ditch their old console and buy one of the newer machines.

Sony will have to have some more PS5 exclusive titles by then to really reel gamers in. According to plans, the company will be focusing on new IPs in its future, and likely these will involve some games solely being developed for the PlayStation 5. It seems strange that the console will take four years to begin to beat its predecessor consistently in sales, but many are glad that currently at least they won't have to buy a PS5 to play Sony games like God of War Ragnarok, which is still expected to release for PS4 and PS5.

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The PlayStation 5 has now been available for over a year and a half, and consoles continue to sell out worldwide often as soon as they return to stock. Sony is even promising to dramatically increase production of the PS5 going forward to try and catch up to demand. And yet there continues to be robust support for the PS4 with no evidence of abatement. Questions regarding the slow transition to the new generation of consoles even prompted a response from Sony, which explained that the PS4 won't be going away any time soon.

Sony recently held an investor presentation focusing on growth comparisons between the PS4 and PS5. In a section of the presentation titled "Evolving Shape of First-Party Portfolio," Sony compares its platform support in three different years: 2019, 2022, and 2025. 2019 shows PS4 making up 90% of Sony's releases, with 10% on PC. 2022 shows around 35% of releases on PS5 and another 35% on both PS4 and PS5. The 2025 chart shows PS5 releases making up 50% of all Sony game releases and no PS4 releases at all.

The clear message is that Sony is planning to have no first-party releases for PS4 by the fiscal year 2025 at the latest. Since there's no information on 2024, it's entirely possible Sony plans to stop supporting the PS4 with first-party releases earlier than 2025. But going off of Sony's own outlook, first-party releases for PS4 will end before 2025.

By no means does this mean that Sony is going to be ramping down its first-party development investment, either. A separate series of charts in the presentation shows that Sony plans to dramatically increase investment in PlayStation studios. Not only will it increase investment in existing IPs, but it plans to at least double if not triple its investment in the development of new IPs.

These first-party titles won't be exclusive to PS5, though. Where in 2019 90% of new releases were on PS5 and 10% were on PC, by 2025 only 50% of releases will be on the PS5. The remaining releases will be on either PC or mobile devices, with a split of around 30% to 20%, respectively.

Sony's support for the PS4 coming to an end has always been an inevitability. The shift started with the launch of the PS5, with both Demon's Souls and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart being exclusives. PlayStation has delivered major game releases on both PS4 and PS5 since, like with Horizon Zero Dawn, and God of War Ragnarok is supposed to support both platforms, too. Odds are, when Sony does decide to make the complete transition to PS5, it'll be big news. PS4 support won't disappear in silence, so expect further updates as they become available.

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Source: Sony