PlayStation Vice President recently confirmed that the PlayStation 4 has plenty left in the tank, despite the imminent release of its successor.
Matt Maclaurin—the Vice President of UX Design over at Sony’s PlayStation (PS) division—has been busy the past few days, answering questions on LinkedIn from excited PlayStation fans.
The veteran head of design had some encouraging news for owners of Sony‘s current console, and a few reasons to stave off the urge to trade it in for a shiny new PS5.
The news comes from PS UX Design VP Matt MacLaurin. https://t.co/lVPCThAxTo
— Leadergamer.net (@Leadergamer_net) June 16, 2020
The PS5’s launch isn’t the end of the PlayStation 4
According to online publication VG274, the VP comforted a seemingly regretful fan who posted about how they should have waited for the upcoming PlayStation 5, which most likely meant that the fan only recently got their hands on a PS4.
Maclaurin reportedly responded to the post by reassuring the fan that there’s still “lots more life in the PS4 (pro I hope?)”—a great sign for current-gen console owners who are on the fence about picking up the PS5 at launch.
Another LinkedIn user expressed anxiety about owning a PS4 Slim and feeling the need to upgrade to the next-gen console once it releases. The Sony VP replied by telling the fan that there was no need to rush since they were “still investing strongly in the PS4.”
Plus, let’s be honest, the PlayStation 4 had a pretty lackluster launch lineup when it was first released, with the console’s highest-profile first-party day one titles being Killzone Shadow Fall and Knack.
It's going to be a hard decision coming soon in the middle of 2021
PS4 I STILL LOVE YOU BUT PS5 IS CALLING ME !!💔💔😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/AwFKBYLkOx— UUBBIELORD ZKING (@UUBBIEGODZKING) June 14, 2020
Console life-cycles
As previously stated by both Microsoft and Sony, their console life-cycles typically last almost 10 years. Considering the PS4 launched towards the end of 2013, one can estimate that the console has around 3 years left in it, give or take.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since the situation was fairly similar when it came to the PS3. After the PS4 debuted in 2013, Sony continued production of their previous-gen console for almost three and a half more years before finally ending the PS3’s life-cycle in March 2017.
Funny enough, despite the production of the console being halted, the PS3 still received new titles until September 2018. Meaning the last game to make its way to Sony’s PlayStation 3 was released 12 years after the console’s launch. The game was FIFA 2019, for those who were wondering.
When do you start to consider a console "retro"?
For me it usually was when we had one generation in between the consoles. But it's hard for me to think that the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 are retro consoles later this year 😂 pic.twitter.com/5binSJiCbj— Archimedes (@Boxenberger) June 6, 2020
Taking into account how recent console history has played out and factoring in Matt Maclaurin’s reassurance, it’s safe to say that we shouldn’t count out Sony’s beloved PlayStation 4 just yet.
Featured image courtesy of Fabian Albert/Unsplash