Happy birthday PlayStation 5

It used to be you could count the number of years between game consoles on one hand.

The original Sony Playstation came out in the UK in September 1995. Five years later, the PS2 was released and brought with it significant changes.

It is a similar story for other consoles but, of late, things seem to be slow – which may explain why, as a potential PS6 is not seen.

According to PlayStation business owner Eric Leempel, that’s because the old dog has a lot of life left.

“I would say we are hitting our stride now,” he told BBC News.

Given that there is still “a lot of great content” the company will “continue to continue with PS5” He explained.

Mr. Lempel Oversaw the launch of the console, which was plagued by supply issues with its release as a result of a global chip shortage.

Supply problems were resolved after three years, and the Console went on to sell more than 84 million units worldwide.

And, as the five turned, he said that the title that will be the biggest seller of the PS5 has not been released yet.

“I’m not going to tell you who, but I think it’s still coming,” he said.

There are several high-profile games in the works.

Wolverine by Marvels, created by the same team behind the successful series of Spider-Man, is scheduled for a 2026 release – the future game of the unwieldy dog, is in development.

Industry expert Christopher Ding of Ding said that the schedule of the dog that says that explains why the consoles are so long – because the consoles need more games for them than before.

“During the PS3 generation, the dogless dog released four games,” he said.

“During the PS4 generation, it dropped to three games – until the PS5 generation, it was not released.

“Games take so long to do that, in some cases, their development schedules are longer than they need new hardware to come out.”

And he says this story is being repeated “throughout the industry”, with grand theft auto 6 – which is on PlayStation and Xbox – Recently extended to November 2026.

But if the big hitters come more slowly, Mr. Dring said, another factor that may also explain the longevity of a console like the PS5 — players are more willing to try new things.

“We’re seeing on average people are playing 50% more games than they did last generation, and they’re actually going through different types of games,” he said.

“They’ll play the hits, but they’ll also play little games or unique games they’ve never heard before.”

One of the reasons that the company may not be in a hurry to introduce new hardware is that the PS5 remains ahead of its rivals, which were launched on Microsoft’s consoles.

The same cannot be said when it comes to the givens.

Nintendo’s Switch – a handheld console that connects to a TV to play games on a large screen – is the third best-selling console in history.

The sequel Switch 2, released in June 2025, has already sold 10 million units in its first months.

It’s not a fight with the Playstation given either.

“We’re always about new innovation in the category,” Mr. Lempel said.

The success of Nintendo’s hardware may have inspired Sony to release the Playstation Portal, an accessory that allows you to stream from a PS5 that you already own.

Mr. Lempel said that Portal was “Very good” and although he did not reveal the exact sales figures, he said that it “exceeded our expectations”.

“It’s been a successful product for us,” he said.

Mr. Ding said he believes there is another difference in the way games are released now that may be the reason for the length of time between hardware releases between hardware releases between hardware releases between hardware releases between hardware releases between hardware releases.

“Some of the biggest games today are still played on the PS4, and in the first three years it was pretty rare to see anything just PS5-Rease.

“The games that manage the most played charts are titles like Fortnite, Roblox and Call of Duty, in some cases, more than 10 years old and can be played on many older devices.

“So we may get a new console in 2027 – but chances are that most of the games will be available on several devices as well.”