The PS5 release date may be a mystery, but EA has dropped a big hint about the future of games consoles.
Rumours have suggested that the PlayStation 5 will be released in either 2019 or 2020. The Xbox, meanwhile, could continue to iterate like it has with the Xbox One X.
What’s less clear is what the new PlayStation will look like, and specifically, whether it will have a disc drive.
One school of thought is that the likes of Sony and Microsoft will ditch physical media and stick with downloads.
But EA CFO Blake Jorgensen believes that consoles and disc drives will continue to stick around.
“Consoles and disc drives probably stay around for a long period of time,” Jorgensen said (via Gamespot).
“I think it’s the consumer deciding what’s the easiest way for them to buy a game.
“And it may mean they no longer have a store down the street from them so they decide to buy it [digitally] maybe it’s easier for them to do.”
Interestingly, only around 30% of EA console game sales are downloads, while 80-90% of PC game sales are downloads.
Industry analyst Michael Pachter has spoken about the PS5 release date on a number of occasions.
Earlier this year he said that the PS5 could have a release date in 2019.
In July he made the prediction, saying that he expects the PS5 will also be backwards compatible with the PS4.
But more recently, Pachter said he believes the PS5 will come out either in 2019 or 2020 – with a 2020 release date more likely.