PS5 prediction is absolutely terrifying for Microsoft’s Xbox Series X

Which approach wins out remains to be seen, but ahead of the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X a jaw-dropping prediction has been made.

According to a post by VGC, sources from Sony’s backend supply chain in Taiwan have made claims about the next wave of consoles.

Insiders have said that the PS5’s life cycle could be shorter than previous generations – with a five year lifespan.

This would be a shorter lifecycle than the PS4, which will be out for seven years before the PS5 arrives. The PS3 was also the premier Sony PlayStation console for seven years.

But this shorter lifecycle isn’t predicted to impact sales – in fact, the supply chain source said the PS5 is expected to hit at least 120million shipments.

To put this in comparison, that is more than the PS4 has shipped (110million units) between its launch in November 2013 and May 2020.

If the PS5 is expected to do better than the PS4, then that’s bad news for Microsoft as it would need a monumental effort with the Series X to better those sales.

READ MORE: PS5 release date, price, pre-order news: Put this date in your diary

As we all know the PS4 has handily outsold the Xbox One this gen, with the Xbox One estimated to have sold less than 50million units compared to PS4’s 110million.

And we could see a little bit of history repeating, with the supply chain insider in Taiwan claiming the Xbox Series X is estimated to ship half of what the PS5 is expected to.

If that wasn’t bad enough, PS5 shipments are estimated to reach as high as 170million.

The reason this number is significant is if the PS5 sells in this region it would exceed the sales of the PS2, the most successful console of all-time.

This would break a record that hasn’t been bested for the past two console generations, and would be a stunning feat for the PS5.

The caveat to all of this it’s very, very, very early days for the next wave of consoles – so it remains to be seen how well both parties will perform.

And with Microsoft focusing so much on Game Pass maybe they’re more concerned about shifting subscriptions and getting their software into as many homes as possible.

A fascinating documentary from CNBC looks at the reasons why Xbox has failed to gain a foothold in Japan and features interesting comments from the Xbox creator.

Seamus Blackley said Bill Gates’ motivation with the original Xbox was maintaining “Microsoft’s dominance and position in the ecosystem of software”.

And the focus on Game Pass and the upcoming xCloud streaming service could be seen as a continuation of this thinking.

There has been talk that Microsoft’s approach with the Xbox Series X shows the traditional console wars is now over.

Maybe the Xbox team during the next-gen will be more focused on pushing Game Pass and xCloud than shifting Series X units?

source: express.co.uk